I don’t know if the late New York Yankee Mickey Mantle was a Republican or Democrat.

I don’t know if former Boston Celtics great Bill Russell is a conservative or a progressive.

I don’t know what Barry Sanders thinks about “global warming.”

And, frankly, I don’t want to know.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching these outstanding athletes and many others without them trying to convince me of their political viewpoints.

But now, sports is becoming a lot about politics.

Major League Baseball, which is in a slow decline, decided to pull the All Star game from Atlanta because the Georgia Legislature passed some common-sense laws to deter voter fraud. MLB isn’t going to do their draft show in Georgia, either.

The message is clear: agree with our liberal politics or suffer economic setbacks. President Joe Biden applauded the decision by pro baseball to try to force Georgia to repeal the laws dealing with honest elections.

Major League Baseball is a private organization and they have every right to boycott Georgia and to try to force their will on state lawmakers.

But baseball fans also have the right to stop watching Major League Baseball. That’s what I intend to do (even though I haven’t watched a MLB game in 10 years and I haven’t been to a baseball stadium in more that 25 years). And you can bet I will encourage my friends and family members to seek entertainment elsewhere until MLB reverses their demands.

Sports may dabble in politics but they should be ready to pay the price.

Another example is the NCAA and college sports.

Boys who dress like girls, take hormone shots and even have sex change surgery want to compete in high school and college sports against normal girls.

That is just not fair.

The South Dakota Legislature is working on laws that would mandate that biological boys can’t switch and play against the girls just because the boys haven’t figured out their gender.

In comes the NCAA. Privately, it has been suggested that colleges in South Dakota might somehow be penalized if they don’t stop such legislation.

Again, the NCAA is a private group and if they want to put members on probation because they won’t let boys compete against girls, that’s their choice.

Maybe it’s time that the five biggest conferences break away from the ultra-progressive leaders of the NCAA and start a second sports group that wouldn’t let boys in girls’ locker rooms and wouldn’t undo the good done by Title 9 a few decades ago.

There are some good female athletes, but in certain competitions, most men just have an innate physical advantage.

This is true science.

Boys can’t become girls. Men can’t become women. Girls can’t turn into boys and women can’t transform into men. They can change their appearance, their mannerisms and their clothes but they are still stuck with the gender they were born with.

I have never been a fan of LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers. He is a radical liberal. He thinks America is a racist country and our economic system is tilted toward white people and not minorities.

Cast aside the fact that James has made hundreds of millions of dollars for just playing a game. He was poor and now he is tremendously rich. He is a walking example that his idea of suppression of minorities isn’t always true.

If you listen to LeBron James, he constantly criticizes America and refuses to condemn the actions of the Chinese communist government.

James can say whatever he wants because he lives in a free country and not in China.

But I can stop watching NBA basketball games, especially the playoffs, because they are pushing a political agenda rather than just playing the game.

Who made LeBron James an expert on China?

Who made the NCAA experts on sex?

And who made Major League Baseball the experts on voter fraud?

Let me add ESPN to the list of sports entities who want to punish their viewers with liberal dogma interspersed with sports news.

The hope here is that this extra-curricular politicking will impact the bottom line of these sports groups. Maybe that will steer them back to just “reporting the sports news” rather than trying to tell us how to think and act.

I don’t get my political views from Major League Baseball.

I can tell a boy from a girl without help from the NCAA.

The answer to race relations in America doesn’t hinge on what an NBA player thinks.

And it’s easy to change the channel and watch sports on another channel. (Sometimes I watch games on ESPN and I mute the sound).

“You got a beat up glove, a homemade bat

“And a brand new pair of shoes

“You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride

“Just to hit the ball an’ touch ’em all a moment in the sun

“It’s-a gone and you can tell that one goodbye.”

(Centerfield by John Fogerty)