Category: Guest Authors

Emmett Ashford Was First Black Umpire

By Joe Guzzardi

For Emmett Ashford, Major League Baseball’s first black umpire, his many challenges to succeed might have deterred others. But Ashford overcame, did an outstanding job, and entertained fans with his colorful, animated on-the-field calls. Los Angeles-born in 1914, Ashford was on his Jefferson High School track and baseball teams. Ashford, the senior class president, graduated in 1933 and then attended Los Angeles Junior College and Chapman College. After graduating, Ashford aced a civil service exam and landed a post office clerk’s job as a clerk where he remained for about 15 years.

In his essay, baseball historian and author Mark Armour wrote that as a young man, Ashford was skilled enough to play semi-pro baseball, but he mostly rode the pine. In 1941, the scheduled umpire didn’t show up, and the players asked Ashford to fill in. Ashford complied— “kicking and screaming.” As the season continued, Ashford established himself as a better umpire than a ball player. “I gave them a little showmanship and the crowd loved it,” he later remembered about his flashy style behind the plate.

After he finished a three-year U.S. Navy stint during World War II, Ashford umpired regularly, moving up to topflight college baseball. Ashford took a leave of absence from his post office job in 1951 for a two-month Southwestern International League trial and became organized baseball’s first black umpire. Les Powers, the league president, observed that “Ashford has the making of a big-league umpire.” After the season, SIL offered Ashford a full-time job; he quit the postal service, thereby forfeiting 15 years toward his pension.

Ashford moved up to the Western International League in 1953, before his promotion to the Pacific Coast League in 1954. During his 12 years in the PCL, Ashford became the minor leagues’ best-known umpire, sprinting down the right field line, constantly interacting, and doffing his cap. Before his first MLB season, Ashford reflected, “I feel proud being an umpire in the big leagues. Not because I am the first Negro, but because umpires in the major leagues are very select people. Right now, I just want to vindicate Mr. Cronin’s [American League president] faith in me… But first, I’ve got to buy me a pair of eyeglasses,” he joked.

Ashford’s first regular-season game occurred on April 11, 1966, in Washington D.C’s Griffith Stadium, the traditional American League opener which pitted the Cleveland Indians against the woe-be-gone Senators. His first major-league challenge was getting into the ballpark. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey attended so he could throw out the ceremonial first ball, but the skeptical Secret Service doubted that a black man could have been assigned to the umpiring crew. Humphrey later kidded Ashford, who had worked at third base, that he had not had any plays to call. “No plays, no boots,” kidded Ashford, “but it was the greatest day of my life.” Cronin told his new employee, “Emmett, today you made history. I’m proud of you.”

Even Ashford’s peers were often hostile. Pitcher Jim Bouton described Ashford’s travails in Ball Four, his 1969 season baseball expose: “Other umpires talk behind his back. Sometimes they’ll let him run out on the field himself and the other three who are holding back in the dugout will snigger…. It must be terrible for Ashford. When you’re an umpire and travel around the big leagues in a group of four and three of them are white…well, it can make for a very lonely summer.”

By the time Ashford made his MLB debut, he was over fifty and some of his questionable calls enraged American League managers, many of whom, The New York Times George Vecsey wrote, had “rarely been confronted with black authority in their lives.” After umpiring in the 1970 World Series, Ashford retired, officially because he was past the mandatory 55-year-old retirement age although some in the media speculated that he had been nudged out.

In his post-retirement years, Ashford worked as a public relations adviser to then MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, he umpired an occasional minor-league or college game, called old-timers’ games in Dodger Stadium and, for three years, was umpire-in-chief for the Alaskan summer league. Ashford also earned money doing TV commercials and occasional screen appearances. Looking back on his pioneering role, Ashford said: ““It wasn’t easy being an umpire, let alone being a Negro umpire. But since the game is the ballplayer’s bread and butter, all he wants is for you to make the right calls. He doesn’t care if you’re white or black, Eskimo or Indian. In turn, I worked like hell. I was an umpire, not a black umpire.”

After a heart attack Ashford, age 76, died in 1980 in Marina Del Ray, Calif. Ashford’s body was cremated, and his ashes are interred at Lakeview Cemetery in Cooperstown, New York.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Emmett Ashford Was First Black Umpire

Birthright Citizenship Headed to SCOTUS

By Joe Guzzardi

For decades, birthright citizenship has vexed Republicans, Democrats, and constitutional scholars. President Donald Trump’s Executive Order described both birthright citizenship’s history and its purpose:

 From Trump’s EO, Protecting the Value and Meaning of America Citizenship: “The Fourteenth Amendment states: ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’  That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’ shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race.” Trump’s EO would also deny citizenship to foreign nationals legally but temporarily present in the U.S. such as holders of student, work, or tourist visas.

The heated controversy centers around two Fourteenth Amendment phrases. Supporters of the status quo cite “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” which has come to mean illegal aliens and temporary legal residents. Opponents argue that foreign nationals are not and cannot be considered “subject to” the U.S.’s jurisdiction. Predictably, the ACLU and 22 blue state governors and attorneys’ generals immediately challenged the administration’s EO set to be effective in 30 days but would not be retroactive.

When birthright citizenship’s broad scope is considered, the potential negative consequences must be weighed. Start with the 2021-2023 non-immigrant I-94 admissions category to the U.S.—millions of individuals, which includes temporary workers and their families, NAFTA professional workers, specialty occupation workers–mostly H-1B visa holders—and intracompany transfers and their spouses, all of whom could grow or start new families with their children born on U.S. soil automatically becoming American citizens. An estimated 300,000-400,000 citizen children are born each year to mothers who have no legitimate ties to the U.S.

Another temporary visa category, the B, intended for tourism and business purposes, stood at eight million total issued in 2023. The B visa has spawned the most blatant, egregious federal immigration abuses and stands out as the best example of why birthright citizenship should end. Granting automatic citizenship to foreign nationals’ children is a lure to come to the U.S. to deliver a citizen child. President Trump is right to end this practice because, among its other inherent flaws, the birthright citizenship industry encourages illegal activity and threatens national security. The State Department documented that, based on reporting from U.S. embassies and consulates, trends showed an increasing number of B visa applicants whose primary purpose of travel is to give birth in the U.S.

Birth tourism is a criminal enterprise that involves complex schemes and yields millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. Shady overseas businesses, approximately 500 in China alone, promote birth tourism on the Internet and on social media. As an example of unlawful activity, on January 31, 2019, federal prosecutors announced indictments against 19 people operating three Southern California birth tourism schemes. The “maternity” or “birthing houses” principals charged their clients tens of thousands of dollars, and, in one case, “more than $3.4 million in international wire transfers” were received within a two-year span.

Operators also coached their Chinese customers on how to lie to U.S. officials and hide their pregnancies. Furthermore, “the indictments allege that many of the Chinese birth tourism customers failed to pay all of the medical costs associated with their hospital births, and the debts were referred to collection.” The charges also included making false statements to immigration officials, contempt of court, marriage fraud, visa fraud, and money laundering. The craven perpetrators fled back to China and are now fugitives from justice.

Because birth tourism, per se, is clandestine, there is no definitive breakdown by country of origin. Evidence points to many birth tourists originate from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Nigeria, Türkiye, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico. Russia and China have long histories of anti-American espionage activities while others may harbor anti-American sentiments. The State Department warned that such a practice could allow foreign governments or entities to recruit or groom U.S. citizens who were born through birth tourism but raised overseas, without attachment to the U.S. could threaten national security.

As anticipated, challenges to Trump’s EO came immediately. The ACLU and twenty-two blue states filed lawsuits. On January 23 in Seattle, a federal judge heard and temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order. Appeals will eventually reach the Supreme Court, which will have the opportunity to finally resolve the birthright citizenship conundrum. In the meantime, the administration must toughen up. Visa fraud is a crime. Airport Customs and Border Patrol agents should be more aware of pregnant women attempting to enter. ICE agents can visit birth hotels, put the squeeze on the proprietors, demand to see registration and visa documents, and let all criminal parties involved know that immigration authorities are aware of fraud. The bad news that will get back to China that enforcement is looming, a step in the right direction regardless of how the Supreme Court may rule.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Birthright Citizenship Headed to SCOTUS

Birthright Citizenship Headed to SCOTUS

Wildfires Jeopardizes Dem Careers

By Joe Guzzardi

Thomas Jefferson: “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”  Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is an excellent example of Jefferson’s warning. Bass is under withering criticism for mismanaging California’s Pacific Palisades and Eaton wildfires. Calls for Bass’s resignation are increasing and, in the meantime, a recall petition gathered more than 135,000 verified signatures through January 13 and is gaining momentum.

The petition demands:

     1. The immediate resignation of Mayor Karen Bass due to her failure to lead during this unprecedented crisis.
     2. A full, transparent investigation into the failures in disaster preparedness, response, and resource allocation that left our city vulnerable.
     3. Accountability for the mismanagement of taxpayer funds intended for disaster relief and recovery.
     4. A comprehensive plan for ensuring the safety of all Angelenos in the face of future disasters.
Closing sentence: “The people of Los Angeles deserve a leader who is present, accountable, and actively working to protect and serve our community. Mayor Bass’s actions—or lack thereof—have shown she is unfit for the office she holds.”

The “present, accountable, and actively working” reference is to Bass’ trip as part of a U.S. presidential delegation to Ghana to attend President John Dramani Mahama’s inauguration, a colossal waste of money with no tangible benefit to Angelenos. Moreover, three years ago Bass promised to cut back on her international travel to focus on Los Angeles. The former globe-trotting House Foreign Affairs Committee member vowed to limit her travel to D.C., Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco. As Mayor, Bass had also gone to Mexico for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration and three times to France for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. To Paris and back, to Paris and back, to Paris and back, three frivolous round trips that taxpayers funded.

Bass isn’t a major global player like President Joe Biden or Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Her place is at home trying to resolve Los Angeles’ myriad crises that include a budget shortfall,  a $22 billion homelessness dilemma, and a dysfunctional public school system where, because of grade inflation, in some subjects as many as four out of every five students receive A, B, and C grades, while only one in five met grade-level benchmarks, and thousands of struggling students are left with limited access to true academic help.

Bass deserves to be recalled. But, as Jefferson would agree, the voters who put her in the mayor’s office share the blame for the disaster that’s befallen southern California. Plenty of evidence of Bass’ colossal incompetence and radical political leanings were available to voters to scrutinize in the weeks that led up to her 2022 election. During her six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Bass embraced a far-left progressive agenda. In the 1970s, Bass worked construction for Fidel Castro’s Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, a Communist group that for half a century has organized annual trips to Cuba for young, left-wing Americans. Bass made eight trips to Cuba as a California Assembly member from 2004 through 2010 and, when Castro died in 2016, Bass lauded him: “The passing of the Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba,” an insensitive remark that outraged Cubans living in the U.S. Bass later denied that she was a Castro-sympathizer.

In the so-called non-partisan election where party affiliation is not listed, voters had a credible alternative, Republican turned Democrat Rick Caruso, a former L.A. Department of Water and Power Commissioner, and unanimously elected L.A. Board of Police Chiefs’ president. Caruso’s hands on experience with water, power, and police officers would have been helpful during the fires. Too bad for Pacific Palisades residents that Caruso is a white billionaire; DEI triumphed as he lost to Bass in a run-off election.

A recall Newsom petition is also circulating and justifiably so. The wildfires have torched more than 40,000 acres, almost three times the size of Manhattan, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and killed at least twenty-four people. Newsom’s many critics note that wildfires are a common and well-known California issue. Yet Newsom has not been able to produce any realistic plan after six years as governor and eight years as lieutenant governor, which shows that he is completely unprepared and lacks the compassion and backbone to lead California any longer.

Bass kicked off her 2026 re-election campaign in July and proclaimed that we cannot “afford to stop our momentum,” a rallying cry she will have to revise. Doubtlessly, Bass has eyes on a higher California office and perhaps beyond. She’s seen up close and personal that gross inability is not a political barrier to bigger things. Look at Kamala Harris who went from being Willie Brown’s concubine to California’s Attorney General to U.S. Senator to Vice President to presidential candidate, in which the shallowness she displayed on a national stage caught up with her.

Good luck to voters on their recall effort. Given the outcome during the Newsom 2021 recall, victory will be an uphill battle. Diversity-crazed Californians rejected a more-than qualified black gubernatorial candidate, Larry Elder, and chose the pasty-faced, glam boy, illegal alien welcoming Newsom. Go figure!

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Wildfires Jeopardizes Dem Careers Wildfires Jeopardizes Dem Careers