Results tagged ‘ Politics ’
A Bit Of Clarification For The Fans
Here’s a nice comment I got earlier today for a blog I wrote on December 23rd that
contained a little riff on Sarah Palin:
Paul,
i respect your thoughts on the baseball world, but im sorry to say that you are stupid left-wing dumb as a door knob liberal.
you disgust me
Actually, I’m politically quite moderate and, if anything, lean
towards the right; and I don’t think unloading on Sarah Palin qualifies
one as a left-wing liberal; it’s not a “left-wing” or “right-wing”
thing; it’s taking offense at the sheer thoughtless nature of picking
someone who’s 
so completely inept.
This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the number of
people who respect my thoughts on the baseball world is slowly but
surely catching up to the number of people who think I’m disgusting,
but the two rolled into one? It’s a bit hard to reconcile. I…am…not…an…animal!!!!
Why Are The Yankees Reluctant To Sign Wang To A Long-Term Contract?
- Yankees avoid arbitration with Chien-Ming Wang; but why no long-term contract?
The Yankees avoided arbitration with righty Chien-Ming Wang by agreeing to a 1-year, $5 million contract—-ESPN Story. Since his big league arrival in 2005, Wang has been one of the most consistent pitchers in baseball. He doesn’t give up many homers; he throws strikes; he’s durable; and he wins. He had some shoulder trouble in the minors that required surgery and a scare in his rookie season that turned out to be tendinitis, but other than that, he hasn’t had any arm problems.
Having been a 19-game winner in 2006 and 2007, Wang was well on his way to another season of 17-20 wins in 2008 before injuring his ankle running the bases against the Astros. With the Yankees rolling the dice on a pitcher like A.J. Burnett with 
his rap sheet of injuries and inconsistency in every season other than a contract year, why would they continue to go year-by-year with a pitcher like Wang, who would be perfectly willing to negotiate a long-term contract which would save money for the Yankees in the long run?
Wang has been criticized for not being a prototypical “ace” and for not pitching well in the post-season, but compared to C.C. Sabathia’s post-season record, Wang looks like Josh Beckett; but Sabathia, four months younger than Wang, just received a contract upwards of $160 million, while Wang had to
negotiate to get $5 million. That’s not to imply that Wang deserves Sabathia’s kind of money, but if he were on the free agent market, how much would Wang get from a desperate team? He wouldn’t get the Sabathia contract, but nor would he get the Burnett contract; he’d fall somewhere in between. To continue to haggle with a pitcher like Wang is either going to cost the Yankees a load of money, run the risk of Wang leaving for another team, or both, because if he is allowed to go out on the market, they’re going to either have to pay him lucratively or replace him with a lesser and more expensive pitcher.
It should also be mentioned that the current baseball world is such that a pitcher like Nate Robertson signed a long-term contract for over $20 
million; Randy Wolf is probably going to get at least $9 million per year from someone; Tim Redding is going to get more money than Chien-Ming Wang and it doesn’t make sense. What makes it even more nonsensical is that this is the Yankees we’re talking about; even if they sign Wang to a contract similar to what Carl Pavano received through his first couple of years eligible for free agency, how much money would Wang be worth in comparison to the other pitchers the Yankees have brought in without success? Unless there are issues behind the scenes we don’t know about, what would be the reason for their frugality with this one player who has done everything they’ve asked and more up to now? It’s very hard to understand and might be a big mistake.
- The world dodges a bullet:
It’s all funny now, but watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, during a “greatest
hits” compilation of former GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, it occurred to me how close the world came to having this borderline clueless, incoherent, radical right-wing, religious fanatic as the next person in line to run the free world if something happened to the 72-year-old former POW who would’ve been president. When thinking about it, we should all be frightened of just what would’ve happened had Sen. John McCain won the presidency.
In his public appearances since the election, McCain has appeared as if the entire weight of the campaign and stress of running for president hit him all at once when he finally got a chance to rest. What would’ve happened had he entered the Oval Office and died shortly thereafter? Given he lack of knowledge of anything other than a series of scripted talking points and her only attributes being attractiveness and charm (she was 
beauty pageant contestant, remember), a “President Palin” would’ve made George W. Bush look like Abraham Lincoln.
That the power brokers in the republican party, who extolled Gov. Palin’s virtues as a candidate before the election, are finally telling the truth and saying that they knew she was unqualified and unprepared for the job and they picked her anyway for political expediency while still having the audacity to use the slogan of “Country First”, should be a worse nightmare than anything Stephen King could conjure.
Now comes the revelation that the mother of Bristol Palin’s fiance was arrested on six felony drug counts in Wasilla, Alaska—-NY Times Story. By the logic of Gov. Palin and her
repeated attacks of President-Elect Barack Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers as they, according to her, “palled around”, doesn’t that mean that Gov. Palin “palled around” with a drug felon? Or is there going to be selective definition of the term “palled around” just as there was selective use of the truth with much of what Gov. Palin said and did?
It’s funny to look back at the campaign and the absurd things that the republican party said and did in regards to their vice-presidential nominee; it’s entertaining to laugh at the dead-on imitation of Gov. Palin by Tina Fey; it’s easy to reflect on what might have been had McCain/Palin somehow won; and it’s fun to imagine what kind of landslide will occur if Sarah Palin is the republican nominee for president 
in 2012 (and she might be despite the ludicrous idea of such a nomination; if the republicans see that they’re going to lose, she’s a perfect sacrificial lamb); but we, as a country, have to look at the system that allows someone of such limited intelligence and flimsy resume to get that close to the most powerful position in the world and think long and hard before making the same mistake again. That’s after we stop laughing to keep the nightmares at bay and really think about how close we came to completely destroying ourselves.
The Prince Of New York’s Sunday Lightning, 11.9.2008
- The Worst Team Money Could Buy, Part II:
Earlier in the year, when the Tigers were struggling, I speculated that if they kept on that road, they’d be compared with another team that had wheeled and dealed to field…*
*”wheeled and dealed to field”? Is that iambic pentameter?
…a team of all stars only to see the end result a flawed and heartless group of selfish 
infighters who stumbled to the bottom of their division and became a laughingstock. Two Mets beat writers—-Bob Klapisch and John Harper—-wrote a book detailing that 1992 season entitled The Worst Team Money Could Buy. As I’ve said before, the book is self-serving, self-justifying and flawed, but it does enough to document what went wrong with that Mets team. Now that the 2008 season is over, we can compare how the two teams were built and how the 2008 Tigers are in fact worse than that Mets team.
The 1991 Mets had faltered after years of continuous contention. After Joe McIlvaine surprisingly left to become the GM of the San Diego Padres, the Mets were left with the financial guy in the front office, Al Harazin, and the soon-to-retire Frank Cashen. Harazin was criticized for throwing money at the Mets problems, paying little attention to team chemistry and making deals based on the goal of being feted by the press, but the truth was, there was little to criticize in the moves he made in the winter of 1991/92.
Harazin signed the biggest name on the free agent market in Bobby Bonilla; a Hall of
Famer in Eddie Murray; traded for two-time Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen and jettisoned two players who were unpopular in the clubhouse due to perceived apathy (Kevin McReynolds) and selfishness (Gregg Jefferies). He also hired the then well-regarded former manager of the Chicago White Sox, Jeff Torborg. In looking at the decisions objectively, the team as constructed would still be considered the favorites in the National League even in retrospect knowing that they only won 72 games and were an embarrassment on and off the field.
None of the players that Harazin dumped (in that off-season anyway), became much of anything. McReynolds was done; Jefferies never fulfilled his potential. It just so happened that Torborg was (and is) a very nice, smart man who overdid the by-the-book, computerized matchups and statistics over in the trenches, hard core managing and baseball 
guy toughness. Bonilla and Murray were ill-suited to New York; the Mets got the Saberhagen who was a frequent resident of the disabled list instead of one of baseball’s best pitchers.
The Mets also made some other drastic mistakes that season such as thinking that Howard Johnson could play center field and that Bill Pecota could be an
everyday third baseman. As the season wound down, Harazin made the unforgivable mistake of trading ace and impending free agent David Cone to the Blue Jays without offering him around the league to start a bidding war; the return on that deal of Jeff Kent (years before he became Jeff Kent) and a movie star handsome (with an ego to match) outfielder named Ryan Thompson whose style far 
surpassed his substance was not what could’ve been netted by an experienced GM and talent evaluator. That season and those decisions sent the mighty Mets from the 80s into a tailspin that resulted in years of mediocrity and worse until McIlvaine returned and hired Bobby Valentine to manage the team.
In many ways, the 2008 Tigers have fewer excuses than those Mets. The Tigers did similar things in the winter of 2007-08 to address their holes and acquire stars. I still contend (this has never been denied or affirmed) that the Tigers had no intention whatsoever of going after either Miguel Cabrera or Dontrelle Willis; they acquired Edgar Renteria from the Braves to play shortstop (for Jair Jurrjens, who’s going to be an All Star) and moved Carlos Guillen to first base; then
came the blockbuster deal that fell into their laps for Cabrera and Willis at the cost of pretty much the rest of the Tigers farm system, including top prospects lefty Andrew Miller and outfielder Cameron Maybin.
Cabrera’s going to be an All Star and MVP candidate every year; but Willis was signed to a long-term deal and seems to have fallen apart. Renteria’s range is gone, the Tigers declined his option and he’s proven that he’s a National League player; Guillen couldn’t play first base and Tigers manager Jim Leyland kept rearranging his infield and outfield on what felt like a daily basis. The Tigers bullpen, which was a question mark with the age of Todd Jones and injuries to Joel Zumaya, was a case of whatever could go wrong, going wrong. The starting rotation, like the 1992 Mets, was supposed to field a potential ace every night, but Nate Robertson and Justin Verlander were atrocious; Kenny Rogers got old overnight; Willis lost the strike zone and his unique mechanics came undone; and Jeremy Bonderman got hurt.
In many ways, the Tigers of 2008 were far worse than those Mets
because as flawed as 
Harazin was as GM, Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski is a respected, veteran, talent evaluator who made aggressive decisions before really thinking them through with the worst-case scenario in mind; that worst-case scenario eventually became reality. Torborg was what he was as a manager and didn’t have the capacity to handle the entirety of the job as manager as Leyland does. If Torborg wasn’t much of a manager to begin with and was a mistaken hire, then not as much blame can be placed on his shoulders; the opposite is true with Leyland. Leyland is supposed to be the guy who puts the pieces together and gets the most out of his players while figuring out how to overcome obstacles.
The end result was a series of position changes; media wars with players like Gary Sheffield and Ivan Rodriguez; and repeated temper tantrums as things fell apart.
In the final analysis, the 2008 Tigers with their $138 million payroll and those 1992 Mets, who had the highest payroll in baseball at $40+ million (that was a long time ago), were very similar; but the Tigers had a better manager; a better GM and more of an opportunity to make the playoffs with four available spots in each league instead of two. One thing both may have in common is that there’s a very real possibility that the Tigers tattered farm system and aging roster is going to cause them to stumble to the depths in a similar way to the Mets of the early 90s; it takes years to clear out those highly paid veterans and rebuild the farm system; that’s something the Tigers are about to see as they pay for their mistakes with a lot of losses.
- Willie Randolph to be Ken Macha’s bench coach in Milwaukee:
Macha only received a two-year deal as manager, so there’s more to Randolph accepting
this position than just a job and to help out an organization with whom Randolph has a good relationship. Randolph was one of the finalists for the Brewers job and, while he has an out clause in his contract if someone (specifically the Mariners at the moment) want to hire him to manage, he’s in a good position to take over in Milwaukee if Macha doesn’t work out; and with the way the team’s constructed with a bad bullpen and dwindling starting rotation, they’re going to have problems contending next year. Randolph may actually be better off that he didn’t get the job and he can replenish his image as a bench coach until someone decides to give him another shot as manager.
- NEWSFLASH—-the Braves do not need Jake Peavy:
It’s lost on the Braves front office that they do not have a very good team right now and they’re apparently trying to placate manager Bobby Cox and the fans by not doing the right 
thing by starting to rebuild. No one’s saying that they should be trading veteran stars like Chipper Jones (although it’s something to consider), and cut payroll to Marlins-like levels, but they do not need Jake Peavy, especially at the expense of three or four young players. The latest rumors—-Yunel Escobar, Charlie Morton, Gorkys Hernandez, etc.—-are irrelevant. Would Peavy make the Braves better next year? If he stays healthy, yes; but the Braves are in a division with the Mets and Phillies and are going to be, at best, a .500 team next year.
Peavy doesn’t fix their woeful bullpen; he doesn’t turn back the clock ten years for Tom
Glavine and John Smoltz; he doesn’t expedite Tim Hudson’s return from Tommy John surgery; and he doesn’t help their offense. The days of the Braves rebuilding on the fly and continuing to contend are over and the sooner they accept it, the better; and what are they going to do if Peavy shows up and his stressful motion finally blows 
out his arm?
It looks like team president John Schuerholz and GM Frank Wren are desperate to keep Cox happy, but if what’s best for the team is to keep their youngsters and rebuild, and Cox can’t accept that, then they have to move on; and how much longer are they expecting Cox, at age 67, to continue managing anyway? This deal would do more harm than good with the way the Braves are currently built and if they make the move, they’ll learn that the hard way.
- The stationary targets:
The easiest thing to do in the wake of President Elect Barack Obama’s election is to take
potshots at the lunatic fringe/idealogues/mouthpieces as they lament the beating their twisted version of the GOP received.
There’s the Focus on the Family hypocrite James Dobson, who claims to be an evangelical Christian as he’s praying for rain to halt the Democratic Convention, and endorsing Sarah Palin and shrugging off her daughter’s pregnancy outside the religious right’s version of the sanctity of marriage.
There’s Sean Hannity who suffers from one of the following three afflictions: 1) he’s remarkably stupid; 2) he really believes some of 
the stuff he says (the United States has the greatest health care system in the world is a fine example
); or 3) he’s giving his listeners what they want and making a load of money doing it.
There’s Curt Schilling with his right wing politics; ignorant rants about which he knows almost nothing other than party lines; and overt, gag-inducing lack of writing skill.
But the one person whose reaction would be the stuff of a reality show is that hick/yokel/buffoon sheriff who 
made it a point to mention Obama’s middle name as if it were some derogatory designation. It’s the man’s name!!! If there’s anyone who deserves to have the victors gloat, taunt and do obnoxious touchdown celebrations that would make Ray Lewis and his overdone celebrations stop and say, “that’s over the line”, it’s that sheriff. That’ll be President Barack Hussein Obama soon enough, my friend. Get used to it.
President-Elect Barack Obama
I’m glad that’s over so I can finally start worrying about the Mets finding a closer.
If He’s Up There, Wouldn’t God Have More Important Things To Do?
- The in-game and post-game prayers are getting tiresome:
Not to denigrate anyone’s religious beliefs (whatever gets you through the day is alright
with me as long as it’s not hurting anyone else), but why is it that just about every time the cameras capture Jimmy Rollins—-in the batter’s box; in the dugout; on the field—-he either has his eyes closed in deep prayer or is pointing towards the sky? And it’s not only when he does something like homer or get a base hit or whatever, but when his teammates are batting, when pitching changes are made, and whenever else he thinks the Phillies need some divine intervention. If there’s a God up there, wouldn’t he have more important things to do than worry about whether Pedro Feliz gets a base hit against a righty with two runners on base?
I understand guys use belief to help them perform, but there seems to be an idea that some higher power cares about who wins a baseball game and that one side should be favored over the other because they had more pious players. None other than Mike Tyson said something intelligent when Evander Holyfield was going on about how his fight with 
Tyson was blessed and how good God is and blah, blah, blah. Tyson openly wondered why God would care one way or the other and would choose to align himself with one side over the other since both were presumably His children.
There’s no way to stop it and people like me and (I would just bet) numerous teammates of these players who so openly spout their religious beliefs are uncomfortable with the invocation of religion into a game, but it’s all over the place now and there’s always an excuse when it doesn’t result in a player succeeding. Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez points to the sky after every save as if his curveball was somehow enhanced by his enthusiastic belief, but I didn’t see him pointing toward the sky or looking up and
shrugging in bewilderment as to why he was forsaken when J.D. Drew’s homer when sailing into the seats at Angels Stadium.
Teams have broken into factions based on their religious beliefs and I don’t think it’s conducive to team building. The Rockies have become one of the most conservative Christian organizations in baseball amid allegations that a chunk of the “believers” are just going along to keep their jobs and I don’t want to see it anymore. I can’t believe I’m the only one rolling his eyes when he sees Rollins with his eyes closed in prayer or pointing to the skies in gratitude when he bunts for a base hit, but is anyone going to say anything? Or will they keep silent to keep the peace. I’d bet on the latter.
The one thing I don’t want to see happen is the hijacking of baseball clubhouses just as the Republican party (which used to be about money, small government and a semblance of order) has had the religious right take over the entire place to the point that if you don’t believe 
in Jesus, then you’re either condescended to or treated as a pariah. The result we see from this is the election of a guy who quotes scripture and (I believe disingenuously) claims to be “born again” for political expediency or to justify himself; the result we see is someone like Sarah Palin who has no qualifications to hold high office other than she’s a conservative Christian. Everyone who’s secular or has the ability to separate religion from other aspects of their lives is uncomfortable with it, but no one says anything and I’m tired of it, and I can’t believe I’m the only one.
- Maybe the Mets should’ve tried this with Willie Randolph:
New York Rangers head coach Tom Renney was accidentally bonked on the head by a stick and briefly knocked unconscious, forcing him from the game in Columbus against the
Blue Jackets—-ESPN Story. I can’t believe it was intentional because the players seem to like Renney, but maybe all the tension in the Mets clubhouse between the players and Willie Randolph would’ve been alleviated had someone “accidentally” hit him over the head once or twice. (Not Carlos Delgado though, because I think he would’ve gotten carried away.)
All (half) kidding aside and speaking of Randolph, he turned down an offer to be a coach for the Washington Nationals to wait out Doug Melvin’s decision as to who’s going to manage the Brewers next year. If this story from ESPN is correct—-Link—-then it sounds like he’s got a legit shot to get the job; and if the three finalists are Randolph, Ken Macha and Bob Brenly, I’d pick Randolph.
The players in Oakland didn’t seem to like Macha all that much while he was managing the 
A’s and I don’t think guys his age are going to change from that old-school mentality that alienates many younger players; besides that his reputed Brutus-like betrayal of Art Howe would give me a big problem.
No matter what anyone says about Howe, if you can’t get along with him and don’t like working for him, you can’t get along with anyone and wouldn’t be able to work for anyone.
I’ve gone on about my feelings regarding Brenly as well. The one story I can remember about Brenly was after the Mets fired Howe and GM Omar Minaya was a guest on Mike and the Mad Dog and Chris Russo (Remember him? He used to be on the radio.) kept mentioning Brenly as a possible managerial choice for the Mets; Brenly
was reportedly so eager that he called the Mets looking for an interview. It was clear through Minaya’s diplomatic tone and the words he didn’t say that he didn’t think much of Brenly’s managerial skills, but didn’t come out and say it.*
*One of the things I’d have to work on if I were ever in that position would be my tendency to air my feelings publicly without intent. If that were me, the conversation would’ve gone something like this:
Russo: What about Brenly?
The Prince: What about him?
Russo: Are you gonna bring in Brenly for an interview?
The Prince: To do what?
Russo: As manager.
The Prince: Gimme a break, huh?
The Mets went on and hired Randolph and Brenly is still in the Cubs broadcast booth, where he should stay.
That leaves Randolph. I think that much of Randolph’s difficulty with the Mets was from not
having any managerial experience; being too rigid; having trouble with the New York media; and in-fighting with the front office. He’s smart enough to have learned his lesson and I would think that the more laid-back atmosphere of Milwaukee, along with a younger team and a GM in Melvin who wouldn’t let such tension fester as it did in New York would give Randolph a better chance to succeed. Of those three guys, Randolph would be the best choice on and off the field.
Umpires In Control
- Dodgers 7-Phillies 2; the umpires were in charge:
This is what happens when common sense and good umpiring controls a game—-the
players police themselves; the retaliation for brushbacks were allowed; the bad blood ran its course; everyone feels protected and vindicated and the game can go on without anymore festering resentment and anger than would be normal during an intense playoff series.
How many games do we see during the course of a season where the umpires (veterans and not) overreact to inadvertent hit by pitches or brushbacks, warn the benches, eject pitchers for no reason (such as when they hit batters with breaking pitches or changeups) and stoke a building fire rather than extinguish it? One of the advantages of the “All Star” crew of umpires is that they have the respect of the players, coaches and managers and know how to handle the calls and the extracuricular stuff that might go on.
Many umpires might have overreacted to the two pitches that got Russell Martin angry and 
warned both benches so that the Dodgers wouldn’t have a chance to retaliate; but home plate umpire Mike Everitt handled things exactly right by giving the Dodgers Hiroki Kuroda one free shot to even things up and then issued the warnings to prevent things from really carrying over. It was even more impressive when Martin was hit later in the game by Chad Durbin that everyone understood that it was a changeup and no intent was involved.
The Dodgers were openly angry after game two as Chad Billingsley let Brett Myers and the Phillies clearly throw at Manny Ramirez without response; and once the Phillies really started knocking Billingsley around, it would’ve been easy for him to drill someone to put an end to the back-and-forth right then and there; instead, the bad blood festered, seeped into the Dodgers clubhouse and ignited another set of factional lines between youngsters and veterans that manager Joe Torre was specifically hired to bring under control.
Kuroda wasn’t trying to hit Shane Victorino in the head and it’s easy to say the pitch wasn’t even close when watching it on TV and not standing in the batter’s box with a 90+ mph
fastball coming at you, but the pitch was more of a message that enough’s enough than anything else. (It’s also amazing that Kuroda was able to communicate with Victorino as they crossed paths after the inning ended; I don’t think Victorino speaks Japanese and Kuroda has the requisite interpreter to deal with the media.) I doubt from here on in that this is going to turn into a beanball war; the Phillies know that the line of bullying shouldn’t be crossed to the degree that they were trying to cross it and the Dodgers don’t have to feel unprotected by their pitchers.
- Manny a tough guy or not?
Manny Ramirez doesn’t strike me as a guy who likes to fight; he’s more of a harmless soul who wants to play baseball and not have anyone bothering him with the world off the diamond other than giving him his paycheck; but it’s very interesting how in every brawl or shouting 
match, Manny is in the middle of it screaming at someone, comfortable in the knowledge that there are going to be twenty guys keeping him completely out of harm’s way because they need his bat in the lineup; because of that, he’s free to point, scream, shout and threaten and no one’s going to ever come anywhere close to hitting him, nor he them because his teams have needed his bat so much that they can’t afford to have him hurt or suspended.
What was funny was how Larry Bowa and Mariano Duncan for the Dodgers and Davey Lopes for the Phillies were shouting at each other. Bowa’s a maniac and Duncan’s a hothead. Lopes was a tough guy when he played as well, but does anyone want to see these middle-aged-plus men fighting? The one thing I remember about Duncan’s temper was a fight he had with the
Mets when he was a rookie playing for the Dodgers in 1985; he was shouting at Mets pitcher Ed Lynch, things went back and forth until Duncan charged the mound, which was a bad idea because Ray Knight (former Golden Gloves boxer and known leaguewide as a guy to avoid during an altercation) intercepted Duncan and started punching him. I think these guys are maintaining the feisty tempers they had as players, but are forgetting that they’re a bit too old to be getting into fistfights.
- J.A. Happ is impressive every time he pitches:
I’d never heard Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ as being one of their top prospects, but every time I see him, he’s impressive. He pitched very well in some fill-in starts over the course of the season and he looked good last night as if nothing can faze him. He can get a little wild, but he has the ability to wriggle out of trouble; if I were the Phillies, I’d use him as more than just a long man/playoffs innings eater.
- The return of the old John McCain on Friday; back to the right-wing mental case we don’t recognize on Monday:
I doubt I’m the only one who was comfortable with both party’s nominations for president in
mid-summer, but that was before John McCain lurched clumsily to the right to try and rally the irrationally conservative/religious right base that accounted for most of George W. Bush’s support. It’s clear that McCain hates them and they hate him, but they’ve joined forces in a marriage of convenience to benefit themselves.
McCain was the likable, shoot-from-the-hip, “straight talker” who most moderate democrats would’ve said, “we can live with him as president” until the last month when he picked an unqualified, unknown, right wing zealot o
f questionable intelligence as his running mate; until he started with the borderline racist rants against his opponent; until he became a schtick artist jumping from one populist theme and scheme to the next to try and save his flagging campaign. McCain saw himself what his rhetoric was doing as one extremist after another stood at his podiums and made derogatory and unnecessary comments about Barack Obama to increase the intensity of the attacks to dangerous levels.
The only remaining supporters he can count on are those who are so unintelligent or overtly 
racist that they don’t care that there’s a genuine possibility that Sarah Palin could be president within days after the inauguration; as long as they have someone who believes in Jesus and isn’t “uppity” enough to say things they don’t understand, it’s fine with them; and as long as the president isn’t black. On Friday, for the briefest of moments, McCain became the McCain we liked and respected in 2000; he didn’t kowtow to the people he loathes when he defended Obama from the ignorant comments from the elderly and angry that he couldn’t be trusted and was an “Arab” (as if that’s inherently something to avoid). The same crowd that he and Palin had fired up with their rants began to turn on him when he defended Obama as a patriotic American and a decent man; those crowds do not want to hear that; they want their racism and ingrained beliefs validated by their candidate and the other members of the crowd.
It’s as if McCain knows what he’s doing and doesn’t want to face it; it’s hard to imagine the same John McCain as in 2000 (who hates George Bush as much as he hates his base, but is now employing the same people who destroyed McCain’s more qualified candidacy in 2000 with lies and are trying to use the same strategies to cut down Obama) is able to comfortably look into the mirror at what he’s become; is comfortable leaving the country he loves and fought for and for whom he holds indelible scars in the hands of Palin; who wants to win this way; but just as he reverted into the old McCain on Friday, he’s gone back to his desperate and racially tinged attacks with the new statement of how he’s going to “whip” Obama’s “you-know-what” in, of all places, Virgina where such an attack will fit in perfectly with the racism that many southern whites are feeling at the prospect of an Obama presidency. For a fleeting moment, there was that brief flicker of the old McCain as he stood up to that crowd; but sadly, he’s gone back to the only things he has left—-fear and bigotry. Someone should ask John McCain: “After a mostly exemplary public life of sacrifice and selflessness, is this how he wants to be remembered? Is this how he wants to win?”
Gov. Sarah Palin vs Sen. Joe Biden
Gov. Sarah Palin (R), Alaska vs Sen. Joe Biden (D), Delaware:
- Keys for Palin:
If Sarah Palin walks out onto the stage and doesn’t stammer, stumble and create anymore
cringe-inducing moments of haplessness for which even the most hardened liberal couldn’t help but feel bad for her—-hell, if she doesn’t start fall into a comatose state like a drooling vegetable—-it will be seen a win/survival. The media has been repeating the idea that the bar has been set so low that anything resembling the barest minimum will be seen as a victory for her. Gov. Palin has put herself into this position of someone who’s so completely out of her depth and incompetent for this job that anything she does without embarrassing herself further will save her for another day, or at least until the next interview.
What she has to do is repeat the right-wing talking points, sticking to generalities without going too deeply into any subject with the same roundabout nonsense she uses when stumped in an interview. Bolstering her “credentials” with the religious right and “Joe Six Pack” by mentioning faith as often as possible and trying to appeal to those that are looking for a reason not to vote for Obama/Biden. She’ll have to have a sense of humor in addressing the humiliating string of interviews in which she’s been exposed to be as unprepared as she is.
- Keys for Biden:
All Biden needs to do is to make intelligent (and somewhat short) responses to the 
questions and not be condescending or intimidating to Palin. Although he’s very liberal, even the hardest of the hard-core republicans wouldn’t say he couldn’t handle being president if necessary. Biden makes his own gaffes relatively often, but has extensive experience with the inner workings of government and a full understanding of foreign policy.
Keeping in good humor and using a kindly, but not abusive tone in methodically chopping away at the veneer that is Sarah Palin while subtly letting it be known how frightening the prospect of a Palin presidency would be is all Biden needs to do. Any violation of Palin’s space or image of arrogance and pomposity would make Palin seem sympathetic and overcome any nonsense that comes out of her mouth.
- What will happen:
Palin will try to stick tightly to her script of acceptably generic answers without going into any specifics about which it’s clear she knows nothing. Palin has called both incomprehensibly stupid and unprepared to intelligent, but nervous and inexperienced. I can’t
say one way or the other what she really is intelligence-wise. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s of average intelligence but is uneducated and was unprepared for what she was about to endure as she accepted the vice presidential nomination. It can’t be easy for her family to see their wife and mother being battered around like this, but as some pundits on CNN said, this is the big leagues and you have to be able to hit the pitching. So far, she’s shown that she’s got neither the tools nor the ability to hit that pitching.
If she has another unforgivable gaffe—-the foreign policy absurdity; not knowing any supreme court cases other than Roe v Wade (things that are taught in high school); her complete inability to name any periodical she regularly reads—-the McCain campaign is going to see more and more supporters saying to get her off the ticket and they’re either going to go down in flames with her or find a reason to make the change. And this is a possibility.
I don’t know if anyone remembers the humilating debate in 1992 with Ross Perot’s running 
mate, Admiral James Stockdale as he muttered nonsequiturs and looked foolish, but if Palin can’t come up with anything of substance and says something so completely stupid that the calls to replace her will turn into demands, McCain won’t have a choice.
Biden’s going to be passive, but firm. He’ll have to keep his ego in check as he lets Palin hang herself with her pure inadequacy for the job; after tonight not even the lowest of the low bars that have been set for Palin based on her interviews and overt lack of knowledge is going to save her. It’s not Palin who’s the one to watch, but Biden; if he controls himself, the election could be, for all intents and purposes, over.
A Small Ray Of Sunshine Amid The Rain From The Natural Disasters
- Mets 7-Cubs 6:
Just another ho-hum night in the lives of the New York Mets; trying desperately to screw
up their entire season with another late September swoon; getting stunning contributions from such ne’er-do-wells (or rare-do-wells) like Ramon Martinez and Robinson Cancel; having Daniel Murphy miss a sign, bunt with two strikes and strike out (which emitted a rare show of emotion from stoic manager Jerry Manuel); Ryan Church’s bizarre, unintentional end-around slide that looked like the dance 
John Belushi was doing at the end of Animal House; and coming back from a 6-3 eighth inning deficit to win on a Carlos Beltran single in the bottom of the ninth.
The Mets are playing with fire just about every night now; usually it’s with the bullpen, but now it’s become clear that Pedro Martinez is no longer able to provide anything more than six innings and (if they’re lucky) four runs. It’s like throwing darts at a dartboard to see which reliever to use and Manuel guessed right tonight with Joe Smith (who’s usually reliable anyway). As for the appearance of the 35-year-old Ramon Martinez in the starting lineup—-why not? He couldn’t be any worse than Luis Castillo’s been over the last month and the bloom is off the rose from the “find” made by the Mets stat-guys in Argenis Reyes. (There are generally reasons why players are relegated to the minor leagues for the majority of their careers.) There’s no point in quibbling with anything as long as they win. Whatever works is going to be seen as the correct move and with the way the team is patched together with pitchers 3-14 on the staff, a win is a win is a win.
- Brewers 5-Pirates 1:
The game just ended about a minute-and-a-half ago and the Pirates are rotten. Just plain awful. The Brewers relievers did an above-and-beyond the call of duty job by keeping the game
close (admittedly against a Pirates lineup that would never be confused with the 1927 Yankees; or the 1627 Yankees—-and I know they didn’t exist then, that’s the joke), but like the Mets, a win is a win is a win.
The problem the Brewers now have is that they have no choice but to pitch Jeff Suppan tomorrow night against the Cubs and play while the Mets are likely to get rained out. The Cubs, while resting their regulars periodically in the Mets series, didn’t use Carlos Marmol last night or tonight and will undoubtedly be looking to get him some work in the Brewers series; they’ll also want to make sure to play the games to win just as they did against the Mets. After the way this last month has gone, I’m not even going to speculate on what might happen this weekend with either the Brewers, Mets or Phillies. Anything can happen and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a playoff game on Monday or even playoff games on Monday and Tuesday if all three end up tied—-a realistic possibility.
- The incoherent Sarah Palin:
I generally don’t indulge in capricious ridicule, but I’m trying to figure out what the John McCain campaign is trying to pull with Gov. Sarah Palin. They’ve kept her in a cocoon for a
month now, only letting her do select interviews with select reporters; keeping her under tight constraints and hoping to use her attractiveness and extreme right wing views as a shield for the fact that she’s not only unqualified to be vice president, but she’s incoherent, ludicrous and offensive to those that are able to look past their own agendas to accept what is best for the country.
For those that are still defending her after the video of her in church with a pastor whose sermons are far more frightening than anything Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor ever said, how is it possible to watch the two interviews that played today and still entertain the notion that she would be able to handle potentially being president of the United States in January? The brief time she spent at the podium following her tour of the World Trade Center site this afternoon showed her sticking to the basic, non-specific 
talking points of “taking the fight to the terrorists over there” rather than risking another attack. That was bad enough, but the interview with Katie Couric in which Gov. Palin sounded like a twelve-year-old taking an oral exam and trying to say a whole load of nonsensical stuff in the desperate attempt to hit on a couple of the answers to the questions and score some points was inexplicable. Palin was quite literally making no sense whatsoever in her ramble about how Alaska is close to both Russia and Canada and how Russia utilizes Alaskan airspace, etc. And Katie Couric ain’t exactly Mike Wallace when it comes to interviewing. At best Palin sounded incoherent and unprepared; at worst she sounded imbecilic.
Normally, this wouldn’t be such a problem, but the circumstances surrounding this election make the Palin choice so dangerous that there’s no way to know whether or not her blatant stupidity is going to result in a win for Obama. For all the polls that show Obama to be leading, there is always that possibility that people are saying one thing with the intention of doing another when they enter the voting booth. It may be because they’re embarrassed, don’t want to be seen as racist or whatever. Obama is so new, so different that it’s hard to believe the polls wholeheartedly. Add in that Sen. John McCain is 72-years-old; not in the greatest of health and is evidently so desperate to get elected that he’ll do and say anything to achieve that end, and this is a recipe for a dangerous disaster.
It takes a lot to frighten me, but the very idea of Sarah Palin as the president of the United
States is terrifying. She’s not just inexperienced anymore; every time sh
e opens her mouth, she’s proving herself to be woefully unprepared and bottom-line uninformed and unintelligent. The incoherence of her answers in every interview she does would normally disqualify her and by proxy, the man who picked her as his running mate. I have to believe that enough secular republicans are going to look at the situation and realize that the risk is too great and vote for Obama with an eye on 2012, but that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen. I’ve made it clear that I’m not a supporter of McCain (I liked him in 2000 and this isn’t the same guy), but I could live with him as president if he’d picked Mitt Romney or someone who would be a competent president. That is not the case with Sarah Palin and I can only hope that people watch the interview and put personal beliefs aside and send her back to Alaska because she’s completely inept and a true danger to us all.
By Monday, Both The Mets And Phillies May Be Heading For The Playoffs
- Phillies 6-Brewers 3:
The one game the Brewers had to win was last night’s; everything else for the rest of this
series was built on that. They had Ben Sheets going; they were facing a gutty, smart, but hittable pitcher in Jamie Moyer; and the Phillies were desperate and reeling knowing that they’d just lost two straight games to the Marlins and were in danger of falling five games behind the Mets in the loss column, which, last year aside, would have likely sealed their fate. Now it’s official, the Brewers are in the midst of an implosion and they’re going to miss the playoffs.
Despite the obvious flaws of the Phillies, they never quit. As was proven last year, they’re going to fight until every last ounce of blood and sweat is left on the field; is the same true with a Brewers team that is taking on the same tight, petrified countenance of their manager, Ned Yost? After last night’s favorable pitching matchup, the rest of the weekend is probably going to have at least two games in which the scores resemble something that would be analyzed on ESPN College GameDay instead of Baseball Tonight; and with the way the Brewers bullpen has detonated so many games, they’re going to be in big trouble if it’s close going past the seventh inning.
If Sheets wasn’t able to hold down the Phillies lineup, what chance do the likes of Manny 
Parra, Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan have in Citizens Bank Park? The Phillies pitching isn’t all that much better, but with Cole Hamels going tonight, they have the advantage; and Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick aren’t going to just give in to the Brewers bashers; plus this is a case where Phillies manager Charlie Manuel’s quick hook and overuse of his bullpen will be an advantage because the Brewers won’t be able to win a battle of the bullpens.
The Mets have a Braves team that doesn’t have the manpower or wherewithal to be able to win more than one game this weekend; if both the Mets and Phillies take care of business, both are going to be ahead of the Brewers and both are going to be in great position to make the playoffs.
And what of the Brewers? They’re going to have some tough questions to answer after the deadline deal for C.C. Sabathia; after they were rolling along and looking not only like a team that was going to make the playoffs, but a team that was primed to do serious damage in the
playoffs. I don’t know any team that would want to have to deal with the prospect of Sabathia and Sheets in a short series as both are looking to pad their resumes to make even more money in free agency this winter. At this rate, with the Phillies and Astros right behind them and closing fast, they need their back of the rotation pitchers and powerful lineup to step up and carry them home; considering the way they’re playing, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen and this is to the advantage of both the Mets and Phillies, for whom the road to the playoffs may not have anything to do with one another after all.
- I got the skillz to pay the billz and Canada’s Most Wanted:
I suppose I’ll take it as a compliment that so many Blue Jays fans who’ve gotten all riled
up over my cold-blooded and accurate assessment of their team of the past and future think I’m an embittered Yankee fan. If anything’s an indicator of my writing skills and an ability to stay neutral, it’s that. To adjust a quote by Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm (before it got really annoying), “I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish!”; I’m embittered, but it has nothing to do with being a Yankee fan; in fact, I’m a Mets fan, for which I think I have an ingrained right to be embittered. Good thing I didn’t say anything about the Maple Leafs. (Be on the lookout for the man on the right, he’s extremely dangerous and devastatingly good looking.)
- Governor Sarah Palin’s interview with Charles Gibson:
The interview hasn’t played yet, but the main points are already out in the media. The objective truth about the interview and Gov. Palin herself is that the country is running the risk
of electing as the Vice President for a 72-year-old man what amounts to a pretty version of George W. Bush from the year 2000. Charming, likable and ingratiating herself to the religious right with conservative values, references to God and vague populist talking points, Gov. Palin stays on message to a remarkable degree while clearly knowing very little in depth of what she’s talking about.
Those main points—-war with Russia is an option to protect Georgia; she was quoting Abraham Lincoln during that speech in her church about God and the Iraq war; she hadn’t the faintest idea what the “Bush Doctrine” is and what it entails—-are frightening to those that are in stunned disbelief of the idea that she’s capable of taking over as the President of the United States on a moment’s notice.
Does she really believe that a war with Russia, which was avoided during all those years of the Cold War, is an option while this country’s military is trapped in the Middle East? Is she suggesting military action to protect a small republic that is, in truth, of little import to the United States? Does John McCain believe that?
Is she expecting the public to think that she was studying the speeches of Abraham Lincoln to find quotes when referencing God as she discussed the Iraq war?
The sheer look of panic as her brain was searching for a way to stickhandle (let’s use a hockey term for the hockey mom) her way around the question without having a viable answer or even a passing knowledge of what the “Bush Doctrine” is was frightening and painful to watch.
The slogan for the McCain/Palin ticket is “Country First”. Is it in the country’s interest to put a 72-year-old man into the oval office with another version of George Bush as his VP? As Barack Obama says, it’s enough. Enough with the bullet points; enough with the populist speeches designed to attract the masses; enough with someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing and tries to pass off being able to “see Russia” from the Alaskan soil as foreign policy experience. And for those that are ready to say that she has as much experience as Obama, she doesn’t. Obama has been running for president for almost two years now and, with all due respect, I find it very difficult to believe that Gov. Palin is as smart and skilled as Obama. There’s a very real possibility that she’ll have to step in and be president very quickly and that is something that cannot be risked.
I’m very concerned that the Obama campaign is not hitting back as hard as they should against the republican campaign strategy for fear of being labeled as “sexist”. If anything should awaken the voting public of the danger of having someone with no experience whatsoever as a possible commander-in-chief, it should be the anniversary of September 11th.
Amid all the remembrances should be the scene of President Bush, sitting in that school classroom for seven long minutes after being informed of the attacks and not having the faintest idea of what to do. As much as it’s been spun with varying stories of the president not
wanting to alarm the children; of deliberating what to do next; of whatever reason they give for his lack of action and look on his face of sheer confusion and panic, does this country want to run the risk of putting another person of flimsy qualifications and questionable knowledge in that position? This has to be pointed out for what it is and the democrats have to take a page from the book of the republicans and point out these hard facts that the interview Gov. Palin hammered home.
The same mistake that the Gore campaign made against Bush cannot be made again. All along, I think the Gore people looked at then-Gov. Bush and thought that the public can’t be taken in by this; they can’t think that the Bush name recognition, support of the republican base and his likability will mask his complete 
inadequacy and unpreparedness for the job. They were outhustled; they underestimated the message of Bush as it was presented in simple and easy to understand well-articulated bullet points that were designed to attract swing voters who were sick of the Clintons. They shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders and thought, “no one’s gonna buy this crap”, and they lost. The Obama campaign is still in a great position, but they can’t repeat the mistakes of the past by being gentlemanly, because if Hillary Clinton were on the ticket, the republicans sure wouldn’t.
The Greatness Of Ben Sheets/The Risk Of Ben Sheets
- Mets 4-Brewers 2; why Ben Sheets is baseball’s biggest free agent prize/risk:
The biggest risk this off-season won’t be made by whichever team signs the likes of C.C.
Sabathia or the likely free agent A.J. Burnett; the biggest risk/reward will be made by the team that signs Ben Sheets of the Brewers. Yesterday’s game was a microcosm of Sheets’s career as he was unhittable for five innings against the Mets, using his Greg Maddux-level control along with a mid-90s fastball and a wicked curve to make the Mets look like they were an inning away from waving their hands at the field, shaking their heads, putting their bats away and going back to the hotel. Then after the fifth inning, Sheets was removed for a pinch-hitter because of tightness in his groin, the latest in a long line of injuries to just about every single part of his body going back the entire length of his career. The Mets eventually capitalized on the Brewers bullpen weakness to win the game.
Teams that are in the market for a starting pitcher after this season and have the money to pay for a pitcher of Sheets’s caliber are going to have to think long and hard about whether or not to take the risk of $100+ million on a pitcher who has that ability but medical history. It’s a positive that Sheets has made 27 starts this season after making a maximum of 24 in the past three years, but that can be accounted for by his impending free agency and a desire to prove that he’s durable enough to make such a massive investment.
Are the Yankees going to be willing to roll the dice on another high-end talent just as they’re getting out from under Carl Pavano’s contract? Are the Mets going to want another $100 million pitcher in their rotation? There’s been talk of Roy Oswalt openly recruiting Sheets to come to the Astros; and there are always the Angels, Red Sox and Dodgers who have the money to spend. The teams to watch are the ones who lose out on Sabathia because it would drastically increase Sheets’s paycheck if a team is desperate to add starting pitching and Sheets is the only big name left on the market.
The biggest problem with Sheets is that he’s got that incredible potential and is only thirty-years old, so if he goes to that new team and suddenly finds some durability, he could be a perennial Cy Young Award contender, but again it goes back to the historical problems with his entire musculature. The reason he’s so tough to hit is that he has that great control 
with all of his pitches; the hitters have to start hacking at the first thing upon which they think they have a chance of making solid contact, but it’s still a pitcher’s pitch; then they’re going to keep Sheets’s pitch count down because they can’t take pitches because he’s not going to walk anyone. When he was removed from yesterday’s game, he’d only thrown 54 pitches in five innings, so he was going to go at least until the eighth inning and would likely have pitched a complete game (that’s if the Mets didn’t just go back to the hotel). Someone’s going to write Sheets a big check after this season, then they’re going to hold their breath to see if they’re going to get a Cy Young contender or a guy that’s going to spend a chunk of that multi-year deal on the disabled list.
- Yankees 13-Tigers 9:
The Yankees problems this year in a nutshell: they scored thirteen runs yesterday and were about one or two Tigers hits from having to use Mariano Rivera to close the game.
- John McCain’s VP pick goes from bad to worse:
Since John McCain referenced Gov. Sarah Palin’s experience as a member of the Alaska
PTA as a reason for her being qualified to be vice president, it made me think that my mother is also qualified to be vice president. In fact, she was president of the PTA, which, common sense dictates would mean executive experience. It’s somewhat frightening that Gov. Palin is running a state whose population is roughly one-quarter the size of Brooklyn and was picked to be the running mate of a man who’s 72-years-old and is looking increasingly detached by the day. Just looking at the way the job of the presidency aged both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush should give people pause from taking the gamble of voting for McCain, but his VP pick should make it out of the question. The argument being proffered that people “don’t vote for vice presidents” makes sense if the president isn’t someone who’s at an age where he could, let’s be blunt, get sick or drop dead at any moment. This is not a normal year in presidential elections. Even with all of that, the new revelations are adding to the confounding nature of the pick.
Gov. Palin was chosen to placate the evangelical base of the Republican party, but what does it say about her qualifications as a “family values” candidate as she has a 17-year-old 
daughter who got pregnant outside of marriage? I’m not going to comment on the personal life Gov. Palin and her family, but the fact that they made it a point to cover her daughter with a blanket holding her baby sister to keep the pregnancy a secret makes me wonder what they were thinking about. It was like they were going day-by-day with the pick and would worry about what happened when the story leaked (it got out three days later) and try to spin their way out of it.
The reactions of the conservative commentators were laughable. Imagine if it were one of Barack Obama’s daughters who got pregnant; what would have been said in public (condescending and insulting) and in private (overtly racist) about him and his family? Just as much of the conservatives were trying to find ways to tout Gov. Palin’s qualifications while backtracking or twisting their comments on Sen. Obama’s lack of experience, they’re hit with this scandal. The Christian right would have had a field day if it were a candidate that wasn’t someone who they deemed appropriate and she’s still the choice of a man who’s 72-years-old.
The selection of Sarah Palin appeared to have been done without much thought and based
on little more than a “gut feeling” on the part of Sen. McCain, which should add more questions about his judgment than to his reputation as a
maverick who does things his own way. The obvious and smart pick for McCain was Mitt Romney despite any personal enmity between the two (even though those feelings seem to have cooled). Romney, despite his flip-flopping on issues is: the Republican former governor of a large, liberal state; has experience and grand success in business; and has run an almost impossible entity in the Olympic Games. Despite the contentious campaign, Romney is clearly a decent man who would be able to handle taking over as president if necessary. This isn’t to imply that there’s anything wrong with Sarah Palin or her family because her daughter made a mistake, but how was this not seen to be a problem when she was selected specifically because of her family values and beliefs?
The hypocrisy of the right wingers is absurd because the same people who would be lambasting Sen. Obama were he in the same position; and wanted Bill Clinton thrown out of office and into jail for perjury are defending the subterfuge of the blanket at the introductory press conference and are saying that it’s a “private family matter; they were also the ones who said that Scooter Libby shouldn’t have gotten any jail time for committing what was the same crime as Clinton was accused of committing. They leave out that it’s a bit different to out an undercover CIA operative based on political motives and a guy lying about a sexual liaison; that it’s a bit different when the conservative governor of a very small state is having the problems that a churchgoing, religious family is designed to avoid.
I’m no leftist loon either; I’ve voted for republicans and democrats. In fact, I was decidedly not a part of the 70% of New York State residents who voted for Gov. Eliot Spitzer; I couldn’t
tell you the name of the republican candidate, nor do I know anything about his platform or beliefs and I knew he was going to lose. Technically, I voted for the candidate, but in reality I was voting against Spitzer because I thought there was something creepy and disingenuous about him; and personally I don’t care if he goes to hookers, but it’s the smug sanctimoniousness and creepiness that I can’t abide. After the Black Sox scandal of his own making, it turns out my instincts about him were right and I believe that they’re right about this republican ticket. Vote for it at your and the United States’ own peril.
princeofny
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