Yovani Gallardo is firm. Even if he's fortunate enough to make the All-Star team again next summer, he'll skip it."If the game is in Arizona

ANAHEIM, Calif. Yovani Gallardo is firm. Even if he’s fortunate enough to make the All-Star team again next summer, he’ll skip it.”If the game is in Arizona, I will totally boycott,” the Milwaukee Brewers pitcher said Monday.A year before Phoenix is set to host baseball’s big event, the state’s new immigration law kept drawing the attention of major leaguers.Kansas City reliever Joakim Soria, who leads the majors with 25 saves, said he would support a Latino protest and stay away. Detroit closer Jose Valverde can see himself steering clear, too.”It’s a really delicate issue,” said Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista, who leads the majors with 24 home runs. “Hopefully, there are some changes in the law before then. We have to back up our Latin communities.”

“If I do get chosen, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.About three dozen protesters held signs Monday one block from the hotel where Major League Baseball held its welcoming news conferences. The demonstrators said they had over 100,000 petitions asking commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 All-Star game out of Arizona.Another protest was planned outside Angel Stadium before Tuesday night’s game.

Selig has not spoken directly on the subject. Asked in May about calls to shift next year’s game, he gave a defense of baseball’s minority hiring record. Selig did not take questions at Monday’s All-Star introductory event.Arizona’s much-debated measure takes effect July 29. The statute requires police, while enforcing other laws, to ask about a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.”They could stop me and ask to see my papers,” Soria said. “I have to stand with my Latin community on this.”

The Mexican-born Gallardo said he’s talked with Soria and San Diego’s All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez about the Arizona law.”We don’t agree with it,” Gallardo said. St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols said he opposed the law and Valverde called it “dumb.”

Several All-Stars avoided the topic.”That’s a political thing,” New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano said. “I don’t have anything to say about it. They already made a decision. If I say anything it’s not going to make any difference.””Wrong guy,” teammate Alex Rodriguez said, pointing to other players in the interview room.

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal said he would wait for guidance from the players’ union.”The game is going on at this point, regardless,” said former All-Star Tony Clark, who played for Arizona last season and now works for the union. “Whatever decision an individual player makes, they would have the full support of the union.”The union has already condemned the law and said that if it is not repealed or modified additional steps would be considered.

Oakland closer Andrew Bailey, whose team holds spring training in Phoenix, said his sport was caught in a crossfire.”The Arizona Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball had nothing to do with making the Arizona immigration laws,” he said. “I know there are discrepancies. Hopefully, things can get resolved.”(AP) —

Arizona's new immigration law could cost the Phoenix area a whopping $90 million in lost revenue

Backlash from Arizona’s new immigration law could cost the Phoenix area a whopping $90 million in lost revenue.Four major events have been canceled as calls for a boycott grow louder in protest of a strict law that lets police ask people for their citizenship papers, city officials toldThe Arizona Republic newspaper.

“We have an image and public relations problem of what might be unprecedented proportions,” said deputy city managerDavid Krietor.He’s keeping an eye on 19 events at city-run venues, including the Phoenix Convention Center and the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, that bring in about $90 million.

Four event sponsors have already canceled, including one scheduled for 2015, and several others have expressed concern over the legislation.Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek-lettered frat in the country, planned to hold its annual convention in July. Instead the expected 5,000 attendees will now head to Las Vegas.Also at risk is the 2011 All-Star Game. Several politicians and even a few players are urging Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to change the venue in protest.

Two members of Congress are now calling for Major League Baseball to either move the All-Star game out of Phoenix, or for players to boycott the game.Nearly 30% of major-league players were born outside the United States, according to MLB. But Selig brushed off the idea in a recent interview with Phoenix’s 12 News.”We’re a social institution and I’ll rest my case on the fact that baseball has been remarkably socially active over the last 50 years,” he said.

The Diamondbacks dropped a 6-1 decision to the Brewers in front 25,358 at Chase Field

Ian Kennedy’s aggressiveness on the mound, with the ability to throw four pitches effectively, earns him high marks with manager A.J. Hinch.Kennedy, called upon to restore a bit of order after an embarrassing loss the night before, did not get the reward he pitched well enough to earn Sunday. The Diamondbacks dropped a 6-1 decision to the Brewers in front 25,358 at Chase Field.

Kennedy (2-2) threw seven innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs and struck out five. He worked out of a tight spot, as well, to keep the Diamondbacks in the game.A three-run home run in the eighth inning by Casey McGehee off reliever Esmerling Vasquez – followed by a solo blast from Gregg Zaun – put the game away for the Brewers.

The game took a key wrong turn for the Diamondbacks in the bottom of the seventh when they were trailing 2-1.Chris Young led off with a single, and Stephen Drew doubled him to third – but he was caught in no-man’s land as Young broke for home, and he was out in a rundown while Young went back to third.

Catcher Chris Snyder then drew a walk. Rusty Ryal pinch-hit for Kennedy, popping out to first, leaving it to Kelly Johnson, facing new Brewers pitcher Mitch Stetter, who was called up Saturday from the minors. He ended the threat by getting Johnson to fly to center.

The Diamondbacks had managed only two infield hits off Narveson through five innings, and they had a chance to do some damage in the bottom of the sixth. Without the benefit of a hit, the Diamondbacks had runners on first and third with two out, and Adam LaRoche delivered a single to right field to cut the Brewers’ lead to a run.At that point, Narveson was lifted in favor of reliever Todd Coffey, who got Mark Reynolds to fly out to center. Narveson struck out eight in his 5 2/3 innings of work, allowing three hits and walking two.

Kennedy worked out of a big jam in the top of the inning.He allowed a leadoff single to Craig Counsell, who advanced to third on a hit-and-run play with Ryan Braun. After Prince Fielder, struck out swinging, McGehee was walked intentionally to load the bases for catcher Gregg Zaun, who worked the count to 3-0. He swung at the next pitch and popped out to Snyder.

Jody Gerut, who hit for the cycle in the Brewers’ 17-3 win Saturday night, grounded out to first baseman Adam LaRoche to end the inning.

Narveson also was a pest at the plate. After a two-out triple off the center field wall by Corey Hart, he drilled a sharp single to right, giving the Brewers a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning as he collected his first RBI of the season.Fielder led off the second with his fourth home run of the season to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.

Jody Gerut hit for the cycle and Ryan Braun bashed a three-run homer

PHOENIX, May 9  Jody Gerut hit for the cycle and Ryan Braun bashed a three-run homer Saturday, sparking the Milwaukee Brewers’ 17-3 rout of Arizona.Gerut drove in four runs en route to becoming the sixth Brewer to get the cycle and the first since Chad Moeller did it for Milwaukee on April 27, 2004.Rickie Weeks and Casey McGehee each got three hits for the Brewers, who won for the fourth time in five games and downed the Diamondbacks for the for the sixth straight time.

Randy Wolf (3-2) went six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five to get the win. He also drove in a run.Arizona’s highlight came from Mark Reynolds, who socked his 99th career homer and drove in two in the lop-sided loss.(UPI)

Cole Gillespie hits first major league home run Friday

Former Oregon State outfielder Cole Gillespie is off to a hot start in his first stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks since being called up on April 21.In ten games, Gillespie is batting .300 with five doubles and on Friday night hit his first major league home run during a 3-2 loss to Milwaukee in Arizona.The solo blast to right field came in the third inning off starter Yovani Gallardo and temporarily tied the game.

According to the Arizona Republic, Gillespie offered an autographed baseball to the fan who caught his home run ball.”It’s a pretty special memento, no doubt,” he said.Gillespie, out of West Linn High School, was batting .283 with one home run in 10 games with the Triple A Reno Aces before being called up.

He began last season with the Triple A Nashville Sounds (Milwaukee). During spring training he underwent elbow injury and wound up hitting .242, with seven homers and 27 RBIs before being traded to Arizona in July for infielder Felix Lopez.In 42 games for Reno last year, Gillespie batted .304 with five home runs and 27 RBIs.

Major League Baseball to take any kind of strong stance on Arizona's controversial new immigration law

Don’t expect Major League Baseball to take any kind of strong stance on Arizona’s controversial new immigration law  if baseball ever gets around to commenting on it at all.Commissioner Bud Selig can’t go around shaking his fist and making threats to take the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix, for instance, when he’s got his other hand in Arizonans’ pockets fishing for money for the Cubs’ new spring-training facility.

Selig may have no choice but to bite his lip and remain conspicuously silent on the subject.But standing idly by while others fight the battle on this wrong-headed law is reprehensible for an industry with so much potentially at stake, an industry more deeply invested in Arizona than any other professional sports league and with more Spanish-speaking, foreign-born players than any other league — not even counting the hundreds of minor-leaguers who fit that description.The Cubs alone have 13 players on their 40-man roster who were born in Latin American countries and another 104 among the minor-leaguers listed in the media guide.The battleground already reached the Cubs’ doorstep last weekend when protesters of the law demonstrated outside Wrigley Field when the Cubs played the Arizona Diamondbacks.The law requires police to question, with reasonable cause, people they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Even proponents all but admit the law is unnecessary considering it mirrors existing federal laws, which seems to make its only purpose to create enough of an onus and pressure on local cops to assure heavier doses of racial profiling and harassment (requisite anti-discrimination, window-dressing language aside).President Obama, lawmakers from other parts of the country and the major-league players union are among those who publicly oppose the law, which is being challenged in the courts.

Plenty of strong opinions

Within baseball, players such as San Diego Padres star Adrian Gonzalez, who was born in San Diego and spent some of his childhood in Tijuana, have been especially vocal in their opposition. Gonzalez called the law ”immoral” and called for baseball to boycott Arizona spring training if the law still is on the books next February.He and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen both have said they’d boycott the 2011 All-Star game if selected to participate.Some of the Cubs’ Latin players were less strident or unwilling to talk publicly about it.

But Venezuelan-born pitcher Carlos Silva, who now lives in Minnesota, said he has thought a lot about how it might impact him and other Latin players. ”It’s kind of tough for us,” he said, ”especially for me — I look like a Mexican. I’m going to get stopped a lot of times.”He said he joked with his wife that she shouldn’t be surprised if he calls her from Mexico.This isn’t baseball’s law. And many say it’s not baseball’s place to get involved. But it could become baseball’s problem.

Said former Cub Cesar Izturis: ”Now they’re going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they’re going to come out on the street. What if you’re walking on the street with your family and kids? They’re going to go after you.”

Proponents of the law have said those kinds of fears are unfounded. And maybe they’re right.But those kinds of fears are real. And the first time this new law produces a publicized wrongful detention of a citizen, they’re going to grow.And there’s enough history of bigotry and profiling in this country to justify the fears.

In addition, the Phoenix and Maricopa County authorities have a reputation for being among the more aggressive in the West, if not the U.S.Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who already has been heavily criticized for his aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, is regionally famous for his road-side chain gangs of county inmates and calls himself ”America’s toughest sheriff.”This is the place where drunk drivers get sentenced to a tent city. And a place where police practice an unwritten policy of DUI-stop quotas.

A friend from Chicago who hasn’t had a drink in more than 10 years tells the story of being pulled over one night during spring training for ”weaving in your lane.” After eventually convincing the cop he was sober and persistently challenging the notion he’d done anything worthy of being stopped, the cop finally admitted he was required to stop a certain number of drivers every shift.Bottom line: It’s an MLB issue How does Bud Selig think this new immigration law is going to play out in the hands of these local authorities? And why wouldn’t guys like Silva or Izturis be concerned?

It’s not about whether they’re legal or if they’ll have documents to prove it. It’s about the potential for being singled out because of what they look or sound like, for being hassled disproportionately, for being afforded a different set of civil rights.For instance, does anybody think Canadian Ryan Dempster will face the same scrutiny?While Selig may be fumbling to keep his eyes, ears and mouth covered while keeping one hand free to dig for Arizona taxpayer money, believe this: This law is a baseball issue.Possibly baseball’s problem.And the longer he pretends it doesn’t concern him, the worse he and the game look.

After immigration law and now Arizona will faces boycott calls

PHOENIX Civil rights leaders are urging organizations to cancel their conventions in Arizona. Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks are encountering protesters on the road. And the AriZona iced tea company wants everyone to know that its drinks are made in New York.Arizona is facing a backlash over its new law cracking on illegal immigrants, with opponents pushing for a tourism boycott like the one that was used to punish the state 20 years ago over its refusal to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with a holiday.”The goal is to as quickly as possible bring to a shocking stop the economy of Arizona,” former state Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez said Friday as a coalition called Boycott Arizona announced its formation.

The outcry has grown steadily in the week since Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest law against illegal immigration. The measure makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally, and directs local police to question people about their immigration status and demand to see their documents if there is reason to suspect they are illegal.Many in Arizona support the law amid growing anger over the federal government’s failure to secure the border. The state has become a major gateway for drug smuggling and human trafficking from Mexico.

Critics say the law will lead to racial profiling and other abuses, and they are giving Arizona a public relations beating over the issue.Groups have called on people not to fly Tempe-based US Airways, rent trucks from Phoenix-based U-Haul or go to Suns and Diamondbacks games. A New York congressman and others are urging major league baseball to move the 2011 All Star Game out of Phoenix.

The Major League Baseball players’ union opposes the new law, issuing a statement Friday expressing concern it could have a negative impact on hundreds of ballplayers and their families. The union will consider taking “additional steps” if the law goes into effect this summer.The cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles have talked of cutting off deals with the state and its businesses.Phoenix is vying for the 2012 Republican National Convention, and at least one mayor has called on political leaders to choose a different city.

About 40 immigrant rights activists gathered outside Wrigley Field in Chicago on Thursday, chanting, “Boycott Arizona” as the Diamondbacks opened a series against the Cubs. A small plane pulling a banner criticizing the law circled the stadium.Civil rights leaders from the Rev. Al Sharpton to Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa have pushed for a boycott.Turning the tables on the state, the Mexican government warned citizens to use extreme caution when visiting Arizona.With all things Arizona now under attack, the AriZona Beverage Co. evidently feared business would suffer. The iced tea company tweeted: “AriZona is and always has been a NY based company! (BORN IN BKLYN ’92)”

Fifteen million people visit Arizona each year for vacations, conventions and sporting events such as the Fiesta Bowl, pro golf tournaments and baseball spring training. The state tourism office estimated that conventions and other travel and tourist spending in Arizona brought in $18.5 billion in 2008.Some companies said the call for a boycott has had no noticeable effect, although Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he has heard of six events being canceled. One of the groups to pull out is the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which canceled a fall conference to be held at a Scottsdale resort.

“We knew that the governor had this bill sitting on her desk,” spokesman George Tzamaras said. “Literally, minutes after she signed it the board of governors convened a conference call, and by an almost unanimous vote the association decided to pull that meeting.”The prospect of a boycott unnerves Arizona tourism officials.”We’re worried about keeping every convention and meeting here in Phoenix. It’s an economic driver here in the state; it provides hundreds of thousands of jobs and a good economic boost to the state,” said Doug MacKenzie, spokesman for the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau.MacKenzie said he has heard of five or six event cancellations, adding, “I think it’s misguided to bring the tourism industry into the crosshairs of this political issue.”

In 1990, Arizona voters’ rejection of a King holiday set off a cascade of cancellations of conventions and other events. The NFL pulled the 1993 Super Bowl from the Phoenix suburb of Tempe. The NBA told the Phoenix Suns not to bother putting in a bid for the All-Star game.By the time voters finally passed a holiday bill two years later, estimates of lost convention business in the Phoenix area alone topped $190 million.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who surprised many by reversing course and supporting the new immigration law, said the latest furor and the King dustup are completely different.”One was about honoring a civil rights hero who a majority of Americans held in extremely high esteem,” he said. “The other is about an issue of national security and the security of our citizens, where we have broken borders and are literally overwhelmed with both human smuggling and drugs.”

The governor’s spokesman, Paul Senseman, said boycotts are a foolish response when opponents can mount a legal challenge or try to repeal the law in a referendum.”A boycott is not only the least effective but the most discriminatory and harmful method to utilize when there are other methods in our democratic process that are readily available,” he said.(AP)

PHOENIX,Lawsuits challenge new Arizona immigration law

PHOENIX  Anger mounted Thursday over an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigration as a police officer filed one of the first lawsuits challenging the law and activists gathered outside an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, chanting “Boycott Arizona.”The lawsuit from 15-year Tucson police veteran Martin Escobar is one of two filed Thursday, less than a week after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law that’s sparked fears it will lead to racial profiling despite the governor’s vow that officers will be properly trained.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal government may challenge the law, which requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.Escobar, an overnight patrol officer in a heavily Latino area of Tucson, argues there’s no way for officers to confirm people’s immigration status without impeding investigations, and that the new law violates numerous constitutional rights.

Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Fabian Pacheco said Escobar is acting on his own, not on behalf of the department.The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders also filed a lawsuit Thursday, and is seeking an injunction preventing authorities from enforcing the law. The group argues federal law pre-empts state regulation of national borders, and that Arizona’s law violates due process rights by letting police detain suspected illegal immigrants before they’re convicted.

“Mexican-Americans are not going to take this lying down,” singer Linda Ronstadt, a Tucson native, said at a state Capitol news conference on another lawsuit planned by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Immigration Law Center.At least three Arizona cities  Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson are considering legal action to block the law. In Flagstaff, police are investigating a threatening e-mail sent to members of the city council over their opposition to the law. The author said council members should be “arrested, tried in court, found guilty of treason and hanged from the nearest tree!”

About 40 immigrant rights activists gathered outside Wrigley Field in Chicago Thursday as the Cubs open a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. A small plane toting a banner criticizing the law circled the stadium, and activist George Lieu said they’ve sent a letter to Cubs management asking them to stop holding spring training in Arizona.A Cubs spokesman declined to comment. Arizona manager A.J. Hinch says the team is there to play baseball.

On Wednesday, a group filed papers to launch a referendum drive that could put the law on hold until 2012, when voters could decide whether it is repealed.The legislation’s chief sponsor, Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said he has no doubt voters will support the new law at the ballot box, which would then protect it from repeal by the Legislature. In Arizona, measures approved by voters can only be repealed at the ballot box.

Meanwhile, the effect of the law continued to ripple beyond Arizona.A group of conservative state lawmakers in Oklahoma are considering pushing a bill similar to Arizona’s. In Texas, Rep. Debbie Riddle, a Republican, said she will introduce a measure similar to the Arizona law in the January legislative session. And Republicans running for governor in Colorado and Minnesota expressed support for the crackdown. “I’d do something very similar” if elected,” Former Rep. Scott McInnis, told KHOW-AM radio in Denver.

Denver Public Schools is banning work-related travel to Arizona. Even though school employees are in the country legally, DPS spokesman Kristy Armstrong said officials don’t want them to be “subjected to that kind of scrutiny and search.Retired South African archbishop Desmond Tutu also chimed in, saying he supports the idea of a boycott of Arizona businesses, according to a letter he wrote that was posted Wednesday onTheCommunity.com, a website for Nobel peace laureates that promotes peace and human rights.

“I recognize that Arizona has become a widening entry point for illegal immigration from the South … but a solution that degrades innocent people, or that makes anyone with broken English a suspect, is not a solution,” Tutu saidColombian singer Shakira planned to visit Phoenix on Thursday to meet with the city’s police chief and mayor over her concerns that the law would lead to racial profiling.(Ap)

Arizona right-hander Kris Benson was pulled from Wednesday's game against the Colorado Rockies after two innings because of soreness in his pitching shoulder

DENVER Arizona right-hander Kris Benson was pulled from Wednesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies after two innings because of soreness in his pitching shoulder.Benson allowed four runs and four hits in the abbreviated start, his third of the season for the Rockies. He began the year at Triple-A Reno after signing a minor league free agent deal with the Diamondbacks in March.

The Diamondbacks are Benson’s third team in the last three seasons. He missed all of the 2007 season after undergoing rotator cuff surgery and a procedure on his elbow in the spring of that year while with the Baltimore Orioles.With the Texas Rangers last year, he split time between the rotation and the bullpen in between a stint on the disabled list for right elbow tendinitis.(AP)

CHICAGO Football is coming back to Wrigley Field.

Northwestern and Illinois will play a Big Ten game at the storied baseball park on Nov. 20. The Chicago Cubs and Northwestern have scheduled a news conference for Friday to announce the details.Wrigley Field, built in 1914 and the second-oldest baseball venue in the major leagues, has hosted plenty of football – just not in a while.Wrigley was home to the Chicago Bears from 1921-1970. On New Year’s Day 2009, it was also the site of the NHL’s Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.(AP)