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MLB commissioner Rob Manfred recently met with United States president Donald Trump, and the reports that came out of that meeting — and what subsequent time with the media has mostly focused on — is what this means for Pete Rose. Will he remain banned, will the ban be lifted, if the ban is lifted will he be able to enter the Hall of Fame? It’s not that none of this matters — because it does, reinstating Rose and undoing the idea of “permanent ineligibility” for gambling on sports is a terrible idea in a vacuum but even more so now when sports gambling is as ubiquitous in society as it is today — but there’s a more significant issue that’s been brushed aside a bit because of its existence.
Manfred didn’t just meet with Trump to discuss Rose, whom Trump has taken a special interest in for reasons, but to also go over his policies on immigrants. Under Trump in his first 100-plus days back in office, federal agencies like ICE have (somehow) acted even more aggressively in terms of straight-up disappearing people, or detaining immigrants or visitors — in the United States legally or not. European nations like Germany are sending out travel advisories to their citizens, which should ring a whole lot of alarm bells that say that if you weren’t born in America, it is not safe there — not to say it is safe in America if you were born there, but visitors have even more opportunities to bump into some federal enforcement agent with an itchy paperwork finger who has been dying for an excuse to detain everyone they come into contact with. And now they have one.
This is a problem in general, but for MLB that issue comes even more into focus. Over one-quarter — 28 percent — of Opening Day rosters were made-up of foreign-born players. Of the 954 players on those rosters, 265 of them were born outside of the United States. That’s only scratching the surface, however, since there are 120 full-season affiliated minor-league teams, plus Rookie Ball clubs, with their own rosters: those teams are also full of foreign-born players, and instead of out of a pool of nearly 1,000 players, we’re talking out of multiple thousands of them.
Manfred spoke to Associated Press editors earlier this week, and one thing that came up was, “Manfred’s concerns over how Trump’s immigration policies could impact players from Cuba, Venezuela and other foreign countries.” Most of the article that line is included in focused on Rose instead, but there was this bit, at least:
Manfred did not go into details on his discussion with Trump over foreign-born players other than to say he expressed worry.
“Given the number of foreign-born players we have, we’re always concerned about ingress and egress,” Manfred said. “We have had dialogue with the administration about this topic. And, you know, they’re very interested in sports. They understand the unique need to be able to go back and forth, and I’m going to leave it at that.”
On the one hand, this suggests that there won’t be anything to worry about for these players (or for players in other sports, though, MLB obviously has the most significant issue here in terms of volume of foreign players). On the other hand, the idea that this administration understands anything in a way where any kind of promise can be kept is not one you’d be confident betting on. I’m a little nervous that President Deals tried to swap Rose’s reinstatement for a promise to keep the goons away from anyone under the MLB umbrella — not because even someone as skeptical of and cynical about Manfred as myself believes he’d take that deal, but because of what saying no to this guy could initiate. Which is all just to say that I have concerns, that none of this will be over just because of a meeting, that Trump’s whims don’t work that way, and so on.
MLB is in a tough place right now, and frankly, I’ve gone a little easier on them than some others this year with regards to their behavior if only because I get the sense that their goal is to not be perceived by the administration if they can help it, rather than that they giddily agree with what’s going on like a whole bunch of Silicon Valley CEOs excited to be able to say slurs in the workplace again or whatever have been. It’s not that I endorse their decision to retreat, it’s not that I believe them to be some paragon of virtue, and they certainly came off cowardly in an indefensible way with the entire Jackie Robinson saga of this spring, but I at least understand the goal here. They don’t want to create a situation where Trump and his penchant for retribution does cause harm to players just trying to get back home. They also don’t want to lose their tax loophole that Trump already threatened, so it’s not as if I’m suddenly forgetting myself amongst this little bit of hypothetical preservationist humanitarianism or anything, but yeah. Tough place to be. MLB kind of hoping everything blows over by not ruffling feathers, making visits like the one Manfred just had easier to deal with, is probably the best you can hope for out of a business as big as they are in the present situation. Eat at Arby’s.
Now, that does leave us with concerns for the future. Should MLB come around to the idea that it’s probably better to just give in on Rose to sate the terrible appetite of the White House, for instance, which is just an in that will allow for more demands to be made, holding MLB hostage in the process, we’re going to go from “MLB is in a tough place” to “MLB is stuck deep in a hole they dug themselves.” Ask Columbia University how the whole capitulation thing is going at the moment, compared to Harvard flipping the administration the bird. Which is a long way of saying that the Rose decision is important, but maybe not just for the reasons we’ve been focusing on to this point. A bellwether for more than one terrible future. No pressure or anything, Rob.
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