Monday, January 07, 2008
He's freaking named after a tool of the game--you'd think he'd understand it better!
One of Mitt Romney's aides badly needs to give him a crash course in baseball.
A few weeks ago, Romney, in attempting to explain a fib that was unusually slimy even for him, he talked about how he saw the Patriots win the World Series. Confident as I am that love of America beats strong in Manny Ramirez's breast, I don't think that's what Romney was talking about.
Then, in the wake of his defeat in Iowa, Romney flashed that TV anchor grin and said,
Please, for the love of our country, couldn't somebody talk to the guy?
A few weeks ago, Romney, in attempting to explain a fib that was unusually slimy even for him, he talked about how he saw the Patriots win the World Series. Confident as I am that love of America beats strong in Manny Ramirez's breast, I don't think that's what Romney was talking about.
Then, in the wake of his defeat in Iowa, Romney flashed that TV anchor grin and said,
This is obviously a bit like a baseball game, first inning. Well, it’s a 50-inning ball game. I’m going to keep on battling all the way and anticipate I get the nomination when it’s all said and done.
Please, for the love of our country, couldn't somebody talk to the guy?
Labels: Mitt Romney, politicians
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Congratulations, George Bush!
With the sale of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the subsequent firing of the only general manager in the team's history, Chuck LaMar--he of the .400 winning percentage over the team's 8 seasons--the field has been cleared for the Bush administration to take sole possession of first place in the "least accountable organization" standings.
Manifest failure? Sickening incompetence? Take a bow, Donald Rumsfeld. Smile while you're picking up your consulting check, Brownie. If you worked for anyone else--even the new and improved Tampa Bay Devil Rays--you'd be out of a job. As someone more clever than I put it, "Not only does the buck not stop there--it doesn't even slow down!" Well, it's finally landed, for the Devil Rays, at least.
Next step for the Devil Rays: setting some goals. Any kind of goals.
Manifest failure? Sickening incompetence? Take a bow, Donald Rumsfeld. Smile while you're picking up your consulting check, Brownie. If you worked for anyone else--even the new and improved Tampa Bay Devil Rays--you'd be out of a job. As someone more clever than I put it, "Not only does the buck not stop there--it doesn't even slow down!" Well, it's finally landed, for the Devil Rays, at least.
Next step for the Devil Rays: setting some goals. Any kind of goals.
Labels: chuck lamar, devil rays, politicians
Monday, August 08, 2005
Perjury
Well, we've found out what it takes to get Congressmen pissed off about being lied to under oath these days: .289/.371/.516, with 569 home runs, 1834 RBI, and 3018 hits. The chair of the House Committee on Government Reform, Tom Davis III, has asked for information from MLB about Rafael Palmeiro's positive steroids test. The committee is expected, says Congressional Quarterly, "to pay close attention to the timeline in baseball records" to determine whether the juice might have been responsible for the convincing bristle in Palmeiro's mustache as he denied ever having been juiced.
Us ordinary folk, we just have to settle for writing a letter to the editor when we're outraged. Congress is special. They can do something! They can order Palmeiro to shave that mustache and let them test every hair if they get a mind to.
You close followers of Congress in the audience will note that this is the first time Congress has paid close attention to anything since their surprisingly close interest in Mary Carey's gubernatorial campaign.
And it's the first time Congress has been outraged over possible perjury since the good ol' innocent days in the summer of 1998, when, so a reliable source tells me, the most-searched terms of the online posting of the Starr Report at a certain major daily newspaper were "Sosa" and "anal."
Too bad Palmeiro can't be impeached! Think of the lesson that would teach America's children about the seriousness with which Congress takes their duty to . . . uh . . . do whatever it is they do. Has the White House issued marching orders on Palmeiro yet?
Then again, if it does turn out that Palmeiro lied brazenly to Congress, then surely Karl Rove won't waste any time before hiring him. After all, lying smoothly under oath is a skill that could come in mighty handy at the White House as Patrick Fitzgerald's Amazin' Prosecutin' Machine keeps rolling.
Us ordinary folk, we just have to settle for writing a letter to the editor when we're outraged. Congress is special. They can do something! They can order Palmeiro to shave that mustache and let them test every hair if they get a mind to.
You close followers of Congress in the audience will note that this is the first time Congress has paid close attention to anything since their surprisingly close interest in Mary Carey's gubernatorial campaign.
And it's the first time Congress has been outraged over possible perjury since the good ol' innocent days in the summer of 1998, when, so a reliable source tells me, the most-searched terms of the online posting of the Starr Report at a certain major daily newspaper were "Sosa" and "anal."
Too bad Palmeiro can't be impeached! Think of the lesson that would teach America's children about the seriousness with which Congress takes their duty to . . . uh . . . do whatever it is they do. Has the White House issued marching orders on Palmeiro yet?
Then again, if it does turn out that Palmeiro lied brazenly to Congress, then surely Karl Rove won't waste any time before hiring him. After all, lying smoothly under oath is a skill that could come in mighty handy at the White House as Patrick Fitzgerald's Amazin' Prosecutin' Machine keeps rolling.
Labels: politicians, rafael palmeiro, steroids
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Bush dodges important issue
I have many thoughts on Bush's press conference last night. But since most of those thoughts aren't family-friendly, I'll stick to this one:
What happened to the scourge of steroids? Aren't they--along with gay marriage--ravaging our youth? Aren't they shattering our trust in our sports heroes? It was just three months ago that they were important to include in the State of the Union address. Now, despite the prime-time slot, they rate nary a mention.
Maybe we've defeated them? After all, Barry Bonds only has three home runs so far this season, so clearly he's off the 'roids.
Maybe that can be Bush's campaign slogan: "Vote Bush. At least he defeated steroids. Maybe."
Back to baseball later. I promise. I'm just waiting to hear what Rickey Henderson's up to these days.
What happened to the scourge of steroids? Aren't they--along with gay marriage--ravaging our youth? Aren't they shattering our trust in our sports heroes? It was just three months ago that they were important to include in the State of the Union address. Now, despite the prime-time slot, they rate nary a mention.
Maybe we've defeated them? After all, Barry Bonds only has three home runs so far this season, so clearly he's off the 'roids.
Maybe that can be Bush's campaign slogan: "Vote Bush. At least he defeated steroids. Maybe."
Back to baseball later. I promise. I'm just waiting to hear what Rickey Henderson's up to these days.
Labels: politicians, steroids
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
One more politics post before I leave it behind like Bonds blowing past Willie Mays.
There are a couple of sites that allow you to search FEC records to see who has donated what to whom. This one lets you search for any contributions made to presidential campaigns this election cycle. One entertaining feature is that you can search by ZIP code and see what your neighbors are giving.
This site has, for some reason, the 1997-98 and 2000 election cycles. It seems to be much more comprehensive, too, including contributions to PACs and congressional campaigns.
So what's this have to do with baseball? You can look up ballplayers! And owners!
Since I spend most of my time worrying about the National League Central, I thought I'd look up the owners of the teams in that division.
Cardinals: I already knew that Bill DeWitt, Jr. of the Cardinals was a Forest Ranger or Space Pirate or whatever Bush called people who raised a certain number of billions for him. But he's also given thousands in soft money to the Republicans and thousands in direct money to John Ashcroft.
Cubs: Owned by the Tribune Company. If you read the Chicago Tribune's editorial page any time between, say, the Lincoln administration and today, you already know where their money is going.
Reds: Owner Carl Lindner gives insane amounts of money to both party central committees, but on balance, the GOP takes home more of the money Reds fans (not to mention the residents of Cincinnati who funded that ballpark) cough up. Sadly, for both Lindner and the GOP, attendance at Reds games wasn't helped quite as much as they hoped it would be by the new park.
Houston: Owner Drayton McLane likes to give to Tom DeLay. And Elizabeth Dole. And Craig Biggio, if you count extending his expensive contract beyond the point when he will be a good player a political contribution.
Pittsburgh: Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy is an oddity among MLB owners. He mostly gives to Democrats, in amounts in the low thousands of dollars. He did, however, write one check to Rick Santorum, for $250. The very smallness of the check in relation to his other donations makes me imagine him wrinkling his face in disgust as he wrote it, considering it a cost of doing big business in Pennsylvania.
Milwaukee: Ah, yes. Have you heard me rant about Selig? Well, despite his union-busting and serial lying, Allan H. Selig is on the same side as me here, with him and his family members giving across the board to the Democrats.
What's most interesting in this is that nearly all these owners have given--freely, I'm sure--amounts ranging from $1500 to $7500 to the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball Political Action Committee. I guess that committee is one of the ways MLB convinces people like James Sensenrenner to lob softballs at the Commissioner during congressional hearings.
Oh, and ballplayers? Turns out they just don't give much to anybody, despite having loads of the ready. I suppose that shouldn't surprise me. Al Leiter, noted Republican and boyishly cute pitcher, did give to Jim Bunning's senate campaign. From which filing I learned that Al's full first name is Alois.
And Tony LaRussa gave to a Democratic congressional candidate, which doesn't surprise me, seeing as he's a vegetarian and animal-rights activist.
Weirdest of all so far? Steve Garvey, noted conservative first baseman, gave Bill Bradley $1000.
That's it for politics, unless Jim wants to go through the rosters of all current teams in order to see which players donated to legislators who have supported Amtrak?
There are a couple of sites that allow you to search FEC records to see who has donated what to whom. This one lets you search for any contributions made to presidential campaigns this election cycle. One entertaining feature is that you can search by ZIP code and see what your neighbors are giving.
This site has, for some reason, the 1997-98 and 2000 election cycles. It seems to be much more comprehensive, too, including contributions to PACs and congressional campaigns.
So what's this have to do with baseball? You can look up ballplayers! And owners!
Since I spend most of my time worrying about the National League Central, I thought I'd look up the owners of the teams in that division.
Cardinals: I already knew that Bill DeWitt, Jr. of the Cardinals was a Forest Ranger or Space Pirate or whatever Bush called people who raised a certain number of billions for him. But he's also given thousands in soft money to the Republicans and thousands in direct money to John Ashcroft.
Cubs: Owned by the Tribune Company. If you read the Chicago Tribune's editorial page any time between, say, the Lincoln administration and today, you already know where their money is going.
Reds: Owner Carl Lindner gives insane amounts of money to both party central committees, but on balance, the GOP takes home more of the money Reds fans (not to mention the residents of Cincinnati who funded that ballpark) cough up. Sadly, for both Lindner and the GOP, attendance at Reds games wasn't helped quite as much as they hoped it would be by the new park.
Houston: Owner Drayton McLane likes to give to Tom DeLay. And Elizabeth Dole. And Craig Biggio, if you count extending his expensive contract beyond the point when he will be a good player a political contribution.
Pittsburgh: Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy is an oddity among MLB owners. He mostly gives to Democrats, in amounts in the low thousands of dollars. He did, however, write one check to Rick Santorum, for $250. The very smallness of the check in relation to his other donations makes me imagine him wrinkling his face in disgust as he wrote it, considering it a cost of doing big business in Pennsylvania.
Milwaukee: Ah, yes. Have you heard me rant about Selig? Well, despite his union-busting and serial lying, Allan H. Selig is on the same side as me here, with him and his family members giving across the board to the Democrats.
What's most interesting in this is that nearly all these owners have given--freely, I'm sure--amounts ranging from $1500 to $7500 to the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball Political Action Committee. I guess that committee is one of the ways MLB convinces people like James Sensenrenner to lob softballs at the Commissioner during congressional hearings.
Oh, and ballplayers? Turns out they just don't give much to anybody, despite having loads of the ready. I suppose that shouldn't surprise me. Al Leiter, noted Republican and boyishly cute pitcher, did give to Jim Bunning's senate campaign. From which filing I learned that Al's full first name is Alois.
And Tony LaRussa gave to a Democratic congressional candidate, which doesn't surprise me, seeing as he's a vegetarian and animal-rights activist.
Weirdest of all so far? Steve Garvey, noted conservative first baseman, gave Bill Bradley $1000.
That's it for politics, unless Jim wants to go through the rosters of all current teams in order to see which players donated to legislators who have supported Amtrak?
Labels: politicians
