Play ball! Once upon a time, that call-out from a baseball umpire was the signal for a baseball game to begin. And for that matter, whether that game was being played by major league teams, minor league teams, college baseball games, or Little League teams. But now? Here’s a headline from Fox News Sports: “Pro baseball team forfeits Pride Night game after players refuse to wear themed jerseys, organization says,” with the subtitle, “The Atlantic League team called the players’ decision ‘completely inconsistent with our vision’ in a scathing statement.” The Fox story reports: A professional baseball team in Pennsylvania will be forfeiting a game on Thursday that was scheduled to be the team’s Pride Night after players refused to wear LGBTQ-themed jerseys, the team announced. The York Revolution of the Atlantic League, the same league where Trevor Bauer currently plays, said the decision “was not reached lightly” in announcing the forfeit to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs on Wednesday. Then came this kicker in the story. It said: “The team was not afraid to throw its players under the bus in a rather scathing statement, saying it was ‘deeply troubled and profoundly disappointed by the decisions of these few players.’” And the “rather scathing statement” from the ball club? It reads in part: (June 17, 2026 – York, Pa.): It is with great disappointment and that the York Revolution have issued important changes to our 11th Annual Pride Night on Thursday, June 18th. Most significantly, the scheduled game between York and Southern Maryland will not be played and Pride will still be hosted as a free admission event. Everyone’s tickets for the game on Thursday will be treated as a rainout that can be redeemed for any future game. This decision was not reached lightly. Unfortunately, several of our players have refused to wear the scheduled Pride Night jersey and the club decided that hosting the event is more important than forcing players to wear jerseys they are not comfortable with and playing the game. As a result, and out of respect for the Pride Community and the York community as a whole, the York Revolution has decided that the game on Thursday, June 18 will be forfeited and that Pride Night will continue on as the feature element of the evening at WellSpan Park.” There’s more, but of course. In fact, there is now this from USA Today: “MLB Warns Giants Pitchers Who Wore Bible Verses on Caps During ‘Pride Night.’” Got that? It’s OK to celebrate “Pride Night,” but not OK to celebrate a Bible verse on a hat. But the essence here, which one would have to be blind to miss, is that the team owners of the York Revolution, not to mention those who run the Atlantic League, have decided they are not really about baseball at all but view themselves instead as social activists supporting the latest far-left cause that catches their political fancy. And doing this by owning or running a minor league baseball team that forces players to wear jerseys that make a political statement. Note well the selectivity of this. The cause selected was “Pride Night,” after the gay rights cause, which, in this case, had players wearing  “LGBTQ-themed jerseys.” Think about that. There is no evidence on the York Revolution website or anywhere else in the Atlantic League that the team wears jerseys celebrating, say, Easter. Or Christmas. Or other celebrations, even if not appearing in the summer season. Holidays in various ports of American culture like, say, St. Patrick’s Day, Flag Day, the Jewish festival of Chanukah, Black Friday, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Earth Day, Juneteenth Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo and… so on and so on. If the Atlantic League and the York Revolution made the time to set up T-shirts to celebrate all of those holidays and doubtless others, it’s safe to say all the team owners would succeed in doing is making T-shirt vendors wealthy. The central fact here is that the owners of the York Revolution and the Atlantic League have gone out of their way to make much of supporting a political cause generally seen as a cause of the far left, something proven vividly by the fact that some team members “refused to wear LGBTQ-themed jerseys.” In short? This isn’t rocket science. Baseball-loving Americans go to baseball games to — shocker! — watch a baseball game. Not to get hassled about their politics, whatever those politics may be. For that matter, it is surely safe to say that the same applies to fans of other sports as well. They aren’t going to see the Philadelphia Eagles or Pittsburgh Steelers play because they want to get into a hot and heavy argument about the war in Iran, or abortion, or who should be the next president. Apparently, this basic fact in sports is well over the heads of those who run the York Revolution and the Atlantic League. But as noted at the beginning of this article, it has not gone over the heads of some of the players of the York Revolution. Good for them. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: Trump — and America’s — Birthday Party Is Graham Platner the Democrats’ New Alger Hiss? Trump Is Right on Rigged Elections Image licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.