Sports provide a haven, a respite from the stress and problems of daily life. Of course, there is the competition. Additionally, there is a comforting certainty.
Winners and losers are obvious. Scores are carefully maintained. boundaries and regulations that are enforced and upheld with the same firmness and accuracy as a third base line drawn on chalk.
To put it briefly, the fantasy is appealing and part of the appeal because it avoids the compromise and messy uncertainties of everyday life.
Attempting to separate sports from the times we live in and the events that take place, sometimes frighteningly, outside of the cozy stadium and arena is also fantasy.
Consider the Los Angeles Dodgers, whose erratic reaction to the immigration raids terrified a sizable portion of its fan base.
Amid mounting public outrage, the team, one of Southern California’s most prestigious (and profitable) institutions, gave in last week and pledged $1 million to assist families impacted by the harsh immigration policies of the Trump administration. The company assured that more projects will follow.
Escapism has its limits.
According to Jules Boykoff, a former professional soccer player who is now a political scientist, sports are fundamentally political. and denying it is the same as denying reality.
The Dodgers
The Dodgers said they had pledged $1 million to support immigrant families in their first public statement in reaction to the immigration raids that have swept through Los Angeles.
Amy Bass, who has written many books on the topic and is a professor of sport studies at Manhattanville University, concurred.
According to Bass, sport is a component of our social, political, cultural, and economic environment. The industry rewards its employees. People are amused by this industry. Some of our most memorable and heartbreaking memories are reflected in this industry.
She asserted that everything can be discussed from a sporting perspective.
Or, depending on the situation, yell about and dispute over.
Many others felt that the Dodgers’ gesture was too little, too late—an unintentional mistake, if you will.
Mycolumnizing colleague Gustavo Arellano wrote, “That’s the best way to describe how the Boys in Blue have acted as the city with their hats and road jerseys battles Donald Trump’s toxic alphabet soup of federal agencies that have conducted immigration sweeps across Los Angeles over the past two weeks.”
When the Dodgers announced $1 million in goodwill rewards last week, they were studiously evasive. The brutality that ICE has used in some of its enforcement efforts is not mentioned, much less condemned. There is no mention of the parents being split up from their kids. No recognition of the innocent people, including Americans, who were caught up in some of the indiscriminate raids carried out by the Trump administration.
In a masterful use of opacity and euphemism, club president Stan Kasten stated that the events in Los Angeles have affected thousands upon thousands of people. We are confident that by allocating funds and acting, we will keep assisting and uplifting the Greater Los Angeles community.
Is it surprising, though, that the squad would duck first and then use such cliches to hide?
It is important to remember that, like all professional sports teams, the Dodgers are primarily a business. It’s possible that Michael Jordan spoke the famous phrase that is credited to him: “Republicans buy sneakers, too, as a reason for pro athletes and their teams to stay out of politics.” However, it clearly relates to a fundamental principle of the sports industry.
In other words, the Dodgers indeed have a sizable and lucrative fan base in the much besieged Latino population. However, Trump supporters also purchase a lot of Dodger Dogs and occupy a lot of seats.
If we’re being completely honest, how many Dodgers fans—or fans of any other sports team, for that matter—would be more than happy to give up the moral high ground in exchange for a successful season and a championship? After all, the rankings don’t represent righteousness.
What therefore should a profit-driven, community-based, cross-pressured sports organization do?
With things becoming worse every day, the Dodgers might not have had much of an option.
The more people are impacted—perhaps I should say traumatized—by what’s occurring in L.A.’s neighborhoods and streets, the less space the Dodgers had to try to get by without speaking, according to Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University in Oregon. In many respects, the situation compelled them to act.
California
Data contradicts the Trump administration’s assertion that the sweeps were intended for criminals.
Few people were pleased or satisfied as a result of the organization’s tardy and ambivalent response.
That should come as no surprise.
If we’re searching for a silver lining, this might be it: Rather than assuming that sports exist in a political vacuum, we can recognize how important they are to our everyday lives and discover, if not a commonality, at least a point of agreement for discussion and debate.
We have the ability to discuss history, economics, and social transformation, Bass stated. We can discuss how politics are influenced by sports.
Naturally, not on the field of play. But anywhere fans of all stripes congregate, whether it’s in the stands, sports bars, tailgate parties, or on talk radio.
According to Bass, the more we acknowledge it, the more we realize that sport can truly offer a setting for having extremely challenging conversations since it draws a wide variety of individuals together.
At a time when there are such profound and lasting divisions, it might seem unrealistic. But if not aim and optimism, what are sports all about?
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