APPALLING, ABSOLUTELY APPALLING – AT 7:44 P.M. ET:  Now the left wants to politicize baseball, having politicized almost everything else.  From Fox:

The campaign to move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix to protest Arizona's immigration law heated up this week, with some of baseball's superstars threatening to sit it out and demonstrators trying to deliver thousands of petitions to Commissioner Bud Selig.

The increased pressure coincided with this year's All-Star Game, which was to be played Tuesday night in Anaheim.

Selig has given no indication that he plans to consent to demands to change the 2011 game's location. But with Arizona's law just weeks from going into effect, protesters are using this year's game as the prime venue for pressing their case.

Roberto Lovato, whose group Presente.org launched the MoveTheGame.org website, said activists were kicked out by security when they tried to deliver 110,000 petitions to Selig at the Anaheim Marriott on Monday.

COMMENT:  This is a moment for presidential leadership, which we will not get.  Mr. Obama, a sportrs fan, should make it clear that politics has no place in sports, just as racism has no place in sports. 

What's next?  Will World Series participants have to have the approval of ethnic groups?  Will someone count the number of left-handed Muslim pitchers of Indonesian origin on the Yankees before the team is permitted to go for another world championship?

Selig should stand firm, and threaten to fine any player who doesn't show up. 

July 13, 2010