Commentary: After a failed season, will the Minnesota Twins relent on propaganda?

Why would the Twins franchise turn away longtime fans to cater to politically-correct leftists who likely don’t even follow baseball?

An "End Racism" sign at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. (Minnesota Twins/Facebook)

The 2021 Major League Baseball season began with executives caving to left-wing bullying and taking partisan stances on an innocuous state law they never read.

Whether making political statements before games, posting silly “End Racism” signs on outfield walls, or blithely weighing in on serious issues, the Minnesota Twins take the cake for a leftward lurch.

When one insane young radical causes an entire police force to remove company logos, the question becomes: when will the Twins be asked to remove divisive racial paraphernalia they’ve adorned across Target Field the last two seasons?

If there’s ever a hateful group that espouses anti-American, anti-family bigotry, and has led to deaths, Black Lives Matter is it. Yet MLB and the Twins promote these hooligans while removing a team owner’s statue for comments made four decades ago.

Bill Pohlad, heir to the family fortune, sanctimoniously gave millions to “racial justice” yet endorses causes dedicated to uprooting the foundations of American culture, which hurts black communities the most.

The Pohlad family, Manager Rocco Baldelli, and the team’s front office all cling to leftist rhetoric, but karma is a bitch.

The Twins had very high expectations five-and-a-half months ago, coming off two great regular seasons. Instead, they quickly became the most disappointing team in baseball from day one in April. Minnesota long ago sputtered to last place, forcing a revamping of the roster and embarrassingly low attendance. The team is now a pitiful 64-83, on pace for their worst record since 2016. By comparison, the likable 2019 squad, free of politics, won 101 games and lost only 61. Wokeness led to failure.

Why would the Twins franchise turn away longtime fans to cater to politically-correct leftists who likely don’t even follow baseball?

“I almost can’t describe the depth of my disappointment in the Twins’ management for politicizing America’s pastime,” Center of the American Experiment’s Ron Eibensteiner wrote this summer. “I confess that the Black Lives Matter sign on the Twins’ outfield wall brought to a boil a number of questions that had been simmering within me through the spring. Why do we, the sports fans, tolerate these finger-wagging judgments from self-righteous athletes or suddenly-woke sports executives who feel compelled to tell us what to believe or how to think? And why do media give LeBron James the moral or intellectual authority to lecture us?”

Sports media is riddled with progressive cowards, so I will say it: the Pohlad family are billionaire white-guilt bigots, who insulted their fans and shamed their franchise all in a few months. And what did they gain?

The family should have kept their $25 million; they’ll need it to recoup losses incurred by their immoral political crusades.

 

A.J. Kaufman

A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.