For the Fresno Grizzlies, the damage is done

Ah, Memorial Day baseball.  Bring the family, enjoy the hot dogs, watch your home town team on a beautiful sunshiny day.

And the Fresno Grizzlies, the AAA affiliate of the Washington Nationals, thought they were going to bask in the Memorial Day festivities.

They even received a nice, patriotic video that would run between their doubleheader games for that Memorial Day.  It was a video that featured text from President Ronald Reagan’s speeches, along with patriotic imagery and the like.

In fact, here’s the full clip.

But if you watch the video from the 3:00 minute mark forward… you may notice that the video contains a not-so-subtle dig at a currently elected member of Congress – one who was not even alive when Reagan was President.  And this elected official was inserted in a very – shall we say – curious part of the video.  Here’s an abbreviated version of the clip, if you want to see.

Yep … along with descriptions of terrorism and “enemies of freedom,” we see Fidel Castro, Kim Jung-Un – and some ANTIFA protestors.  Oh yeah, and we also see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

What?

What kind of cheap shot are you throwing here, Fresno Grizzlies?  A video equating AOC with Fidel Castro and Kim Jung-Un?  Along with throwing ANTIFA into the mix?  Who does your video production, the America One Network?

The Fresno Grizzlies later took to social media to explain that they had not pre-screened the video and offered an apology.

But honestly, as far as I’m concerned, the damage has already been achieved.  To brand AOC as some sort of demagogue boogeyman is absolutely repulsive and vulgar.  She’s an accomplished and smart Representative who comes to Congressional meetings more prepared than anybody outside of Rep. Katie Porter.

I mean, here she is taking only five minutes to expose corruption in our banking and financial network.

How is exposing corruption and cronyism equated with being an enemy of freedom?

And earlier this year, during the Michael Cohen Congressional hearing, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez asked pointed questions that actually helped in discovering new avenues for investigation into corruption in Donald Trump’s finances.

And here’s AOC making mincemeat out of a Big Pharma representative over the stratospheric drug prices from his company.

Trust me, it’s easy to blame AOC for anything and everything.  And you shouldn’t do that.  She is intelligent, she is dedicated, and she is working hard for her constituents and for America.  She’s handled all the vulgar shade that’s been thrown at her over the last few months – from one right-wing knob suggesting that because AOC was a Girl Scout in her youth, that we should boycott Girl Scout Cookies.

First, she extolled her experience as a Girl Scout, which in itself was more than just door to door cookie sales.

And then, as a capper…

Ha.

So let’s get back to the Fresno Grizzlies.  I understand that you apologized for the video’s contents.  Did anybody get fired for not pre-screening the entire 3+ minutes of that video before it went on the big screen?  Probably not.  It’s like a defense attorney attacking the star witness on the stand with some outlandish claim, then waiting for the opposing counsel to say “Objection!” and the judge to respond “Sustained, the jury will disregard that question.”  It doesn’t work that way.  You can’t un-hear something any more than you can un-break a plate or un-ring a bell.

You want to really make amends, Fresno Grizzlies?  Let’s face it, this apology is about as weak as an infield grounder.

How about offering AOC the opportunity to throw out the first pitch at an upcoming game?

In fact, I’ll bet $20 right now that she can probably throw a split-fingered fastball right into the catcher’s glove with the pinpoint accuracy of Tom Seaver.

Come on, Fresno Grizzlies.  You’re up to bat now.

You’ve already knocked one pitch foul.

Do the right thing and make up for what was, for you, the wrong thing.

Oh yeah, and lay off the ANTIFA demagoguery as well.  Just sayin’ is all…