The Useful Idiots

The Dodgers are about to surrender to the same forces that would have kept Jackie Robinson out of baseball

From the statue theft to the current administration’s ongoing efforts to erase him from history, the story of Jackie Robinson is more important than ever. Recently, the Defense Department briefly deleted a biography of Robinson from its own website before reversing course, after outcry led by Jeff Passan, Craig Calcaterra, and others.

If one were inclined to naively give the current administration the benefit of the doubt, while the league was collectively freaking out over torpedo bats, the Trump Administration ordered the removal of about 900 books from the Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy, including a biography of Jackie Robinson, a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a treatise on Albert Einstein’s views on Race and Racism.

The outcry this time has been minimal as the baseball press has been distracted.

The Dodgers are riding high, having won nine of their first 11 games, along the way setting a record for consecutive victories to start a season by a defending champion.

The vibes are immaculate. However, I have to bring down the mood.

Everything that has been happening on the field is in the foreground of vile acts, things that you would read about happening in other countries, which are now happening here.

Dodgers return to Washington

On March 25, word broke that while the team was going to be in Washington, D.C. to play the Washington Nationals, it would accept a visit from the Trump White House on April 7, visiting Capitol Hill on April 8.

In a vacuum, this act is fairly innocuous and would barely merit mention apart from on social media. One can only point to the last time the Dodgers visited in 2021.

During either Robinson controversy, we heard from many people and groups saying the Trump Administration’s actions were wrong, but one organization was stunningly quiet: the Dodgers.

Sarah Wexler of MLB.com got as close to an actual statement from the Dodgers during the first Defense Department story as anyone, as she had the following exchange with Dave Roberts after news of the White House visit broke. Roberts, who stated publicly that he did not know about the story in his initial remarks, had the following to say on follow-up:

Wexler: Did you ever dig in more on the Jackie Robinson Department of Defense thing?

Roberts: No, I didn’t. I’m sorry I did not. You want to give me some insight?

SW: So basically, it was an automated process from what it sounds like, where Jackie Robinson, there was a page of his military history that got removed because it was tagged with “Black History Month.” And after there was outcry, the page was eventually restored. But there were statements after the fact, basically saying “DEI” is bad, diversity programs and bad,” but the page is back up.

DR: Well, I think I’m happy that the page went back up. And I can’t go too much into this. I have my strong opinions on DEI and all that stuff, but that’s another scrum.”

While I have justifiably had issues with Dave Roberts giving answers in crisis situations, much like with the 2023 Pride Night fiasco, it begs the question of why Roberts is the face of the Dodgers in these situations.

Even if one did not default to getting a statement from the very top of management, for instance Owner Mark Walter or CEO Stan Kasten, or even President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman.

What I am asking is why Roberts is the only one to go on record. Was General Manager Brandon Gomes busy? Was Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Courtney Moore busy? Was Senior Vice President of Marketing, Community Affairs, and Broadcasting Erik Braverman busy? Was Vice President of Communications Jon Weisman busy?!?

I could go on, and while I have had issues with Roberts, at some point, Roberts became the point person for the Dodgers, and frankly, it’s unfair. You don’t go to a mechanic when you have a public relations problem. The Dodgers are not a mom-and-pop operation, although if you watch their social media output, you would be forgiven for thinking that the team was.

Although with what Stan Kasten said, I can understand why Roberts keeps getting dragged into the hot seat, which brings me to the shocker of shockers: I am actually in complete agree with Los Angeles Times columnist Dylan Hernández.

Hernández rightfully takes the Dodgers to the woodshed

On March 30, Hernández rightfully castigated the Dodgers, with everything that the current administration has done, for accepting the invitation to go to the White House.

I often disagree with Hernández, but in my view, his essay is an excellent piece that is well worth your time. Hernández rightfully points out that it is the height of hypocrisy to accept an invitation from this White House, considering both its abysmal record as to African Americans (among others) and the fact that the hypocrisy of claiming Robinson as a symbol just a week later flies in the face of being used as political agitprop.

Per Hernández:

…[The Dodgers] will insinuate, if not outright say, they are more than a baseball team. They will portray themselves as leaders of social progress. They will be full of it.

The Dodgers are embarking on the path of least resistance, and that’s not what leaders do. Leaders don’t cower in fear of ignorant extremists, no matter how many of them there are. Leaders do what is right and deal with the consequences.

Stan Kasten tried to reframe the discussion about the impending visit with Hernández.

“This was something we discussed with all the players, all of whom wanted to go,” Kasten said. “Remember, everyone in here grew up wanting to be a world champion and all the things that come with it, and it comes with a champagne toast, silliness in the locker room, a parade, rings, an invitation to the White House. It’s what they all come to associate with being world champions. Everyone wanted to go, and so we did. …

“This [has] nothing to do with politics. For everyone in this room, this is about what they get as their reward for being world champions, getting to the White House. I think there are probably people in this room who have different points of view on politics. No one thought this trip is about politics, it’s about celebrating their world championship.”

[emphasis added.]

I am not one to default to name-calling to make a point, but when someone is being disingenuous or is demonstrating the political awareness of a drunk goldfish, the benefit of the doubt is lost. I cannot tell if Kasten is making a bad faith argument or believes that the city of Los Angeles will buy said argument without complaint.

Had Kasten stopped talking, I suppose we would have agreed to disagree, but as is usual, he continued.

“You can’t separate me from the players,” he said. “I won’t let you do that.”

“You can do whatever you want on the subject,” he said. ‘I’m finished responding to you, and I thought I gave you a well-considered, clear-English-sentence set of answers. That’s all I can do for you. That’s all I’m going to do.”

“Either way … [w]henever there’s politics involved, there’s approximately half of the fan base that feels one way and half that feels the other way. That’s everywhere. That’s how we are on political issues. We didn’t view it through a political prism. We viewed it through the reward that all of these players have spent their lives trying to achieve, and they deserve it and they wanted to do it.”

[emphasis added.]

What the hell is Stan Kasten talking about? Is he that oblivious to the players who are currently on the payroll? Did he forget the moral stands taken in 2020 and 2023? Is Stan Kasten completely oblivious to those who are filling up Dodger Stadium night after night, who roundly rejected this administration at the ballot box on multiple occasions?

There is no other conclusion apart from willful blindness. Considering that the team has been blind to the obvious before (see Bauer, Trevor, 2021) and the other boneheaded things Kasten has said on the record in recent controversies (re: Bauer, “Can we please talk about foreign substances?”), it begs the question of why the Dodgers have been so inept in the public relations department for the past four seasons plus.

If Walters and Kasten want to stand beaming with Trump sans the team, fine. Go nuts. The act would confirm a lot of what we already know, but instead of deliberation, we got a full surrender.

The team completely surrenders

On March 31, word broke that Shohei Ohtani would attend the White House. If one were to be charitable, it would be hard to fault a foreign-born player for not knowing the political intricacies of the United States. Especially considering that Ohtani was duped out of about $16 million by his former best friend over the past few years.

What I am far less charitable about is the word that the entire team, including Mookie Betts, is expected to attend the White House. The only person not expected to attend is Freddie Freeman, who stayed in Los Angeles to rehab his injured ankle.

When seeing photos of the Dodgers boarding the plane east for their most recent road trip, the cat was basically out of the bag about this fact. Quite a few players, including players who did not play in the postseason, like Tyler Glasnow, had suit bags. Betts had publicly said he was debating what to do before announcing he would be appearing with his teammates despite his previous stances and justified political acts.

I have famously been critical of Betts, not for expressing opinions, but opinions that sometimes were poorly sourced and just set his credibility on fire. Betts managed to top his inexplicable defense of Trevor Bauer in 2023, while speaking Friday with reporters in Philadelphia. From The Athletic:

“It’s not a political stance that I’m taking,” Betts said. “I know no matter what I say, what I do, people are going to take it as political, but that’s definitely not what it is. This about an accomplishment that the Dodgers were able to accomplish last year.” “I made it about me,” Betts said of not going in 2019. “This is not about me. This is about the Dodgers…Me not being there for them at that time, it was very selfish.”

“It comes with the territory,” Betts said. “Being Black in America in a situation like this, it’s a tough spot to be in. No matter what I choose, somebody’s going to be pissed. Somebody’s going to have an opinion. “I told them I needed to think about it. Nobody else in this clubhouse has to go through a decision like this, except me.”

[emphasis added.]

Talk about learning the wrong lesson from being right.

In 2019, Betts refused to go to the White House after his then-Boston Red Sox vanquished the Dodgers in 2018. Sometimes when you have privilege, you have the responsibility to wield the privilege appropriately.

What changed? I don’t think 2020 Mookie Betts would recognize himself and this decision. Did we all forget that, as a team, the Dodgers refused to take the field in August 2020 in response to Betts’ taking a stand on racial injustice?

After Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by the police, three days later, Mookie Betts addressed his teammates and said that he was not going to play, no matter what. And everyone in that room stood with him. Even the one player for whom the Dodgers contorted themselves into a moral pretzel for just three years later during the Pride Night debacle, the so-called “not a public speaker,” spoke out with moral clarity — Clayton Kershaw:

“Once Mookie said that he wasn’t going to play, that really started our conversation as a team of ‘What can we do to support that?’” Kershaw said. “I think more than anything as a teammate of Mookie’s, as a White player on this team, is how can we show support. What’s something tangible that we can do to help our Black brothers? We made a collective group decision to not play tonight and to let our voices be heard for standing up for what we believe is right.”

At the time, Betts said that the current movement to draw attention to racial injustice doesn’t work if only Black players participate. “Black people have been fighting this fight for centuries,” he said. “We haven’t gotten anywhere. So having the White players to help push it, I think change can be made. But it’s going to take all of us.”

From the above eloquence to “It’s not a political stance I’m taking.” Have we fallen that far?

If anything, Trump got worse, far worse. When a political view results in the undisputed suffering of another, you are not just making a political choice; you are making a moral choice. The current controversy is not one of right versus left but right versus wrong. If we had President Pence or President Romney, I could understand (if I disagree with) Betts’ change of heart.

Dave Roberts “explained” further to The Athletic:

“We have a lot of different people that are part of this organization,” Roberts said this week. “Different backgrounds, different cultures, race, gender. So everyone had a different story. Economic situations. So we are all going as an organization. I do know that we’re all aligned, and everyone’s going to have their opinions.

“This is not a political thing, and I’m not going to sit up here and make it political. I’m excited to, again, recognize the 2024 World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.”

There are a litany of ways to celebrate the 2024 Dodgers that do not involve submission to a would-be, actively acting autocrat. Respectfully, the last time I saw a Dodger give a word salad with hostage-like enthusiasm was Jason Heyward extoling the virtues of last year’s not-quite-right uniforms.

Considering that Roberts has publicly stated that he would have snubbed a White House visit had the Dodgers prevailed in 2019, the about-face is striking as it is stunning, especially considering the administration’s bad behavior.

With the Dodgers folding on this issue faster than Superman on laundry day, there is a train of thought that has not been discussed. Dave Zirin of The Nation eloquently wrote how “the teamwork” rationale is a flimsy one, at best:

This kind of unrepentant reaction is why Dodgers primary owner and multi-billionaire Mark Walters needs to understand that going to the White House feeds the Dodgers into Trump’s propaganda machine. Trump is sending a message to followers and anti-racist detractors alike: “I can be racist as I want, even toward Jackie Robinson! And the Dodgers will still come crawling.” Breaking people is how this administration projects strength. Walters will smile alongside the president, looking both complicit and broken while Trump puffs out his chest, making clear that he operates not only above the law but any standard of decency. When stories are told in the future about the indignities Robinson had to suffer, people will learn about the role played by Mark Walters.

The Dodgers should also refuse this invite because Trump has put the lives of several Dodgers and their families at risk. There are 63 Major League Baseball players who were born in Venezuela. On the Dodgers, Edgardo Henriquez, Brusdar Graterol, and Miguel Rojas are all from Venezuela. Given that the United States is now sending Venezuelans without due process to an El Salvadoran labor camp, telling these players to set foot in this White House seems cruel. It’s telling them to shut up and play, or risk something worse than a team fine.

[emphasis added.]

Some players are apparently more equal than others. The team has concluded that surrendering is the best part of valor here.

No one would care if I declared I refused to go to the White House because of its current occupant and his policies. I do not have that kind of clout. Betts has that kind of clout. Ohtani has that clout. Kershaw has that clout.

At some point, silence becomes complicity. Saying that you are not being political becomes complicity. If the act we discuss is evil enough, there is no excuse for silence. Pretending that everything is normal in times like these is a political choice.

There are times when the Dodgers have completely muffed it when it comes to doing the right thing. Glenn Burke was one case. Phil Ortega was another. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, the team desperately wanted a Mexican star to identify with the fanbase. They latched onto Ortega, who was Native American, not Mexican. Buzzie Bavasi once was quoted as saying he “could have scalped” Ortega when telling Vin Scully on the radio that he was not Mexican.

It seems likely that this visit will be another ignominious chapter that we will hang our heads in collective shame about. Honoring the office of the president presumes that someone honorable occupies it.

There’s a phrase for someone who allows themselves to be used like this: a useful idiot, someone who does not realize that they are being manipulated by outside forces.

Fear only works for the oppressor if you back down.

The Trump Administration is literally rounding up people who are in this country legally and deporting them without cause or process to camps in places like El Salvador. And when challenged about it, the administration claims it is powerless to return these people to the United States. As a lawyer, this argument is ludicrous, and if it is allowed to stand, the government would be able to deport anyone because it would deny anyone due process if you bend the law enough to suit an authoritative whim.

Like Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student on a valid F-1 visa who was snatched up by masked, plainclothes agents in Massachusetts in late March, alleging that she was “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.”

The alleged activities? Co-writing an op-ed last year, like the one you are currently reading, criticizing her college’s administration. Ozturk is currently detained in Louisiana, after the government transferred her there without notifying the federal court in Massachusetts, her lawyers, or the government’s lawyers, after a lawful order by the court telling the government not to remove Ozturk from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Ozturk has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

I could go on.

While it is unreasonable to expect professional athletes to know these types of cases to the degree that a trained professional like I am is, if someone is waving their arms on the side of the road, screaming, and pointing ahead, even the most oblivious driver would likely think, “Oh, maybe I should slow down or stop the car?”

What I hope you do

The visit and political agitprop are bad enough. I hold no hope that the Dodgers will not go to the White House; that die appears cast. Shame on them for being used as a distraction by a group of bunglers who seem hellbent on ending 75 years of political stability.

What I cannot and will not abide is the Dodgers returning home a week later and feteing Jackie Robinson like nothing happened. That hypocrisy is just a bit too much to swallow personally.

If the Dodgers go, count me out on April 15th, when playing the Colorado Rockies. The special ticket package that gives away a free Robinson replica jersey is just rich with all things considered. It would be my hope that fans find something else to do that day. Perferably, watching 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic starring the late Chadwick Boseman.

Why should you care about an issue that is fundamentally political and one seemingly designed to make you uncomfortable? You might be asking yourself the following question:

Michael, can’t you just enjoy the good Dodger baseball? You don’t have to be the morality police.

And that attitude right there is why we are here: feelings over data, not calling each other to do better.

Fascism has taken root in the United States. It’s here. It’s not leaving as a malignant cancer — and it will remain until we drive it out. I will not tell you what to do, because we have come to a point where I should not have to.

It is not right versus left; it is right versus wrong.

It is about acting in a way that does not surrender one’s integrity. Personally, my plans for the season are in place, but I will see if I can find my way to Kansas City this summer, to see the new site of the Jackie Robinson statue, and to revisit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

This essay is a marker. The team will do what it will do and so will we. But regardless of what you or I do, one thing you can never say is that you have never been told.