MoveTheGame advocates to deliver 100,000 petitions to Selig Monday

ANAHEIM – Using the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star game as a backdrop, local Anaheim and other Southern California community and national civil, labor and immigrant rights organizations will hold a press conference on Monday to deliver over 100,000 petitions to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, demanding he move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona. The petition delivery is part of a national campaign – MoveTheGame.org – that has coordinated several rallies across the country to protest Arizona’s recent passage of the anti-immigrant and racial profiling law: SB 1070.

The advocates will also announce additional activities taking place during the week to pressure Commissioner Selig.  The petition delivery is a direct response from the MoveTheGame.org campaign to Commissioner Selig’s refusal to consider moving the location of the 2011 game – this despite growing opposition to Arizona’s controversial new anti-immigrant and racial profiling law: SB 1070.

MoveTheGame.org – launched in May as a joint campaign led by Presente.org and MoveOn.org – has already gathered more than 100,000 petitions asking Commissioner Selig to move the 2011 All-Star Game. In addition to a series of rallies held as the Diamondbacks crisscross the country this summer, hundreds of movethegame.org supporters continue to pressure Selig and MLB by placing hundreds of phone calls into Selig’s offices.

The campaign is set to continue on Tuesday, when local and national civil, labor, faith and immigrant rights advocates will gather at Anaheim Stadium to educate fans of the MLB All-Star Game about the need to find an alternative location for the 2011 MLB All-Star Game if Arizona’s SB 1070 goes into effect.  Details for this activity will be offered on Monday’s press event.

Many high-profile baseball players, coaches and executives – as well as those from other sports like basketball and football – have spoken out in recent months about the impact of the new law and their reticence to play in Arizona. Fans in cities across the country – including Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston – have staged protests in response to SB 1070.