Former Yankee David Wells on Thursday criticized Major League Baseball’s decision to move the game from the Atlanta stars, in protest of the new electoral reform bill led by the Republican Party of Georgia.
The two-time World Series champion pitcher told Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that the move by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s has made him stop watching games.
“I’ve had a lot of relationships with Rob Manfred in my playing days and I’ve never liked the guy,” Wells said during the interview.
“For me, how do you change games, dynamics, and evil in a city like Atlanta that really needs some revenue in this situation?” said the left-handed pitcher on the show. “I mean Atlanta is a great place to play baseball.”
The controversial measure in March tightened restrictions on absentee voting and allowed the state to take control of local electoral systems.
Democrats saw the bill as a measure to suppress minority votes in Georgia after the historically red state turned blue for the 2020 federal contests. Republicans say the reforms improve electoral integrity.
MLB and the Players Association moved the 2021 summer classic out of state after critics called on companies doing business in Georgia to protest the law.
Wells said that decision has convinced him to throw in the towel in the pastime of the United States.
“I don’t watch baseball anymore, Brian,” he told the radio show. “I refuse to see it because of that. I don’t want any part of it, and that was my life … For me not wanting to go to a baseball game or watch it kills me because I can’t stand this kind of crap and you do not admit it “.
Wells, who once pitched a perfect game for the Fire Department while he was “half drunk,” told Kilmeade he would make a protest of his own if he still played.
“If I were playing right now, Brian, I wouldn’t wear this Nike,” Wells said, about the clothing company’s deal with national anthem Colin Kaepernick.
“It simply came to our notice then. I would cut a hole in my shirt and I wouldn’t have Nike on anything, and if they suspended me, so be it. “
“Is it like that [Kneeling for the national anthem is] not respecting our flag is respecting our military and I do not defend it, ”said Wells.