Rockies to host All-Star Game at Coors Field after MLB pulled game from Atlanta
The All-Star Game is headed to Denver.
Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that the Colorado Rockies will host the 2021 All-Star Game at Coors Field. Reports broke Monday that the event would be held in Denver.
In a statement Tuesday, the league said the Rockies were already vying for a future All-Star Game, and had hotel and event space ready. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he was "grateful" to Denver for taking on the game.
“Major League Baseball is grateful to the Rockies, the City of Denver and the State of Colorado for their support of this summer’s All-Star Game. We appreciate their flexibility and enthusiasm to deliver a first-class event for our game and the region. We look forward to celebrating our sport’s best players and entertaining fans around the world.”
The Rockies last hosted the game in 1998.
MLB moved game from Georgia after controversial voting laws passed
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Friday that they had pulled the All-Star Game from the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park due to new laws passed in Georgia that restrict voting rights throughout the state. The MLB draft is being moved from the state, too.
“I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB draft,” Manfred said in a statement, in part. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box … We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support."
The new bill in Georgia — which was passed by the state’s Republican majority legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp behind closed doors after several key Democratic wins across all levels in the November and January elections — severely restricts voting access across the state and even makes it illegal to give voters food and water while they wait in line to cast their ballots.
President Joe Biden described the new law as an “attack on the Constitution” and “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Several Atlanta-based companies — like Coca-Cola, Delta and Home Depot — have slammed the new law publicly in recent days, too.
Plenty have lashed out at Manfred and MLB since the decision was announced, including Kemp — who said the league “caved to fear and lies from liberal activists.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, even declined to throw out the first pitch at the Rangers’ home opener on Monday in response.
The decision to move the game is similar to what the NBA did in 2017, when it pulled its All-Star Game from North Carolina after state legislators passed a law that limited discrimination protections against LGBTQ residents and forced transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponded with the sex on their birth certificates. The NFL also moved the Super Bowl from Phoenix in 1993 after the state voted not to make Martin Luther King Day a holiday.
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