It's no surprise that MLB owners and Bud Selig would support -- or at least stick their heads in the sand when it comes to publicly responding -- the controversial and hateful Arizona immigration law, SB1070. It's also refreshing when a player or manager speak out about an issue too, no matter which side of the fence they come down on. Many people have said, "I don't like mixing politics with sports," and believe me I feel that way for the most part. But when a xenophobic law based on racial profiling -- profiling that will affect, among other people, hundreds of professional baseball players -- is passed with the help of a notorious Republican vote cager like Kris Kobach, then all bets are off.
Tony La Russa, who manages several Latino players on his team including the great Albert Pujols, is supportive of SB1070 and said so.
St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says he supports Arizona legislation calling for tougher enforcement against illegal immigrants. Opponents of the law have called for Major League Baseball to move the 2011 All-Star Game out of the state.
La Russa says Arizona has a problem that the national government has failed to remedy. The manager, who lives in northern California, spoke this week before a game in St. Louis between the Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks.
"I'm actually a supporter of what Arizona is doing," La Russa said. "If the national government doesn't fix your problem, you've got a problem. You've got to fix it yourself. That's just part of the American way." Gov. Jan Brewer signed a state law in April requiring police officers to question a person's immigration status if there's reasonable doubt he or she might be in the country illegally.
Dozens of St. Louis Tea Party members were at Busch Stadium to show their support of the Arizona immigration law, prompting La Russa to touch on the subject.
La Russa told reporters he encouraged the presence of different points of view, and said he believed the Tea Party's stances were "correct" on "a lot of things."
I wonder how Albert feels about that? But what was interesting to me almost as much is that La Russa then thinks the Tea Party's are correct on a lot of things. What things are they?
* Does La Russa believe just like the 'Birthers' do that President Obama is not an American citizen?
*Does La Russa believe that President Obama is a socialist-Marxist-Nazi-Facsist?
*Does La Russa believe that President Obama looks like The Joker?
*Does La Russa believe that there are FEMA camps imprisoning US citizens?
*Does La Russa believe that Obama is trying to make us part of a New World Order?
*Does La Russa believe that Social Security should be privatized?
*Does La Russa believe that Medicare and Medicaid should be privatized?
*Does La Russa believe in a woman's right to choose,
FinnReg, Glass Steagall act, extending unemployment benefits?
You see where I'm going here. I hope a reporter will ask Tony La Russa to clarify his position so that we know what he believes the Tea Party people are correct about. He could have just made his case supporting Gov. Brewer alone, but bringing the Tea Partiers into this opens up a whole other can of worms.
