Officials with Major League Baseball say they’re investigating a “violent” pro-Trump tweet sent by one of their umpires, Rod Drake.
Drake is, reportedly, a fan of President Donald Trump and decidedly not a fan of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, a point he made very clear last week when he suggested that, in the event of a civil war, he planned to be armed with an AR-15.
“Drake, 50, made his major league debut in 1999 and has been a full-time major league umpire since 2010. He worked postseason games in 2010 and 2012 through ’15, and was on the crew at the All-Star Game in 2013,” according to ESPN.
“I will be buying an AR-15 tomorrow, because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL [sic] WAR!!! #MAGA2020,” Drake tweeted from his private Twitter account, which has since been deleted.
The threat was the last in a series of thoughts Drake had on the impeachment process and the series of closed-door and SCIF meetings Democrats held this week on Capitol Hill, where they questioned witnesses and viewed confidential and classified documents.
“We have a political party trying to overthrow a president by lying, hiding, creating and manufacturing crimes. Where do we live? This is the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! This isn’t Russia, Venezuela, Cuba,” Drake posted, according to another Twitter account which claims to have screenshotted Drake’s tweets before Drake took his account private and then removed himself from the social media platform.
“You can’t do an impeachment inquiry from the basement of Capital [sic] Hill without even a vote! What is going on in this country?” Drake continued.
Drake also regular retweeted social media missives about the conspiracy theory, QAnon.
ESPN, which apparently keeps track of baseball officials’ Twitter accounts, caught the tweets and publicized them, alerting MLB higher-ups of Drake’s threatened gun violence.
Fox News reports that the MLB has initiated an investigation into Drake’s tweets and could sanction him for making overt political statements. Unlike the NFL, which clearly allows its players and officials to comment on current events and public issues (and, it seems, the NBA), the MLB has strict rules on what players, umpires, and league higher-ups can say publicly. If Drake ran afoul of these rules, he could face punishment.
Players can’t make what can be construed as official club or league statements without permission;
Players can’t use copyrighted team logos and stuff without permission or tweet confidential or private information about teams or players, their families, etc.;
Players can’t link to any MLB website or platform from social media without permission;
No tweets condoning or appearing to condone the use of substances on the MLB banned drug list
No ripping umpires or questioning their integrity;
No racial, sexist, homophobic, anti-religious, etc. etc. content;
No harassment or threats of violence;
Nothing sexually explicit;
Nothing otherwise illegal.
Tehnically, Drake’s comments don’t fall under any of the banned topics, though the league may decide that his comments about gun ownership are a bridge too far, even if his personal political beliefs are clearly his own.