My daughter played her first season of Little League Tee Ball this year, and I had the honor of being her coach. We had to pick from a group of Minor League clubs for our team name and uniforms. Since none of the teams I am affiliated with were on the list, it was a wide open choice, so I consulted my four year old.
She bypassed the Lugnuts, Scrappers, and Iron Pigs. The Raptors didn’t do it for her either. Neither did a slew of other possible nicknames that included various dogs, cats, and fish. Then I asked her, “How about the Stars?” Without hesitation she exclaimed, “Yes!” The name is based on the Huntsville Stars, the Class-AA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. The uniforms looked great. She was happy, so I was happy. Little did I know I’d be writing about the actual Huntsville Stars just a few short months later.
Earlier this month, the Stars were scheduled to host a special promotion, one that would make freedom loving Americans beam and liberal activists scream. The tiny team in Alabama was gearing up for Second Amendment Night. When I heard about this I thought, “Right on, Stars!” But, as you probably guessed, the powers that be stuck their noses in before the game took place.
The original idea for Second Amendment Night was to hold a raffle for local charities. Three of the prizes were gift certificates from a local gun shop. Sounds pedestrian enough. Enter, the liberal gun grabbers.
“Somehow tweeters and Facebook users turned it into a gun giveaway and we spent a week clarifying the promotion,” Huntsville GM Buck Rogers told Breitbart Sports. “The bloggers wrecked it as we were told by Minor League Baseball to cancel the gift certificates in the raffle, which we did.”
Rogers had hoped the event would have gone off as planned. “Again, another example of average people all wanting to be cub reporters for the Tribune and erroneously publishing falsehoods,” Rogers said.
Despite the edict to pull the prizes, the Stars did not scrap the promotion entirely. Second Amendment Night still featured free admission for members of the National Rifle Association who presented their NRAmembership card. If nothing else, the team brought the Constitution and our precious Second Amendment into the conversation.
“The event went well,” said Rogers. “We talked about current gun laws, ownership responsibilities, and crime statistics.”
The Stars also took a poll asking fans: Do you feel that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be changed or reworded? The results were overwhelming. Yes 8% No 92%
The Friends of the NRA had a booth on the concourse registering members or upgrading current memberships.
“We conducted a raffle with no gift certificates that went into our donation fund,” Rogers said. “Many people passed on purchasing raffle tickets because of the change.”
The move by baseball brass to exclude the gun shop gift certificates was a bad one, not only from an American standpoint but from a business standpoint. The original promotion was expected to draw three to four times more fans than usual. Would they have stepped in if it were a Gay Pride promotion? What about Planned Parenthood Day or Atheists All You Can Eat Night? Teams raffle off dishwashers and televisions all the time. Why step in because a team wanted to raffle off another legal item?
The game that evening was a thriller. Stars pitcher Andy Moye came within two outs of throwing a no-hitter against Chatanooga. Huntsville blanked the Lookouts 2-0 in front of a larger than normal crowd. Many in the stands were decked out in stars and stripes. They were there to not only take in some baseball but to stand up for our Second Amendment. The original promotion is why so many extra tickets were sold.
Unfortunately, as far as the raffle is concerned, the Huntsville Stars’ hand was forced here, but it is comforting to know there are men in baseball like Buck Rogers who believe in our country, our Constitution, and our gun rights.
“I feel that our Constitution was written by people much smarter than ourselves,” Rogers said. “As a society, we don’t have to endure the hardships of our forefathers. Reading about them is one thing, living those hardships is another.The fact that you could get a bunch of guys together and come up with a set of laws that safeguarded those freedoms was a huge risk. Trying to get everybody to agree on policy and wording had to be extremely difficult.”
Rogers knows today’s elected officials can’t hold a candle to our founders.
“We can’t get anybody to agree on simple policy like taxes or healthcare,” Rogers said. “These guys were deciding our fate forever. I have to respect that they were much more experienced and wiser than us and that while amendments can be made, there always needs to be rules to protect our country from those that want to destroy it, inside or out. It may not be the best policy, but nobody’s lining up to get out of here.”
My Little League season started with my daughter and I proud to share a uniform that looked great. Now, I’m proud to have worn the Huntsville Stars uniform because I know patriots like Rogers are affiliated with the team.
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