A Major League Baseball team’s push to build a new spring training facility appears to have been derailed – all because of tweets supporting anti-gun efforts.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $35 million in state funding that was slated to go towards the Tampa Bay Rays’ proposed new training site in suburban Tampa’s Pasco County. But according to the national conservative-leaning sports website Outkick, it was in response to the Rays using their social media during a recent series with the rival New York Yankees to promote efforts to curb gun violence. Among those efforts were Tweets announcing they had donated $50,000 to Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety.
The Yankees for their part also used social media during that recent series to promote similar action. Other pro sports teams, athletes and coaches have also come out in recent days supporting anti-gun efforts in the wake of the recent mass shootings around the country, most notably the ones in Uvalde, TX, Tulsa, OK, and Buffalo, NY.