Dodgers’ Superstar Welcomes Anchor Baby into Family
By Joe Guzzardi
In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s May 15 birthright citizenship review, consider that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $700 million superstar Shohei Ohtani and his wife Mamiko Tanaka, Japanese nationals, just welcomed their first child, a girl. Shohei and Mamiko’s U.S. citizen baby was born in Arlington, VA. His baby daughter is luckier than 99% of anchor babies. Going into the 2025 season, Ohtani’s career earnings reached approximately $46 million, which includes his contracts and signing bonuses with the Los Angeles Angels. Since Ohtani’s new deferred contract covers a decade, the All-Star, MVP, pitcher/designated hitter will earn, exclusive of endorsement income, $2 million per year with the Dodgers or $20 million in total. After that, the Dodgers will pay Ohtani for another 10 years despite not being under contract. In those 10 seasons, he will make $68 million per year. Ohtani’s endorsement income is estimated at $40 million from Mitsubishi, Seiko, Japan Airlines, and New Balance, among other mega-billion-dollar corporations.
Ohtani chose to have his child born in the U.S. instead of Japan because having American citizenship will be, over her lifetime, advantageous to his baby girl. Think of the foolishness of granting precious citizenship to foreign nationals residing in the country on work or tourist visas in relationships, new or established, that result in births and automatically conferred American citizenship.
Japan, a country whose immigration standards reflect how seriously the nation takes citizenship, has tighter oversight. The Japanese Nationality Law requires that at least one parent must be a citizen for the child to qualify for citizenship. The U.S. Congress has written several bills with the same common sense citizenship requirement. None gained congressional support. President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” addressed the obvious flaws in the long-standing misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. The Executive Order, announced on January 20 and one of the first President Trump issued, spelled out what citizenship in the Trump administration would require:
“Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”
A day after President Trump released his EO, Congressman Brian Babin (R-TX), Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, introduced The Birthright Citizenship Act to restore the 14th Amendment to its original purpose and end the misuse of birthright citizenship. Babin’s legislation aligns with the EO and seeks a congressional remedy to the misreading and exploitation of the 14th amendment.
Center for Immigration Studies’ research found that one out of every ten births in the United States is to an illegal immigrant mother. Additionally, nearly 400,000 expectant mothers cross the border illegally each year, often with the sole intention to give birth in the U. S. Once granted automatic citizenship, these children can initiate chain migration, opening pathways for extended family members to gain legal residency. This practice has also fueled a global birth tourism industry, which takes advantage of the current loophole in U.S. immigration laws. Birth tourism is a criminal enterprise that, for an enormous fee, openly allows worldwide temporary visa-holding foreign nationals to stay in their hotels until the women are ready to give birth to a new American citizen. Such hotels, their criminal proprietors, and their pregnant guests who committed visa fraud would be easy targets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, ICE has winked at birth tourism hotels for years.
An intelligent overhaul of birthright citizenship is imperative. The Biden administration’s open borders admitted about ten million illegal immigrants and another estimated two million got aways. Those millions represent many more anchor baby citizens and eventual chain migration arrivals. Crossing the border illegally or as a temporary worker like Ohtani or a tourist and then giving birth on U.S. soil should not entitle the newborns to citizenship.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy Institute. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
Yet another organization discovered through the links listed in the 2024 Bill of Rights Banquet Program. Thank you again, Carris and Eric. This is how I learned about Marco Polo 501 C (3); Garrett Ziegler and Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden is asking a federal judge to voluntarily dismiss his 2023 lawsuit against Garrett Ziegler and Marco Polo, an organization run by Ziegler that published Report On The Biden Laptop.
Because “no one is buying his artwork or memoir . . . (Biden) does not have the resources to continue to litigate this matter,” his team says.
For someone who claims to be short on money, Hunter gets around.
Even with Secret Service despite the law only applying to former presidents’ children aged under 16, per the Former Presidents Protection Act (codified in 18 USC, Section 3056). “
Maybe he qualifies as an emotional 15-year old.
Actually “Biden issued an executive memorandum before he left the presidency indefinitely extending Secret Service protection for his son”
Choose your parents well.
If the last name Ziegler has any resonance, he is the cousin of President Richard M. Nixon’s Press Secretary, Ron Ziegler.
Ziegler graduated magna cum laude with a degree in economics from St. Louis University in 2018. He was hired directly out of college by the first Trump Administration and was a policy analyst under Peter Navarro in the Office of Trade and Manufacturing
Marco Polo is a 501c3 research group “with a mission of exposing corruption and blackmail. Mission & Leadership – Marco Polo – Substack Founded in 2021, Marco Polo spent it’s first year writing the Report on the Biden Laptop.
So the last question. Why does any of this matter? Because (see below) the Bidens are not hiding and they seem to want to return to destroy what’s left of a once vibrant (whether or not you agreed with them) political p[arty.
Delaware County and my world, Swarthmore, have also declared states of emergency. The only two major hospitals left in Delaware County are Lankenau and Riddle, The Delaware County Health Department should, operative word should, be working on this situation. Then there’s Delaware County Council which, I’d like to believe means well. Only State Senator Tim Kearney. of our local legislators, to my knowledge, has been involved with this situation.
Piggy-backing on Sharon Devaney’s excellent article this is a list of ER’s currently operating in Delco. We also listed those within 30 minutes or less from Swarthmore. Note; In Swarthmore, we’ve been told that Riddle is the first ER option and Lankenau is the second. After that, who knows?
Emergency WardsServing Delco
Bryn Mawr Hospital, 130 South Bryn Mawr Avenue,Bryn Mawr, PA, 484-337-3000
Well Philly’s DA Election is less than a month away. But is it the only election race that counts in Philly this year? And if not, should it be? There are also races for one judicial seat on the Commonwealth Court (“CC”) and another for the Superior Court (“SC”). Both political parties have candidates running for each judicial seat. There is no doubt that all these elections play a vital role in applying, enforcing, and shaping state and city law. The Primary Election is on May 20. The deadline to register to vote or to change your Party is before that on May 5 Register to vote or switch parties here, in seconds, for free: https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/VoterRegistrationApplication.aspx.
Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that still elects its judges in partisan political elections. This process often frustrates voters because they are not advised on the open positions and the candidates running for them. This should be an essential responsibility of political party leaders (i.e., Chairpersons, Electors, State Committee Persons, Ward Leaders, Committee Persons, etc.); Election Officials; and even attorneys. However, in Philly voters are often misguided into believing these elections are more about supporting President Trump while silently trying to undermine his direction. Such misguidance is wrong, possibly even treasonous. This coming Primary Election is about the safety, health, and welfare of all residents, guests, and businesses within the city. It is Philly First when it comes to the people, law, order and safety, and that is America First.
Since Soros-backed incumbent DA, Larry Krasner, took office on New Years Day, 2018, homicides are up 50% . Gun shooting assaults also increased by 54%. This means that over the past 7½ years, Mr. Krasner’s Office has been successful in failing to prosecute these and other felonies, e.g., robberies, thefts, drug sales, etc. These numbers do not even factor his 2020 failures to prosecute the vandals who torched, destroyed, and looted Philly during the George Floyd riots. In reports of the New York Times, Mr. Krasner’s office dismissed or dropped charges in approximately 98% of the 558 criminal cases related to them. This involved about 544 individuals and 99% of the charges where three-fourths of these cases were related to commercial burglary or trespassing. On behalf of the city, in conjunction with former Mayor Jim Kenney, Mr. Krasner also dropped up to 2,000 summonses. Clearly, during his tenure Mr. Krasner established that he is derelict in his duty to promote public safety. As the city’s Prosecutor and enforcer of the state’s and city’s criminal laws, promoting safety is his job. See PROSECUTORS LIKE KRASNER GO SOFT-ON-CRIME AND IT HAS CONSEQUENCES FOR CITIES
Philly needs to elect a new DA. So who are its registered Republican and Independent Voters going to vote for? Especially since the state and local Republican Party (“GOP”) failed to produce a Trump supporting candidate. Many people are asking. The only person to step up for this challenge is Honorable President Judge Patrick Dugan (retired; Democrat) who sat in Philly’s Municipal Court (“MC”) since five years before Mr. Krasner became DA—you know, before all the above increases. Judge Dugan may not be Pro-Trump, but one thing is for sure, he is not Pro-Soros. And he is Pro-Law & Order—just like President Trump.
So which, if any, of the coming elections are most important to Philly? Are not all PA elections and courts the same? Why would a guy who was a Judge want to be DA? And why is Mayor Cherelle Parker, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and all of City Council, remaining silent on these elections? Their silence and the answers to these questions reveal why everyone in Philly needs to stop voting straight-lever party lines.
As to all these levels, the CCP serves as the primary trial courts. In Felony Criminal, Family, and Civil matters in excess of $50,000, cases are heard by the judge on bench or by a jury overseen by the bench. It also hears de novo appeals in cases arising from the minor courts. To distinguish, the CC and the SC, as third tier statewide courts, are appellate courts. The CC is unique. PA is the only state in America to have one. Although it is third tier, it handles original civil action claims brought by state and those cases filed against it. The CC also hears appeals raised from final orders of certain state agencies. See PA Statute, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 761-764. The SC handles appeals of Civil, Family, and Criminal cases arising from the CCP.
These elected positions affect and effect our daily lives. Everyone understands the DA’s job is to protect the public from criminals. But many people have no idea what judges do throughout the different courts to do the same. By understanding their function, it becomes clear that Philly now has a rare opportunity to use Judge Dugan’s experiences and abilities as a MC Judge in the DA’s Office. For these reasons, everyone in Philly should make the DA’s Primary Race their first priority on May 20.
In PA, there are four judicial levels. They make up the Commonwealth’s Unified Judicial System. First, the Minor Courts, being the County Magisterial Courts (Civil & Criminal) and Municipal Courts (Civil, Criminal, and Special, Treatment). Second, the County Courts of Common Pleas (“CCP”) (being Civil, Family, and Criminal). Third, the statewide intermediate appellate courts, being the CC and the SC. Fourth, the State Supreme Court which is the ultimate state authority overseeing all of them. See Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, Pennsylvania Court Structure @ https://www.pmconline.org/resources/pennsylvania-court-structure (c. 2024) (retrieved April 21, 2025).
As to all these levels, the CCP serves as the primary trial courts. In Felony Criminal, Family, and Civil matters in excess of $50,000.00, cases are heard by the judge on bench or by a jury overseen by the bench. It also hears de novo appeals in cases arising from the minor courts. To distinguish, the CC and the SC, as third tier statewide courts, are appellate courts. The CC is unique. PA is the only state in America to have one. Although it is third tier, it handles original civil action claims brought by state and those cases filed against it. The CC also hears appeals raised from final orders of certain state agencies. See PA Statute, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 761-764. The SC handles appeals of Civil, Family, and Criminal cases arising from the CCP.
In this coming Primary, Philly has nine vacancies on its CCP. The Democrats have 10 candidates running for them. The GOP failed to nominate any candidates. The same for any of its local grass-root subgroups. As to the MC, there are 3 vacancies. The GOP, as well as any local grass-root subgroups, again failed to nominate anyone; whereas, the Democrats nominated 5 people.
Philly’s DA Office functions in pretty much all of these courts. In essence, the Office is almost always the second responder to crime and the victims, following the Police. If the Office decides to prosecute a case, it will begin in the minor courts. The presiding judge addresses whether the charges are reasonable; if serious enough, transfers them up to the CCP; conducts Preliminary Hearings; decides if bail should be set; and decides minor cases like: misdemeanors and civil small claims; landlord-tenant; and other problem-solving matters. This is what Judge Dugan did fairly and objectively for twelve years. Philly now needs him to apply those experiences as DA.
As to the noted judicial vacancies, there are excellent candidates in each race. For the CC, the GOP nominated attorney, Matthew Wolford, Esquire, while a local grass-root subgroup, opposed it and nominated attorney, Joshua Prince, Esquire. On the other side, the Democrats nominated Honorable Stella Tsai of the Philadelphia County CCP. She is running unopposed. For the SC vacancy, the GOP nominated Honorable President Judge, Anne Marie Wheatcraft, of the Chester County CCP. The same local grass-root subgroup, opposed and nominated attorney, Maria Battista, Esquire. The Democrats nominated Honorable Brendan P. Neuman of the Washington County CCP. He is running unopposed. For the CCP, the Democrats have 11 nominations for 9 vacant seats, and 6 nominations for 3 vacant seats in the MC. Sadly, neither the GOP, nor its local subgroup, produced any candidates. Interested in them? See the City Commissioners’ website at: https://vote.phila.gov/voting/candidates-for-office/. See also Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, Meet the Candidates, 2025 Judicial Election @ https://www.pmconline.org/current-judge-selection-process (providing more details).
There is no doubt that every judicial candidate is qualified. But the Republican nominations only beckon the questions: If the GOP can find and nominate Republicans to run for intermediate level judicial vacancies, why did they not find and nominate ones to run for DA , CCP, or MC, in their coming Primary? Are the members of the GOP not really Trump Supporters? So why are they not following President Trump’s direction? The same goes for all local GOP grass-root subgroups.
It may very well be because those same leaders of the GOP tend to mislead their local subgroups. For example, back in February, many grass-root GOP subgroups throughout the state were at odds with their GOP, while simultaneously relying on it for party-related advice. They were disputing over who should be the next GOP Chairman. It could also be because certain subgroups, in actuality, were assisting the Democrats and the RINOs in dividing the Party to promote a candidate favorable to them. These circumstances reveal two significant problems within the state and local GOP—leadership and guidance.
The coming Primary makes it more obvious. For the CC, the GOPs endorsed Mr. Wolford. But, after receiving GOP advice, certain local grass-root subgroups endorsed Mr. Prince. For Superior Court, the GOPs endorsed Judge Wheatcraft. But, after receiving GOP advice, those local grass-root subgroups endorsed Ms. Battista. In the DA’s Race, despite knowing that a candidate needs to win in the Primary, the GOPs failed to produce a candidate and near simultaneously proposed that all Republican Voters use the Primary to “nominate” Judge Dugan as a write-in candidate. They call this the suburban “Pike-Allegheny County Plan”. And with this, the local grass-root subgroups that endorsed Mr. Prince and Ms. Batista agree. Sounds like a really great and elaborate plan of the Democrats and RINOs to win everything in November but the DA’s Office. Remember, in Philly the Democrats straight-lever always wins. And with this Pike-Allegheny Plan, Judge Dugan will not be part of that straight lever.
It means nothing to be a Trump Supporter if you do not follow his direction. He has proven that he will work with Democrats if they will work with him. He even hired some from Philly to defend him in his last Impeachment Trial. So in this coming Primary, that direction is to win by promoting law enforcement, order, and public safety. That would be a vote for Judge Dugan as a Democrat over Mr. Krasner in the Primary. One thing is for sure, he may not like President Trump, but his Honor agrees with that direction. Whether he likes President Trump is immaterial, irrelevant, highly prejudicial, and only serves to confuse the 2025 Elections before the Primary, and well before the General in November. If allowed to do so, Mr. Krasner and George Soros win.
They know that as well.
Need help registering to vote? Have questions? Contact the Soul of America, LLC, by email at: Admin@TheSOA.ORG, or telephone at: 215-222-1732; andwww.TheSOA.ORG.
And may God always Bless and keep Philadelphia and America safe.
“The Pope is Dead, Long Live the Papacy,” reads the Crisis Magazine headline. Crisis describes itself as the nation’s most trusted source for authentic Roman Catholic perspectives on church and state, arts and culture, science and faith. The article scathingly assessed Pope Francis for his progressive views and hoped that the next pope would adhere to more traditional Catholic values. Among the many criticisms leveled at Pope Francis were that he permitted Holy Communion for unrepentant sinners, okayed same-sex couples’ marriages, put Islam on the same footing as Catholicism, and forged the Vatican-China agreement which created a new diocese in totalitarian China.
My disclaimer: I’m a baptized Roman Catholic, an altar boy who served faithfully for several years, and remained active in church activities until my late teens. Priests frequently visited our home, so often that I considered entering the priesthood. But I gradually drifted away, and nothing distanced me faster and farther than when the Boston Globe in 2002 exposed the sexual abuse cases, which would eventually be revealed to span the globe to include hundreds of pedophile priests, thousands of victims and billions in settlements. In Boston alone, 140 priests were implicated in sex abuse charges against 552 victims, with more than $85 million in payments. In retrospect, I’m lucky that I, as a former altar boy with priests welcomed as regular guests at our house, escaped the horrific crimes that my young peers suffered.
To the list of grievances that Crisis detailed, I’ll add one more. On immigration, the Roman Catholic Church is hypocritical. From parish priests all the way up to the pope, their message is consistent—accept more illegal immigrants. If the faithful turn their backs on their fellow man, they’re not true Christians but rather selfish xenophobes. The Roman Catholic clergy holds predictably hardline opinions on President Trump, his deportation policy and the White House’s determination to protect American sovereignty.
Take as an example the former San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy, a progressive like Pope Francis and recently transferred to Washington D.C. to become the district’s archbishop. Asked if he would meet President Donald Trump when he became a permanent D.C. resident, McElroy replied that, in the short term, he had no such plans. Then, McElroy added in an obvious criticism of U.S. immigration, “What does it mean in our society to be a compassionate society … and we believe in the human dignity of every person?” McElroy called the wall and deportations “incompatible with Catholic doctrine,” added that Pope Francis shares his “profound concern” on the U.S.-Mexico border which he considers a “wider cultural attack” on those fleeing persecution and violence. The Pope said a problem today is an effort to portray immigrants as criminals. “When you classify people as criminals,” McElroy said, you class them as “the other, as different,” and thus deserving of lesser treatment, a curious statement that does not distinguish between convicted criminals like MS-13 or Tren de Aragua gangsters and family reunification immigrants. Ironically Italy, without papal interference, has cut immigration arrivals via sea by 60%, cracked down on false asylum claims, and made deals with some African nations to try to block departures.
Moreover, McElroy has his own shameful past tied to the pedophile disgrace. Victims’ lawyers claim that McElroy has been involved in serial cover-ups on behalf of the perpetrators. In 2007, the San Diego Diocese settled lawsuits brought by 144 victims, but recently more than 450 claims have been made. The Diocese said more than 60% of the latest claims are for incidents that occurred more than 50 years ago. If true, five decades still does not erase the victims’ pain or nightmarish memories. In his statement last year, McElroy alleged that settling the remaining cases at the same rate they were settled in 2007 would cost the church upwards of $550 million. To avoid that high-payout, McElroy put the Archdiocese into bankruptcy last year as he sought to delay or deny compensation to more than 500 victims. Just hours before the first of about 150 cases were scheduled for trial, the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 protection. Now, alleged victims looking for a settlement with the church will find themselves in bankruptcy court.
McElroy scorned President Trump #45 and #47, but he said he had a lengthy call with former President Joe Biden that included a discussion about the border. The breathtaking hypocrisy starts here. McElroy once said that abortion “remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself.” Yet, McElroy was willing to interact with one of history’s most pro-abortion presidents and, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, women’s right-to-choose administrations. Biden signed an executive order defending women’s ability to cross state borders to obtain an abortion, and he admonished the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Pope’s duplicity reached a peak when earlier this year President Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor Pope Francis should have refused with the explanation that he could not accept the prestigious medal from a pro-abortion president. Because of his abortion advocacy, Biden should be a pariah to Pope Francis and McElroy.
Final thought: McElroy is foolish to avoid meeting President Trump. Differences are best resolved face-to-face, not using the media as his messenger. If McElroy would reach out to President Trump, he would assuredly be invited to the White House and the Cardinal could lay out his personal immigration vision. He may not sell it, but McElroy would have a chance to speak his mind to the U.S. president, a privilege few Americans ever get.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
For those of us who have read1984 by George Orwell and wonder when it turns from a speculative work of fiction to a documentary, that time may be arriving.
Certain Federal Agencies will no longer be able to accept driver licenses or state ID cards come May 7.
The ACLU says REAL IDs will“facilitate the tracking of data on individuals “and bring government into the very center of every citizen’s life.”
Some of the advantages of real ID are “standardized verification across states”, “prevention of identity theft, and “improved public safety”.
Negatives include” privacy concerns”, “cost of compliance”, “potential for discrimination”, and “impact on state autonomy.”
Twila Brase, co-founder and president of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, says REAL ID and digital ID may allow the federal government to “usurp state’s rights and assert unprecedented control over people’s lives.”
Another critic “James F. Holderman III, director of investigative research with Stand for Health Freedom, says “The widespread adoption of Digital IDs and digital wallets lays the foundation of a surveillance-based technocracy.”
Scholars Simone Brown, Vanessa Holden, and Elizabeth Stordeur point out that the beginnings of state id’s and registries “can be traced to efforts to spy on the lives and movements of Black people living in colonial and antebellum America”.
This was also covered in Simone Browme’s 2015 book Dark Matters.
Since we can use our passports for plane and train travel, the only downside to being real ID is our inability to participate in Federal trials. I can live with that.
On March 17, Major League Baseball celebrated its Opening Day but, alas, not on U.S. soil. In one of its innumerable money grabs, MLB’s first games that counted in the season’s standings have been played in Mexico, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, and San Juan. Opening Day was once considered an informal national holiday, hopefully a sunny, spring day to eat peanuts, popcorn and Cracker Jacks while watching great baseball. The uplifting sentiment doesn’t transfer when the first game is played in the Tokyo Dome with its offerings of nori bento, sukiyaki and cod roe potato salad. The National Pastime concept, as it was once treasured, is dead and buried.
I’m fed up with MLB’s PED abuse tolerance, a federal felony, its acceptance of shifty and dishonest PED testimony to Congress, another felony, and its winking to federal authorities about known human trafficking of Cubans to a safe third country where they establish a fake identity, elude immigration officials, and then proceed to the U.S. and an MLB roster spot, innumerable felonies. Eddie Dominguez, a decorated Boston Police Department officer, FBI special task force agent, and for six years a member of MLB’s Department of Investigations wrote that, “When it comes to Cuban players, human traffickers, and all that goes with it [crimes], MLB isn’t interested.”
Looking at the facts, some could conclude that MLB has the smacking of a criminal enterprise. At the least, MLB is profoundly anti-American worker as attested to by the 30 training camps in the Dominican Republic and zero in the U.S. as well as its rush to sign high-ticket Japanese players. Remember, playing baseball is a job complete with a contract. Maybe the Japanese are better than the American kid fresh off the Texas Longhorns campus, but the college youth is just as entertaining to watch. If you doubt me, tune in to the College World Series. Still, about 40 percent of Opening Day rosters featured foreign-born players from more than a dozen international countries.
Jose Abreau, a former Chicago White Sox MVP and now a free agent, testified before Congress that on the last leg of his journey from Cuba to Haiti to Miami, he ate his fake passport. Abreau knew that customs officials would instantly identify his phony documentation and arrest him. The Cuban national received immunity in exchange for his tell-all testimony. A series of crimes helped Abreau launch his career and paved the way to earning more than $150 million with $30 million more due from the when it released him.
My vigorous resistance to baseball’s corporatization is to have made the same vow that I did in 2023— to not watch either on television or in person or to listen to a single MLB inning. Abstinence was easy. I filled my baseball cravings with local high school and NCAA games, the Independent League, the Pony League World Series and minor leagues. I’m kicking myself that I weakened in 2024, a mistake I’ll try not to make again this year. One thing I can swear to on The Bible: I will not buy a MLB ticket or waste one thin dime on its flimsy, overpriced promotional junk. If I had more years to live, I would aspire to the New York Yankees’ World Series championship shortstop and NBC broadcaster Tony Kubek’s accomplishment. In 1994, Kubek walked away from his lucrative television contract—$1.2 million annually adjusted for inflation— and has not watched one second of baseball in the three decades since. Kubek: “I hate what the game’s become, the greed, the nastiness.” Kubek, now 89, could have added hypocritical. Gambling is everywhere in baseball. Get your bets down! But contemptible, hard-hearted Commissioner Rob Manfred granted no forgiveness to one of baseball’s greatest, hardest playing, and the all-time hits leader. For his misdemeanor gambling offense 35 years ago, Pete Rose went to his grave, banned from the Hall of Fame.
No decision in baseball’s 150-plus years has fundamentally altered it for the worse than MLB’s elimination of 42 minor league affiliates before the 2021 season. Pulling out of 25% of its minor league towns would reportedly cut costs on what baseball’s suits considered an anachronistic player development system. Bring on the computers and the Ivy League geeks who know how to extract the minutia about launch angles, exit velocities and other mumbo-jumbo that traditionalists could care less about. As former All-Star and World Series champion Jayson Worth said, “the super nerds…are ruining the game. Just put the laptops out there and let them play.”
Dinosaur fans like me are living in a whole new and diminished baseball world. New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explains: “Bottom line is this is big business … This should be run like a Wall Street boardroom where you pursue assets. No different than if you’re in the oil industry and you want to buy some oil rigs out in the gulf.” Forbes valued the Yankees’ franchise at $8.2 billion, the wealthiest among MLB teams.
Sadly, too few of my fellow baseball afficionados adhere to my admittedly hardline stance. Imagine my delight then when I came upon investigative journalist Will Bardenwerper’s new book “Homestand, Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America” who wrote eloquently about the consequences on communities who lose their minor league franchises. On MLB’s chopping block were working-class communities like Pulaski, Virginia; Elizabethton, Tennessee; Bluefield, West Virginia; Williamsport, Pennsylvania; and Batavia, New York. The decision by billionaire, globalist major league owners to extinguish community ball clubs, some of the few remaining places where people could still find happiness and connection, for affordable prices as they had for generations, merely to save the equivalent of one major league minimum salary per franchise, $760,000, struck Bardenwerper as emblematic of so much of what was wrong with today’s America. Stadium workers lose their jobs, local restaurants and coffee shops struggle to stay afloat, and senior citizens lose a hallowed ballpark gathering place. But since the communities and their workers are blue-collar, globalists like MLB’s principals don’t care enough about small-town America’s fate to reconsider the damning effect their money-grubbing strategy will have.
The minor leagues’ contraction accelerated its ownership evolution from local mom and pop owners to private equity financiers who have been circling the teams that have thus far escaped MLB’s scythe. In just a few years, one enterprise, Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), has gobbled up a staggering 41 of the remaining 120 clubs. DBH is, in other words, a baseball holding company—just like the conglomerates on the Big Board.
Bardenwerper’s book focuses on Batavia, New York and its’ Muckdogs. Batavia is a small city on the Rust Belt’s periphery but for over a century, Batavia had enjoyed something special, a minor league ball club. Locals treasured being part of a direct pipeline from their cozy ballparks to the grand cathedrals of the game like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. Just as importantly, they had a place to come together and enjoy the company of friends and neighbors, at affordable prices, on warm summer nights. Industries and factories may have left, but baseball did not.
Minor league professional baseball in Batavia dated back to the 1897 establishment of the Batavia Giants. The old railroad town had featured the New York-Penn League team almost continuously since its establishment in 1939. The Muckdogs, one of the teams disaffiliated in 2021, had been central to the life of the town for decades. For communities like Batavia, the local minor league ballpark meant cheerful shouts from kids playing catch in the shade of the bleachers, exuberant teenagers roaming about just as their parents had decades before, and grandparents bundled up to protect from the summer night’s chill.
While the value of such happiness couldn’t be neatly quantified on an MLB spreadsheet — perhaps because happiness like that cannot be measured and marketed — the inefficiencies within the system or, in the words of potentate Manfred, the “stuff around the edges” that could be “cleaned up” to create “some economic flexibility that we can use.”
The small city in western New York between Rochester and Buffalo, Batavia was once full of heavy industry but has always been surrounded by fertile farmland, the local “mucklands” that inspired the team’s name. Prosperous in the first half of the twentieth century, Batavia began to struggle economically when the New York State Thruway bypassed Main Street, leading to the gradual death of many local businesses, as passing travelers no longer even knew they were there. Urban renewal projects, in which many of the historic old buildings along Main Street were bulldozed to make room for modern, brutalist style constructions, ravaged the once stately downtown. This was followed by the exit of much of its remaining industry in the 1980s and 90s.
Minor league baseball in Batavia was special in part because of what had been, at least on paper, its very ordinariness. The Muckdogs didn’t enjoy the highest attendance of the clubs that had been eliminated, nor had it been on the cutting edge of wacky baseball promotions like the Savannah Bananas.
In the wake of MLB’s cuts, Batavia refused to surrender baseball, rallying behind the creation of a new Muckdogs club, made up of amateur players competing in a summer collegiate league. With an extraordinary effort and much sacrifice from many people, driven by a community that would not allow its baseball team to disappear, Batavia survived. Pleasant summer evenings at the ballpark once seemed timeless but MLB’s craven decision put them on the endangered list. Through the vigorous efforts of its vibrant community, the crack of the bat will still be heard during the summer of 2025. Muckdogs fans of all ages will gather on warm summer evenings to overlook the tenderly manicured Dwyer Stadium.
The elitest billionaires are a mighty foe. But their fat bankrolls are not big enough to prevent Batavia’s dedicated fans from watching their beloved Muckdogs.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com
Will Bardenwerper served in Iraq as an Airborne Ranger-qualified infantry officer and was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge and a Bronze Star. He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major publications. Before working in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he earned a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University.
Buy “Homestand, Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America” here. Mr. Bardenwerper’s other books are here.
Tennessee Bills Restricting Illegals In Schools Advance
By Joe Guzzardi
In Tennessee, controversial House Bill 793 and SB 836 that allow Tennessee school districts to deny enrollment to illegal alien students have taken another step toward becoming law. The bills would give permission to Tennessee schools to verify that, before enrolling them, children are citizens or have legal immigrant or visa status. Schools could then deny enrollment to the children who cannot prove their status or charge them tuition. The two versions differ in one key respect: the House bill makes it optional to check student immigration status. In the Senate version, immigration status checks are mandatory in Tennessee’s more than 1700 public schools and all public charter schools. The bills’ sponsors argued that the legislation is needed to both quantify the number of illegal alien students attending Tennessee schools and to protect the state’s limited financial resources. Opponents protested that the bill violates constitutional protections, particularly the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe, which guarantees access to public education regardless of immigration status.
On both sides of the aisle, passions ran high. House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons slammed the bill, and repeated clichés like, “Our country has a broken immigration system” and that the bill is about “punishing innocent children.” During the committee hearing, from the GOP side, Rep. Monty Fritts said, “We’re not talking about immigrants, we’re talking about illegals. There’s a distinct difference. There is no greater act of rebellion in these U.S. than illegally coming across that border.” The National Immigration Law Center issued a statement after the Senate vote that called the action a “shameful attempt to take away Tennessee children’s freedom.” The immigration advocacy firm is, it said, “prepared to defend the right to education for all alongside our partners in court.”
In June 2024, the Federation of American Immigration Reform wrote that under Plyler v. Doe, local schools are obligated to provide illegal alien children with a taxpayer-funded K-12 education. The cost is staggering. The nation’s price tag for educating illegal aliens’ children in 2022 was $70.8 billion. The data preceded the historic illegal immigrant surge that began in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office. Using Florida Rep. Aaron Bean’s conservative estimate of 500,000 new illegal aliens in U.S. public schools, the recent influx has added at least $9.7 billion in additional taxpayer costs. Bean chairs the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, and summed up Plyler v. Doe’s effect on the nation’s classrooms in two words: “Wreaking havoc.”
Parents’ frustration with the ever-expanding illegal aliens’ enrollment is understandable. Every teacher minute spent with a non-English speaking student, some of whom come in and out of the classroom depending on their parents’ work obligations, is one less moment spent with a citizen pupil. The Nation’s Report Card which showed sharp declines in reading and math scores for 9-year-olds, is attributable to, at least in part, the steady arrival of non-English speaking pupils.
Plyler v. Doe must take into consideration the nation’s current population levels. In 1982, the year SCOTUS handed down its ruling, the U.S. had 232 million residents including roughly sixteen million legal and illegal immigrants. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis showed that government’s January 2025 Current Population Survey (CPS) fixed the foreign-born or legal and illegal immigrant population at 53.3 million and 15.8 percent of the total U.S. population— both new record highs. The January CPS is the first government survey adjusted to better reflect the recent surge in illegal immigrants. Unlike border statistics, the CPS measures the number of immigrants in the country, which is what determines their impact on society including education. Without adjusting for those the survey missed, the estimated illegal immigrant population accounted for 5.4 million or two-thirds of the 8.3 million increase in the foreign-born population since January 2021. CIS’ best estimate is that 11.5 to 12.5 million legal and illegal immigrants settled in the country in the last four years.
Given the dramatic illegal immigration surge over the last 40 years, states’ request to reevaluate Plyler v. Doe is a modest proposal. States spend billions to educate Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students while citizen children get less of their teachers’ attention. In the meantime, while Plyler v. Doe review plays out in the courts, the federal government, which writes and approves immigration law, should pay for states’ illegal aliens’ education, an unfunded mandate. The bills’ sponsors have said they hope the legislation could serve as a test case for the Supreme Court to revisit its 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision. “If Plyler v. Doe were to stand, the federal government might finally step up and send the states the money to fund these students,” said a GOP representative. On LEP programs, Congress contributes barely 1 percent of the cost despite the federal requirement for states to educate the children of illegal aliens. Congress’ indifference to citizen children’s diluted education while it funds an ongoing illegal immigrant surge into already overcrowded classrooms represents yet another America last policy.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
Tennessee Bills Restricting Illegals In Schools Advance
Most weekday mornings at 10 we find ourselves listening to BBC Newshour on WHYY FM. In the car, we may go to Sirius Radio BBC. Many moons ago, we stopped following any American legacy media as we no longer believed in them.
He is not a BBC employee but is one of the journalists BBC uses when their employees cannot report from a site. After October 7, he said “No spilled blood of theirs is honorable”.
We doubt this quote is from the Koran, as he maintains.
In March, Tory opposition leader Kami Badenoch called for ‘wholesale reform’ of BBC Arabic after a report by Camera UK accused the corporation of ‘appalling anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias’.
Last August, over 200 British members of radio, TV, and film signed a letter saying “Jews don’t count” when it comes to racism at BBC.
The BBC Documentary in question Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone was pulled from I Player in February after it emerged that the child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of Agriculture.
Bringing Karl Marx into the discussion, commentator Hind al-David referred people to On The Jewish Question by Karl Marx, first published in 1844. We maintain that Karl Marx is always worth reading, though not as funny as Groucho.
Lord Mann, the UK’s independent Advisor on anti-semitism said that the BBC “refused anti-semitism training on more than one occasion”. He added “heads should roll…Let’s get rid of some at the top”
In Tennessee, controversial House Bill 793 and SB 836 that allow Tennessee school districts to deny enrollment to illegal alien students have taken another step toward becoming law. The bills would give permission to Tennessee schools to verify that, before enrolling them, children are citizens or have legal immigrant or visa status. Schools could then deny enrollment to the children who cannot prove their status or charge them tuition. The two versions differ in one key respect: the House bill makes it optional to check student immigration status. In the Senate version, immigration status checks are mandatory in Tennessee’s more than 1700 public schools and all public charter schools. The bills’ sponsors argued that the legislation is needed to both quantify the number of illegal alien students attending Tennessee schools and to protect the state’s limited financial resources. Opponents protested that the bill violates constitutional protections, particularly the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe, which guarantees access to public education regardless of immigration status.
On both sides of the aisle, passions ran high. House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons slammed the bill, and repeated clichés like, “Our country has a broken immigration system” and that the bill is about “punishing innocent children.” During the committee hearing, from the GOP side, Rep. Monty Fritts said, “We’re not talking about immigrants, we’re talking about illegals. There’s a distinct difference. There is no greater act of rebellion in these U.S. than illegally coming across that border.” The National Immigration Law Center issued a statement after the Senate vote that called the action a “shameful attempt to take away Tennessee children’s freedom.” The immigration advocacy firm is, it said, “prepared to defend the right to education for all alongside our partners in court.”
In June 2024, the Federation of American Immigration Reform wrote that under Plyler v. Doe, local schools are obligated to provide illegal alien children with a taxpayer-funded K-12 education. The cost is staggering. The nation’s price tag for educating illegal aliens’ children in 2022 was $70.8 billion. The data preceded the historic illegal immigrant surge that began in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office. Using Florida Rep. Aaron Bean’s conservative estimate of 500,000 new illegal aliens in U.S. public schools, the recent influx has added at least $9.7 billion in additional taxpayer costs. Bean chairs the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, and summed up Plyler v. Doe’s effect on the nation’s classrooms in two words: “Wreaking havoc.”
Parents’ frustration with the ever-expanding illegal aliens’ enrollment is understandable. Every teacher minute spent with a non-English speaking student, some of whom come in and out of the classroom depending on their parents’ work obligations, is one less moment spent with a citizen pupil. The Nation’s Report Card which showed sharp declines in reading and math scores for 9-year-olds, is attributable to, at least in part, the steady arrival of non-English speaking pupils.
Plyler v. Doe must take into consideration the nation’s current population levels. In 1982, the year SCOTUS handed down its ruling, the U.S. had 232 million residents including roughly sixteen million legal and illegal immigrants. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis showed that government’s January 2025 Current Population Survey (CPS) fixed the foreign-born or legal and illegal immigrant population at 53.3 million and 15.8 percent of the total U.S. population— both new record highs. The January CPS is the first government survey adjusted to better reflect the recent surge in illegal immigrants. Unlike border statistics, the CPS measures the number of immigrants in the country, which is what determines their impact on society including education. Without adjusting for those the survey missed, the estimated illegal immigrant population accounted for 5.4 million or two-thirds of the 8.3 million increase in the foreign-born population since January 2021. CIS’ best estimate is that 11.5 to 12.5 million legal and illegal immigrants settled in the country in the last four years.
Given the dramatic illegal immigration surge over the last 40 years, states’ request to reevaluate Plyler v. Doe is a modest proposal. States spend billions to educate Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students while citizen children get less of their teachers’ attention. In the meantime, while Plyler v. Doe review plays out in the courts, the federal government, which writes and approves immigration law, should pay for states’ illegal aliens’ education, an unfunded mandate. The bills’ sponsors have said they hope the legislation could serve as a test case for the Supreme Court to revisit its 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision. “If Plyler v. Doe were to stand, the federal government might finally step up and send the states the money to fund these students,” said a GOP representative. On LEP programs, Congress contributes barely 1 percent of the cost despite the federal requirement for states to educate the children of illegal aliens. Congress’ indifference to citizen children’s diluted education while it funds an ongoing illegal immigrant surge into already overcrowded classrooms represents yet another America last policy.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
Plyler v Doe Needs ReconsiderationPlyler v Doe Needs Reconsideration
