Major League Baseball (MLB) on Tuesday said its All-Star game will be held in Colorado.
MLB said it chose Denver because the Colorado Rockies, the state’s baseball team, was already in the bidding process to host a future All-Star game. The team had submitted a detailed plan for hotel, event space, and security, and MLB staff had made several in-person visits to Denver.
Additionally, both Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock have committed to provide the necessary support for this year’s game to be held in Denver, the league said.
“Major League Baseball is grateful to the Rockies, the City of Denver, and the State of Colorado for their support of this summer’s All-Star Game. We appreciate their flexibility and enthusiasm to deliver a first-class event for our game and the region. We look forward to celebrating our sport’s best players and entertaining fans around the world,” MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. said in a statement.
“We are excited to host this year’s All-Star festivities at Coors Field,” added Greg Feasal, the Rockies chief operating officer.
The game will be held on July 13.
The new location of the draft has not yet been announced.
Critics charged that Colorado has similar voting laws to Georgia.
“Georgia: Voter ID, 17 days of early voting. Colorado: Voter ID, 15 days of early voting. Atlanta is 51 [percent] Black. Denver is 9.2 [percent] Black,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wrote in a tweet.
“The @MLB is moving the #MLBAllStarGame out of ATL which has more day-of voting rights than CO? The Wokes are at it again, folks.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said on Fox News late Monday, when reports about the move began surfacing, that the move was befuddling.
“Georgia has 17 days of in-person early voting, including two optional Sundays. Colorado has 15, is what I’m being told. They also have a photo ID requirement. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me,” the Republican said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday disputed the idea that the laws are similar in the two states.
“Colorado allows you to register on election day. Colorado has voting by mail, where they send to 100 percent of people in the state who are eligible an application to vote by mail. Ninety-four percent of people in Colorado voted by mail in the 2020 election. They also allow for a range of materials to provide even if they vote on Election Day, for the limited number of people who vote on Election Day,” she said.
Psaki claimed the Georgia election bill “is built on a lie,” that there was widespread fraud during the 2020 election.
Kemp told reporters over the weekend that the law was passed in part because of the changes implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the election.
“We had a brand new system in Georgia. We had things like drop boxes that we’ve never used, at least in recent memory. Therefore, there were mechanical issues that needed to be fixed. There were reasons to try to figure out a better way, a more accessible way, and a more secure way for us to hold elections. There is nothing wrong with that. We shouldn’t apologize for wanting to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” he said.
