“Sports,” suggests Noam Chomsky, “keeps people from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something about.”
Or do they?
Visitors to the legendary Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY have been treated to an unlikely exhibit this summer: the Tax Dodgers.
The display, which includes a Tax Dodgers shirt (and closely resembles that of the actual L.A. Dodgers team) and the accompanying 1% cap, “is part of the ‘Today’s Game’ exhibit, which features objects from the most important events happening in baseball this year, be they on or off the field,” reads the Tax Dodgers news release.
The exhibit’s caption reads:
“The Tax Dodgers, a street theater project of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, do not actually play baseball games. Instead, they use humor and baseball metaphors to entertain their audiences and promote discussion about the American economy. In mock support of certain large corporations, all of the Tax Dodgers wear caps and jerseys with the same number, “1%.”
Why would the Baseball Hall of Fame do this?
“The items, which were donated by a satirical street theater group tied to Occupy Wall Street, have been included in the Hall of Fame Museum not because of their political content but because they reflect baseball’s prominent place in the national landscape,” reports the New York Times.
“Baseball is a pervasive part of the American vernacular,” explains Tom Shieber, the museum’s senior curator. “It’s a language we all speak.”
To which G.E., apparent clean up hitter for the Tax Dodgers, adds, “Baseball is American as apple pie, but evading taxes is a piece of cake.”
Earlier this year, Amy Goodman caught up with the Tax Dodgers outside of the Trump Tower, in midtown Manhattan, where the team did a brief interview for Democracy Now! before singing their own version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Later in the summer, members of the Tax Dodgers (including their cheerleaders, the Loopholes) were on hand at the Baseball Hall of Fame for their Cooperstown display.
It is not known whether or not Noam Chomsky has visited the exhibit.
