Long Before Colin Kaepernick, 3 San Diego Padres Joined John Birch Society

Long before Colin Kaepernick, there was a protest of a different sort brewing in the San Diego Padres' clubhouse. I broke a story in 1984, during my days at the Los Angeles Times, about three-fifths of the Padres' starting rotation becoming outspoken members of the John Birch Society. Bryan Curtis of The Ringer, which covers sports, pop culture and tech, revisited the Padres-Bircher issue this past week in a terrific piece that raises fascinating issues vis-à-vis Kaepernick, about the sports world's latest brush with politics and whether athletes stand or kneel during the national anthem. For that matter, the story also causes us to reflect on Dallas in 1963, a so-called "city of hate" that once served as the regional headquarters of the John Birch Society, which recruited the Padres.  Continue reading...