2011 MLB All-Star Game: Players Won't Boycott All-Star Game for Immigration Law

2011 MLB All-Star Game Will Go on in Arizona Despite Immigration Law

The 2011 MLB All-Star Game is being held in Phoenix, Arizona this year at the Diamondbacks? home stadium of Chase Field. It will be the first time in history that the MLB holds the Midsummer Classic in Arizona and also the first time a designated hitter will be used in a National League ballpark.

What should be a celebration of the city and state earning their first All-Star game is somewhat tarnished by the passing of the controversial SB1070 anti-illegal immigration bill.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law in April 2010. It initially contained a provision that allowed for law enforcement officers to stop and question the immigration status of any person they suspected could illegally be in the country. A judge disallowed this portion of the law until further review, but the intent is there and the bill sends a grim message to anyone of Hispanic origin in the state.

Football moved the Super Bowl to California due to Arizona?s refusal to acknowledge Martin Luther King Day, citing the number of African Americans in their league. Baseball has a very high percentage of Latino players, exactly the type of skin color that SB1070 targets.

The law has been widely criticized nationally and in baseball circles. Baseball brass, through both the league and head of players association, has declined to encourage any sort of boycott or movement of the event. The league wants the event in Phoenix and the Players Association wants their players to participate, regardless of how anyone personally feels about the issue.

MLBPA Director Michael Weiner issued a statement summing the issue up, stating,

"Our nation continues to wrestle with serious issues regarding immigration, prejudice and the protection of individual liberties," Weiner said. "Those matters will not be resolved at Chase Field, nor on any baseball diamond; instead they will be addressed in Congress and in statehouses and in courts by those charged to find the right balance among the competing and sincerely held positions brought to the debate."

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report's baseball page for all of your up-to-date news and analysis from the All-Star Game.

Abbie Cornish Krista Allen Hayden Panettiere Jules Asner Whitney Able