Perfect Pitch Communications: The Nub

��<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 12"> </head> <body> <big>January 2010 Archive</big> (Posted: 1/30/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> High Court Backs a Hit at Hillary as it Did a Swing Against Flood<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>The names of Hillary Clinton and baseball hero Curt Flood will be linked forever, thanks to seismic Supreme Court decisions – one last week, the other 38 years ago.  The court’s 5-4 decision in the “Hillary: The Movie” case liberated corporations from the need to curb money spent on political candidates.  By a 5-3 count, the court refused, in the 1972 “Flood v. Kuhn” case, to free players from baseball’s reserve clause.  That clause, an anti-trust law exception, made the players team property, denying them the right to sell their services on the open market. <o:p></o:p>Flood would have turned 72 last week, reason enough to remember him and his historic case.  But first, a between-innings…                               -     -     - Lob from Left Field on a subject the Skipper avoided Wednesday night: <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>“When (Obama) became president, there can hardly have been any American holder of public office who did not understand that the United States had either to tell the Palestinians to give up the two-states solution (and prepare for emigration or apartheid), or to inform Benjamin Netanyahu that it was all over for the settlements, and that if he wished to continue to be Washington’s best friend he must sign, on the spot, that long-negotiated two-states draft agreement…  President Obama’s failure has astonished the international public and left in despair those Americans who can scarcely believe that a whole year has been irresponsibly wasted.”  –William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune                           -     -     - Repercussions of the Flood decision led within a few years to free agency for players.  Whether there will be unintended consequences of the Hillary ruling remains to be seen. The skipper made clear Wednesday night that he hopes so.  Chairman Barney Frank of the House Finance Committee suggested on MSNBC a few days earlier that Congress might well require corporations to seek shareholders’ permission before spending what is their - the investors’ - money on candidates. <o:p></o:p>The corporations can thank the conservative corporate team that made the Hillary movie for insisting it was a documentary and not a partisan political vehicle subject to campaign finance laws.  The team believed in its case, as Flood did in his.  Although Flood lost, his willingness to fight to end what he called “well-paid slavery” made millionaires out of a great many major league ballplayers who came after him.  As for Flood himself… <o:p></o:p> To press his case, with union help, he had to give up his livelihood.  A black man from a modest <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oakland</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">CA</st1:state></st1:place> background, he could have earned almost $100,000 with the Phillies in 1970 had he agreed to a trade from the Cardinals.  His decision to sit out that season and the next left him nearly destitute before the case reached the High Court in ‘72.  When the justices upheld baseball’s monopoly,  Flood was reduced to a life on, sometimes over, the edge.  For sacrificing to secure economic justice for ballplayers, something he himself could never hope to benefit from, Flood wound up scrimping, drinking, suffering a series of marital breakups and experiencing always the sense of ostracism from the game he loved.  He couldn’t get a steady job with a team or even with the players union.  <o:p></o:p> When we asked the great former players union chief Marvin Miller about the poor treatment Flood received in his last years - he died in 1997 at the age of 59 – Miller disputed that the union didn’t do enough.  The evidence – as set forth in lawyer/author Brad Snyder’s meticulously researched “A Well-Paid Slave” (Plume Books) – indicates otherwise.  The union helped Flood wage his legal fight, but it failed to get its members still active in the game to publicly support him.  The players he had fought for seemed afraid to be associated with the man their bosses deplored as a troublemaker.  Not a single one agreed to testify in the reserve-clause case. <o:p></o:p> Those same owners have been generous in celebrating the professional lives of the likes of Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams, players who had been their property.  The players union has yet to insist that mlb do right by Flood, the man who completed the baseball revolution that started when Robinson put on a uniform.  Flood finished it – in the words of Brad Snyder – “by taking his off.” <o:p></o:p> Not the Mets Again!  Last week it was Joel Piniero and Bengie Molina, this week the Mets lost Ben Sheets and Jon Garland.  Well, there’s still Eric Bedard, John Smoltz and Jarrod Washburn among free-agent pitchers Jeff Wilpon could settle for.  The boss’s son is being blamed for not dealing promptly for the best available players.  We can hear him saying “You’d be slow to move, too, if your GM had committed a total of $18 million this season alone for Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo.”  The obvious reason GM Omar Minaya hasn’t been moved…out…is that his three-year contract worth about $6 million has just kicked in.  A further sign money is short: Fernando Tatis is back <o:p></o:p>                            - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/26/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Team GOP Now Like the Yankees, Only More So<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> By midsummer last season, 40 percent of major league teams had no realistic chance to make the playoffs.  By midsummer this electoral season, the Democrats will be lucky if only 40 percent of their Congressional candidates are clearly on their way to defeat. <o:p></o:p>Money is making the difference in both fields, now more than ever.  The Yankees have three of the seven best-paid players in baseball – Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Derek Jeter – and four other “have” teams, the Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cardinals, employ the others (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place>, John Lackey, Manny Rodriguez and Matt Holliday).  It will be no surprise if, owing to top-heaviness, baseball attendance drops this season for a second year in a row.  <o:p></o:p> The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the top-heavy corporate hitters like Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and General Electric (Fortune 500’s first five) to spend the candidates they support to victory.  The nine-judge team, by a 5-4 margin, said corporate lineups have a free-speech right to hit with as many dollars as they want behind selected players.  The danger of the decision resulting in a damaging political double play - a rise in one-sided contests and a decline in voter participation - is real. <o:p></o:p> The newly allowed money will give Team GOP a Yanks-like edge in adding to its Congressional roster.  Fans in the left field see decisive support for players with an anti-government agenda skewing the electoral field.  Fans in right field, like the NY Times’ David Brooks, don’t like the ruling for a different reason.   Here is the pitch Brooks delivered on the PBS Newshour: <o:p></o:p> “I think it is a bad decision. I do -- I think it will have a poisonous effect on political atmosphere…What do corporations want when they go to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Washington</st1:state></st1:place>?...  They want to crush small businesses who are hoping to compete with them by erecting regulatory hurdles.  So, I think they will use that money to try to essentially hurt small business, who don't have lobbyists, don't have money to spend.”   <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>So the news may be particularly good for the Wal-Marts in the influence game, and bad for Mom-and-Pop teams. <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 50%; margin-bottom: 6pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><o:p></o:p> In baseball, the outlook remains bleak for the Mom-and-Pop equivalents in small markets, and the hopes for broader competition.  Peter Gammons laid out aspects of the problem on the MLB Network: “The economy in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:city></st1:place> is stagnating the Indians' energetic organization.  Major League Baseball is gravely concerned about the future of the Rays, who last year realized little bump from their 2008 run.  A respected organization industry-wide, the Rays are stuck in a (bad) ballpark and location....  <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pittsburgh</st1:place></st1:city> is trying to be aggressive in the domestic and foreign talent pools, spending the money to get top scouts and development people, but has yet to show progress. MLB still isn't certain that the Marlins' new facility will make <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Miami</st1:city></st1:place> a viable baseball market.”<o:p></o:p> Doubts about the long-term viability of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place> continue to emanate from Red Sox Nation.  After Bay told a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city> broadcaster last week that the Sox wanted to include too many medical provisions in the four-year contract he rejected, questions resurfaced about his suspect shoulder and knees.  Team doctor Thomas Gill didn’t like what he saw during tests of the outfielder.  The Globe’s Nick Cafardo notes the doctor’s track record: “Gill is the same doctor who after looking over Pedro Martinez’s medical history advised the Sox that, based on what he saw, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Martinez</st1:city></st1:place> would likely break down and have a major shoulder issue.  Well, about 1 1/2 years into his contract with the Mets - the same Mets who have signed off on Bay’s issues - guess what happened?”<o:p></o:p> Other ballgames:  The run-up to the Jets-Colts game reminded us of the run-up to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>: pro-Jets media hype - like the pro-war hysteria - out of control. This enemy had a WMD – Peyton Manning.  The result of the Vikes-Saints game seemed foreordained when it went to overtime.  Joe Buck and Troy Aikman noted often that Brett Favre had taken many hard hits.  What they didn’t say was the obvious: By overtime, the 40-year-old Favre had to be exhausted.<o:p></o:p>                              - o -<o:p></o:p> (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/23/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>Baseball and Politics Need ‘Fannies in the Seats’<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Had Barack Obama heeded George Steinbrenner, his first year as skipper might have been different.  “You measure the value of a ballplayer,” Steinbrenner said years ago, “by how many fannies he puts in the seats.” <o:p></o:p>In his pre-skipper days, Obama flashed his spikes on the political basepaths and swung for the fences.  The excitement he brought to the field energized fans, attracting them – and their fannies - in huge numbers. Then, as of a year ago, the skipper decided a new strategy was needed: he elected to play small ball with his team, an offense featuring sacrifices, safety squeezes – cautious ways to gain a scoring edge.  The result: game at a near-standstill, owing both to Team Obama’s caution and the hardball defense of the other side.  Meanwhile, the once-cheering fans in left field slipped away; it was not the type of game the pre-skipper led them to believe he’d play.  <o:p></o:p> From a political standpoint, the game is only in the bottom of the third inning.  The skipper’s task now, observers on the left agree, is to return to what brought him early success – winning the fannies back with a tough, hard-hitting game that takes out GOP opponents who get in the way.  The first order of business: a pep talk.  Lefty tactician William Greider, of the Nation, suggests what the skipper should say: <o:p></o:p> “Obama's turn-around speech would declare--honestly--that he misjudged the situation.  The damage is far worse than he originally realized. Some deeper structural changes are required.  The political opposition is more than ever blindly resistant… But now Obama can promise to govern nose-to-nose against the political forces blocking everything he attempts. He may not prevail, he concedes. But he is going to throw himself at them and he asks the people to join him in the fight.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> That Obama had hard-nosed Paul Volcker and not Tim Geithner with him Thursday when he took on the big banks reinforced the sense that the skipper has already adopted a tougher political stance.  If he carries through, he could recapture the magnetic you-can-believe aura that surrounded him in spring training a short while ago.  His fans did believe and were sure he would bring dramatic change when the season started.   His challenge now is to prove, however belatedly, that they weren’t wrong.  The fannies wait in the wings and fingers are crossed.<o:p></o:p>                        -     -     -<o:p></o:p> The Mets front office must have thought its mishandling of the Carlos Beltran-surgery story was as bad as week could get.  That was last week; Omar Minaya and Jeff Wilpon learned this week that they waited too long to sign two of the last free agents with more than marginal value – catcher  Bengie Molina and pitcher Joel Piniero.  The pair were snapped up by the Giants and Angels, respectively.  That leaves the Mets without a credible catcher or capable number two starter.  They are adding a decent backup to Beltran in Gary Matthews, Jr., obtained from the Angels.  But pitching and catching is the pressing need.  We’re betting the team’s crack PR man Jay Horwitz will contrive to generate interest despite the roster shortcomings.  Whether his work will lure a sufficient number of fans to the Citi Field seats is another story.                         - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/19/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> The Missing Player on NY’s Progressive Political Team<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Branch Rickey, the man who desegregated baseball, called them “anesthetic” players.  They were name players who had stopped producing but still made teams feel good having them in the lineup.  Rickey would get rid of those players just before or soon after they fell into the feel-good-but stage of their careers.  <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place> state has had an anesthetic political player on the U.S. Senate team since 1999.  Chuck Schumer will run for a third term this year on a record of having talked a good game, but… <o:p></o:p> Chuck, a supposed lefty, has disappeared in the game to make Wall Street more accountable to taxpayers.  Some see a connection between that absence and his fund-raising scorecard: According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Schumer’s been on the receiving end of more than $2 million in contributions from financial, insurance and real estate industries during his current term.  Chuck did go to bat for private equity and hedge-fund firms before the housing bubble burst, however.  He came out swinging against the proposed closing of a multi-billion-dollar tax loophole those firms enjoyed.  Thanks, in great part to Schumer, it’s a perk they are still benefiting from.  <o:p></o:p> It was Chuck, we remember, who saw in the Team Bush appointment of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general a positive step, and sponsored the candidacy of another torture-supporter, Michael Mukasey, as Homeland Security chief.  And how can anyone forget Schumer’s support of war-powers for Bush and his silence on the decision to invade <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> and its disastrous aftermath? <o:p></o:p> In fairness, NY’s senior senator has been an effective party insider, an astute national campaign organizer.  And he has said the right things on health care reform and the need for a public option.  But you’ll be hard put in checking his website to find any stances on tough issues: announcements of grants, programs, proposed legislation and calls for improved security, yes.  His ability to take safe stands, say the right things and attract media coverage have all but assured his re-election.  But <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> progressives expect better.  To them, despite his flair, Schumer remains an overrated, anesthetic player whose performance deserves to be constantly scrutinized and challenged.                         -     -     - The hot stove baseball season has been dotted with deals involving post-anesthetic players – those who have demonstrated that they’ve declined from even their feel-good,  unproductive days.  Two former Mets are in that category – lefty Bruce Chen, now with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kansas City</st1:place></st1:city>, has been with 10 teams since 1998.  He’s 36-43 since he broke in, and was 1-6 last season with KC.  Chen will be 33 in June.  Righty reliever Luis Ayala will only be 29 this season, but he’s bounced among six teams since 2003, including the Dodgers, who just signed him.  He was 1-5 with <st1:state w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:state> and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> last year, 29-39 overall.  His career ERA: 3.67, high for a reliever.    Sports Illustrated’s Tim Marchman believes the Reds made a risky six-year, $30-million investment in untried Cuban-exile fireballer Arnoldis Chapman.  But that doesn’t mean he thinks <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:city></st1:place> fans are being shortchanged: “For all (my reservations), I love this deal.  I love that the Reds are laying marks on real talent rather than squandering $5 million on Kyle Farnsworth or someone like him.  I love that Reds fans are (rightly) so excited about this.  I love that Chapman can finally start thinking about the best players in the world rather than worrying about money.  Mostly I love that it was the Reds, rather than the Yankees or Angels, who signed him.”<o:p></o:p> Farnsworth, another post-anesthetic type, will be returning to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kansas City</st1:place></st1:city> after an injury-marred ’09 season.  He pitched in only 41 games (compared to his usual 60’s or 70’s) and had a 1-5 record with an ERA of 4.58.                               - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/16/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> A Guilt-Tinged Cheer for ‘Game Change’<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> We were among the (apparently) few fans turned off by the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa race for the mlb home run record late in 1998. And the steroid suspicions were only part of the story.  It was infuriating at the time that no one seemed to care about the pennant races; you couldn’t get game-day team scores, only whether Mark or Sammy hit one. <o:p></o:p> We wish we felt the same dismay over another tainted distraction, this in the political field.  The book “Game Change”, another example of the media’s failure to keep its eye on the ball, sucked us in; its mix of cheap head-hunting and dirty take-outs too tasty to ignore. There’s nothing like petty sideline action to take a fan’s mind off what’s really going on in the political game.  <o:p></o:p> The media made it easy for fans and non-fans alike to become mesmerized by the mano-a-mano heroics of McGwire and Sosa. But the account of a pre-game warmup to a key political one-on-one contest in “Game Change” received surprisingly minimum play.    Co-author John Heileman talked of the incident the other night while defending the book to Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert.  He said the disclosure that, in 2006, Majority Leader Harry Reid urged then-freshman Senator Barack Obama to challenge Hillary Clinton for the presidency was an important historical footnote.  In retrospect, it does suggest the depth and strength of the party’s desire to find an alternative to Hillary in 2008.  <o:p></o:p> Still, most of the book is bush-league stuff, says Salon’s Glenn Greenwald.  He says those of us seduced by “Game Change” fail to see its demeaning significance: <o:p></o:p> “The real value of a book like this lies in the opportunity it presents for Washington's elite class to distract themselves and everyone else from the oozing corruption, destruction, decaying and pillaging going on -- that these same Washington denizens have long enabled.  With some important exceptions, that is the primary purpose of establishment journalism generally.  Even better, the book lets our media and political elite -- and then the public generally -- feel good about themselves by morally condemning the trashy exploits of Rielle Hunter and the egoistic hypocrisies of the (now) irrelevant John and Elizabeth Edwards.” <o:p></o:p>Point driven home.  Also true: the book offers political fans a ballpark-full of guilty pleasures. <o:p></o:p>                            -     -     -<o:p></o:p> We know that the Mets, as constituted, were going nowhere with or without Carlos Beltran early in the season.  His absence while recovering from knee surgery may affect  attendance and make it a bit harder for the team to achieve third place in the NL East. <o:p></o:p> The injury could also jeopardize Beltran’s earning potential when his Mets contract runs out after next season.  At 34 then, with brittleness in his history, he’ll be unlikely to get the $17 million-per deal he received from the Mets five years ago.  What else did we see confirmed in the Beltran rhubarb?  That the Mets front-office is in much worse disarray than the team.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Post-season deals may have left baseball with potential adjustments in divisional balance, but there’s been little in the way of true “game change.”  As we’ve noted, the Yankees and Red Sox figure to repeat in the AL East, the Phillies and Cardinals ditto in the NL East, Central.  The Mariners, with recruits Cliff Lee and Chone Figgins, come as close as any team to possessing a roster of potential game-changers.  The NL West mix, as we saw last time, can be expected to include the Giants, the AL Central the usual three (or more) - team donnybrook.   The outlook, all and all, is for a 2010 season devoid of  upstart-caused drama.  Old money will play a major role, as usual. That won’t stop us from poring over the daily box scores. <o:p></o:p> Extra-Inning Lob from Left Field:  “If you care about fiscal responsibility, you have to favor raising taxes.  But whose taxes? The truth is that we've had a large income and wealth shift in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United  States</st1:country-region></st1:place>, in favor of not just the rich in general but the financial sector in particular.  We are overtaxing wage and salary income relative to investment income, and overtaxing the manufacturing and service sectors relative to the financial industry.  It's why Warren Buffett has said he's taxed at a lower rate than his receptionist.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> “Moving the tax burden toward the financial sector is thus a matter of both justice and political necessity.  The best thing that could happen to Obama would be for him to have a fight or two with Wall Street and the big banks on behalf of balancing the budget.  It is precisely the way to shake off both ends of the (charge he is a) Wall Street Liberal.” – E.J. Dionne, New Republic<o:p></o:p> <o:p>                           </o:p>- o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/12/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Who Will Be NY State’s Designated Political Hitter?<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Get ready for baseball metaphors as NY state politics approaches a meaningful moment this May.  That’s when the Democratic team will decide whether to let David Paterson  stay on as its designated hitter in the contest for governor or send its player with better stats, Andrew Cuomo, to the plate instead.  <o:p></o:p>If Cuomo goes to bat, it apparently will only be after Steve Levy, up from Suffolk County, takes his swings in the on-deck circle opposite Paterson.  Levy is seen as less a threat to David than a buffer for Andrew: Cuomo needs cover if he is to go against a black teammate for the second time in eight years. Dems know their strategic game plan could change between now and May: Paterson, who had been struggling, is starting to make contact.  If he can get a crowd- (and media-) pleasing streak going - and put up some numbers - he could still take his place at the top of his team’s electoral lineup. <o:p></o:p> That’s a big “if.”  But <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paterson</st1:place></st1:city> has finally benefited from a few lucky plays.  First, Rudy Giuliani let a chance go by and left the GOP field to less formidable Rick Lazio.  Then the legislative players below David in the order persisted in dismaying fans with their error-prone behavior.  The result: David’s swing has smoothed out and he’s pitching better than he has in a long time.  He knows he’ll have to keep it up to turn back Andrew, the state’s all-star.                                             -     -     - All-stars switching teams have provided hot stove highlights so far. With pitchers and catchers just a month away, it’s time to assess the possible changes in divisional balance as a result of star-sprinkled post-season transactions.   In two of six divisions – both in the West - there could be new big guys on the block.  The Mariners, by adding Cliff Lee to a rotation headed by Felix Hernandez, plus Chone Figgins and (to a lesser extent) Casey Kotchman, are likely to be competitive with the Angels. The LAAs lost Figgins and John Lackey while adding only Hideki Matsui. The Rangers, meanwhile reinforced by Rich Harden and Vladimir Guerrero, can’t be counted out. The Giants, with reserve strength already on hand(see below), picked up the versatile Mark DeRosa, just one more complement to a strong rotation headed by Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Barry Zito.  The Dodgers and <st1:place w:st="on">Rockies</st1:place>, who have stood virtually still, could be overtaken this time around. <o:p></o:p> Boston’s key acquisitions – John Lackey, Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron – almost assure that the Sox will be battling the Yankees and new pinstripers   Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazquez and Nick Johnson, again in 2010.  <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Tampa</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place> has the best young depth in baseball (see below again), so the Rays are long shots to make the AL East a three-team roundelay.  The Phils, with Roy Halladay, are sure-shots in the NL East.  In signing Matt Holliday, the Cardinals solidified their status as favorites in the NL Central.  The AL Central, minimally affected by deals, should be up for Tigers/Twins/White Sox grabs. <o:p></o:p>From the E-mailbag:  “You write (in the previous Nub) that Wilpon Jr. has screwed up. But can you or anyone tell us what, exactly, he does?” M. Polner, Great Neck, NY<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Jeff Wilpon is the Mets’ chief operating officer.  He is in charge of how his owner-father’s money is spent.  As such, he is the team’s day-to-day decision-maker.  A measure of how short-sighted his (and Omar Minaya’s) investment in the Mets’ scouting and player-development operations has been can be found on the list of players and affiliates in minor league all star teams of the past three seasons.  Those teams are composed of 18 position players and 10 pitchers, primarily from the triple- and double-A levels, listed by Baseball <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.  Of the total of 84 players selected in ’07, ’08, and ’09, the Mets had one – Ike Davis, named backup first baseman on the most recent team.  The Tampa Bay Rays had eight, the Giants six, the Yankees and Dodgers five each.  The Mets finished 28th of 30 in cumulative minor league standings, just ahead of the Reds and Astros.  Yet, as we know, Wilpon and his people invested less than any of the other 29 teams in amateur-draft prospects.  <o:p></o:p>                             - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) (Posted: 1/9/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Fantasy League 2010 - Politics as Well as Baseball<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Most of us are not good at keeping New Year’s resolutions, but we make them anyway.  What we’re good at is suggesting what others should resolve to do.  There’s no shortage of such nudging in baseball and politics this year, most of them pitches to front-office decision-makers that key people be cut.  Frank Coonelly and Fred Wilpon, presidents of the Pirates and Mets, have been ducking away from a barrage of fan frustration about the way their teams are being run.  And the man who runs Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> has taken a lot of chin music for holding on to two unpopular players. <o:p>  </o:p>Lefty economics ace Bob Kuttner let fly at Barack Obama in the Huffington Post.  His pitch about the skipper’s need to rectify his bad roster choices is as much a warning as a nudge: “The path that Obama is on, unless he alters it fast, will lead to prolonged economic stagnation and Republican champagne next November.  If you think a lunatic-fringe Republican party is any protection, look at the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624401762974932.html" target="_hplink">blowout victory of Pat Robertson protégé Bob McConnell</a> in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state></st1:place> governor's race two months ago.  And this in a blue-trending state….What will it take for Obama to recover his footing?  Some key personnel changes might be a start.  As investigative reporters did deeper into the mess that Larry Summers made of <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/11/29/harvard_ignored_warnings_about_investments/" target="_hplink">Harvard's finances</a>, you have to be thankful that the man isn't running the nation's economy (oh, whoops, he is.)  Summers reinforces all of Obama's conservative instincts and none of his progressive ones.<o:p></o:p> “Tim Geithner, who was in charge of relations with Congress for Obama as the House deliberated the financial reform bill, weighed in mostly on the wrong side.  If Obama is truly to signal a change of course and mean it, one constructive sign would be replacements for Summers and Geithner.”<o:p></o:p> Geithner and Summers are, of course, familiar players on progressives’ wish-they-were-released lineup.  We could add the names of the skipper’s center-right fielder, his Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, and his extreme-right-fielder, the State Department’s Assistant for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, a Bush holdover. <o:p></o:p> Yesterday in the Times, Paul Krugman launched this follow-up laser to colleague Kuttner’s warning blast:  “There’s a populist rage building…and President Obama’s kid-gloves treatment of the bankers has put Democrats on the wrong side of this rage.  If Congressional Democrats don’t (get) tough…with the banks in the months ahead, they will pay a big price in November.”<o:p></o:p> Pirates fans have given Coonelly’s choice for GM Neal Huntington almost two-and-a-half years to, if not turn the small-market franchise around, at least offer them reason for hope.  That hasn’t happened.  Over the last two seasons, he has traded away, among others, Xavier Nady, Damaso Marte, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place>, Nate McLouth, Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson.  And, not long ago, he failed to re-sign closer Matt Capps, who was snapped up by the Nationals.  The prospects (mainly) that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"> </st1:city></st1:place> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Huntington</st1:city></st1:place> received in return have so far failed to jell.  <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Pittsburgh</st1:city></st1:place>, which has had a record 17 straight losing seasons, figures to add an 18th this year.  No wonder there’s a clamor among Bucs fans for Coonelly to hunt for a replacement for <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Huntington</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p> Mets fans know it is unrealistic to think Fred Wilpon will acknowledge son Jeff has screwed up the franchise and deserves to be fired.  But many of them know, too, that if they stay away from Citi Field in numbers this unpromising season, Fred might relent.  It is clear that only with on-the-job trainee Jeff Wilpon sent away can the Mets develop an efficient operation and return as serious playoff contenders.<o:p></o:p> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"> Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place> said “This is where I want to be”; he never said he was “happy” to be joining the Mets and leaving the Red Sox.  Who can blame him for ambivalence?  The Sox-Mets comparison is odious.  <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city>, by adding John Lackey, Adrian Beltre, Mike Cameron and Marco Scutaro have assured 2010 competitiveness with the Yankees.  That’s good news for everyone, including Yankee fans, who revel in the exciting rivalry.  The Mets?  They’ll spend more than the Sox and be…respectable. <o:p></o:p>                                 - o - <o:p></o:p> (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com"></a>are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>       <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p>(Posted: 1/5/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Can Baseball Ease Our Tense Political Game With <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>?<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Two years ago, the Venezuelan ambassador in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state> pointed out that Americans and his countrymen had much in common – including a love of baseball.  Relations between the two nations, he said – at least as far as people were concerned – should be friendly, not adversarial.    <o:p></o:p> A front-page story about baseball and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the NY Times the other day shows why it is so hard to end the negativity felt on this side of the field: political bias intervenes.  The story tells of Buddy Bailey, a 52-year-old <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state></st1:place> mountain boy who is one of the winningest managers in the history of the Venezuelan professional baseball league.  Bailey’s Aragua Tigers won five championships in the last eight years.   <o:p></o:p> The story notes that Bailey is lionized by many fans and has won the admiration of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s skipper Hugo Chavez.  Skipper Bailey has nothing bad to say about the host country.  But the Timesman refers disapprovingly to Chavez “nationalizing foreign-owned companies and expelling some Americans.”  And at a time when spreading sexual violence - little mentioned in our media -  is shaming our ally Colombia, the NYT story alludes to “soaring levels of violent crime” in Venezuela. <o:p></o:p>Crime in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Caracas</st1:place></st1:city>, says the story, has “eclipsed” the prominence of “gas guzzlers and shopping malls”, pre-nationalization features of “the largest postwar American expatriate community in the world.”  Now, it adds, “so many values have been turned on their head” in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>.  It is true that “Chavez’s socialist-inspired revolution” has spawned many problems while it focuses on improving the lives of the poor.  The middle class is feeling pinched and the wealthy resent the economic hit they’re taking. There is unrest, yes, and crime. But the Times, the Washington Post and our other major papers have yet to examine <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s new values in a balanced way.  Nor have they weighed the rights and wrongs of the obvious reason for our skittishness: <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s control over its own coveted natural resource, oil.  <o:p></o:p> The sense here is that little positive will happen until Team Obama signals a change in the game plan it inherited: a plan that included in 2002 abetting an anti-Chavez coup. Team Bush at that moment made a second mistake: it approvingly acknowledged Hugo’s ouster, then watched his supporters return him to power.       <o:p></o:p>Baseball fans shrug at the off-field maneuvering.  They care about the Venezuelans they know: Johan Santana, Felix Hernandez, Carlos Zambrano, Victor Martinez, Bobby Abreu, Marco Scutaro, Francisco Rodriguez, Ozzie Guillen, etc.  Baseball, nevertheless, may have a political role to play: it is the link that, at the very least, can keep the countries from moving farther apart.                               -     -     - The Daily News’ Mark Feinsand reports that Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez, who last played in the majors in 2007 for the Mets, is also pitching in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region> now. His team: the Margarita Bravos.  He’s doing all right, if not lights-out; Feinsand has El Duque’s stats: “In seven games (six starts) in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Duque was 1-2 with a 3.27 ERA. He allowed 29 hits and 13 runs (12 earned) in 33 innings while striking out 27 and walking 15.  He gave up two homers.  Last year, he was 2-0 in eight games for <st1:state w:st="on">Oklahoma</st1:state> of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Pacific</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Coast</st1:placetype></st1:place> League. Don’t know if he wants to get back to the majors, but he sure does like pitching, eh?”   Hernandez is believed to be 43, but that may be off by a few years. <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3.75pt 0in 7.5pt; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> While our focus has been on the roster-filling of teams in the east, like the Red Sox and Mets, there’s been a big personnel story in LA, involving the Dodgers.  Orange County Register columnist Mark Whicker ticks off the team’s many contractual challenges: “All the (Dodgers) have to do is deal with (arbitration-eligibles) Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Jonathan Broxton, Russell Martin, George Sherrill, Hong-Chih Kuo and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chad</st1:place></st1:country-region> Billingsley. Whatever happens, the Dodgers will have to make this lineup play better than last year's did in the second half, because San Francisco and Colorado are coming – and, maybe, Arizona, with Edwin Jackson backing up Dan Haren and Brandon Webb in the rotation. These are the problems you face when your franchise winds up on the DL (Divorce List).”<o:p></o:p> A Bank-Shrinking Game Plan (first espoused on CNN by Arianna Huffington): “When I recently told a few friends that my wife, Joy, and I had decided to close our little account at Bank of America and move our money to a local bank that has behaved more responsibly, I was amazed at the response. Religious leaders… around the country called to say that they, too, were ready to take their money out of the big banks that have shown such shameful morality and instead invest according to their values, by putting money into more local and community-based institutions. <o:p></o:p> “So we've decided not just to remove our own money, but to invite other Christians, Jews and Muslims to do the same. Already we are hearing reports of whole congregations… from <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:city>, deciding to transfer their funds to local banks and credit unions. The banks say they are ’too big to fail.’  So let's make them smaller.  We might finally get Wall Street's attention.” – Jim Wallis, Sojourners Magazine (in the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state> Post) <o:p></o:p>                                 - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/2/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Enough of Seventh-Inning-Stretch Patriotism<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Just over 60 years ago, Jackie Robinson had a dilemma many of us face today: Do we embrace or reject the patriotism forced upon us by both national policies and the national pastime?  Because he was a baseball star who broke the game’s color barrier, Robinson was asked to refute before Congress what had been said by Paul Robeson, the great actor, singer, All American football player and anti-war activist.  Robeson, an African-American like Robinson, had questioned black loyalty to a racist society.  To many that was a fiercely unpatriotic sentiment. <o:p></o:p> Robinson agreed to go to bat, but he did so from both sides of the plate:  he said blacks would fight for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> in a war because of their investment in the country’s welfare.  But that stance, he said, did not “change the truth of (Robeson’s) charges” of racial injustice. <o:p></o:p>It is hard for many baseball fans to feel benignly about the seventh-inning-stretch patriotism imposed since early in the decade at Yankee Stadium and other ballparks – “God Bless <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>” and God help our fighting men and women abroad.  Major League Baseball has thrown in with Team USA’s foreign policies for well over a century – for the complete war-related record book, see “The Empire Strikes Out”, by Robert Elias (The New Press). <o:p></o:p> If we disregard its militaristic aspect (or try to), there is another take on the flag-waving game that connects to what Robinson said about our investment in our nation and the sport.  It was expressed back in the ‘70’s in an essay by author Philip Roth entitled “My Baseball Years.”  Roth recalled being the last man cut from tryouts for his high school baseball team in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:place></st1:state>: <o:p></o:p> “Playing baseball was not what the Jewish boys of our lower-middle-class neighborhood were expected to do in later life to make a living.  Had I been cut from the high school itself…there would have been hell to pay in my house, and much confusion…As it was, my family took my chagrin in stride.  They probably would have been shocked if I made the team.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> “Maybe I would have been too.  Surely it would have put me on a somewhat different footing with this game that I loved with all my heart, not simply for the fun of playing it, but for the mythic…dimension that it gave to an American boy’s life – particularly to one whose grandparents hardly spoke English.  For someone whose roots in America were…, only inches deep and had no experience, such as a Catholic child might, of an awesome hierarchy…baseball was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and region of the nation and bound millions upon millions of us together in common concerns…Baseball made me understand what patriotism was about, at its best.”<o:p></o:p> Whether the baseball brand is patriotism at its best or worst, it is surely time to say of the intrusive stars-and-stripes stretch: “Enough.”                       -     -     - On MLB-TV the other night, Dan Plesac, who pitched for 18 years in the major with six different clubs, rated five of the most interesting free-agent hurlers still on the market: Joel Piniero, Ben Sheets, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Jon Garland.  He said if he were a GM, he would sign only one of the five without reservation: Piniero.  “He learned a lot in St.Louis,” Plesac said.  “He’s strong and a good bet to give you innings.” Plesac said <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Martinez</st1:place></st1:city> might be worth signing for half a season and Smoltz for bullpen duty.  He said there were too many questions concerning Sheets’ health and about how much <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Garland</st1:place></st1:city> has left. <o:p></o:p> We hate it when working-stiff sports writers presume to tell teams how to spend millions of their dollars.  But we can’t resist suggesting to the Mets a solution to their first-base problem: Xavier Nady, who played first as well as the outfield when he joined the Mets before 2006 (in a deal with SD for Mike Cameron). We’d guess that Nady, who has been overlooked so far, could be snapped up for a reasonable $5 million or so per season. <o:p></o:p> On cue, the Mets have signed the big-ticket player selected to lure their understandably glum fans to Citi Field next season.  <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place> might help do that; he doesn’t add enough to the team, however, to lift it above third place in the NL East.  Meaningful games in mid-August may make for respectable total attendance figures.                    <o:p></o:p> January is here with what we know is its major attribute - the last between-seasons month without baseball.                                    - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)  <o:p></o:p> <big>December 2009 Archive</big> </body> </html>

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