The 2021 baseball season took a strange twist.
No one could believe it.
And two baseball pitchers just got banned for one major personal decision.
Former major league pitchers John Smoltz and Al Leiter are two of the top analysts covering Major League Baseball on television.
Now they have to do their jobs from home.
The Major League Baseball Network banned the two from appearing in the studio because they have not received the coronavirus vaccine.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reports:
Hall of Famer John Smoltz and former Met and Yankee Al Leiter will no longer appear in-studio for MLB Network after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, The Post has learned.
MLBN has made it mandatory for all employees to be vaccinated, with the mandate going into effect Sept. 1. MLBN executives, Smoltz and Leiter made a compromise to keep them on-the-air, but not in the Secaucus studios. They will both appear remotely for the shows.
Smoltz will also still call a Division Series game on site in October. The two are regular in-studio analysts for the network.
John Smoltz is also the lead analyst for Fox, which televises one league championship series and the World Series every October.
There is no word if Fox will force Smoltz to work virtually because Smoltz refused to get the COVID vaccine.
MLB Network is one of many employers across the U.S. trying to force their workers to submit to mandatory coronavirus vaccination.
Most workers don’t have the option of working virtually like Smoltz and Leiter do once their employer calls them back to work and makes vaccination mandatory.
The issue of vaccine mandates is playing out across society.
It’s not a surprise the world of sports is caught up in this.
And as pro sports leagues increasingly became tools of the Left, it’s also not surprising that leagues – and entities owned by the leagues like MLB Network – would jump on the vaccine mandate bandwagon.
Sports with Balls will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
