As we have reported ad nausuem, the new Arizona immigration law has created a ruckus in baseball
circles. Most of that ruckus has surrounded the 2011 All-Star Game, scheduled for Chase Field. Multiple players have gone on record against the law with some — including the Padres’ Adrian Gonzalez — saying that they’d boycott the game if the law was in effect.
Today comes a new development along those lines: the U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit challenging the law an unlawful usurpation of federal power. This will do absolutely nothing to calm the general controversy over the law. Quite the opposite, actually, as lawsuits tend to focus the ire of partisans on both sides of a given issue.
But is should solve baseball’s little P.R. problem. That’s because the feds are asking for an injunction suspending implementation of the law until the lawsuit is decided. Such injunctions are almost always granted, especially with respect to laws — like this one — that aren’t even in force yet.
The lawsuit is likely to last a long damn time. Certainly longer than a year, which will give baseball plenty of time to get the 2011 All-Star Game in while giving all sides the chance to say “it’s in the courts, play ball.” The game will happen and baseball will set its sights on Kansas City in 2012.
Now let’s talk about what truly matters: who manages the 2011 NL All-Stars given that 2010 World Series champ manager Bobby Cox will be retired?
