Memo to Dave Roberts, the skipper of the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the guy set this year to head the National League All-Stars and the only Black Major League Baseball manager not named Dusty Baker:

While you’re deciding whether or not to protest the Mid-Summer Classic, slated for July in Atlanta, which is located in the same Georgia that just passed a racist voting law, think about two things.

Jackie and Nike.

As for those shoe folks who produce more than sneakers these days, they’re paying your team and the 29 others in baseball a total of $1 billion over the next 10 years for the rights to supply your uniforms.

So you know what Nike likes to say.

Just do it.

Just do the right thing, Mr. Roberts, and announce you’re skipping this All-Star Game since you’re not comfortable with a trip back to the 19th century.

I know you’re conflicted.

You told reporters last week: “I will certainly consider (boycotting the game). I don’t know enough about it right now. But when you’re restricting, trying to restrict American votes, American citizens, that’s alarming to me to hear it. As we get to that point and we know more, I will make a better decision. But I do think that if it gets to that point, it will certainly be a decision I have to make personally.”

Yeah, well. You can stop debating, and you can begin triggering a revolt among baseball executives, on-field personnel and players against holding this event in a state whose Republican legislators revived the Jim Crow South with new voting regulations, ranging from limiting the number of drop boxes to making it illegal to give those waiting in lines food and water.

Most of these changes target voters in predominantly Black Atlanta-area counties that contributed much to the elections of Democrat Joe Biden as president and the state’s first Black U.S. senator (Raphael Warnock) and first Jewish U.S. senator (Jon Ossoff), both Democrats.

That’s why Republication legislators enacted a voting law to turn Georgia’s political present and future into its past, which wasn’t good for minorities.

In contrast, Atlanta has been great for everybody around Georgia since its economy fuels the entire state, and much of that comes through sports.

You name it. Atlanta has hosted it.

Super Bowls, Final Fours, SEC Championship Games, NBA All-Star Games, huge NASCAR events and golf tournaments. The city even snatched the 1996 Olympics from Athens, Greece, where the whole thing began, and the Atlanta Sports Council is moving toward bringing 2026 World Cup matches to town.

Atlanta and Georgia need all of that.

The pandemic turned the state into a financial mess, partly due to Covid-19 killing the Final Four for Atlanta last spring.

Even so, Georgia State Economic Forecasting Center director Rajeev Dhawan predicted an economic expansion in the state of 3.2% at the end of this quarter on March 31, and he said it could reach 8% by the close of July.

Here’s the bottom line: At this point, among the last things those Republican legislators want in Atlanta is for those potentially sweet economic vibes to turn sour with no baseball All-Star Game at Truist Park, located in the middle of a huge business center (as in $$$$) for the Braves called the Battery.

Baseball’s last All-Star Game was two years ago in Cleveland, where the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission estimated the event’s direct business impact on the city was $65 million.

No offense to Cleveland, but Atlanta is more of a destination city. Which means it should generate at least that much revenue for an All-Star Game, especially with a new movie theater joining a slew of other attractions in the Battery.

See where this is going, Mr. Roberts?

Imagine the pressure you would put on those Republican legislators if you refused to manage in that game.

Imagine if you convinced your star player, Mookie Betts, to skip the game, and Betts is Black, earning an average of $30 million per season through 2023 on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Imagine if more prominent Black players joined Betts in this boycott, such as Aaron Judge and Tim Anderson.

Imagine if they triggered their peers to do the same, regardless of nationality, whether we’re talking about Mike Trout or Ronald Acuna, who join Betts among the game’s top five players, according to an ESPN survey.

Imagine what Jackie would do.

That’s Jackie, as in Jackie Robinson, who did more than break baseball’s color barrier when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. He was a civil rights icon before, during and afterward.

Three years prior to Jackie’s first Major League Baseball game, he was court-martialed by the Army for refusing to sit in the back of a military bus, and that was 11 years before Rosa Parks made history.

Jackie later faced hateful things (inside and outside his Dodgers clubhouse), and then he evolved into a political force. He strategized with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also spoke often about racism in baseball. Just nine days prior to his death at 53 in October 1972, he said on national television before Game 1 of the World Series in Cincinnati, “I’d like to live to see a black manager; I’d like to live to see the day when there’s a black man coaching at third base.”

He didn’t ... but he did.

Jackie’s spirit never died. Which means, Mr. Roberts, you can “just do” this boycott thing with no regrets.

Jackie is with you.