A majority of Americans disapprove of Major League Baseball’s decision to allow the relocation of batting helmet production to communist China, a new poll from the Trafalgar Group suggests.
In a survey of 1,084 likely voters polled from Oct. 26 through Oct. 28, Trafalgar found that 63 percent of American voters do not appreciate the decision by sports equipment company Rawlings, which is partially owned by MLB, to close down its Miken factory in Caledonia, Minnesota.
Of those polled, 43.8 percent said they “strongly disapprove” while 19.2 percent said they simply “disapprove.”
More than half of Democrats (53.7 percent) and more than half of those who do not identify as either Democrat or Republican (58.7 percent) also showed opposition to the relocation. A larger 78.1 percent of Republicans said they disliked the decision.
With the @MLB #WorldSeries this weekend, we found that #Americans aren’t on board with #MLB moving batting helmet manufacturing to #China.@trafalgar_group #poll conducted 10/26-28. Inspired by @bdomenech report on #FoxNewsPrimetime.
See Report: https://t.co/yBldFvi22x pic.twitter.com/OUXB9jk7vL
— Robert C. Cahaly (@RobertCahaly) October 29, 2021
Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech highlighted the decision to outsource work to communist China when he hosted Fox News Primetime earlier this month.
“If you build it, they will come. It was true in ‘Field of Dreams’ and it’s true now. Just ask the folks in Caledonia, Minnesota, home to the Miken sports plant which manufactures equipment for Major League Baseball. The plant is shutting down, shipping dozens of jobs to China as part of an MLB effort to partner with President Xi and build a ‘baseball ecosystem’ in China,” Domenech said.
The MLB claimed that Rawlings made the independent decision to outsource jobs to China but Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota said “it doesn’t make any sense to us.”
“It’s been a great company for 20 years. Excellent job. It’s really going to be a tough thing for our community and we’re appealing to MLB to change their mind,” Hagedorn said.
Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.