I continue to get emails from Trib readers regarding my columns on Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred engaging in an economic boycott of Atlanta because of his disapproval of Georgia’s election-integrity laws. It was shameless. Everyone is sick and tired of the politicization (and cancellation) of everything, and here comes MLB’s front offices with a sickening politicization of America’s national pastime.

Of course, it isn’t just baseball. Nearly every emailer likewise complained about the NFL. Many readers in this football-fanatic region have turned off not just baseball and the Pirates this year, but even football and their beloved Steelers. It has been the embrace of so-called “social justice” issues — invariably left-leaning causes — that has soured the fan base.

“I have not watched a Steeler game since they chose to disrespect our USA,” writes Bob from New Stanton. “The Steelers dynasty was built on WWII veterans living through tough times and terrible teams. I have lost respect for the Rooney Family. NFL has not been on my television since that time. My life will go on without sports.”

Bob urges me to do the same: “We need to stick together.”

I feel Bob’s pain. Look at how the NFL handled Colin Kaepernick and the kneeling issue and BLM-related matters. The NFL has become obsessed with identity politics. Turn on NFL Network for 20 minutes and you’ll see what I mean.

In my view, however, the NFL hasn’t (yet) done anything as ridiculous as what Rob Manfred did with the All-Star Game, where the MLB commissioner swallowed hook, line and sinker Democratic Party political propaganda. Even Stacey Abrams, who fanned the flames in Georgia, cried foul when Manfred yanked the All-Star Game from Atlanta, costing citizens in the Black-majority city tens of millions of dollars. Manfred’s move is a grand slam for outrageousness. Countless states have voter “restrictions” worse than Georgia’s. Does Manfred actually take seriously the ludicrous assertions of the likes of President Joe Biden dubbing Georgia’s election laws “Jim Crow 2.0” (as Biden preaches “unity”)? He must think Atlantans are hankering for pre-Jackie Robinson days.

Either way, this isn’t the business of baseball. And it begs a crucial bigger question: How do men like Manfred, as well as the NFL’s Roger Goodell, get to this sort of mindset?

That, alas, is the larger problem. Both MLB and the NFL live in bubbles of liberalism in Manhattan, where literally 85% of citizens voted for Biden and could be convinced over a cup of Starbucks that the KKK is headquartered in Georgia’s governor’s mansion. They’re clueless about real America. If they go through Indiana and Kansas, it’s at 40,000 feet. Mid-America is fly-over country. If they had been on the back roads of Western Pennsylvania in October, the omnipresent Trump flags would’ve had them in full-blown anxiety attacks texting their psychiatrists in the Upper East Side.

I often think of something told to me by a friend who worked for the Steelers and knew Dan Rooney very well. As we commiserated over the latest NFL mishandling of some toxic “social justice” issue, my friend observed emphatically that the NFL sits in Manhattan, far removed from the rank and file. If the NFL wanted to get better in touch with its base, it should move its offices to a town closer to its fans.

So true. The NFL ought to move to Canton or a city like Latrobe, credited by some as the birthplace of pro football. Those fans are more typical of NFL fans.

The same is true for baseball. MLB ought to get out of Manhattan and move to a town like Cooperstown or Louisville. Anywhere but New York City.

Will it happen? Of course not. And the NFL and MLB and their staffs and commissioners will continue to be out of bounds and out of touch.

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