Quarterbacking the Elephants

It was January 1988 and I was a senior in high school, on a Model United Nations trip in Den Haag (The Hague). We shared a youth hostel with a school from Massachusetts. Hanging out with them one night, I asked them -- being the amateur political scientist that I was -- if they were all Dukakis fans. Oh, no, they replied -- they were all Republicans. Then you must all be for Bush, I inferred. This time the objections were even louder -- no, NO, NO! they insisted. They wanted Jack Kemp. All of them -- male, female, black, white -- nodded in agreement.

I can't say I was too familiar with the former AFL quarterback, then a Representative from western New York, or even that I knew he was running for president. A passionate supply-sider and Ronald Reagan's true ideological heir, Kemp never stood a chance against an incumbent Vice President, not to mention an over-confident televangelist who split the conservative vote.

Kemp, ever the good soldier, would go on to serve in the first Bush administration, somewhat miscast as HUD Secretary, then with Bush's defeat in 1992 he formed a conservative group which nearly everyone saw as a stepping stone to another presidential run. Yet he sat out 1996, and was on nobody's short list when Bob Dole tapped him as his running mate.

It was an inspired choice -- or so it seemed -- and for a few heady days that summer following the convention, the symmetrical Dole-Kemp ticket actually led in several polls. Kemp rallied diehard conservatives to the Republican ticket and it actually seemed like the GOP had a shot against the well-oiled, well-managed Clintonista regime. Here was a candidate who appealed to conservatives without offending liberals, who had legitimate deep roots in two bluish states (CA and NY, which, believe it or not, were still considered somewhat in play in 1996), who had genuine credentials with African-Americans, and who was solidly pro-Life without it being a hallmark of his ideology. Too good to be true -- right?

It was not to be, and although Clinton's re-election was almost inevitable, it could have been closer if Kemp hadn't completely disappeared in the last two months of the campaign. His pitiful peformance against the robotic AlGore in the VP debate that year was unforgivable, and was a signal even to the most devoted Republicans that the election was over.

But Quarterback Jack's most productive days had predated his 1988 campaign and subsequent falterings. He had advocated the Reagan economic agenda with more passion than anyone except perhaps Reagan himself, and set the course for a decade of prosperity and the defeat of Communism. The rest is a footnote. He will be missed.

They don't allow SCATES either...

This sign wouldn't be so egregious if it wasn't posted on the door of the local library.

Seriously.

Rumor has it...

that Arlen Specter is switching parties. But according to confirmed reports, he's still a Democrat. So I don't really know what the big deal is...

Thou Shalt Not Steal

Unless you're Jacoby Ellsbury against the Yankees on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Tampa...

Harry the K (1936-2009)

He wasn't the greatest broadcaster ever. An article even appeared in a Philadelphia magazine a few years ago speculating that he was "losing it." But, my goodness, what a voice! Maybe the best I've ever heard, on or off the radio. Some random memories of Harry Kalas --

(1) His call of Mike Schmidt's 500th career home run is my first conscious memory of hearing his voice, on a short-wave radio on the southern tip of Africa.

(2) I was a rookie radio "board op" in upstate NY in 1993. Driving to work one day, I had the station on and heard Larry King interviewing Harry Kalas and other radio voices (I think Jon Miller was among them). Our was, of course, a voice-oriented business, and we had fine-tuned ears to identify stronger and superior vocal talent, trying to develop our own vocal cords to a higher level and maybe land a job that would get us out from behind the board and instead behind a microphone. I had heard Harry before, of course, and knew his voice well. Upon arriving at the station, the operator I was relieving was sitting there in almost reverent silence listening to the conclusion of the interview. "Did you hear that voice?" she asked in a near-whisper, "I've never heard anything like that!"

(3) Beyond all that, however, he'll always be remembered in the Salad Bar for his narration of the commemorative video of the 2001 New England Patriots.

Rough Start

What a rotten week. We've lost a highly promising young pitcher, the greatest voice in radio history, and one of the most colorful diamond performers this side of Babe Ruth.

And the standings in the American League East are inverted.

Things can only get better...

Ahhhhhhhhh Spring!

Twilight of my Career

About five months ago, my daughter decided she wanted to play basketball. So we signed her up with the local youth association for their 5th & 6th grade girls league. The problem was, about 60 girls signed up and there were only four coaches. The math (15 to a team) wouldn't work at that level, so the coordinate sent several begging, pleading, desperate e-mails asking for some more coaches. Finally, I wrote back to him -- saying, basically -- I ruptured my right achilles tendon last April, so I can't run, can't jump, and, beyond that, even with two healthy legs I was a terrible player, and I'd never coached before and had no idea how I'd relate to a bunch of 10-12 year olds, but, if he was that desperate, I'd do my best to help out. As I've often said, crisis forces people to do strange things, so he accepted my offer, such as it was.

I was then warned, by others, that I would have two more problems -- the kids wouldn't listen, and the parents would complain. For whatever reason, neither of those conditions ever came to fruition. The young ladies were of the highest quality character, and many of the parents helped out with coaching and other stuff. We lost our first four games, but came together at the end to win our first playoff game, finishing the season somewhat shorthanded in our final playoff game, but a good run nonetheless.

So I guess I have to do this again next year when my daughter is in Sixth grade. I can only hope that I'll be just as lucky (if luck was involved) with the quality of the players and parents on next year's team.

I let them choose their team name -- they almost unanimously chose "Twilight" -- one of those irritatingly inflexible singular sports franchise tags (ie "Minnesota Wild" -- "Utah Jazz" -- "Stanford Cardinal" -- how do you cheer for one player?). I think it had something to do with vampires, but whatever. It was fun.

Cavalier Attitude

Hard to believe that it was twenty years ago this month. One of the few bright spots during the darkest of years. And one of the few good pictures ever taken of me, here with my first car, purchased March 9, 1989, and departed this world May 9, 1997. Taken to his final resting place under his own power November 14, 1997. "Roger," my 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier -- dependable, durable, reliable, loyal. Like his namesake, he never missed a start. Unlike his namesake, he was faithful to the end, and our treasured companion through the changes of life. through 73,700 miles, 5 addresses, 4 insurance carriers, 3 states , 2 engines, and zero accidents. RIP old friend -- you earned it.

Paul Harvey (1918-2009)

My comments as posted on the official Paul Harvey website:

"Paul Harvey was, almost without question, the greatest radio broadcaster in history. Nobody did it better, or longer. And what a terrific voice! He instinctively knew how to blend solid reporting, great writing, broadcasting style, salesmanship and humor. Many have tried, and most have failed, to achieve even a portion of his success, relying instead on celebrity or pomposity as their foundation, neglecting those fundamentals that Paul Harvey mastered early in his career. There will never be another Paul Harvey. RIP."

Fair-Not Doctrine

The passing of Paul Harvey (official website here) marks the end of one of the greatest careers in broadcasting, lasting over 50 years and continuing almost to the end of life at the age of 90. Nobody did it better, or longer, than Paul Harvey.



The broadcasting industry -- specifically radio -- has been in the news recently with discussion of the "Fairness Doctrine" in the back rooms of the Nation's Capital, the purported goal of which is to give the left-wingers a stronger foothold on our radio waves, equal to or greater than the dominance they already have in the rest of the media.



Fair or otherwise, their ambition betrays the same lack of understanding of the free market that they have consistently displayed in the past 200 years or so. Their allegation that left-wing forays into radio have failed because of a lack of exposure is absolute nonsense, but it is akin to their equally inane postulate that people are unable to succeed on their own without help from a higher resource (ie the government re-distributing taxpayer money).



In other words, the reason left-wingers have failed is because they can't sell, and the reason they can't sell is because it runs against their deeply-held convictions. It has nothing to do with their political or social positions, their broadcasting talent (or lack thereof), or "exposure." As nouveau-socailists, they simply fail to understand that radio stations outside of NPR exist TO MAKE MONEY, and those stations and their owners will carry any program that can sell itself to the station's (and network's) advertisers.

That's why Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh and (to a lesser extent) G. Gordon Liddy and Sean Hannity have succeeded, and Mario Cuomo, Bill Press, Randi Rhodes, Alec Baldwin and the whole sorry cast of Air America failed. The first group could sell ice to the proverbial eskimo; the latter group doesn't understand the basic principles that drive the free market in the first place.

Maybe if they had listened to Paul Harvey over the years, they'd understand the rest of the story.

Losing the Battleground

It's been a bad two months for fans of the 1949 movie Battleground. We lost Van Johnson in December, Ricardo Montalban in January and now James Whitmore this week. His role as Platoon Sgr. Kinnie earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

Denise Darcel ("Denise") and Jerome Courtland ("Abner") are, to my knowledge, now the only surviving actors from Battleground, although there may be a few still living who had minor parts.

See the movie. Please.

Harry the Great

WWII buffs, particularly those who have read and seen sagas of POW's (from Hogan's Heroes to Stalag 17 to The Great Escape) will enjoy this link to Tunnel Harry. This link forwarded to me by RAH, whose father was one of the heroes of WWII.

To the Victor

Victor Davis Hanson offers his take on GWB here. Somewhat more positive that Murdock's, offered below.

I've personally found the media coverage of the past few days absolutely intolerable. There's the swooning Koolaid-drinkers of the far left and mainstream media (pardon the redundancy), and the nitpicking nabobs of negativism on talk radio that are launching premptive strikes before the moving vans have unloaded. I'll match my VRWC credentials against anybody, but I'd at least like to see the ink dry on the cabinet papers before we get too carried away.

NRO has been somewhat of a refuge, providing both candid coverage of the outgoing administration, and surprisingly positive commentary on the new one, as old friend Jonah Goldberg writes here.

That being said, I do think this Geithner thing is going to come back to haunt BHO. He should have pulled the plug on this one. But that would have been too drastic of a change.

The final legacy of the second Bush administration will be the Obama administration, and we'll see what kind of legacy that will be. But whatever our complaints against the former president, we have to thank him for keeping us safe for 2,688 days, for dealing with a nearly incomprehensible crisis, and for making the tough decisions when the chances of success were slim. Thank you, Mr. President. May history judge you with greater fairness than your contemporaries.

Parting Shots

DeRoy Murdock presents a detailed criticism of the outgoing administration on NRO.

I have long maintained -- and Murdock seems to agree -- that the central flaw of Bush II was a failure to communicate (with apologies to Cool Hand Luke).

Or, as Steve Taylor once said ("Bouquet") -- "Nothing's sadder than the words, 'what might have been.'" (FYI the above link has the lyrics wrong).

Bye, bye, 2008

The year in review covered here.

My favorite moments appear at 2:59, 4:25 and 6:29.

It's about time!

In a rare and belated display of sensibility, the BBWAA has elected the great Jim Rice to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I'll grant you that I'm prejudiced -- Rice was the first baseball hero of this reporter, growing up in mid-coast Maine in those crazy late-70's -- but I really have to wonder what the BBWAA is looking at to delay it this long.

For some reason, they'll "automatically" put in marginal players who stayed around to accumulate arbitrary milestone numbers, yet continually overlook great players who truly struck fear into opposing teams. Rice was flat-out unbelievable for 12 seasons, rarely injured, and steroid-free.

So, it's great that he finally gets in, but the fact that Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Kirby Pucket got there first somewhat diminishes his election. In any case, a great excuse for a summer road trip to Cooperstown.

Now, about Luis Tiant...

2-3-2

One of the many lingering images in my mind from Super Bowl XXXVI -- an image which, unfortunately, I am unable to find in print -- is of Kurt Warner staying on the field during the hysterical postgame celebration to congratulate the Patriots players and coaches.

Even though it must have been an excruciating loss for him, he had the class to stick around and give credit where it was due, not run off and hide in the locker room.

It says something about his character; and perhaps it's that character that has kept him in the game this long and one win away from a return to the big dance.

I really don't care who wins on Sunday, but it would be kind of cool to see a stand-up guy like Kurt Warner make it all the way back.

So Favre Away

Eric Mangini is likely to be fired and Brett Favre is hopefully going to retire. Good riddance to both. The Dolphins were clearly the best team in their division and deserved to win on the final game of the season (and thus win the division), but poor decisions by both Mangini and Favre in the fourth quarter cost the Jets a chance at victory and thus the Patriots a chance at the playoffs.

First, some basics -- when you have 4th-and-2 on your opponent's 43 and you're down by four points in the fourth quarter, you go for it. Unless you can get a perfect punt, at best you'll gain 20 yards of field position by giving up the ball, and you're facing a team that has run the ball effectively all season, particularly in the fourth quarter. The fact that the punt was blocked is immaterial -- the call to punt in the first place was idiotic.

Second, why are you running a hurry-up offense with a full five minutes left? You have two timeouts and you're on the opponent's 29. What's the rush? Favre was apparently trying to catch the Dolphins in the wrong defensive formation, but isn't it better to execute the play properly? Even his (intended) receiver was surprised.

This isn't sour grapes -- The Patriots lost their all-world quarterback early in the first game of the season, yet rebounded to finish 11-5 and lost the division on a tie-breaker. They had winnable games against the Jets and the Colts (and, to some degree, the Steelers) which would have made this discussion moot had they executed.

New England's defense -- already aging and depleted entering the season after having been manhandled back in February -- was their true Achilles heel (pardon the expression) this season, a problem which was exacerbated by the loss of stalwarts Rodney Harrison, Adailus Thomas and many others. With Tom Brady's status up in the air, they've got some work to do in order to contend in a suddenly improved division.

We'll see what that brings. In the meantime, congratulations to the Dolphins on a well-deserved division title. As for Mangini and Favre, we'll see you on Monster.com.

Year in Review

All in all, this is a year I'd rather forget. We had disaster in February, catastrophe in April, cataclysm in August, calamity followed by heartbreak in October, and a complete debacle in November. We lost Bill Buckley, Ivan Dixon, Jesse Helms, Charlton Heston, Van Johnson, Bill Melendez, Tony Snow, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Sir John Templeton, and Paul Weyrich. I had to replace my cell phone, my car, my assistant, my laptop, my starting quarterback, my television and my right Achilles tendon. There was no shortage of underwriters to debate or of clients to placate. Yet, with seven days to go, we appear to have survived, and we have something to look forward to in May 2009. A few somewhat random thoughts to wrap things up...


Quote #1 -- Hogan's Heroes, episode 96
Newkirk: The first thing we must do is not panic.
Kinchloe: I already have -- what's the second thing?


Quote #2 -- Johnny Most, 1986
"The Boston Celtics are the World Champions for the sixteenth time. They have come back from all kinds of adversity, and they have shown the world what a great ball club they really are."


Quote #3 -- attributed (erroneously) to Winston Churchill
"Never give up.
Never give up.
Never, never, NEVER give up."


Quote #4 -- George S. Patton
"Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."


Quote #5 -- Ronald Reagan, 1989
"My friends, we did it."


Quote #6 -- Apostle Paul, Ephesians 3:20
"[God] is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think."

Quote #7 -- from Saving Private Ryan
"I'll see you on the beach."

Deep in the heart of Texeira

The signing of Mark Texeira by the New York Steinbrenners is not the apocalypse that commentators are making it out to be. Not even for the Red Sox. The Yanks have been over-paying for players (not "talent," players) for the past eight years and it's gotten them nowhere. Mike Mussina. Carl Pavano. Kevin Brown. Jarret Wright. Jason Giambi. And, of course, Pay-Rod. And they finished third last year.

Now they've opened their checkbook for another National League pitcher (see Brown, above); another injury-prone pitcher (see Pavano, above), and a young slugging first-baseman (see Giambi, above).

It might just work out for them, but I'll believe it when I see it. Had the Sox signed Texeira, they would have been faced with the dilemma of trying to fit four all-star-calibre players (Tex, Youk, Lowell and Ortiz) into three positions (1B, 3B & DH). One of them (probably Lowell) would have had to go, yet it was his absence -- far more than Man-Ram's -- that contributed to the Sox ultimately falling short last year. If this gang is healthy, I'll take them over any team that money can buy. If they're not healthy, well, that's the chance you take. However, I'd rather take that chance with less than $400 million.

As has been written here before, the dynastic Yankees of the 1990's had even this observer's grudging admiration, as they had built their teams the right (or the traditional) way -- a strong farm system, a core group that had played together in the minors, and complementary, second-tier players signed to reasonable contracts to plug the gaps year-to-year. They now have a weak farm system, an aging core group, and a host of over-paid, under-performing free agents. It hasn't worked yet.

1983

Twenty-Five Years Ago. Hard to believe. The picture was actually taken in 1985, but it was near that location two years earlier that me (the sunburnt guy in the back row) went on a hike with Tim (the guy in the yellow shirt) and got lost in the boondocks, a somewhat harrowing experience that entailed two dicey river crossings without a bridge.

This was on Christmas Eve, folks.

And, yes, we made it back...

Ode to George

A fellow Blogspotter posts some additional commentary on IAWL; I particularly concur with the two paragraphs and find the SNL video link embedded therein to be a more satisfactory ending, although I might have skipped the pile-diving at the end...

It's a Wonderful So-Called Life

NBC presented its annual rendition of the perennial Christmas special It's A Wonderful Life recently. It wasn't that long ago that you could see this movie pretty much 24/7 during December on various channels; then NBC got exclusive rights to show it once a year. Apparently NBC doesn't think that people have VCR's, let alone DVD players.

Anyway, a good enough movie with some memorable performances, but I find it hard to watch because, like several of Capra's other pictures, the conclusion just isn't complete. Why does Mr. Potter have to keep the money and go from the hard-core, aggressive businessman he has been throughout the film to a downright crook? If Potter had given the money back -- and he clearly knew he had it and where it had come from and that it wasn't his -- maybe after the wild rally at the end, that might have made sense.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, unfortunately, isn't much better -- the last ten minutes make absolutely no sense at all, as if Capra knew he had to get the thing done within 129 minutes?

In both cases, the overall themes are solid (what life would be if you'd never been born; political corruption), but the sequences are contrived and the endings are unsatisfactory. Fortunately, both Capra and Stewart gave us plenty of solid work elsewhere. It's just odd that these two pictures get most of the notoriety. I must be missing something...

Kerrying On

I saw this book for sale at a salvage store. If I hadn't been in a quasi-public place, I would have been ROTFL. I could barely hold my Blackberry still to take the picture. I seriously thought I'd need visual proof of what I had seen.

John Kerry: A Portrait. You have got to be kidding. Does this guy have a Kennedy complex or what? First we have the initials (middle name - Forbes). Then the haircut. Now we need a coffee table book of intimate photographs? Starting with a picture of him on his private yacht? No doubt, the book goes out to expound on his well-known charm and charisma and his early years pulling double-shifts in the meat packing plant. What's next -- an MTV special? A DVD of his best-received stand-up? An audiobook of Theresa's favorite bedtime stories? Good grief.

Amazon shows an issue date of September 2004, and of course ever presidential election year produces its share of literary buffoonery, but someone should have been fired for this. Maybe they were. If I hadn't seen this in person, I would have thought it was a 4-year-old gag from Saturday Night Live.

I wonder how many copies actually were sold. I mean, other than the ones Theresa scooped up to get it into Amazon's top 1,000.

Halp us Jon Carry -- we R stuk hear @ Ollies...

Name that Scandal

Mark Krikorian has a few suggestions.

Van the Man

The great Van Johnson (1916-2008) has died at age 92. He's worth commemorating for at least two reasons --

Primarily, his portrayal of PFC Holley, the central character in Battleground, perhaps the best WWII movie ever made. I typically watch Battleground around this time each year, and was just getting ready to pop in the DVD when I heard the news. There are, of course, a number of great WWII films (and plenty of lousy ones), but Battleground stands out for its believable and eye-level portrayal of a band of brothers (before the Band of Brothers) during a difficult turn in the war. I particularly like how it molds each of the characters into distinct, identifiable, and (most importantly) genuine roles with whom it's easy to connect.

If you haven't seen Battleground, rent, borrow, buy or steal it NOW (okay, don't steal it).

The second reason is a little-known fact -- Van Johnson was actually given serious consideration for the lead role in WWII television classic, Hogan's Heroes. Don't ask me how I know this; just trust me...

His full credits are here. RIP.

Bailing Away

I have to admit, I'm not a person with a great deal of sympathy for the so-called American automobile industry (I say "so-called" because many "foreign" cars are actually built in the US).

My first car was a 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier, and as such, it has a special place in my heart. I had it for just over eight years and it got me through college, into marriage, several moves and job changes, and up until almost exactly a year from the birth of my first child. Nonetheless, I can't overlook the fact that both the engine and the transmission blew out at around 70,000 miles. I paid a fair sum of money to get all that fixed, and it lasted another 50,000 until the engine went again.

The first car my wife and I bought together was a 1993 Mercury Tracer. That transmission went at 40,000 miles. I was infuriated -- I wrote several letters to the good people at the Ford Motor Company stating, in sum, that warranty or no warranty, there's no way that should ever happen. They feigned sympathy but of course did nothing, and I swore off ever buying another Ford product again.

Several years later, we needed a van and, despite my earlier pledge, we settled on a 1998 Mercury Villager and traded in the Tracer. This time, however, I took the plunge and bought the extended warranty. A short time later, I was glad I did -- that engine blew at around 38,000 miles. The warranty paid for almost all of it, but I had steam coming out my ears both on the principle and the inconvenience of the whole mess. Inexcusable, I fumed. That would be my last Ford vehicle. This was on top of a number of nagging mechanical and electrical issues that the dealership seemed incapable of repairing (the intermittent air conditioning was a particular irritant). And while we kept it a few more years, it was ultimately replaced with a Honda Odyssey.

To replace The Mighty Cavalier, we purchased a 1993 Mazda Protege, which we would keep for more than ten years. It was in that vehicle that I brought both of my children home from the hospital. This was and remains to date the best car I ever owned -- It was a 5-speed 1.8 DOHC with a fair amount of firepower. At around 100,000 miles, the body was starting to give way, but the engine could have run forever. It finally got to the point this year that it was too expensive to maintain, as the parts were become both scarce and expensive, and when the AC compressor went, it was time for a trade at 108,000 miles. But it still ran great.

We now own two Hondas -- the aforementioned 2005 Odyssey, and a 2007 Honda Fit that succeeded the Protege. Yes, we paid a little more for them, but (knock on wood) no mechanical or major maintenance issues. With my track record, I got an extended warranty on both, but we haven't had to use it yet.

I realize that the American Automobile industry is populated, by and large, with good, solid, hard-working people at all levels of parts, manufacturing and service, and I sympathize with them that the collapse of their industry in general and their employer in particular will adversely affect them and perhaps the country overall. But it's not my fault that they've produced inferior products at inflated prices for the better part of four decades. Any industry needs to keep up with the times or go away. We've seen this before -- ever hear of Bethlehem Steel?

The Price is Wrong

Sports and Game Show guru JB provides this link from a c. 1983 airing of The Price is Right. You can also guess the date by the appearance of the Los Angeles Raiders.

Note that the prices shown are for a pair of season tickets.

Of course, the Raiders have moved back north. Whatever happened to the Kings?

Post-Mortem cont'd

The great Dr. Victor Davis Hanson provides his analysis on NRO in this piece, What Went Wrong?

Following the 1992 elections, in which the Republicans not only lost the presidency that they'd held for 12 years (and 20 of the previous 24), but could not capture either house of Congress, there were many cries and recriminations. Pete DuPont was a voice of reason at the time, writing that for Republicans and conservatives (not always synonymous) to return to power, they didn't need to move to the left, as some were saying, but become more adept at articulating their agenda.

2008 may be a more comprehensive defeat than 1992, but Hanson's thesis is similar.

I mean it

Seriously, Collinsworth is dreadful. Whoever gave him a job on television should be shot by a firing squad and then forced to apologize.

Thursday Night Pain

The NFL Network is a standing monument to the excesses of American television. But that's another post. Meanwhile, we're forced to watch an important game between the Pats and New Jersey Jest. It's halftime and the Jest are ahead, but my complaints have nothing to do with that:

First, who did Chris Collinsworth pay off to get a job on network television? This guy is awful. I mean, if he ever produces an original thought his head will probably explode. If the NFL Network and NBC won't dump him, maybe somebody can invent a mute button that screens out his voice.

Second, it's somewhat telling that while the Patriots are honoring at halftime perhaps the classiest, most unselfish player ever to wear their uniform (Troy Brown), we don't get to watch -- we can hear some of it, but we can't watch it, because the 17-person halftime panel is interviewing the anti-Troy Brown, Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson of those dynamic Cincinnati Bengals.

I wonder if this game is on the radio...

Michael Barone

As usual, Michael Barone -- the walking encyclopedia of American elections -- nails it in his analysis of 2008.

Well, you may not agree that he "nails it," but he says much of the same stuff I was saying. He just says it better.

Final Thoughts

Nearly twenty years ago in the early years of the first Bush administration, I was conversing with a friend who was somewhat older than me, also an evangelical Christian, but something of an old-style liberal originally from Minnesota. He expressed skepticism both about the enduring value of the Reagan years ("did he mortgage your future?" I remember him asking me) and what his successor would amount to.

Nonetheless, he had voted for Bush (senior), noting that in 1988 it had come down to a single issue for him -- abortion.

We haven't heard much (in my view, not enough) about the differences between the candidates on life issues, having been overshadowed in large part by economic-related banter and secondarily (again, a distant second place) by national security. Fair enough -- priorities have changed.

Politics and history move in cycles. Candidates and parties move in and out of power. Eight years of a Republican administration, most of which were accompanied by a Republican congress, combined with the challenges we face today and in the immediate future, and it's easy to understand the desire many have for that ill-defined "change."

But with those challenges in mind, and given the choice between someone with experience building consensus and confronting problems and someone who hasn’t done anything, between a legacy of national service and a resume that would struggle to fill a quarter-page ad, I have a hard time seeing why people would consider the latter.

As an amateur presidential historian, I recognize the importance of intangibles, but substance is needed to back it up. The Bushes had plenty of substance, but communication problems; Clinton was the opposite. Carter had neither. The great ones -- including that guy who allegedly "mortgaged my future" twenty-plus years ago -- had both.

Regardless of the outcome, the Republicans nominated the candidate who probably stood the best chance of winning, and a running mate who energized a previously lukewarm base. Perhaps if John McCain was 52 instead of 72 the dynamics might have been different, but age hasn't been anything more than a subliminal issue in this campaign, so that's hard to gauge.

Anyway, we'll see you on Tuesday. Keep your eyes on Pennsylvania. Hopefully they'll wait and call it after the polls actually close.

Philadelphia Freedom

A quick note to congratulate the 2008 World Series Champions Philadelphia Phillies. They played well down the stretch and through the playoffs and are a deserving winner.

One comment, however -- since when is waiting 28 years (or 25, depending on how you measure) an unbearable long time for a championship? The Red Sox waited 86 years; the White Sox 88 years; the Cubs...well, forget the Cubs, but what about Cleveland? Even the Boston area, which has ruled this decade in sports, went over 15 years (including the entire decade of the 90's) between a professional title of any kind.

Get over your self-inflicted agony. I could do 28 years standing on my head. And during those 28 years you had one of the greatest NCAA champions (Villanova, 1985), a largely relevant NFL team, an appearance or two in the Stanley Cup, and one of the top 5 NBA teams ever (led by one of the greatest players ever). There's been plenty to cheer about in Philadelphia. Enjoy the parade, but don't expect the rest of us to feel any happier with the end of a drought of 28 lousy years.

60 Hours to go

It's a little more than 2 days until Election Day, so a few final thoughts / prognostications before the clock runs out ---

(1) My instinct tells me that this will be one those presidential elections that will see a dramatic shift in the race in the final 48 hours, not unlike 1980. With most polls showing the junior senator from Illinois with something of a lead, I'm guessing we'll either see his opponent eke out a surprising victory, or his messiah-ness run off a landslide of 40+ states. Just my thoughts -- and, for what it's worth, I was right in 2000 (about Florida) and 2004 (about Ohio).

(2) Regardless of the outcome, one wonders how history (not necessarily historians, but history) will judge the second Bush administration. All would agree that mistakes have been made; not all will agree what those mistakes were. It's also important to note that GWB entered office with at least one-third of the population believing in all sincerity and in spite of the evidence that he had stolen the election; and that while others, less hard-core supporters of his opponent professed a willingness to "give him a chance," that honeymoon lasted about 15 or 16 days. For a moment, after 9/11/01, it looked like we might be able to pull together but, again, those inclined to do so were quick to find fault. It may take 40 or 50 years for us to sort this one out.

(3) It is also somewhat curious that while Congress enjoys its lowest approval ratings in several centuries, they seem poised for easy re-election. The current majorities took control over 18 months ago, yet they somehow remain free of any responsibility for whatever crisis we currently find ourselves in. The parallel isn't quite there, but there's some application to the adage that it's easier to fire the manager than get rid of all the players.

(4) The outcome of the presidential election is going to come down to a handful of states -- FL, NC, OH, IN, NV, VA and CO were at one point safely in the McCain camp, but are now (at best) wavering. MI (that's Michigan, not Mississippi or Missouri), PA and tiny NH have an outside chance of going for McCain, but any of this group could go either way. MN, IA and MO might also be in play. The rest are pretty much settled (I'm doing this from memory, so don't shoot me if I leave one out).

This makes me wonder how the networks will report the projected winners from these states as the evening rolls along. I've never been comfortable with networks pulling the trigger the instant the polls close -- if, for no other reason, that people may still be standing in line to vote at that time. I thought they learned their lesson with the Florida fiasco eight years ago.

Anyway, I'll see you at the polls on Tuesday. Just don't expect me to stay up until 2:00 AM on Wednesday. Those days are over.

Those old Apple IIe's

Yes, they did have computers when I was in high school. Al Gore just hadn't gotten around to inventing the Internet yet.



I have no idea what I was doing here, but I was probably scrambling to complete the high school newsletter after my journalism classmates had been slacking off the entire week playing Karateka or something...

Tetris didn't come along until our senior year. Actually, it had been in circulation for a few years, but it took awhile to reach us. By then my alma mater had started down the path of Gatesian destruction and coverted to IBM-compatible equipment.

Season's End

A valiant fight, including a comeback for the ages, came to a disappointing end last Sunday night / Monday morning as the Red Sox fell to Tampa Bay in seven games. Credit where credit is due -- The Rays fought back from two disappointing losses to triumph in the ultimate game and played with the character as well as the talent of champions.

A few breaks here or there in Game 7 (or, for that matter, in Game 2) might have made a difference, but the Sox certainly had their share of breaks in ALCS's of the recent past. Considering they were without an effective Josh Beckett, a healthy Mike Lowell, and lacking any significant offensive production from several places in the batting order, you really can't complain.

Some have added the absence of their former LF to that list of shortcomings -- I respectfully (or otherwise) disagree. The failure of Scott Boras' small-minded client to live up to his contractual obligations in 2008 may well be the underlying story of this season, and perhaps a mature (and thus productive) Manny Ramirez would have made a difference, but the Manny we saw in the first four months is a Manny we can happily do without.

Perhaps when MLB gets around to hiring a commissioner, he (or she) can look into the rather serious allegations of Boras' tampering. I won't hold my breath, however. It will probably be about the time the NFL investigates the Indianapolis Irsays for pumping crowd noise into their arena, or intentionally tanking late-season games so the head coach's best friend can get into the playoffs.

Nonetheless, the Twenty-First Century World Series scoreboard remains: Boston Red Sox 2, New York Yankees 0.

Year-two-thou-sand (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) -- Year-two-thou-sand (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)...

Champagne on Ice . . . where it belongs

Am I the only one who thinks these September champagne celebrations in baseball are a little excessive?

I mean, hey, it's great you're in the playoffs or won your division or whatever, but unless you bring home the big trophy with all the flags on it, nobody will remember you five years from now.

"Wild Card" celebrations are particularly irksome -- you haven't won anything yet.

Somehow you never see NFL, NBA or NHL teams celebrating the fact that they made the playoffs...

From the "It's About Time" Department

Red Sox to retire Johnny Pesky's #6.

I always thought the rules the Red Sox had for retiring numbers were a little too restrictive, so I'm glad JWH & Co. had the good sense to see them as guidelines, not strict prohibitions.

The article includes a list of other potential retirees; from that list, only Jim Rice (#14) stands out, the most feared hitter of his generation. Naturally, he should be in the Hall of Fame. Come to think of it, why isn't Johnny in Cooperstown?

There's a fine line between honoring too few and honoring too many, but sometimes you have to look beyond statistics and focus on what a person means to an organization, both on and off the field. Apart from Ted, Yaz, Pudge, Dorre and Cronin, there aren't too many that stand above Johnny Pesky.

Five Years Ago

Ah, yes...

19-10. A very satisfying win on a number of levels --

(1) Over the New Jersey Jest,
(2) At their home stadium (which they're actually borrowing from that other New Jersey team),
(3) Against their treachorous, misguided and over-rated head coach,
(4) Against an ineffective and equally over-rated aging quarterback (see July 11, 2008),
(5) In front of an over-indulging audience,
(6) Proving that the Patriots have more than one talented player on their team,

and, most significantly --

(7) IN A GAME THAT THEY WERE EXPECTED TO LOSE -- HANDILY.

Of course, tomorrow, the talking heads will talk about how the Jest really aren't that good, how they didn't make the playoffs last year, and how they barely defeated the Division II Miami Tunas in week 1 -- facts that were conveniently overlooked prior to Sunday's kickoff.

Of course, those same Tunas could get their dander up (or whatever Tunas have) for next week, so you never know. But we'll always have Paris...or the Meadowlands...

Bring back #11!

You know what just popped into my head today?

Drew Bledsoe.

I mean, why not?

He's only 36, and while he and Coach B had their differences, I'm sure they can work it out. He can't be too old to learn how to throw a screen pass...

36 (or XXXVI) is kinda a lucky number anyway if you're a Patriots fan.

Just a thought...

Organization Man

Most people understand the role of a Mayor or a Governor, regardless of the constituency governed. But a "Community Organizer"? That's a little more obtuse. Fortunately, the Left-Wing establishment is there to help us out with their latest slate of talking points, explaining (to quote Donna Brazile, Susan Sarandon and Steve Cohen, that "Jesus was a Community Organizer," and, oh by the way, "Pontius Pilate was a Governor."

As an Evangelical Christian (ie Follower of Christ), I happen to have a somewhat higher evaluation of Jesus Christ than the aforementioned script-readers, and I find their continued attempts to annoint their candidate of choice as the next messiah (directly or indirectly) rather offensive.

Be that as it may, I also disagree with the premise of the analogy, and I have a feeling that most of Jesus' contemporaries -- not the least of which included the First-Century Jewish Rulers -- would agree with me (if just on this point alone). Community Organizers -- whatever they are -- shouldn't be in the business of offending and exposing the ruling class. Come to think of it, that sounds more like the other guy running for President...

Time Out

Seven years. Hard to believe. Everything changed in moments.

Take time today to remember the courage and sacrifice of so many on that darkest of days, and the families of those who lost a brother, sister, parent, child or spouse.

Hopefully history will also judge President Bush and his administration for taking the steps necessary to prevent any further attacks on his watch. In baseball parlance, it may not have been seven perfect innings, but it still qualifies as a no-hitter.

Never forget.

Pigs in Space with Lipstick

Seriously, I'm not convinced that the Lipstick comment was a cheap shot at Governor Palin. However, it does trouble me that The Annointed One doesn't know the difference between pigs and pit bulls.

Not only that, so what if "it's still a pig?" What's the matter with pigs? I love pigs -- they're delicious.

After Gov. Palin's speech in which she referenced Hockey Moms and Pit Bulls, NARAL or NOW or one of those culture-of-death groups issued a statement that made a similar pig / lipstick correlation. Nobody took notice, apparently -- until it came to the attention of some low-level (former?) speechwriter for the junior senator from Illinois. So it wasn't even an original thought.

Hopefully, the leaders of the Republican ticket won't be drawn into the pit -- so to speak...

A Real Stand-Up Guy

The Biden Gaffe Machine strikes again.

Let's be fair -- this is really an honest mistake that anyone could make. Not unlike the parting comment I made to my bald accountant many years ago, "Well, Fred, I'll get out of your hair." And Biden makes a pretty good recovery after realizing his mistake.

Nonetheless, if this had been Dan Quayle or Sarah Palin or George W. Bush or John McCain or anybody to the right of Joe Lieberman, I'm pretty certain that the coverage -- and reaction -- would be slightly different. So goes the world...

PS -- The above link seems to have a collection of slip-ups from Mr. No-Filter following the conclusion of the linked clip.

Down but Not Out

This kind of reaction really burns me. Real classy fans they have there in New York.

I've been a Red Sox fan (and Yankee hater) for over 30 years -- a rivalry that makes anything the NFL has to offer look like a Sunday School picnic -- and I have never cheered or applauded when a rival player was injured or suffer any other misfortune. Unbelievable.

I'm not ready to throw in the proverbial towel yet, and I'm certainly not conceding the division title to anyone (much less the NY Jest) one (victorious) game into the season. The team that was introduced as such in Super Bowl XXXVI has been challenged at every other position, and while this test may be harder than most, it doesn't mean the season's over.

Last season, the Patriots found their motivation in the previous year's playoff loss, and then the absurd media piling-on that surrounded the Spygate episode. They had something to prove then, and they have something to prove now. There's still plenty of talent on that team, they have the best coach in the business, and Matt Cassel isn't exactly a rusty tomato can.

It is a tragedy that one of the NFL's premier players will miss a season while in the prime of his career, but any team worth anything is bigger than just one player. Now's the chance to figure out how big they really are. The New England Patriots truly have nothing to lose -- conversely, victorious opponents (if any) know that there will be an asterisk next to each "W."

And those bozos dancing on tables in Manhattan and elsewhere have lost their right to lecture anybody on character.

In the interest of equal time...

Here's 3+ days in St. Paul summarized in a minute or so.

McCainiacs St. Paul

I'll leave the reaction to the McCain and Palin speeches to others more articulate than I (shouldn't be too hard to find). Solid performances all round, to be sure. McCain did seem somewhat off his rhythm, particularly in the early going, perhaps disrupted by the handful of crackpots who had somehow made their way into the arena.

Am I the only one who's troubled by this?

Sure, these nuts have a right to have their say (although the media, blogosphere and thinly-veiled "documentary films" should be more than sufficient), and I suspect the public viewing their craziness will primarily work against them. My concern is from the standpoint of security. Admittedly, four years ago in New York, with an incumbent president on hand during a time of war, it was even more disturbing. And a large public arena leaves plenty of gaps that can't all be secured, but it still bothers me.

Since I consider myself educated enough to at least understand english, I've never felt the need to have these conventions filtered and analyzed through me by overweight middle-aged white men in suits (I have to be careful -- that's getting close to home), so my network of choice is C-SPAN. However, even they took substantial time off the podium to show the various protestors in varying degrees of protest (and departure). I'm not sure that was necessary. I mean, television won't show drunken baseball fans running onto the field, so why this? It's not 1968 anymore.

Bill Melendez (1916-2008)

If there was a better animator, pre-CGI or otherwise, I'd like to know who it was. Yes, PEANUTS would have still been unspeakably successful had the characters never appeared on television, but the great Bill Melendez added a dimension to Charles Schulz' cartoons that brought them to an even greater audience. Faced with the near impossible task of creating "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in less than 6 months, he developed techniques that made the PEANUTS characters believable in animation -- neither too elaborate or too simple, he was thus annointed the only animator allowed to work on Sparky's creations. And the only voice -- ever -- of Snoopy and Woodstock.

Thanks for everything, Bill. Your work is complete and is the standard by which all that follow will be judged. Rest in peace.

Further Nonsense (political and otherwise)

Some random links...

Two youngish upwardly mobile political figures compared here.

Is Biden a gift?

Four days in Denver summarized in about 97 seconds.

And, finally, for Palindrome fans, here's Bob.

Keystones

One has to wonder if the Biden selection has more to do with Pennsylvania than Delaware. The Obama camp may be hoping to secure the Keystone State on the electoral map, even though PA isn't really that much competitive than Michigan and certainly less so than Virginia. Last carried by a Republican in 1988, the Bush campaign poured substantial resources into PA in both 2000 and 2004 (particularly 2004) without success; however, the strategy did force the Democratic nominee to respond in kind, devoting resources to a state that otherwise would not have been competitive.

Of course, if Obama needs Biden to win PA, he's in bigger trouble that his media surrogates are allowing to be portrayed...especially if he gives more speeches like this (sorry, I had to post this again...)

Pennsylvania's Third Senator

This is almost unspeakably bad.


I mean, you can almost see his messiah-ness cringing, most likely wondering if he still has Tim Kaine's number on speed-dial.


The video quality is rather poor, so my first thought was that it was a Saturday Night Live skit. But no -- that's really Joe Biden. If he's drunk, I'd be worried. If he's sober, I'd be panicking...

The comments are worth a look, also.

Thanks alot, United Steel Workers.

Palin-drome

In 1984, knowing that there was nothing short of global thermonuclear meltdown that could stop Ronald Reagan, Democratic nominee Walter Mondale selected a little-known Representative from New York as his Vice Presidential nominee -- Geraldine Ferraro. Forty-nine (and nearly 50) states later, we know how that turned out.

Although she had her share of baggage, one can't exactly say the Ferraro pick "backfired" because there was no way Mondale was going to win anyway. Nonetheless, she failed to deliver her home state, capture any "Reagan Democrats," or turn over a disproportionate share of the female vote. Not likely that Gary Hart would have done any better from the bottom of the ticket (although he apparently had some influential contacts in Florida).

Twenty-four years later we had a former first lady come within a few caucii of being the first female presidential nominee of a major party. This reporter could never determine which of the final two Democratic candidates was preferred, being as their views on everythin were basically identical, but my objections (and, most likely, those of many other voters and prospective voters) to Hillary had more to do with her connections to the Clintonista regime and its heavy-handed disregard for any type of accountability, not the fact that she possessed two X chromosomes.

In response to the energy produced by this year's Clinton campaign, the Democratic nominee selected as his running mate perhaps the least original member of the US Senate (Neil Kinnock, secure your filing cabinet), whose lengthy tenure qualifies him for depiction alongside Webster's definition of "Washington Insider" despite now representing a campaign built on ephemeral "change."

The Biden selection brought the typical responses from both ends of the political spectrum (the left considers it "inspired" and ideally complementary to the junior senator from Illinois; the right thinks . . . well, if you read the last paragraph, you can pretty much figure that out).

Enter Sarah Palin, a surprising choice for the Republican ticket, but perhaps the best that John McCain could have made -- she won't offend VRWC members like this reporter; she doesn't own homes in multiple states; she's never been on Meet the Press (an asset, not a liability); and she has experience as an executive, something nobody else on either ticket could offer.

What surprises me most over the past 24 hours is how the while the right is rejuvenated, energized, and producing emotional outbursts and fainting spells previously only seen at Obama campaign rallies, the opposing campaign has produced . . . well, not very much. The best they could do --

Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 [way to further offend the majority of Americans, guys -- you're not elitist, are you?] with zero foreign policy experience [unlike the top of your ticket, of course] a heartbeat away from the presidency [enter next cliche --here--]. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade [also known as protecting unborn human life], the agenda of Big Oil [also known as capitalism] and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies [also known as tax cuts, and let someone else determinf if they've "failed" or not] — that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same [and the change you're proposing is...?]

The "former mayor of a town of 9,000" is particularly galling -- if his messiah-ness was referrred to as a "former community organizer affiliated with a corrupt political machine," the left and its media acolytes would be apoplectic. It was noted to me that unlike legislators, who can pick and choose their favorite issues (or, more likely, delegate their staff accordingly), executives have no such luxury of ducking unpopular matters and must pass judgement on everything.

Getting back to 1984, given that McCain has a reasonable chance of victory this year, the parallels with the Ferraro selection are rather limited, except that McCain does face an uphill battle and realized that the Palin selection gives him the best chance of victory with (hopefully, in his vetting) minimal liabilities. If the best his opponents can do is in the paragraph above, and I doubt it is, this election may be over before the Republican convention.

Back to College

FoxNews has their variation of the Electoral map, dividing the states into three categories -- solidly McCain, solidly Obama or toss-ups (ie no "leaning" here). I can't really dispute their projections -- both candidates have about 180 Electoral votes "in the bag," and need to come up with the other 90 among the 160 or so up for grabs.

Heartbreak Ridge

Having feasted earlier this year on conservative disenchantment with McCain, the media is now salivating over conservative immolation if McCain picks a pro-abortion running mate. Two of the names being bandied about are depicted herewith.

This reporter tends to feel that the selection of either, or their ilk, would basically spell the end of the campaign and the coronation of King Obama XIII. Not even John McCain can be that stubborn . . . can he?

Furthermore, I'm not sure either would add much to the ticket. Neither can be counted on to deliver his home state. Lieberman had a national platform eight years ago, but Ridge is virtually unknown outside PA. Ridge was elected Governor in the Republican Tsunami of 1994 (after his primary opponents spontaneously combusted) and re-elected four years later against someone I don't even remember. An adequate executive who did a few good things (charter schools, fixing the speed limit), but hardly a landmark figure and certainly a little shy on the charisma front. If McCain's going to win PA -- which he doesn't need to -- he could do it without Tom Ridge.

Primary Wrap-Up

A few (very few) have asked my thoughts on the presidential campaign. As of this writing, we have the primaries behind us and the nominees known, but we're prior to the VP selections and the conventions themselves. So perhaps it's a good time to get some thoughts down --

Looking around at the macro signs, you have to think that there's no way a Democrat can lose (an unpopular incumbent, two unpopular wars, high(er) gas prices, an economy perceived as struggling, etc.)

Looking at the Electoral map, however, and you have to belief that a Republican would have a fairly good chance.

Pollster.com shows the numbers that really matter (although I'm not entirely sure of their sources or research), and while they currently depict a 260-191 Democratic edge, that doesn't include 87 Electoral votes in "toss-up" states, all of which (except NH) were won by the Republican in 2004.

Several other states shown as "leaning" Democrat (MI, NM, MN & IA) are at least viable targets for the Republicans, whereas the Democrats are unlikely to pick up any of the Republican states with the possible exception of MO. Nonetheless, the Democratic lock on CA, NY & IL ensure that it will be a close election (at least for a Republican to win).

William Kristol (via Jay Cost, via The Corner), has some interesting thoughts here.

Olym-Pinks II

Michelle Malkin has a column on ChiCom gymnasts with missing teeth that's definitely worth your time. If you don't have the time (which I doubt), here's the most memorable line -- "There’s no such thing as a bureaucratic error in an authoritarian regime."

More from Kathleen Parker can be found here.

Olym-Pinks

The 1980 US Olympic Hockey triumph remains one of the defining sporting moments in the lives of those of us who remember the doldrums of the 1970's. In the 1980's, however, it seemed that the Olympics became more of a forum for political protest than athletic competition. Attempting to follow it then, and wondering which countries were going to boycott, or conversely be excommunicated, has made it difficult for me to follow it since. Never mind the amateur vs. professional debate, illegal substances, and an overwhelming number of events that rely on capricious judging techniques.

The purist will say that we should watch simply to appreciate the skill and preparation of the participants; others will say that it's completely right and proper for politics to have a role, in that some nations deserve citation in one form or another. In previous years, one might have been able to strike a balance between the two and find at least a level of enjoyment in the Olympics. However, to see them being hosted by the Communist Party of China is simply too much for this reporter.

Think back 25 years -- it was unthinkable for the rest of the world to include South Africa in the Olympics, let alone allow them to host the games. Is China's record on human rights that much better that the IOC has seen fit to reward them with this stage in 2008? Has there ever been a full accounting for Tianamen Square, let alone the government's persecution of millions of its own citizens on religious and ethnic grounds? Granted, there have been ripples of protest in the upper levels of international politics and the media, so I'm certainly not alone in finding this at least suspicious. But I do have to wonder how it even was allowed to get to this point.

Needless to say, I won't be watching too much of NBC for the next two weeks...

Toss of the Coin

A recent Boston Globe article brought my attention to the modification of the NFL coin toss rule, where the team that wins the toss gets to defer receiving (ie possession) until the start of the second half.

In the mid-1980's, I had a simple, DOS-based, text-only football program on my Apple IIe, that I would actually rig to lose the coin toss in order to ensure I got possession to start the second half. The advantages, to me, were obvious -- if you were ahead after two quarters, it allowed you to extend your lead, or at a minimum take some time off the clock. If you were behind, obviously you'd like to have the ball first and maybe squeeze out an extra possession or two in the second half.

The logic was so obvious that I was surprised NFL coaches didn't practice it more frequently. However, I didn't understand the rule (and I'm guessing I'm not alone in this) -- under the old rule as I understand it, if the coin toss winner elected to kick off, the opposing team would have the choice at the start of the second half, and would naturally elect to receive (there's that logic again). The new rule is thus in line with what I thought originally. So it only took the NFL about 20 years to figure this out...

Of course, the larger question may be why do they have to toss the coin before each game anyway? Why not just have the home team decide?

Where's Bill Cosby when you need him?

Man-Ram goes West

Manny Ramirez has been traded to the Dodgers via Pittsburgh. Initial thougths --

(1) If I have this right -- the Red Sox gave up the best hitter in baseball and two promising minor leaguers and received one player in return. Not the way I would have drawn it up, so hopefully they were able to get the Dodgers to eat Manny's remaining salary.

(2) Like Nomar in 2004, this was a trade that had to be made. An underperforming superstar feigning injury and missing critical games in a tight division race -- and making numerous derogatory comments about the team's ownership with for no apparent reason -- can't be considered an asset in any clubhouse. He would have been gone at the end of the season anyway, and the way the Sox have played since the All-Star Break, this clearly was a team that needed to be shaken up.

(3) The question now remains if the Red Sox can make the playoffs and advance with Jason Bay in LF. He's 7 years younger and can't help but be an improvement defensively while being less of a distraction, but he's nowhere near the hitter Manny was.

Be that as it may, Manny's Red Sox made the playoffs four times during his seven (full) yeas in Boston, not to mention two rings. All good things must come to an end; will there be more good times in the future?

Yet Another All-Star Fiasco

Following this year's 15-inning MLB All-Star game (which, most people realize, should have ended in 11 innings if the secondbase umpire had actually been watching the game), there's the usual calls for expanded rosters, taxi squads, and other modifications so that the teams don't run out of pitchers as they did in 2002.

The solution -- at least a partial solution -- is rather simple: If you're physically, mentally or emotionally unable to play YOU DON'T GET TO BE ON THE ROSTER.

I mean, really -- all this nonsense about "so-and-so isn't available because he just pitched on Sunday" or "so-and-so is nursing a ruptured toenail so he'd prefer not to play" or "my brother-in-law's best friend went to elementary school with Clint Hurdle's agent's cousin's sister, so I'll just park my pathetic carcass on the bench and pop sunflower seeds for four hours."

It's so logical that Bud Selig and his minions will never figure it out (unless they're reading this, and we already know the answer to that). If you're not prepared to play in the game, then you get to stay home and someone else can take your place. Sorry -- if you want to be called an "all-star," it means you have to sacrifice a 3-day vacation and actually exert some effort.

So the Tampa Bay Devil Rays or whatever they're called this year don't want Scott Kazmir to pitch (if I heard that once, I heard it 50,000 times during the broadcast). Fine. Scott, you get to stay home and enjoy a 3-day vacation. I'm sure we can find somebody around here somewhere who actually wants to play in the game.

At least, it's a good starting point. Bud, are you listening? Never mind...

Nomo Nomo

Hideo Nomo has announced his retirement, some 5-6 years too late. Nonetheless, he was an important part of Red Sox history, throwing the franchise's first no-hitter since 1965 when he silenced the Orioles in his Sox debut in 2001, providing the sole highlight from an otherwise completely dreadful and forgettable season (hard to believe, but that team almost made the playoffs). More importantly, he was the first Japanese pitcher of the modern media era and led the way for the likes of Ichiro, Dice-K and "Shemp" Matsui, to name a few. Thanks for the memories.

At least...

The Red Sox will finish the first half of the season in first place...

Tony Snow (1955-2008)

Unlike Tim Russert, with whom he went head-to-head on Sunday mornings for 7 years, Tony Snow migrated from journalism back to politics, doubtlessly taking a substantial cut in pay.

The final chapter on the second Bush administration has yet to be written, and it will be years if not decades before an unbiased evaluation can be articulated, but when that happens it is hoped by this reporter that Tony Snow will emerge as one of the stand-up guys from a difficult period. His honesty, optimism, and humor will be greatly missed, both at the White House podium and on channel 72 (or wherever you find Fox News).

Enough is Enough

All right, Brett Favre, you asked for it. You're a nice guy and a reasonably decent football player, but would you please . . . just . . . go . . . away.

During last season's NFL playoffs, I was yearning for the Packers to lose just because I was so sick and tired of the Favre love-fest that had long since reached and surpassed the boundaries of gastrointestinal endurance. A nice story. A decent comeback. A solid playoff run in what appeared to be his final season. But, really, now. I was glad to see the Giants knock them off in the NFC championship -- not as you might suppose, because I assumed at the time that the Giants would be an easier Super Bowl target for the Patriots, but because I knew I couldn't take another two weeks of Favre-mania without moving to Zimbabwe.

Around the time that Favre announced Retirement I, Bob Ryan penned a column that articulated my feelings far better than I could. Ryan focusses on the folly of the consecutive games streak as well as the excessive number of interceptions. Those points are well taken. My main objection to the sainthood of Brett is a little simpler -- he only won one SuperBowl, and the other one in which he appeared he folded like a cheap suit against the Denver Broncos. I further maintain that he would not have even won Super Bowl XXXI if (a) Desmond Howard hadn't returned two kickoffs for two touchdowns (the margin of victory), and (b) Bill Parcells hadn't been taking calls from the New York Jets before, during, and after the game.

The in- and out-of-retirement scenario might remind some of Michael Jordan. This is unfair to Michael Jordan. Jordan was perhaps the best player in his sport of all time, certainly the best of his era. Brett Favre was neither. A competitive, durable, and statistically proficient player who played for a team with a national following. Maybe in the top 20 of his position after 1970. The same number of rings as Kurt Warner, Jim McMahon and that guy who played for the Ravens. I've seen enough.

Hail to the King

Zev Chafets of the NYT Magazine has an excellent (albeit lengthy) piece on the King of Radio.

HH Collection

Given the somewhat miserable and unpredictable weather over the Independence Day weekend, I spent most of my time scanning the photographs from my Hogan's Heroes collection. There were 208 in all. A few favorites appear herewith; more will inevitably follow...

2003?

For whatever reason, I recently watched game 5 of the 2003 AL Playoff series between the Sox and Oakland A's. The Sox won the game, 4-3, as Derek Lowe struck out the last two batters he faced (the final one with the bases loaded) to complete Boston's comeback from an 0-2 deficit, repeating their feat of 4 years earlier against Cleveland.

An interesting game to watch, particularly to be reminded of the many players who have moved on. Todd Walker? Damian Jackson? Others, of course, were cornerstones of the 2004 team -- Manny, Mueller, Millar, Varitek, Nixon and David Ortiz. (An interesting episode occurs during the broadcast when Fox analyst Steve Lyons suggests -- with a straight face -- that the A's should walk Manny to get to Ortiz).

Naturally, I knew who won the game and (pretty much) recalled how it had ended, but over five years most of the details had escaped me. I had forgotten completely about the Damon - Jackson collision in center field, for example. Most ironic, however, was the decision of He Who Must Not Be Named to leave Pedro Martinez in the game to start the eighth inning with a 4-2 lead. Two batters later, it was 4-3, and the Sox turned to Alan Embree and then Mike Timlin to finish out the inning with no further damage. Ironic (and all the more confounding) in terms of what would happen about ten days later. I may never forgive Grady Little...

The Original Uncle Jesse (1921-2008)

Jesse Helms, who represented North Carolina in the US Senate for 30 years, died on July 4th. Much has (and will) be written about him. For me, the timing is somewhat ironic --

You may have recently read about the rescue of FARC hostages by the Columbian Army, a group of 15 that included 3 Americans. Some of you may recall the New Tribes Missionaries who were kidnapped in 1993 by the FARC and, after more than eight painful years of waiting by their wives and families, were determined in 2001 to have been martyred in the late 1990's (more details here).

Not knowing this at the time, of course, their story was of some interest to me on a variety of levels, and as I developed my first website circa 1997 (no links exist -- thankfully), I added a page with information and links on this story, encouraging visitors first of all to pray, and also to contact government and media officials.

The likelihood of their safe release seemed remote, but I was more discouraged by the lack of attention the story was receiving (part of this, I later learned, was due to the wishes of the families themselves; it wasn't until later in the decade that they became more proactive, including an appearance by all three wives on Larry King Live).

In any case, I sent e-mails to various parties, including leaders of the House and Senate, the US State Department, and media organizations. I received exactly one reply -- from Jesse Helms, then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The letter -- which I probably have around here somewhere -- didn't say much, and, in truth, Helms couldn't really do much. But the fact is that he took the time to write, or have one of his staffers, write a reply to a person who wasn't even a constituent who had contacted him about a relatively obscure issue.

When you are principled, you are bound to be controversial, and Helms certainly was both. But, naive though it may be, I can't but help that Jesse Helms actually cared about his country and the people he represented both as a North Carolina senator and a national figure. Thanks, Jesse. Rest in peace.

Off the Wall

Here's a link to that bizarre play on 7/4/08 that left Kevin Youkilis' fly ball resting atop the outfield fence at Yankee Stadium.