Milwaukee Strikes Out On MLB All-Star Game

Milwaukee struck out on landing the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, at least in 2021.

Mayor Tom Barrett publicly courted the event with an open letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. The commissioner announced Friday the league was moving the game away from Atlanta after Republican officials in Georgia instituted controversial voting rights restrictions, including banning the distribution of water to people waiting in line.

But the game is going to Denver, not Milwaukee.

Barrett’s pitch, later joined by VISIT Milwaukee and County Executive David Crowley, leaned heavily on the city’s connection to the late Hank Aaron.

“As you review alternative sites for the game, I ask you to consider Milwaukee,” wrote Mayor Tom Barrett in a letter to Manfred. “It is a particularly appropriate location to honor Hank Aaron who is a revered and beloved former Milwaukeean. He started and concluded his Major League career with teams here.”

Aaron started his career and played for 12 years with the Milwaukee Braves and ended it for two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. He won a championship in Milwaukee with the Braves in 1957. He spent nine years of his career in Atlanta after the Braves relocated to the southern city in 1965. Aaron passed away in January.

Manfred’s announcement that the game was on the move said that the league intended to honor Aaron. He said MLB would still contribute to community organizations in Atlanta.

“We are finalizing a new host city and details about these events will be announced shortly,” said Manfred on Friday.

On Monday, ESPN’s Buster Olney was the first to report that the game was on the move to Colorado, a state with universal by-mail voting. Coors Field, the home ballpark of the Colorado Rockies, last hosted the All-Star Game in 1998. Milwaukee hosted the game in 2002.

Wisconsin, under then-Governor Scott Walker, instituted a series of voting restrictions in the past decade. Congressman Glenn Grothman, a former state legislature member that voted for the restrictions, said in 2016 that photo identification restrictions benefit Republicans.