Baseball unites us, but LA Dodgers have bowed to – Latest News
Last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers accomplished their $1.1 million donation to assist immigrant households affected by latest federal immigration enforcement actions in Southern California — fulfilling a pledge they made after activists and politicians efficiently pressured the staff to take a aspect.
The Dodgers can spend their money nonetheless they need.
That doesn’t imply they need to drag one of baseball’s most iconic manufacturers into one of America’s most divisive political fights.
Dozens of people protest exterior Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, criticizing the Los Angeles Dodgers for his or her lack of assist for immigrants and their cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), on June 21, 2025. Anadolu by way of Getty Images
Immigration is one of the defining battles in American politics. Californians disagree about it. Angelenos disagree about it.
Dodgers followers completely disagree about it.
Some assist aggressive enforcement. Others oppose it.
Some need violent criminals deported but object to broader raids. Others need tighter borders, more deportations, or broader legalization.
There is no Dodgers place on immigration coverage as a result of there’s no Dodgers fan place on immigration coverage.
I write this as somebody who has liked the Dodgers for many of my life. My dad and mom took me and my brothers to video games within the Seventies, and at this time I’m a season ticket holder who commonly makes the drive from Orange County to Dodger Stadium.
So this isn’t written as a indifferent political criticism from somebody who dislikes the Dodgers. It is written as a fan who needs the Dodgers to stay what they have at all times been at their best: a shared civic establishment, not one other combatant in California’s political wars.
The Dodgers don’t communicate for Los Angeles.
They communicate for possession, executives and the activists who demanded that the staff decide a aspect.
That distinction issues.
Professional sports activities groups occupy a distinctive place in American life. Republicans and Democrats sit subsequent to one another at Dodger Stadium. Union members and business homeowners cheer for a similar home runs. Immigrants and native-born Americans have a good time the identical victories and complain about the identical bullpen collapses.
For three hours, politics can disappear.
That shouldn’t be a small factor in 2026 America. It is efficacious. Increasingly uncommon, actually.
The Dodgers are one of Southern California’s final really shared civic establishments. They belong to everybody and to no one on the similar time.
That is strictly why they need to watch out earlier than letting activist stress flip Chavez Ravine into one other stage for California’s political wars.
Unfortunately, that is turning into a behavior all through skilled sports activities.
More lately, the San Francisco Giants discovered themselves within the center of a culture-war combat over Pride Night attire and gamers who objected to taking part.
Everyone had an opinion.
Everyone was offended.
Nobody was speaking about baseball.
That is what occurs when sports activities franchises behave like advocacy organizations with pitching staffs hooked up.
Supporters of the Dodgers’ resolution argue that Los Angeles is an immigrant metropolis and that remaining silent was itself a political assertion.
Maybe that’s what activists consider.
But if silence is political, then all the pieces turns into political. Every recreation. Every uniform. Every promotion. Every charitable contribution. Every public look by possession.
That highway has no ending as a result of activism has no ending.
After the Dodgers made their donation, activists didn’t merely say thanks and go home. There had been more calls for, more scrutiny, more stress and more insistence that the staff take nonetheless more positions.
There is at all times one other trigger.
Another controversy.
Another litmus check.
Would the Dodgers donate $1 million to assist ICE brokers and their households after violent anti-ICE protests?
Of course not.
Everyone is aware of it.
That is why followers are proper to see this not as impartial compassion, but as a political selection dressed up as group assist.
Nobody buys a ticket to hear the entrance workplace’s views on immigration coverage. Nobody watches Shohei Ohtani as a result of they’re curious the place possession stands on ICE operations. Nobody tunes into a baseball broadcast hoping for public coverage evaluation between innings.
They watch baseball.
Or a minimum of they used to.
The Dodgers have each proper to enter America’s political fights. But rights and knowledge aren’t the identical factor.
The wiser course is straightforward: stop doing this.
Stop turning each activist demand into a franchise place. Stop letting stress teams resolve what the staff should say subsequent. Stop asking followers to import the nation’s political fights into the one place the place they need to give you the option to escape them.
The Dodgers at the moment have the best document in baseball. Shohei Ohtani is posting one of the bottom ERAs in trendy baseball historical past — whereas effortlessly swatting balls out of the stadium. Andy Pages leads the whole main leagues in RBIs.
That is the story.
The Dodgers ought to play baseball, serve the group in broadly unifying methods and go away divisive political advocacy to politicians, campaigns and activist organizations.
Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics and a lifelong baseball fan, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.
