Ordinarily, this newsletter is devoted to government policies and politics as they affect Iowa.<\/p>\n
However, as regular readers know, I love the game of baseball. And, on occasion, baseball references will make their way into my writing.<\/p>\n
This is one such occasion.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve come here for Iowa politics, however, please don\u2019t turn away. I believe there is a political component to this story. And, later in this column, I will tell you about how, on a different topic, top Iowa Republicans are turning on one of their own. But first, baseball.<\/p>\n
A few days ago, The Athletic reported Major League Baseball is coming back to Iowa next season.<\/p>\n
After a four-year absence, there will be a Major League game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, the site of the 1989 movie of the same name. The game will be between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n
This will be an occasion for MLB to bask in the romanticism that stems from the movie starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. Iowa\u2019s tourism industry will benefit from the attention, too.<\/p>\n
However, I think of this as more an occasion to point out how much MLB disrespects its fans living in Iowa, even as it seeks to leverage the nostalgia of the Field of Dreams. And I hope to the extent the state\u2019s politicians celebrate this game next year, they\u2019ll also remember the fans who are being mistreated.<\/p>\n
Mostly, I\u2019m talking about MLB.TV<\/a>\u2019s blackout rules. (I almost used the words \u201cdraconian blackout rules,\u201d but as any baseball fan living in Iowa knows, it is unnecessary to apply the adjective.) In my area, six teams are not available to me, including those hundreds of miles away. It\u2019s not at all unusual that, on any given day, 25-30% of the games on MLB.TV<\/a> are blacked out. This even though no Major League team resides in Iowa.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a Baltimore Orioles fan, so the remarkable run by the Milwaukee Brewers this year isn\u2019t nearly as interesting to me as the implosion of my team, which pre-season prognosticators said would compete for the playoffs. Had I been interested, however, in watching the Brewers, I would be out of luck. Brewers\u2019 games are blacked out, even though I have practically zero chance of seeing them otherwise. Even though I paid $150 for a yearlong subscription.<\/p>\n I realize that a lot of baseball fans across the country complain about blackout rules.<\/p>\n I also realize my complaints about MLB aren\u2019t as articulate as those of other writers. For this, I recommend you read Joe Queenan\u2019s recent column in the Wall Street Journal, where he contemplates the dispute between the Major League team owners and players over a possible salary cap\u2014and suggests that neither side deserves our sympathy.<\/p>\n He concludes by saying, \u201cwhoever ultimately wins this battle, the fans are going to get screwed. As usual.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is kind of the way I feel about the Field of Dreams game. MLB will benefit from the nostalgia for the game next year, and Iowa tourism will get a bump. Which is a good thing. Our economy definitely needs whatever boost it can get given the way things have been going.<\/p>\n However, if nothing changes, Iowa baseball fans who want to watch Major League teams will be left paying a hefty sum for the privilege of draconian (there, I said it) blackout rules that will leave them fuming.<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost enough to make you want to walk into a cornfield, never to return.<\/p>\n Disrespecting Brenna Bird<\/p>\n The message couldn\u2019t be clearer: Some of Iowa\u2019s top Republicans have lost confidence in Brenna Bird.<\/p>\n Iowa\u2019s attorney general is investigating alleged violations of the state\u2019s anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion law, but US Rep. Randy Feenstra and Taylor Collins, a state legislator, aren\u2019t waiting for the results. Instead, they\u2019ve launched a pressure campaign on the state\u2019s universities to fire the employees in question.<\/p>\n I can understand their lack of confidence in the attorney general.<\/p>\n Bird already failed in her attempt to sue a county sheriff she accused of breaking the state\u2019s anti-immigration law. And just recently, she warned Republicans they shouldn\u2019t expect action any time soon in the case of university employees who were secretly recorded being critical of Iowa RightThink.<\/p>\n Thus, the pressure campaign.<\/p>\n When I first wrote about the videos, I warned Republicans wouldn\u2019t wait to prove their case, that they would instead exert political pressure on the Board of Regents and the universities to punish employees who dared to exercise their free speech rights.<\/p>\n The letter from Feenstra and Collins to university presidents, which was reported on last week by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, is proof.<\/p>\n As I pointed out previously, nobody has proved that these employees broke any law.<\/p>\n Yet, Feenstra and Collins have already proclaimed them guilty \u2014 all based on views, often vaguely expressed, that were contained in heavily-edited videos covertly recorded and aired on rightwing media. However, they don\u2019t have confidence in the attorney general that she can prove they broke state law, so they use their political power to try to intimidate state institutions into preemptively violating the rights of their employees in order to ruin their careers.<\/p>\n This would be especially useful to Feenstra, who is critical of diversity, equity and inclusion, and by all appearances will run for Iowa governor but faces a primary contest.<\/p>\n I hope the presidents of Iowa\u2019s universities stand up to this political pressure, that they will defend the rights of their employees. It would be especially embarrassing for the University of Iowa \u2014 just as a \u201ccenter for intellectual freedom\u201d is being formed there \u2014 to succumb to pressure from rightwing ideologues to fire employees simply because they have expressed opinions that run counter to the beliefs of the political party in power.<\/p>\n The center, by the way, is being created because of a mandate by Republicans in the state legislature, who apparently would not be the least bit embarrassed at violating the constitutional rights of university employees even as they insist upon \u201cintellectual freedom\u201d at those same universities.<\/p>\n I have said this before. I\u2019ll say it again: If these employees actually violated the law, then Brenna Bird ought to have to prove it. If not, Iowa politicians ought to leave these employees alone and not try to force university presidents into doing Bird\u2019s job for her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ordinarily, this newsletter is devoted to government policies and politics as they affect Iowa. 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