By Dave D’Alessandro/Star-Ledger Columnist The Star-Ledger

It is more than just another gaudy annual show of American tradition and pageantry and flag-fondling, this 2011 All-Star Game. It is a wake-up call, one summoning our better angels, and Roberto Clemente Jr. is heartbroken that nobody is listening.

The fact that it is being held in the one state that decided to institutionalize one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination is an insult to his father’s memory, to every Latino. How could so many of us forget what it was like before civil rights, when inequality was set in law and bigotry was routine, ruthless and legitimized by some of our most prestigious institutions?

“Back then, African-Americans couldn’t walk into some restaurants to get a meal — white teammates would bring food out to the bus for them,” Clemente recalled, from lessons passed to him by his father. “And my dad would say, ‘If anyone accepts food from this place, you’re going to have to deal with me.’

“It’s the same thing with baseball in Arizona. I believe he would tell his teammates: ‘When we step between the lines, we’re a team. But if you so much as step foot in Arizona, we’re going to have a serious problem.’ I’m sure of it.”

Where have you gone, Roberto Clemente?

It’s a question we asked of the great man’s son the other day, when it became clear that nothing substantial would come of the proposed boycott by Latino players in response to Arizona’s radical immigration law. A year ago, there was real momentum. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) put his weight behind it, but now we can’t even get him on the phone. The players union issued a very strong statement denouncing the law, but it has since gone mute.
Adrian Gonzalez called it “immoral” and a “violation of human rights,” but he’s playing ball Tuesday night.

So today, we wonder what the great Clemente would say.

Clemente — who changed American attitudes about what the Latino player was all about, what a civil rights champion should be like, and how a real man conducted himself in times that tried men’s souls.

Clemente — who once characterized himself like this: “I am Puerto Rican, I am black and I am between the walls.”

“He would have been very outspoken about it, and I’m certain he wouldn’t enter the state of Arizona until the law was repealed,” his son said. “Now, why is the game there? I don’t have any idea. Why don’t we have a unifying voice for the Latino players? I don’t know that, either. We just don’t have a leader who can get the players to stand up for themselves now.”

By now, everyone knows how we got here. It was 15 months ago that Gov. Jan Brewer signed Arizona Senate Bill 1070, one that effectively permits racial profiling and allows law enforcement in her state to demand immigration papers from anyone they deem “reasonably” suspicious.

In other words, someone with dark skin and a Spanish accent.

Which describes one-third of the men in the major leagues today, and 21 of the 70 men who will be in uniform Tuesday night.

The law represents ethnic scapegoating on an absurd scale, pushed by a governor who has turned into a demented fabulist — once even inventing stories (denied by law enforcement) about the Arizona desert being littered with headless bodies because of the anarchy Those Illegals had created.

Her bill has been stalled by legal challenges — Brewer will appeal to the Supreme Court to restore every provision today, in fact — but calls for boycotts have been ongoing since she first signed SB-1070.

Of course immigration needs reform. Everybody knows that. But we don’t need laws that tear at the fabric of the values we cherish. And we don’t need a ruthless campaign to demonize Latinos, or accept Rush Limbaugh’s blather about how the injunction was restricting Arizona’s right to “try to defend itself from an invasion.”

There will be an invasion this week from guys named Rodriguez and Bautista and Avila and Ortiz and Cabrera.

And one other name: Vera Clemente. Roberto’s widow is a “baseball ambassador,” and she will attend against her son’s wishes.

“Obviously, she wanted the game elsewhere, but she feels obligated to be there, and she doesn’t want to make any noise,” Roberto Jr. said. “And she knows I’m completely against it.”

Imagine the statement you would make if you didn’t go, her son told her. Let her be, we say. This is a fight for players, and they apparently believe they have a lot more to lose than a 70-year-old woman from Carolina, P.R.

So they will remain silent, but they should know this about Clemente: He never failed to maintain his proud Latino identity when he dominated the American pastime, and when he gave his life for a cause — the aid of an earthquake-ravaged Managua — he was canonized for it. Guys like Sammy Sosa and Carlos Delgado wore No. 21 for a reason.

And Clemente had a mantra: “If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth,” he said a year before his death.

This is one of those things. Just like it was for the NFL, when it moved the Super Bowl out of Arizona after the state refused to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

“If you’re against something, you stand up. You declare yourself as a human being,” Roberto Clemente Jr. said, an edge cutting through his usually smooth broadcaster’s voice. “And most of them realize what this law represents and are upset about it.”

The legend’s son exhaled deeply into the telephone.

“I know my dad would say we’ve really blown an opportunity here,” he said.

On Tuesday, Arizona will once again be in the national and international spotlight as it hosts the 82nd Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Chase Field.

It’s a marvelous time to showcase our state’s natural beauty and abundant sunshine, as well as the diverse people who helped build this state.

It’s also a time when we can show the nation and the world that not everything is right in our great state, soon to be 100 years old.

By: Erisa Nakano

PHOENIX – A Valley man wanted his presence known Sunday afternoon in downtown Phoenix as he protested Senate Bill 1070 near the All-Star Game festivities.

Activist Margarito Blanco stood outside Chase Field in hopes of handing out dozens of ribbons and information to get baseball fans to know more about the state’s immigration battle and his campaign against SB 1070.

“Those [are] the people we’re trying to reach, out of town people, people who are not aware of the situation in Arizona so that they become aware,” Blanco said.

Blanco protested SB 1070 in a high-traffic area Sunday afternoon as thousands of baseball fans headed to Chase Field, but that doesn’t mean everyone listened.

“I don’t think it’s a really good thing right now. It’s all about baseball,” said one fan walking to Chase Field.

“Baseball and politics don’t go,” said another.

But Blanco said it’s all worth the effort if he could just reach one person or even an influential baseball player on the field.

“I’m here to let baseball fans know that we are still fighting SB 1070,” Blanco said.

He said he will be back out to the ballpark Monday and Tuesday to protest during the All-Star Game.

By RICHARD SANDOMIR, from The New York Times.

When Major League Baseball unveiled its ballot for the Latino Legends team Tuesday, the 60 nominees excluded two of the greatest Hispanic players ever: Ted Williams and Reggie Jackson.

Williams and Jackson’s names seem out of place in a group with Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Pedro Martínez and Rod Carew, but Williams’s mother was Mexican and Jackson’s father was half Puerto Rican and played in the Negro leagues.

“I’m not surprised they’re not on the list, because it sounds like it was done in a slipshod way” said Keith Hernandez, the former Mets first baseman, who is half-Spanish. “It wasn’t well known about Ted, but Reggie Jackson’s background was well documented to people involved in the game.”

Had baseball made an egregious historical error by omitting Williams and his career .344 batting average or Jackson and his 563 home runs?

Not according to baseball. A spokesman, Carmine Tiso, said it was aware of the players’ ethnic backgrounds but applied a litmus test that went beyond statistics: the nominees had to have a direct connection to their Latino heritage. A second spokesman, Richard Levin, said they should “represent the Latin community.”

Tiso said: “It’s a gray area. It’s not an exact science. There may be other players with Latino heritage who may not acknowledge it.” He admitted that not all players on the ballot have publicly discussed their backgrounds.

Baseball, which did not reveal its selection qualifications during its Latino Legends news conference, did it yesterday. And while it stated that mlb.com participated in the player selection, Jim Gallagher, a spokesman for mlb.com, said it only made a few suggestions after baseball presented a list of nominees.

In the estimation of baseball’s marketing department and its consultants on baseball history, Williams and Jackson never did anything like Alex Rodriguez, whom Tiso quoted as having said, “I consider myself a Dominican.”

Tiso said, “It’s not that he was ashamed of his heritage, but we felt we didn’t find enough connection from Ted to that Latino heritage.”

Levin added that Williams’s name “would distort the ballot” and “cause havoc” because his ethnicity is not widely known. Fans will be able to vote online at mlb.com and on paper ballots at Chevrolet dealerships.

Samuel O. Regalado, the author of “Viva Baseball” (University of Illinois Press), a history of Latino baseball, said he understood baseball’s position, and said that Williams and Jackson were not pioneers for Hispanic players who came after them.

“But I don’t know where the qualifying line is, because most of the recent players aren’t pathfinders,” he said. “If the criteria were solely based on numbers and on-field achievements, then Williams and Jackson have to be considered.”

It is indisputable that Williams said little about being Mexican. He resembled his father, Sam, who was of Welsh-English heritage, not his mother, May.

“He never made a point of letting it be known,” said Williams’s nephew, who is also named Ted Williams. “He didn’t promote it. He was very friendly with our Mexican relatives on a private basis, but sometimes he shunned them in public because he didn’t want it to be known. His mother led an Anglo life in San Diego.”

He added, “My father loved to repeat things that my uncle said, and one of them is that he called the family in Santa Barbara ‘the Mexicans,’ kind of lovingly.”

In his 1969 autobiography, “My Turn At Bat,” written with John Underwood, Williams said, “If I had my mother’s name, there is no doubt that I would have run into problems in those days, the prejudices people had in Southern California.”

Bill Nowlin, who researched Williams’s early life for his new book, “The Kid: Ted Williams in San Diego” (Rounder), said Williams’s uncle Saul Venzor, a Mexican, helped teach him baseball, and that Williams spent time in Santa Barbara visiting his Mexican grandmother, who barely spoke English.

But he said Williams sometimes shunned relatives on his mother’s side.

“A lot of relatives felt he was told to turn his back on his background by Eddie Collins and not acknowledge that part of his family,” Nowlin said, referring to the Red Sox general manager at the time.

Nowlin and Williams’s nephew said they thought he would not have been upset at being omitted from the Latino Legends ballot. But Nowlin said, “I find it interesting that people of Latino origin are fascinated that Ted Williams is one of theirs.”

Nowlin said Nomar Garciaparra told him that he and Williams once discussed their mutual Mexican backgrounds. Garciaparra, also omitted from the Legends list, told Nowlin that he told Williams, “God, Ted, I knew I liked you!”

Jackson, whose grandmother was Puerto Rican, said he is “proud of my Latin blood,” but not upset at being left off the ballot. But he is offended by any suggestion by baseball about his connection to those roots.

“They have no right to pass judgment on what I claim about my Latin heritage,” said Jackson, whose middle name is Martinez. “I just don’t run my mouth off about it.”

Posted by jeffbiggers at 3:44 pm
July 5, 2011

Would baseball legend Roberto Clemente have played in next week’s Major League All Star baseball game or joined a boycott in protest of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 “papers please” law?

While that question, among many, continues to be bantered around the nation, the 82nd annual showdown between the American and National League baseball stars will also feature a political double-header inside and outside Chase Field in Phoenix. As the last votes for the All Star rosters are tallied and an estimated 37,000 ticket holders pack the ballpark, two strategies are emerging to get players, fans and millions of viewers to “take a stand against divisive, hate-based legislation.”

Various immigrant and civil rights groups led by Phoenix-based Puente are still calling on players to not cross Arizona’s boycott picket line, while others under the UNITE AZ banner are urging players and attendees to don white ribbons.

In the meantime, the Arizona All Star game will make history on one positive front: Jacoby Ellsbury, an enrolled member of the Colorado River Indian tribes, will become the first Native American with Arizona roots to play in an All Star game.

Not to be overshadowed, on the eve of the All Star game on July 11th, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s administration will file its appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court injunction against the state’s dubious anti-immigrant laws. And a year since the first boycott calls were issued, Arizona’s imprint on state’s rights immigration maneuvers has spread to the baseball-playing arenas in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Indiana.

The response from Major League Baseball Players Association and league officials? Caught looking, you could say.

No one has taken more heat than baseball commissioner Bud Selig, the son of Romanian-Ukrainian immigrants and a part-time Arizona snowbird, who has effectively sidestepped the boycott through the politics of silence. Selig critics abound. AP sports columnist Jim Litke gave Selig an “F” for missing his place in history; in a column for the New York Times, Jonathan Mahler chastised Selig for “putting his Latino players in the impossible position of having to choose between showing solidarity to their people or to the game that has enriched them even as they have enriched it.”

The Nation sports writer Dave Zirin, among others, has taken Latino players like Adrian Gonzalez to task for not holding to their earlier promises to boycott the game.

In an interview with AP’s Litke last week, Major League Baseball Players Association spokesperson Greg Bouris backed off any action, but declared, “we think the All-Star game is a chance to celebrate the contribution of all baseball players — including our international players.”

Which means what, in terms of the All Star game?

Will Selig or ball players like Adrian Gonzalez hold a press conference before the game and take a stand on SB 1070?

Will Selig or Bouris ask former All Star legend and Sonora, Mexico native Fernando Valenzuela–or even Arizona’s 94-year-old former governor Raul Castro–to throw out the first ball in a special ceremony recognizing the legacy of Mexican and Latino players?

On the 60th anniversary of his historic role as the first Latino in an All Star game, will Chico Carrasquel’s legacy be publicly honored or recognized? Will the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum be promoted?

In the spirit of Roberto Clemente, will Selig and the MLBPA donate to immigrant rights and education organizations in Arizona–like UNITE AZ inside the park, and PUENTE, outside the park?

I asked Dr. Carlos Muñoz, the founding chair of the first Chicano Studies department in the nation and former ball player, about his views on the All Star game.

JB: Are you planning on attending or watching the All Star game, and describe your own connection to baseball and the history of Latino ball players?

CM: I love the game of baseball. I played it during my youth, coached little league baseball, and played it again after I retired, as an infielder in the over 60 Men’s Senior Baseball League (MSBL). I won’t attend the All Star game, but will watch it on TV.

JB: How do you view two of the planned strategies around the All Star game: One of the original boycott groups in Phoenix, Puente, is still calling on players to boycott and will be holding protests at Chase Field in Phoenix. Another immigrant rights organization, Somos America, is sponsoring Unite AZ, a move to ask ball players to wear a white ribbon in protest of Arizona’s SB 1070 law.

CM: I understand and sympathize with Puente’s boycott of the game and request for Latino Players to also boycott it because I also oppose the racist SB1070 law. But I think the Somos America strategy is more effective. If Latino ballplayers wear white ribbons, it will have more of an impact. The TV cameras will ignore the protest outside the stadium, they can’t ignore the white ribbons.

JB: While Latino stars like Adrian Gonzalez once said he might not play in the All Star game, if it was held in Phoenix, it appears that any coordinated boycott by the Players Association or union has faltered. At this point, would it make more sense for Gonzalez and other All Stars to boycott the game or make some sort of statement on the field?

CM: Yes, the white ribbons would be a powerful statement. I think Adrain Gonzalez should be approached and asked to have a press conference to restate his opposition to SB1070. As I recall there were other players who, like him also expressed their opposition around the time he did. It would be great if they all could be part of the press conference.

JB: Sixty years ago, Chico Carrasquel was the first Latino to play in an All Star game. In lieu of the boycott, should the All Star game honor certain Latino stars, such as Carrasquel, and how?

CM: It’s a good idea if MLB would approve it to underscore the contributions Latinos have made to the game, especially the immigrant players. All groups could also approach Bud Selig for a statement of support and to acknowledge the important contributions Latinos have continued to make since Chico played I the game.

JB: The Arizona boycott, in general, has effectively targeted the state’s tourism and convention industries. With new anti-immigrant legislation now passed in Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, and South Carolina, do you think such the boycott needs to shift widen its focus or shift tactics?

Quieren aprovechar el evento de béisbol para protestar en contra de las leyes antiinmigrantes de Arizona.

There is no Latin American Jackie Robinson, no single Hispanic ballplayer who lifted his people onto his back and crashed through baseball’s racist barricades. But there always has to be a first, and many of the game’s historians point to two Cubans, Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans, who made their debut with the Cincinnati Reds a century ago. Of course, baseball was still segregated then. The Reds took great pains to highlight the irreproachable ethnicities of their newest employees: yes, they were Cuban, but they were purebred Spaniards, without so much as a trace of African blood.

One thing that was not in dispute was that the Cubans could play. “Uncle Sam’s monopoly of the baseball market has been seriously threatened,” one reporter surmised, noting that “this little nation of brown men whom Uncle Sam set up in the nation business” was liable to “rise up and lick Sammy at his own game.”

Politics has prevented us from testing the accuracy of this prediction. As a source of talent, Cuba, whose diamonds are off-limits to American prospectors, produces a small fraction of the Hispanic players who now represent more than a quarter of all major leaguers and an even larger percentage of those in the minors. No American institution owes a greater debt to Latin Americans than baseball. Our national pastime would be nothing today without the likes of Pujols, Bautista and Reyes, and it all started with Almeida and Marsans, who played in their first major league game on — I’m not making this up — July 4, 1911.

So how is baseball honoring their legacy, almost exactly 100 years later? By holding its 2011 All-Star Game in the cradle of America’s new nativism.

In a season in which one of baseball’s cornerstone franchises has been neglected and abused by its warring husband-wife ownership team — is the McCourt saga not destined to end with Frank and Jamie dropping to their living room floor atop a chandelier? — and another one has been reduced to collateral damage in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the history of Wall Street, this is every bit as shameful.

It all started innocently when Arizona was awarded the game, a tourist bonanza, in the spring of 2009. This was before the state’s anti-immigration movement gave birth to the law known as Senate Bill 1070, which effectively legalized racial profiling by requiring Arizona’s police to question people about their immigration status under certain circumstances.

The law backfired, inviting national scorn, costly boycotts and a lawsuit from the Obama administration. Arizona was given an out last year when a federal court struck down some of the most controversial aspects of the law. Rather than walking away, the state pressed on, vowing to appeal to the Supreme Court. Its petition for a hearing will arrive in the justices’ chambers on July 11 — one day before baseball’s biggest stars will presumably take the field in Phoenix for the midsummer classic.

If the outlines of this story sound familiar, that may be because it isn’t the first time Arizona’s politics have collided with the world of sports. In 1991, the state lost the 1993 Super Bowl after it refused to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a paid holiday for state workers. The N.F.L. recognized that silence wasn’t an option, that to do nothing was to do something. Last year, the Phoenix Suns made the same calculus. Their managing partner, Robert Sarver, publicly denounced S.B. 1070, while his team suited up for an N.B.A. playoff game in jerseys that read, “Los Suns.”

For its part, baseball, which once helped drag our nation toward desegregation, has opted to do nothing. This despite plenty of warnings, and not just from Enrique Morones, the former director of Hispanic marketing for the San Diego Padres, who has for over a year now been dangling the threat of an All-Star Game protest over Commissioner Bud Selig’s head. Last month, the Mexico-born musician Carlos Santana, accepting an award at baseball’s annual Civil Rights Game in Atlanta, reprimanded Georgia for passing a copycat version of Arizona’s legislation, saying both states should be “ashamed” of themselves.

Baseball may dismiss the opprobrium of a Latino activist and long-haired guitarist, but what about the Mexican-American slugger Adrian Gonzalez, one of a number of Latino players who have talked about boycotting the game if it isn’t moved out of Arizona? Selig is no doubt hoping that because the courts have thus far prevented the law from being enacted, players will come. This is a technicality. The larger truth is that Arizona’s anti-immigrant fervor is still very much alive, and Selig is putting his Latino players in the impossible position of having to choose between showing solidarity to their people or to the game that has enriched them even as they have enriched it.

Selig’s silence would not be so noteworthy if it weren’t part of a larger pattern. Adrian Burgos Jr., in his fascinating book, “Playing America’s Game,” details how baseball’s color line moved slowly, almost imperceptibly, for Latinos, with franchises gradually signing increasingly dark-skinned players. Their race always mattered less than the fact that they were foreign and poor, which meant they could be paid well below market rates.

Baseball loves to celebrate the role it played in the civil rights movement, and deservedly so. But we hear much more about the declining number of African-Americans in baseball, a legitimate concern, than we do about the issues that affect the sport’s ever-growing Latino population or, for that matter, the contributions of its Latino heroes. The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera is the last active player to wear Jackie Robinson’s number, 42, which was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997. Yet when Rivera’s former teammate LaTroy Hawkins wanted to don No. 21 a few years back in honor of Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican star who was killed in a plane crash in 1972 while on his way to provide relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, Yankees fans revolted: that was Paul O’Neill’s number.

Selig has embraced the game’s diversity when it has suited him, doing his best imitation of the N.B.A.’s great globalizer, David Stern, with the international marketing initiative known as the World Baseball Classic. But it was on Selig’s watch that baseball’s Latin American problem reached a point that could no longer be ignored.

I’m talking about, among other things, the American baseball “academies” in the Dominican Republic, which could just as aptly be described as baseball plantations. The teenagers inside their barbed-wire-topped walls are sold by local scouts to big-league teams or private investors who will ultimately profit off a chosen few and return the rest to lives of poverty. Given the starkly different fates that await them, it’s hardly surprising that 13 of the top 40 Dominican prospects came up positive for performance-enhancing drugs last year. What’s more surprising is that it was the first time they had been tested. Meanwhile, the F.B.I. is reportedly investigating allegations that major league scouts and team officials have for years been skimming the signing bonuses of their Dominican prospects.

It would be unfair to say that baseball hasn’t at least started to tackle some of these issues, however belatedly. Sandy Alderson, who served briefly as baseball’s point man in the Dominican Republic before becoming general manager of the Mets last fall — a frying-pan-to-fire move if ever there were one — created some momentum for change, drafting an ambitious reform blueprint. His plan featured mandatory classes at all academies owned by major league clubs, as well as the creation of a tuition-assistance fund for prospects who don’t make it off the island and want to go back to school.

But just as baseball finally seemed poised to end its long history of exploiting Latin Americans, it is once again turning its back on them. It’s too late for Selig to move the All-Star Game. It’s not too late for him to speak out, forcefully, against the anti-immigration movement.

If he doesn’t, the choice he’s giving his Latino players may not be so impossible after all. “We have to back up our Latin communities,” said the reigning home run king, Jose Bautista, when asked about the game last year.

Who would blame him for staying home?

Arizona is so much more than that and Major League Baseball’s All-Star festivities can help make the case. You argued strongly for this, Diamondbacks. Let’s see you deliver.

Anyone else hate how begrudgingly this game was given to the Valley? Milwaukee, Houston and Pittsburgh built new stadiums after us and landed games before us. Commissioner Bud Selig, who has a home in Scottsdale, comes across like a reluctant supporter.

We deserve better.

“Everyone is excited about how it’s going,” Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall said. “We told (Major League Baseball), don’t worry about it. We can do it.”

Baseball is most nervous about two issues: heat and protesters.

Newsflash: It will be hot. The average high temperature in Phoenix on July 12 is 107 degrees. Two years ago on that date it hit 115.

Organizers are adjusting.

The outdoor concert of past games will be scrapped for an indoor dance party led by Glee choreographer Zach Woodlee. The Red Carpet All-Star Parade, which features a caravan of players, family members and coaches, will be shortened from a mile to a quarter mile.

And yes, the roof almost surely will be closed for the game unless the weather delivers a surprise. Fan comfort matters. If everything else about the festivities delivers, it won’t matter. Keep a close eye on the July 11 Home Run Derby. The Diamondbacks hope to open the roof for the final competition. It would stay closed for the early rounds and then dramatically part for the last two competitors. It’s a well-played move for those who have never seen 9 million pounds of structural steel separate in four minutes.

Protesters are expected. Many groups, including the National Council of La Raza, the country’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization, have said they will show up to protest SB 1070, Arizona’s immigration law.

Even players have discussed it.

Boston first baseman Adrian Gonzalez called the bill “immoral.” Texas catcher Yorvit Torrealba said it is “racist stuff.”

Protesters will arrive. Signs will land on the news. Chants will make headlines.

This is not a bad thing. It will inspire debate and dialogue. One of the problems with politics in Arizona is the amount of disinterest. Many who live here are not from here. They don’t feel connected to the community and don’t choose to engage in political activism.

There are special interest groups and voices. But do they belong to us?

It was fascinating to see what unfolded when Suns owner Robert Sarver decided, with unanimous support from his players, to make a statement about SB 1070 by having the team wear Los Suns jerseys during an NBA playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs.

Both sides of the argument were able to state their cases that night and both did it peacefully. During the game, I remember seeing one fan wearing a Suns jersey and sombrero. On the other side of the arena was a man with a “shut up and play” sign.

Outside, approximately 3,000 protesters marched. Respectfully.

Afterward, Steve Nash, who didn’t support the law, said “Those people who disagree with me is fine. Dissent is what democracy is made of.”

MLB shouldn’t be afraid of the protests. We’ve proven to be a community that can even do that right.

Trust us.

Ticket sales were a real concern because of our unstable economy, not to mention the idea of selling Phoenix as a July destination stop. At last season’s All-Star Game in Anaheim, nearly 5,000 Angel Stadium seats were empty for the Home Run Derby. That kind of television does not make MLB happy.

Last year’s game on Fox earned the lowest rating ever with a 7.5 national rating and 13 share.

“There was definitely concern about ticket sales,” Hall said.

Organizers tried to get ahead of the problem. Tickets were available seven weeks earlier than normal.

With a month remaining, they feel good about their progress. Only a few single seats remain for the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby is close to selling out. Approximately 38,000 seats have been sold for the Futures Game and All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game, which include former Diamondbacks Mark Grace and Luis Gonzalez.

Chase Field will have a seating capacity of 47,000 for the events.

The good news for fans is that the resale ticket market should be kind to them.

The biggest challenge the Diamondbacks face is presenting a field in top condition. Chase Field demands a lot of sun but keeping the roof open long enough will be difficult because of all the events inside the facility in the week leading up to the game.

It’s hard not to feel like an underdog in this fight.

Our dukes are up.

Just over a year ago, boycotts brought on by the passage of Senate Bill 1070 left the state’s tourism industry reeling. Groups and leisure travelers pulled their hotel and convention bookings, and it appeared that more cancellations and lost business soon would follow.

The Governor’s Office quickly responded by forming a Task Force on Tourism and Economic Vitality, designed to lessen the impact of the boycotts.

The task force’s efforts, however, had minimal impact in shaping a broad public message encouraging travel to Arizona.

A judge’s order in late July put much of SB 1070 on the shelf and slowed the boycott movement’s momentum. The injunction made some of the task force’s planned initiatives, including developing a printed and digital fact sheet and initiating a grass-roots plan intended to “disseminate the facts,” largely irrelevant. And the task force’s budget of a little more than $250,000 prevented it from completing any high-profile promotion.

However, the task force, headed by Arizona Office of Tourism Director Sherry Henry, did accomplish some of its key goals. It hired a public-relations firm to craft articles describing Arizona as a “warm and welcoming” destination. It also funded a fly-in program, designed to reimburse meeting planners’ airfare after they’ve visited the state. The fly-in program is still in effect.

Over the long term, the task force had hoped to develop a national or international ad campaign, but to date no funding has been allocated for that purpose. A campaign of that magnitude would likely cost in excess of $15 million, more than the Arizona Office of Tourism’s projected fiscal year 2011 budget.

“Certainly, under different circumstances, it’s something the state would like to pursue,” said Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer. “It just isn’t feasible right now.”

A look back at the task force’s work, combined with a review of documents from the Arizona Office of Tourism, indicates the pressure hospitality officials were feeling during the tourism industry’s most difficult times.

The following account was developed from public-records requests that The Arizona Republic made to the Arizona Office of Tourism, as well as interviews of task-force members. The records request included several thousand of Henry’s e-mails from the weeks before the bill was signed and the year after.

Jumping into action

Brewer signed SB 1070 into law on April 23, 2010. The Arizona Office of Tourism received this e-mail on April 24, 2010, from a person who identified himself as Curt Tiefenbrun without identifying where they lived: “I regret to inform you that my plans to visit your state this year for vacation have been changed. I have decided to go to Washington D.C. to visit the museums instead, due to your governments (sic) misguided policies on immigration.”

Tiefenbrun’s e-mail represents one of many sent to the AOT and the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association in the weeks surrounding SB 1070’s passage. Although some e-mails expressed support for the tough immigration law, many expressed disappointment. Hundreds said they would be canceling future trips to Arizona; others said they would visit the state to show their support for the legislation.

Almost two dozen cities and counties and six colleges or school districts would announce travel and business boycotts of Arizona by July. Another 14 municipalities condemned the law.

Debbie Johnson, president and CEO of the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association, took the lead as spokeswoman for the industry as cities and groups announced boycott plans. Her role as spokeswoman began before the task force was formed and was independent from it, she said.

In May, as the potential impact of the boycotts on Arizona’s tourism industry became clear, the governor formed the task force.

Headed by Henry, the group comprised five subcommittees: corporate/group travel; research; public relations/crisis communications; marketing; and grass roots. Each was responsible for suggesting uses for the $250,825 that the Arizona Department of Commerce had provided the Office of Tourism. In addition, Tempe-based US Airways provided $10,000 in debit cards for the fly-in program, of which $5,487 is still available.

Although the task force sought additional funds, none materialized. And the Office of Tourism, which has seen its budget cut to a projected $10.9 million in fiscal 2011 from $22.1 million in 2010, was unable to provide more financial support.

A combined $30,000 from the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association, the Arizona Tourism Alliance and Valley Hotel and Resort Association was contingent on long-term funding by the state for the task force.

When it became clear that more money wasn’t in the pipeline, the organizations agreed they could make better use of the resources, Johnson said.

“Certainly I think it was a disappointment that we couldn’t get more funding,” she said. “As we were looking at losing millions of dollars as an industry, we really needed some more funding to help bolster an advertising campaign and repair our image. That obviously did not happen.”

The 22 members of the tourism task force met twice: on May 26, to assign subcommittees, and on June 9, to present the subcommittees’ proposed recommendations to the greater task force.

No minutes were available from those meetings because the task force was a volunteer group, Henry said.

A select group of members, called the task force’s executive committee, presented the initiatives to the governor on June 14, 2010, for approval.

On the committee were: Henry; Johnson; Don Cardon, director of the Arizona Department of Commerce; Margie Emmermann, executive director of the Arizona-Mexico Commission; and Mark Stanton, deputy director of AOT.

After the initiatives were approved, the task force with the exception of the executive committee became inactive, although Henry provided members with periodic updates. The state tourism office oversaw the distribution of task-force funds.

Public-relations push

Of the total $260,825 that the task force was given, the largest chunk – $100,000 – was allocated for hiring a public-relations firm. Phoenix-based HMA Public Relations, the selected company, held its first meeting on July 29, the day the law was to go into effect. However, a court injunction from the previous day blocked the heart of SB 1070.

HMA was asked to pitch, create and distribute articles and op-ed pieces presenting Arizona as a “warm and welcoming” destination in each of the tourism task force’s target markets, such as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City and New York.

The group also hoped to “secure media tours in at least four” key markets, an Aug. 5 memo provided by the AOT indicates.

With the exception of a few op-ed pieces in Arizona newspapers, including The Republic, the materials did not gain traction among print publications.

“When we first sat down, we had these wonderful grandiose ideas that we could penetrate these markets and they would accept our op-ed pieces,” Henry said. But in a lot of markets, she said, “the media storm was so great and nobody wanted to take a chance on us.”

HMA’s opinion pieces and articles did gain some traction online, however. For instance, an op-ed piece that Emmermann wrote, titled “Deep Love for Our Family,” was placed on CNN iReport and was viewed 2.1 million times, according to data provided by HMA.

HMA says it placed 73 articles and op-ed pieces through March 2011. However, several of the articles that the agency included in the count were specific to AOT’s annual ad campaign, which had no direct correlation with the task force. The 73 articles were viewed 21.6 million times online.

Abbie Fink, vice president and general manager of HMA, said the group did not partake in four media tours, as it had intended, because the cost was too great.

“We had to ask ourselves would it be more beneficial to use our resources where our presence was already planned, than to create an independent event,” she said.

Arizona tourism leaders did attend pre-scheduled travel-themed events such as the New York Media Marketplace and the Toronto Media Marketplace.

Fly-in program

The most measurable results of the task force came from a “fly-in” program that four metro convention and visitors bureaus participated in to reimburse meeting planners’ airfares.

With $62,249.91 in funds from the task force, the greater Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa and Tucson CVBs have reimbursed airfare for 144 meeting planners to date.

According to data provided by the CVBs, the meeting planners who booked groups after visiting Arizona represent $23.5 million in direct spending. The Phoenix CVB could tack on an extra $25.4 million in direct spending, assuming it books all tentative business.

Each of the CVBs that participated in the fly-in program calculated direct spending differently. For instance, the Phoenix CVB, which accounted for a majority of booked business, reported direct visitor spending for convention center events at $1,451 per delegate, per event. However, for groups booking at hotels and resorts, the Phoenix CVB estimates direct visitor spending at $215 per day, per attendee.

In contrast, Scottsdale estimates all direct visitor spending at $1,451 per delegate.

Regardless of how the CVBs calculated the impact of the bookings, all agree that conversion rate is higher for meeting planners who visit the destination compared with those who don’t.

“I think it (the fly-in program) was one of the most successful task-force initiatives,” said Rachel Sacco, president and CEO of Scottsdale CVB. “We knew we had to get people out here for them to see the beauty of the destination, the service of quality here. Until you test-drive that car, until you try on those shoes or walk into that hotel room, you don’t know how it’s going to feel.”

Task-force funds

With the exception of $50,000 that went toward the extension of an in-state advertising campaign for summer deals site Valueaz .com, a majority of the task force’s remaining funds ($38,750) were used for an e-postcard campaign, launched in May.

A digital and printed SB 1070 fact sheet ($20,000) never was produced. A study on the amount of business lost as a result of the bill ($10,000) never was initiated.

And a grass-roots communication program ($15,000) intended to “disseminate the facts” through newsletters, e-mail blasts and letter-writing campaigns never surfaced. However, $5,000 was taken from the grass-roots plan to fund a website, aztravelfacts.com, intended to provide visitors with traveling tips and resources.

“We were in the trenches,” Henry said. “We had to change some of our tactics because we were in the trenches.”

Although the task force had some measurable results, its impact was limited because funding was inadequate, said Brian Johnson, managing director of Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson. Johnson expressed his frustration in a February e-mail to Henry in which he called the task force a “farce.”

He explained his frustrations in an interview with The Republic.

“To drive a message like this, you have to put dollars behind it,” Johnson said. “A great example would be . . . the Gulf oil spill. They had a (ad) campaign that needed to be done because . . . people weren’t visiting the beaches. They (BP) put $70 million toward a campaign that got the message out. That can really hit the crux of an issue.”

Going forward, Johnson is hopeful, however. He says the Arizona Legislature’s recent defeat of five immigration bills that likely would have caused a resurgence of negative media attention to the state showed “solidarity” among members of the business community.

According to an April report by New York-based TravelClick, which recently purchased travel analyst firm Rubicon, occupancy and average daily rate – at least in Greater Phoenix – may be on the mend.

Rubicon tracks hotel metrics, such as occupancy and average daily rate, by accessing its clients’ future bookings. In the Phoenix market, it pulls data from 134 properties that represent 26,735 hotel rooms.

As of April 30, TravelClick’s data showed that committed occupancy would be up 9 percent for May 2011 through March 2012 on a year-over-year basis, and that average daily rate would be up 2.7 percent.

“Phoenix is not going gangbusters (with daily rate), but occupancy is well ahead of last year,” said Rao Avasarala, vice president of enterprise solutions for the company. “The effects of the bill are receding.”

PHOENIX, Ariz.—The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a federal judge’s decision to temporarily suspend key parts of Arizona’s SB1070, the law that making it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant. The ruling is being celebrated by pro-immigration groups, but it offers little relief to immigrants.

“Everything remains the same,” said Raúl Cordero, an immigrant from Mexico and member of a Neighborhood Defense Committee in Phoenix. “There are still police officers out there that are implementing this law at their discretion,” he added.

Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed SB 1070 into law on April 23, 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice subsequently filed a lawsuit arguing that SB 1070 was pre-empted by federal law. And on July 28 of last year, four provisions of the legislation were prohibited from taking effect by Federal Judge Susan Bolton. Gov. Brewer appealed Bolton’s decision, only to lose by two-to-one in the Ninth Circuit Court.

One of the law’s suspended provisions, now upheld on appeal, would require police officers to determine the immigration status of a person they come into contact with based solely on the officer’s suspicion that the person is in the United States illegally. Another provision would make it a crime for people not to carry immigration documents to prove their legal status.

The other suspended provisions would allow police to arrest a person they suspect of being in the country illegally, and would criminalize undocumented immigrants who apply for a job or are employed.

“The question before us is not, as Arizona has portrayed, whether state and local law enforcement officials can apply the statute in a constitutional way,” says the appeals court decision ruling. “There can be no constitutional application of a statute that, on its face, conflicts with congressional intent and therefore is preempted by the Supremacy Clause.”

That is, the court found that Arizona lawmakers couldn’t reinterpret federal laws beyond what Congress intended.

Lydia Guzmán, president of Respect/Respeto, an organization that documents human and civil rights violations, described the decision as “a victory in court, but not a victory on the streets.”

“Police officers are still stopping people and taking them to immigration, and they are still being deported,” she said.

Cordero, a member of the PUENTE Movement, an organization that has funded over 30 neighborhood organizing groups in Phoenix, receives daily phone calls from family members of people who were pulled over for no reason or for minor traffic infractions.

“Since this law was signed, it was like they stabbed the immigrant community with a 10-inch knife,” said Cordero. The Bolton ruling pulled the knife out five inches, but we are still wounded.”

The Ninth Circuit Court’s decision, however, goes “beyond the arguments made by the Department of Justice,” said Dan Pochoda, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Arizona, one of the parties with pending litigation against SB 1070.

Pochoda explained, “(The appeals court) stated strongly that there’s no inherent authority for local law enforcement to enforce a federal, civil immigration law.” Reactionary anti-immigrant groups, he said, have argued that the state didn’t need SB 1070 to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

Gov. Brewer said she is considering appealing Tuesday’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court or asking for full review of the decision by the three-panel judge by the full Ninth Circuit Court. Most rulings are rendered by three-judge panels, but in some cases contested decisions are adjudicated by all 29 judges on the Ninth Circuit.

“I remain steadfast in my belief that Arizona and other states have a sovereign right and obligation to protect their citizens and enforce immigration law in accordance with federal statutes,” said Brewer, in an official statement. “Monday’s decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold Judge Bolton’s suspension of key provisions of SB 1070 does harm to the safety and well-being of Arizonans who suffer the negative effects of illegal immigration.”

SB 1070 has prompted lawmakers in Georgia, Florida and Alabama to consider enacting similar legislation.

“The decision should serve as a warning sign to other states that are considering whether or not to replicate Arizona’s SB 1070,” said Chris Newman, legal counsel for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Luis Avila, president of the pro-immigrant Coalition Somos America, warned that SB 1070 does not represent the beginning and end of anti-immigrant law. Despite the recent defeat of five anti-immigrant laws in the State Senate, dozens of others are still under consideration in Arizona.

“There are huge implications for the passage of SB 1070. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost in the state due to passage of this law,” Avila said. Some studies estimate Arizona has lost close to $140 million in revenues connected to industries that thrive from tourism and state conventions, because of the impact of an SB 1070-inspired economic boycott of Arizona.

Avila said that the appeals court ruling is “a sign that our judicial system is defending the constitutionality of laws,” but that it doesn’t offer relief for those already affected.

In addition to the local and domestic organizations officially opposed to SB 1070, a number of foreign governments filed opinions with the court to express their disapproval of SB 1070. Among them are the governments of México, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru.