Hi, Random Angry Reader. I’m sad you had this reaction to Steve Drunwright’s Pitcher List newsletter today discussing the Dodgers’ visit to the White House. It appears you’ve made a choice to feel personally attacked by his words, and now you find it important for me to know your anger. To answer your question, I am incredibly fortunate to have the honor of working with Steve Drumwright and proud to have a staff writer who can eloquently express what needs to be said as a representative of Pitcher List. If our conviction to be a voice for those who need it most makes you uncomfortable, I understand and thank you for supporting us as long as you have. Now you’ll have to forgive me, but I feel the need to say more. These tweets, emails, and messages are all the same. It’s typically someone choosing to feel personally attacked, a statement along the lines of "Keep politics out of baseball/sports,” and finishing with a threat to cancel their sub or stop following otherwise. What is so often ignored until the very moment they hit send is how deeply baseball and politics are entwined. There are countless moments where they have collided, from Jackie Robinson, to Curtis Flood, Congressional hearings on Steroids, George W. Bush's perfect first pitch, and so on. We start our games with the national anthem and many sing God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch. Our mission statement at Pitcher List is Baseball For All. When someone involved with our favorite sport exemplifies the very opposite of that statement, it damages our game. It thins our community, weakens its popularity, and unnecessarily ostracizes passionate fans who simply want to exist and love this game for what it is. There is a simple difference between our voice and someone like Landen Roupp defacing his Pride Hat with a Genesis quote or baseball players smiling and shaking hands with a person who has so openly vilified them. We are defending many who are being damaged by a single person. They are a single person normalizing the hate of many. We are not the same. Most random angry readers send messages like these as an act to show power in an effort to change our ways. To quiet us down at a time when we need to be louder. However, it only showcases why it's so important for us to speak up. Random Angry Reader, I’m not going to assume you are one, though your message here reminds me of the countless remarks I've received over the years. I hope we can have an honest conversation about what made Steve's email upset you to the point of expending energy to tweet aggressively about it. I understand if we cannot and I wish you the best. I hope you can still enjoy our work here, because baseball is for all. AGA, -Nick