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Enrique Morones: The Man Who Would Move the Game

Enrique Morones has been at the heart of the movement to move the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from the state of Arizona.  As much as anyone in the United States, he is uniquely positioned to provide leadership on the connection between baseball and the rights of immigrants. For six years, Morones worked for the San Diego Padres as a Vice President in charge of connecting the franchise to the Latino community, Major League Baseball’s first Department of Hispanic Marketing. In addition, Morones is the founder of Border Angels, an organization that leaves blankets, food and water on the rough desert terrain to provide tools of survival for people crossing the border. Here I speak to Mr. Morones about his work.

Clemens Shouldn't Have to Take the Fall

Roger Clemens is about as popular in baseball circles as jock itch. The man is such a pariah, he makes Barry Bonds look like Justin Bieber. Yet we should hold the cheers over the recent news that Clemens has been indicted on perjury charges for lying in front of Congress on questions related his much-denied steroid use. Not one owner has ever been called to account for the steroid era in Major League Baseball. Not one person who has called an owner's box home has had to answer questions about steroid use. Until that changes, our eyes are focused on the wrong targets.

Rain, Risk Takers, Racists, and Rancor: Demonstrating Against the D-Backs

On Sunday in DC, I attended the seventeenth ballpark protest of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the 2011 baseball season. As in the other actions—in cities from Houston to San Francisco to Milwaukee—people chanted a loud and clear message to Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig: move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona and make the state pay a price for enacting legislation that sacrifices immigrant families at the altar of election-year politics. But this demonstration was also deeply different from the sixteen others. It was a day of rain, risk-takers, racists and rancor. And it couldn’t have been more terrific.

This Sunday: The Arizona Diamondbacks Come to DC…and They’re Not Alone

All summer demonstrations have followed Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks in protest of the state's flurry of anti-immigrant laws. But this Sunday, the D-backs will also be supported in a rally organizined by an organization flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In Honor of the Isiah Rehire: A Tribute to James Dolan, the Muse of Bad Sports

I was inspired to write Bad Sports because of one person and one person only. It wasn’t a mentor, friend, or family member. It was James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks.

DeVos-ed From Reality: Why I Was Booted From the Pat Williams Show

To my shock and surprise, I had been invited onto the radio program of Orlando Magic executive Pat Williams to discuss my book Bad Sports, in which I'm sharply critical of his boss, Dick DeVos. To my disappointment, the invitation was predictably rescinded.

What Owners Owe Us

I once had a coach who could spit tobacco hard enough to break a window. He smelled like an old hamper, and only wore pants that came with an elastic waist. Still, every last one of us loved the guy. He always said, "Sports is like a hammer, gents. And you can use a hammer for all kinds of things. You can use it to build a house, or you can use it to bash somebody's head. Choose wisely." In the twenty-first century, the heads of far too many sports fans have been bashed by far too many hammers.

Bad Sports on The Rachel Maddow Show

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Rachel Maddow Show Appearance

DZ on The Rachel Maddow Show

Protests at the Park: The Precedent and the Promise

All summer, people have been protesting at baseball stadiums against the Arizona Diamonbacks and their state's anti-immigrant laws. These 'protests at the park" are not without precedent and not without the promise of victory.