The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays dedicated their Twitter accounts to anti-gun messages during a game between the two on Thursday night. In one tweet, the Yankees listed the number of “Latinx” individuals killed by gun violence each year.
“In lieu of game coverage and in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Rays, we will be using our channels to offer facts about the impacts of gun violence,” the Yankees wrote in a tweet. “The devastating events that have taken place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable.”
The team account went on to list gun violence-related statistics.
Each year, more than 4,100 Latinx people die from gun violence in the U.S. and 13,300 are shot and wounded.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 26, 2022
Most of the listed statistics, which are still being tweeted out as of this report, are raw totals without added context. In one tweet, the Yankees wrote: “Each year, more than 4,100 Latinx people die from gun violence in the U.S. and 13,300 are shot and wounded.”
“Latinx”, a gender-neutral descriptor for people of Hispanic origin, is thoroughly disliked among the Hispanic community according to numerous polls. The tweet has since been largely panned by Twitter users.
Latinx https://t.co/7yFdh56k8N
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 27, 2022
Thank you, sports team. https://t.co/OXZN0cTM0R
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 27, 2022
I am once again tapping the sign: https://t.co/8M9qvzckNe pic.twitter.com/LgWIIhxstI
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) May 27, 2022
Major League Baseball has inserted itself into numerous political causes in recent years. After President Biden urged the league to move the 2021 All Star game away from Atlanta, Georgia due to the state’s election integrity bill, MLB obliged. The league labelled Georgia’s bill as “voter suppression” and cost the state millions of dollars in a move that was backed by gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams.
Abrams and Biden have since distanced themselves from the woefully unpopular move.
A March Rasmussen Reports survey found that a whopping 74% of likely voters support mandatory voter I.D.
Mandatory voter I.D. now has majority support among all surveyed ethnic groups, though MLB opted to pander to the fringe left with “voter suppression” rhetoric. Even 59% of Democrats support voter I.D. as of March.
MLB has been declining for years in the ratings department, but numbers for the current season have been abysmal.
A primetime game between the Brewers and Phillies on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.11 million viewers earlier this month. That viewership was almost half of half the viewership the same weekend last year when the Padres and Dodgers faced off on ESPN and ESPN2, which drew 2.01 million viewers.
According to Sports Media Watch:
A 7-inning Cardinals-Braves Sunday Night Baseball game averaged just 931,000 viewers on ESPN over the weekend, down 49% from the comparable window in 2019 (Cubs-Dodgers: 1.84M) and the least-watched Sunday night game this season. The game aired opposite an NBA Game 7 (Hawks-Sixers: 6.16M) and partially overlapped with the final round of golf’s U.S. Open.
While MLB’s ratings have declined from last season, the NBA, who have also suffered a ratings decline, saw its playoff viewership spike by 66% in the first round when compared with last year.
Last year’s All-Star Game earned its second lowest ratings of all time after the league moved it from Atlanta to Denver.
