the_nub.html
(baseball and politics, politics and baseball –
6/29/07)
On Wednesday night, as the Red Sox and
Mariners were playing
extra innings in Seattle,
Michael Kay, on YES, wondered which team Yankee fans should want to win. “The Mariners are one of the teams ahead of
the Yankees for the wild card,” he said.
“If they beat the Red Sox, will our glass be half-empty or
half-full?”
Trailing the Red Sox by double-digit
games with the season
nearly half-over, the Yanks must concentrate on climbing over Toronto,
Oakland,
two of the top three in the AL Central Division, as well as Seattle, if
they
are to make the playoffs. Red Sox fans
surely are hoping their NY rivals don’t make it over the hill. In 2004, the reverse was true - Yank fans
correctly knew Boston’s
clinching of the wild card meant trouble – spelled (it turned out) B-I-G T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
So it is in the presidential race. Polls show national Dem front-runner Hillary
Clinton trailing John Edwards and Barack Obama in Iowa.
The Clinton
campaign knows a victory in the race’s first contest could give one of
her
rivals a “bounce” that might well be the equivalent of a wild card
playoff
spot. Reports from Iowa
say Clinton
pollster Mark Penn is trying to reverse that trend by sprinkling his
telephone
surveys with anti-Edwards and anti-Obama statements.
His questioner reminds poll participants of
Edwards’ $400 haircut and Obama’s inconsistency on Iraq –
opposing the war but voting
for future funding of it. Hillary, far
ahead in New Hampshire
and most other states, clearly hopes to eliminate the presidential wild
card. It is something that can happen in
politics – John Kerry came from behind to all but eliminate Howard Dean
in the
2004 Iowa Caucuses – but, happily, not in baseball.
Speaking of polls, buried in the NY
Times/CBS/MTV survey
cited on Wednesday was the fact that 42 percent of young people (ages
18-to-29)
who participated were not paying attention to the presidential campaign. A Nubber with a draft-age son believes
the
lack of a Selective Service program is one reason for apathy among the
voting-age young. Not so, says Perfect
Pitch pollster Bob Sullivan. “Young
people tend not to pay attention to the larger world,” he says, “unless
there
are issues that touch them – the environment, for example, and issues
involving
social change.” Sullivan says that,
because the presidential race involves such issues, the young are more
attentive than they have been in the past: “Despite
the absence of a draft, the young are on the case, perhaps
because they are aware that historic tides are rising; they apparently
are
sharply aware of the possible imminence of either the first woman
president or
the first black president. These are the
ONLY two candidates they take notice
of.”
- -
-
How Did It Happen Dept:
The Kansas City Royals (14-11 in June), on the brink of their
first
winning month in four years, consider ex-Met Brian Bannister a key to
their
recent success. Bannister (4-4) has
yielded only 11 earned runs in his last five starts.
And in San Diego,
another ex-Met, Heath Bell, has become a stud
setup man for Trevor Hoffman. Bell, with a
1.55 ERA,
has earned 12 “holds” in 46 innings and given up only a single home run.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments to dickstar@aol.com
are
welcome. Previous Nubs can be found by
scrolling below.)
(politics and
baseball, baseball and politics – 6/28/07)
Labor unions in baseball and
political news (in a week when
Senate Republicans shut down a Dem rally to make worker-organizing
easier):
“The Players
Association…ought to
be (saying)…’the commissioner has no authority over whether
Giambi…should speak
with the investigator…’ (He’s) free to
take action (by suspending or fining Giambi)…Would it be upheld. Not a chance.”
-
Marvin Miller,
former Baseball Players Association head (to T.J. Quinn, Daily News)
“74% of non-union
workers say they
would not personally like to be a member of a labor union.
64% of workers say they would prefer their
present job to be non-union.”
-
Polls quoted in NY Times ad
by UnionFacts.Com
"My
mother and father have health care today because
of the union. My one and only brother and his family have health care
today
because of the union. That's the reason this cause is so important to
me. You
are about growing and strengthening the middle class in this country.
You're
about allowing people's families, the children in those families, to
have a
better life than their parents have, which is exactly what I've been
able to
do."
- John Edwards,
to a meeting of union members
The score, as
seen from this grandstand, after those
at-bats:
Marvin
Miller, still feisty in his 90’s, expresses the union
combativeness that comes across to many people as defensiveness. That, in turn, is a reminder of widespread
corruption which contributed to Labor’s dramatic loss of jobs and
membership
over the last few decades. From a public
relations standpoint, the players union did a sensible thing by
advising Jason
Giambi - or concurring in his decision - to meet with George Mitchell
on the
steroids issue.
UnionFacts, a
business-financed non-profit, commissioned
its own polls in response to an AFL-CIO survey that showed 60 million
Americans
want to join a union. The validity of
responses to poll questions depends on how the questions are phrased. The seemingly contradictory results evoke an
incident recounted some months ago: During
a United Parcels Service strike in the
‘90’s, a twenty-something Fox Cable News employee said, as she watched
a UPS
official on a TV monitor - “I hate unions.
I wish I had a union.”
The Edwards
statement points up the generational divide in
attitudes towards unions. Ask any longtime resident of the New York area
if he recalls there being a
union member in his family, the answer in many – if not most – cases
would be
yes. Until government is as supportive
of unions as it was more than a half-century ago – a problematic
prospect – the
Labor movement will be playing catch-up baseball from a huge deficit.
- -
-
Telling it like it is: “GM Omar Minaya signed
(Scott Schoeneweis) to a three-year,
$10.8-million contract that is looking like one of the worst deals of
his
tenure.” – David Lennon, Newsday.
The
one-year deal with slow-healing Moises Alou isn’t looking too good,
either.
Two players
worth monitoring in the AL
West: As of game-times tonight, Seattle’s closer
J.J.
Putz has 22 saves in 22 chances. Oakland’s DH
Jack Cust
has 12 home runs, one for every 11 at-bats.
HR’s account for a third of his hits.
On
YES Tuesday night, Michael Kay quoted Baltimore
papers as saying the Orioles’ effort to hire Joe Girardi as manager is
not
dead. “He won’t do it this season because
the timing is bad for his family,” said Kay.
“But Andy MacPhail is hoping to sign him when the season is
over.”
Lots of luck to the Orioles; they will likely be
one of a
half-dozen teams vying to make Girardi its manager.
The Yankees, Don Mattingly’s heir-apparent
status notwithstanding, could well be among the group.
- o -
(The Nub is a team effort
skippered by Dick Starkey. Comments to
dickstar@aol.com are welcome. Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling
below.)
(politics and baseball, baseball and politics –
6/27/07)
Hillary Clinton is the Red Sox of the
presidential pennant
races. That, freely translated, is the
conclusion of analyst Michael Barone in this week’s US News and World
Report. Barone points out that Hillary
has maintained a solid double-digit lead over her Democratic primary
opponents
since the political season began. The
Red Sox took longer to reach double digits but they’ve held a
comfortable edge
over their division rivals since the beginning of May.
Just as there is no sure division
winner in the National
League at the season’s near-halfway-point, there is no Clinton-like
solid
favorite in the Republican presidential race.
Barone notes that Rudy Giuliani, who was ahead (of John McCain)
by 15
points in the winter, has slipped to under 10 now, with newcomer Fred
Thompson
moving up fast.
In both the Republican and Democratic
races there is a wild
card: Mitt Romney is throwing everything
into the early Iowa and New Hampshire
contests and is leading in
both those bailiwicks now. John Edwards
is doing the same in Iowa,
where he has fashioned a lead. Both
Romney and Edwards are looking for an initial victory “bounce” to
propel them
into contention. Here is how Barone sums
up both political pennant races, looking ahead to playoff-time:
“On one
thing the two sets of candidates seem to be converging. The Democrats
continually attack George W. Bush, and the Republicans increasingly
have
critical things to say about him. All
the Republicans but John McCain oppose the immigration bill he
supports, and
all including McCain have tried to suggest in various ways that they
will
prosecute the struggle against Islamist terrorists more competently
than Bush. They'll need to prove that to
get nominated --
and to overcome the Democrats' generic edge in November.”
- -
-
Final
inter-league results show AL
teams with a 22-game edge over the NL – 137-115. That’s
a big improvement for the NL over last
year when the AL
had a 56-game margin – 154-98. From
1997, the first year of NL/AL play, until 2006, the disparity was small, AL
teams winning an average of fewer than five games more per season. This year’s two top interleague teams: Detroit and LA
Angels,
both 14-4. The White Sox, 4-14, were the
AL’s – and overall - weak sister. The
three NL California teams – Giants, Dodgers and Padres – totaled a
surprisingly
abysmal 16-29. The Yanks were 10-8
(with big help from the swept-upon Pirates and Diamondbacks), the Mets
8-7 (with
welcome help from Oakland).
Baltimore was a
poor 6-12. The Orioles may be going
through a bad
stretch, but they have two pitching
bright spots. Erik Bedard leads the
majors in strikeouts – 121 in 16 games, and, entering last night’s game
against
the Yanks, Jeremy Guthrie had the second lowest ERA among AL starters
(2.42).
-
o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick
Starkey
(dickstar@aol.com). Comments are welcome and, if
pertinent,
will be quoted at
first opportunity. Previous Nubs can be
found by scrolling below.)
(baseball and
politics,
politics and baseball – 6/26/07)
The other day in Denver,
Roger Clemens said “It’s my business” when asked if he would join the
Yankees
for a weekend series in San
Francisco. The
reminder of his privileged status – his tolerated
practice of beginning the season late and insisting on the freedom to
leave his
team between starts – coincided with Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim
to be
exempt from an executive branch security-related disclosure requirement.
Clemens appeared in San Francisco, even pitching an
inning of relief in
Sunday’s game. Cheney has never budged
when
it comes to his self-declared privileges stemming from an insistence
that
certain onerous regulations do not apply to him. Where
Clemens clearly has the backing of team
owner George Steinbrenner, as he did of Drayton McLane at Houston, for his
special status, Cheney has
an imposing lineup of supporters for his assertion of unassailable
power.
The Vice President can appeal to
President Bush, who
sympathizes with the general concept that laws must not limit the
executive
branch’s ability to use all resources to fight terrorism.
If Congress or civil action groups act to
stop the executive from what they see as overstepping, Cheney can turn
to the
courts. In the case of the energy task
force over which Cheney presides, he appealed legal challenges to his
keeping
names of participants secret to the Supreme Court.
It sent the case back to the DC Circuit Court
of Appeals, dominated by Reagan and Bush I and II appointees. No surprise, that court upheld Cheney’s right
to secrecy.
Any attempt to reign in Cheney’s
outside-the-law initiatives
seem unavailing. A series on the VP
currently running in the Washington Post describes how he has
successfully
buttressed his untouchable status: “ The vice
president's office goes to unusual lengths to avoid transparency.
Cheney
declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally
releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy
his
visitor logs. His general counsel has asserted that ‘the vice
presidency is a
unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part
of the
legislative branch," and is therefore exempt from rules governing
them’.” - Barton
Gellman and Jo Becker
It is possible that, desperate as he
was for starting
pitching, Joe Torre had no reservations about the arrangement whereby
(presumably) Clemens can leave the team between starts. Similarly,
late last summer, Terry Francona was seemingly
willing to coddle Manny Ramirez when “Manny was being Manny” and
refusing to
play for the Red Sox at a crucial stage of the pennant race. It is unimaginable that Jim Leyland in Detroit would be
a party
to either situation.
Sports
Illustrated’s Jon Heyman has checked out the Yankees’
pitching outlook as they resume playing AL teams: “Two scouts who saw Kei Igawa say he's bumped his fastball
from 88 to 91 and improved his changeup but that he's still looks
pretty
ordinary. Mike Mussina
would need to improve to reach ordinary. Kyle
Farnsworth, who's done almost nothing right except shame Roger Clemens into showing up when he
isn't pitching, simply has to go. And
lastly, on Sunday Clemens became the most expensive middle reliever in
baseball
history.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Comments are welcome and, if pertinent, will be quoted at
first opportunity.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics
and baseball,
baseball and politics – 6/25/07)
What is baseball’s role in the
newly intensifying criticism
of the American health care system? The
man who triggered the renewed controversy – “Sicko” filmmaker Michael
Moore –
might not have become an effective muckraker were he not an avid
Detroit Tigers
fan.
Moore
was studying to become a priest in 1968 – the story goes – when the
Tigers made
it to the World Series against the Cardinals.
The seminary would not let its students watch the games so Moore quit and
soon began
a career as a progressive media activist. Many liberals today consider
him an
authentic American hero.
Moore lives in an upscale
part of Manhattan
within a couple of miles of Yankee Stadium.
His allegiance to the blue-collar Tigers and not to the wealthy
neighboring Yankees corresponds nicely to his politics.
It is very possible that the two teams close
to him - one geographically, the other sentimentally - will be fighting
for the
AL
wild card
in September. By then, “Sicko,” Moore’s health
care movie,
may have left a positive mark on our political discourse.
“Sicko”
has gotten generally good reviews, many of them grudging, some
surprising. The once-populist,
now-conservative Daily
News, for example, said this about the film on its lead news page: “(It) is
Moore's
most assured, least antagonistic and potentially most important
film…’Sicko’
shows what's wrong with our health care system by comparing it with
those in
Canada, England and France, where universal health care is as ingrained
in the
social fabric as their national anthems.” (Jack
Mathews)
A.O. Scott in
The Times notes that “Sicko”
depicts the national health systems in Britain, in particular, as well
as in
France and Canada, not as examples of “state
paternalism but as a triumph
of democracy. More precisely, of social
democracy, a phrase that has long seemed foreign to the American
political lexicon.”
- -
-
Detroit ranks ninth in player payroll among the 30 MLB
teams –
spending $95 million this season, less than half of the
Yanks’ $195 million outlay. There’s
a lot to admire in the Tigers,
beginning with their flinty manager Jim Leyland. But
equally admirable are the Oakland
A’s, their weekend
sweep by the Mets notwithstanding. Oakland
is 16th on MLB payroll list, spending just under $80
million. The
team, and specifically newly re-signed general manager Billy Beane and
team
president Mike Crowley, were hailed recently in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“(The
signings) ”mean
seven more years of high intelligence, forward thinking and sensible
risk-taking. Count on the A's being
somewhere in contention the entire time. They are the team, and the
philosophy,
that will not die…
“The
A's are a study
in minutiae: a grounder to the right side by Mark Ellis. A two-out RBI
by Marco
Scutaro. Hell, they'd love to give you… Mark Kotsay or Mike Piazza on a
consistent basis, but if you don't mind, that's Jason Kendall having
the smart
at-bat. They've got a lights-out starter (Rich Harden) and one of the
game's
best closers (Huston Street) on the shelf indefinitely, and yet, at a
time they
should be dismissed and forgotten by the Los Angeles Angels -- merely
off to
their best start in franchise history -- the A's somehow stay close.” (Bruce Jenkins)
How
bad have the Mets been this month, despite the
three wins over the A’s? They’re 7-14
for June, and, indicative of how badly the
offense has struggled, the team is 0-14 when opponents have
scored three runs or
more. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman
has taken to calling them the “New York Mediocres.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Comments are welcome and, if pertinent, will be quoted at
first opportunity.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics
and baseball, baseball and politics – 6/2207)
The playoff wrapup is not quite
complete, but the tentative tally
is in on Eliot Spitzer’s rookie season as state skipper. Many observers
say he
sacrificed chances of building for the long term through reform of Albany
operations, traded
them for quick results. He got those
results – in the fields of education funding, and workers compensation
and
Medicaid cost controls, among others – by playing ball with veteran
managers Shelly
Silver and Joe Bruno.
Polls when the final legislative score
is posted will tell
whether the public thinks Spitzer had a successful season or not. To paraphrase power builder Robert Moses,
“This is the Umpire
State.” New Yorkers are quick to judge, and their
tendency is to want to see positive change now.
So, although Spitzer may be hurt by his inability to meet the
high
expectations he set for himself, the likelihood is he will be perceived
as
having done a good job in his first six months.
The general public’s fondness for
instant gratification
corresponds to win-now mind set of New York’s baseball fans.
A dozen years ago, the Mets tried to sell its fans on the idea
of the
team investing primarily in the future, in the farm system, and less so
in the
signing of name free agents. Despite the
development of players like Jeromy Burnitz and pitchers Jason
Isringhausen,
Paul Wilson and Bill Pulsipher, the future never arrived.
Fan impatience contributed to general manager
Joe McIlvaine losing his job.
The Yankees, during most of the George
Steinbrenner era,
which began in 1973, have taken a “next year is now” approach and spent
heavily
on the current players market. In recent
years they’ve intensified their emphasis on player development. The Mets, with the arrival of Omar Minaya and
the launching of their own TV channel (SNY), have sought to match the
Yankees
in big free agent signings. Although the
Mets may boast almost as much star power as their cross-town rivals,
their
effort to build a productive farm system clearly needs work. Jose Reyes and David Wright came through the
system a few years ago. A look at what’s
happening now is cause for Mets fans’ concern.
Minor League stats in the 2007 Baseball
Almanac indicate both
which ML teams have a successful long-term operation and which
contending teams
have the backup to remain competitive until October.
The Arizona
organization dominated all-star selections at the six minor league
levels last
year. The Diamondbacks had eight stars –
three in Triple-A and four in High Class A among the 84 chosen (14 at
each
level). The LA Angels had seven, two in
Triple-A, two in Double-A. Most of those
players are still back on the farm.
Yankees prospects accounted for three of the 84 all-stars –
including Phil
Hughes, then at Double-A Trenton, and Wilmer Pino and George Kontos,
both of
the Staten Island Class A team. The Mets
had none. Furthermore, over the last
five years, only six of the 30 major league farm systems had poorer
won-lost
records than did the Mets system. The
Yankees finished third out of 30 in that category.
- -
-
Personnel matters in another field: “Only the campaigns
of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,
(John) McCain and (Mitt) Romney have world-class political teams. While
Sen. Barack Obama and(Rudy) Giuliani each
have some top-notch, ‘any campaign would love to have them’ people in
key
places, they don't have the number or depth of first-rate talent on
board that
the first three do.” -
Charlie Cook, National Journal
- -
-
One reason Joe Girardi will be watching the
Yankees-Baltimore game Tuesday from the YES broadcast booth instead
from the Orioles
bench has to do with his family. Michael
Kay said during the Yanks-Rockies game yesterday that Girardi turned
down the Baltimore managing job, in
part, because he did not want
to uproot his family from their Chicago
home. It suggests that, if the White Sox
decide to replace Ozzie Guillen after this season, Girardi is likely to
be the
team’s new manager.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Comments are welcome and, if pertinent, will be quoted at
first opportunity.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics and
baseball,
baseball and politics – 6/21/07)
Let’s get the teams straight: In Palestine, there’s Hamas; it finished
first in the democratic race we helped organize; then there’s Fatah; it
finished second. In Venezuela,
there’s the government of Hugo Chavez; it finished first in that
country’s
democratic election; the anti-Chavistas finished out of the money.
For the U.S.,
the outcome of both those races leaves much to be desired.
Hamas refuses to accept Israel under
terms the Bush Administration considers reasonable.
So the U.S.
has set up a rival league, declaring
Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas “president of all the Palestinians.” Chavez is seen as becoming more and more a
socialist dictator. U.S.
officials
have lately expressed sympathy for demonstrators protesting against his
government’s refusal to renew the license of a popular TV station.
The mainstream media has covered each
game from the American
vantage point, with few exceptions, conveying our government’s point of
view. From the stands in center and left
field,
however, come two different perspectives:
“If Hamas is smashed…a
Palestinian-Israeli peace will be no closer (than it is now)…It
represents a
good chunk of Palestinians…(who) elected Hamas as their government
mainly
because they deemed it less corrupt than its secular rival, Fatah…
“Is there
any point in trying…to
drag Hamas into the business of negotiating with Israel…The
answer is still
yes. Most Palestinians, notably
including even most of those who voted for Hamas, want a two-state
solution in
which a sovereign Palestinian state and
a secure Israeli one must co-exist…Hamas knows it cannot ignore that
view.” - The Economist (London)
“(In) Caracas,
memories have been revived of earlier attempts to overthrow the
Bolivarian
revolution of Hugo Chávez, now in its ninth year… Today’s battle
is for the
hearts and minds of a younger generation confused by the upheavals of
an
uncharted revolutionary process.
University
students from privileged backgrounds have been pitched
against newly enfranchised young people from the impoverished
shantytowns,
beneficiaries of the increased oil royalties spent on higher education
projects
for the poor. These separate groups never meet, but both sides occupy
their
familiar battleground within the city, one in the leafy squares of
eastern Caracas,
the other in the
narrow and teeming streets in the west. This symbolic battle will
become ever
more familiar in Latin America in the years
ahead.” - The Guardian (UK)
-
- -
The delusions fostered by media embeddedness, baseball
division: “(The Mets’ Ricky
Ledee)…another valuable contributor off what already had proven to be
one of
the National League’s deepest benches.” – Peter Botte, Daily News
“Hitting is all about legs.”
That’s the latest cry for rest from Carlos Beltran, whose sore
quads
have been dismissed as “not an issue” by Willie Randolph and “not a
serious
injury” by Omar Minaya. Since the Mets
have one of the league’s deepest benches, it should be easy to find a
replacement so that, with a few days off, Beltran
can be Beltran again.
Newsday’s Wallace Matthews, recalling
the time seven years
ago when Bud Selig sought to have the Minnesota Twins “contracted out”
of
baseball:
“Since
Selig ordered the hit, the Twins have won the AL Central four times,
made the
playoffs five times, won six playoff games and one division series, all
on a
payroll of $63 million, 19th in the league.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous efforts can be found by scrolling below.)
(baseball and
politics, politics and baseball – 6/20/07)
Mets fan to Omar Minaya:
“We’ve just gotta get a solid starting pitcher.
Bite the bullet and trade somebody to get
one.”
Minaya: “Mark
Buehrle
of the White Sox is available. We can
get him if we give Chicago Aaron Heilman and Lastings Milledge.”
MF: “No
way.”
Those second thoughts are prevalent in politics as
well as baseball when
specific names replace a general idea.
The Los Angeles Times reports what it calls the “paradox of the
2008
presidential race”: a majority of swing
voters
wanting the Democrats to win until they are presented with a particular
name. Then all bets are off and the
advantage swings to the Republicans.
The article, by Michael Finnegan, cites
results of a recent
LA Times/Bloomberg poll that center on Hillary Clinton. “ When
registered voters were asked which
party they would like to win the White House, they preferred a Democrat
over a
Republican by 8 percentage points. But
in a race pitting Clinton
against former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Republican was
favored
by 10 percentage points…
“'You
give someone a name, and they automatically associate it with a
specific set of
pros and cons,’ said Dean Spiliotes, a political science professor at
St.
Anselm College in New
Hampshire.
‘With a candidate as well-known as Hillary Clinton, that's going to
cause some
problems’."
The poll also showed Clinton
slightly behind John McCain and Mitt Romney.
The article points out that
Hillary has time to overcome resistance to her candidacy.
But she clearly has work to do.
- -
-
Our old friend Mike Piazza is ready to go back to work as
designated hitter for Oakland
after a month-and-a-half on the DL. But
while Mike was recovering from a strained right shoulder, the Athletics
signed
Jack Cust, a 28-year-old San Diego Padres reject playing for Portland in the
PCL, to fill in. Going into last
night’s game, Cust had hit
nine home runs in 119 times at at bat, a little over one for every 13
plate
appearances. His overall batting average
was around .270 but close to .350 for the month of June.
So Piazza won’t be getting back on the A’s
roster until he can throw well enough to be the backup catcher. Cust, incidentally, is a local boy from Flemington, NJ.
All or nothing department:
Through Monday night, 12 of Ryan Howard’s last 25 hits were home
runs. Ryan had 15 homers overall, one for
every
three-and-a-half games in which he’d played.
-
o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous efforts can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics and
baseball,
baseball and politics – 6/19/07)
Michael Bloomberg’s presidential
prospects advanced to
second last week when the co-author of the Almanac of American Politics
wrote
that the NYC mayor might successfully present himself to a divided
electorate
as a man of non-partisan achievement.
Michael Barone suggested in a National Journal article that
Bloomberg
could be the Ross Perot of the 2008 campaign.
(Perot was another “short billionaire” who gained substantial
support
when he emerged as an independent candidate in 1992.)
Barone points out that Bloomberg’s
ratings are higher than
Rudy Giuliani’s were at the height of Rudy’s popularity. Most
New Yorkers will agree with much of what
Barone says about the mayor, including an unwitting mention of
Bloomberg’s
Achilles heel: “The Manhattan media
elite, which appreciated
Giuliani…find Bloomberg’s less confrontational style more congenial
(than
Rudy’s).”
The linkage of the mayor with the
city’s “elite” - which
includes corporate and economic as well as media groups, is a source of
the
mayor’s vulnerability. The problem is
playing
out now in yet another conflict involving ballfields.
Remember how Bloomberg tried to sell the
public on the idea of a West Side
stadium that
no one but the New York Jets (who were getting an insider price) really
wanted? More recently, the mayor has
allowed 21 acres
of local parkland to be lost to make room for a new Yankee Stadium and
is
acting to have 60 business-filled acres in Willets Point condemned to
make
things nicer around the new Mets ballpark.
If Bloomberg is interested in running
for president, the
timing of the latest ballfields brouhaha couldn’t be worse. Why any ambitious elected chief executive
would countenance a deal that gives 20 Manhattan
private schools exclusive rights to use two-thirds of the public fields
on Randalls
Island is a
mystery. Yet, a committee dominated by
Bloomberg
appointees arranged the plan, and got it approved by the mayor
allegedly
without consulting East Harlem residents whose public school children
would be
affected. So a lawsuit has been filed by
Norman Siegel, representing the residents.
And the mayor is coming across, yet again, as an elitist,
something a
possible presidential candidate doesn’t need.
-
- -
The Mets don’t need their star centerfielder playing hurt
when his condition – tight quadriceps – is affecting his hitting and,
more
importantly, not healing. Carlos Beltran
is asking for time off through the media.
This happened last season. But
“old school” Willie Randolph kept Beltran in the lineup until the harm
Carlos
was doing to himself and the team became clear, as it is now.
If The Nub were advising Joe Girardi,
the advice would be: Say
“No, thanks” to replacing fired manager
Sam Perlozzo at Baltimore. Why?
Peter Angelos and the hydra-headed front office of Mike
Flanagan, Jim
Duquette and incoming Andy McPhail..
Owner Angelos has a well-deserved reputation for meddling in
baseball
decisions. Duquette was part of a
similar too-many-cooks mess with the Mets.
Only an Omar Minaya-like deal – total on-field and off-field
control –
would make it worthwhile for Girardi to interrupt his year off. There will be plenty of better offers
coming
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous efforts can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics and baseball, baseball and politics –
6/18/07)
When players from opposite sides of the
political field let
out a warning yell about violence they
see coming, it may be time for the public to listen.
A Times of London journalist,
back in the UK from
a tour
of the U.S.,
filed this report, quoted by Salon’s liberal columnist Glenn Greenwald:
“What people are
talking about in America is not whether the invasion of Iraq was
legally or
morally justified but why it went so disastrously wrong and whether the same blundering fanatics will
launch another catastrophic military adventure, most likely a bombing
campaign
against Iran, to distract attention from failure in Iraq.” (Anatoli Kaletski)
Coincidental with that report, conservative former
presidential candidate Pat Buchanan cited the drumbeat of official
warnings
about the threat Iran
poses:
“What is
going
on? The most logical explanation is that
the White House is providing advance justification for air strikes… And
if the United States
conducts those strikes… Tehran will
order
retaliatory strikes against U.S.
targets in Iraq and
perhaps
across the Middle East.
“President
Bush will
then have his casus belli to take out… Iranian nuclear facilities, as
the
Israelis and the neocons have been demanding that he do. This would
mean a
third Middle Eastern war for America,
with a nation three times as large and populous as Iraq.
Perhaps it is time to begin
constructing a new wing on Walter Reed.” (Creators Syndicate)
Buchanan
calls on Congress to
serve as umpire, using fact-finding to clamp down on the carnage
potential and
clearing the field before any damage is done.
-
-
-
On the
subject of damage, Tom Glavine gave this chicken-or-the-egg comment to
the
Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo about his quest and current inability to
get people
out: "I want
the 300 because it's a great
honor and great number, but if I'm struggling to get it, it means our
team is
struggling."
Perhaps feeling sorry for them,
Yankees announcers
Michael Kay, Ken Singleton and Al Leiter had lots of encouragement for
Mets
fans Friday night.
Kay: “Derek
Jeter says of all the rival players in both leagues, the one he thinks
is the
best is Jose Reyes. He says he loves to
watch Reyes.”
Singleton
and Leiter (after Carlos Gomez, in left,
robbed Miguel Cairo of
a home run, then doubled up Hideki Matsui in the fourth): “ It wasn’t
just the
catch – that’s a right field arm…When Endy Chavez is in left, Gomez in
right
and Beltran in center, the Met outfield can run down just about
everything.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous scorecards can be found by scrolling below.)
(baseball and politics, politics and baseball –
6/15/07)
It is not the U.S.
versus Al Quaida, but for Mets
fans, the three-game series against the Yankees starting tonight has,
allowing
for baseball hyperbole, an apocalyptic quality.
No need to recite the latest repulsive details,
but: The
Mets have lost eight of nine, 10 of 12, and seen their lead over the
onrushing
Phillies shrink to two games. Both the
Phils and Atlanta
could surge past the Mets this weekend in the worst of all possible
series
outcomes. The most ominous part of the
Mets’ serial capitulation, beginning with their getting swept at home
by the
Phils, has been the team’s total collapse: atrocious pitching, starting
and
relief; sloppy fielding, untimely hitting, etc.
Total score of last three games with the Dodgers: LA 18, NY 4.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have been the
reverse image of their
crosstown rivals. Winning
the rubber match against Boston
a week ago last
Sunday started the Bombers on an 11-1 run.
Where the Mets have imploded, the Yanks have come together. Where the Mets have been exposed as a deeply
flawed team, the Yanks’ have reasserted their long dormant strength. It will seemingly take a miracle for the
Mets to stop the Yankees’ steamroller.
But, suggested John Flaherty to Michael Kay during yesterday’s
Yankees-Arizona game: “Playing the Yanks
could give the Mets new energy; it may be the best thing for them.” .
- -
-
For attentive Americans, the term apocalyptic should not be
too much of an exaggeration when the subject is the al-Marri case. That’s the case in which a federal appeals
court in Virginia
ruled that the president may not declare civilians in this country
“enemy
combatants” and have them held indefinitely.
As frightening as the government’s claim to the authority to
imprison
people and keep them locked up without charging them or giving them
access to
lawyers is the thought that a federal judge would concur in such
Constitution-flouting
conduct. But the decision for al-Marri
was 2-1. Two judges appointed by Bill
Clinton – Diana Gribbon Motz and Roger L. Gregory – made up the
majority. The dissenter who took the side
of government
was Judge Henry E. Hudson, a George W. Bush appointee.
After six-and-a-half years of Bush
appointments, there’s a
strong likelihood that Hudson
now exemplifies the way the majority of current federal judges feel
when
dealing with cases involving alleged terrorism.
- -
-
A tough government stance on immigration has received
tongue-in-cheek support from one humorist:
“Unrestricted
immigration is a dangerous thing -- look at what happened to the
Iroquois. They failed to impose border
controls and
before they knew it, they were dying of infectious diseases they had no
names
for.” - Garrison
Keillor, in Salon
-
- -
Stat
time: Any doubt as to which team has the
most efficient bullpen stopper(s) should disappear with this info: The LA Angels have not lost while leading
after eight innings in 113
games.
.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous scorecards can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics and baseball, baseball and politics –
6/14/07)
Two team leaders from
the 2004 presidential pennant race
were back in action this week, taking sides on a tricky field – what to
do
about Iran? Joe Lieberman went to
bat
first:
''I
think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action
against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,'' Lieberman said.. ''And to me, that
would include a strike over the border into Iran,
where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are
training
these people coming back into Iraq
to kill our soldiers.'' We can tell them
we want them to stop that. But…we can't just talk to them…If they don't
play by
the rules, we've got to use our force.”
Wesley
Clark took his turn at the plate amid a media fog.
The former general’s rhetorical swings,
conveyed by Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, were conspicuous for, among other
things,
the degree with which they differ with those of leading Democratic
candidates.
“Senator
Lieberman's saber rattling does
nothing to help dissuade Iran from aiding Shia militias in Iraq, or
trying to
obtain nuclear capabilities. In fact, it's highly irresponsible and
counter-productive, and I urge him to stop…. What we need now is
full-fledged engagement with Iran.
We should be striving to bridge the gulf of almost 30 years of
hostility…. The
Iranians are very much aware of US military capabilities. They don't
need Joe
Lieberman to remind them that we are the militarily dominant power in
the world
today.”
-
- -
Second
guessing of Omar Minaya is respectable, if not required, now that Mets’
weaknesses are being exposed daily. Some
of us wondered in pre-season why Omar swapped Brian Bannister to Kansas City for
Ambiorix
Burgos? Why, when it was clear the Mets
would be short on starting pitching and the sometimes erratic reliever Burgos seemed a
risky
investment? Now Bannister (3-3) has won
three in a row for Kansas City and Burgos is back at New Orleans, reportedly suffering
from arm trouble.
Incidentally,
our sympathies to Sports Illustrated for the timing of its celebratory
cover
story on Minaya.
The Yankees’
latest spurt has helped them historically as well as with generic New York fans
looking
for something to cheer about. Joe
Torre’s team now has the best interleague record since that arrangement
begin
in 1997. Going into last night’s game,
the Yanks were 108-73, for a .597 pct. in games with NL teams.
-
o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous scorecards can be found by scrolling below.)
.
(politics
and baseball, baseball and politics
–
6/13/07)
Looks from the press box like
coach Charlie Rangel is in line
for a Nubbing. Charlie,
you remember, assured his district’s
Democratic team twice, at separate events, that the force-out on
Alberto
Gonzales was still in effect. “He is
gone, “Rangel said, crossing his heart as he spoke the second time.
Rangel appears to have been
unrealistic, especially after
Monday, when the symbolic no-confidence vote on Gonzales failed to make
it
through the Senate. Senator Arlen Specter,
one of seven Republicans to support the vote, sounded like a realist
with his
comment: “My own hunch,” he said, was
that the trick play would “be a boomerang.”
It would, he meant, reinforce George Bush’s resolve to keep his
AJ on
the field..
The Senate Dems’ grandstanding star
Charlie Schumer thought
the 53-38 score against Gonzales “says a lot.”
Schumer, one of the vote’s chief sponsors. had a chance to cast
a more telling
symbolic vote against Gonzales two-and-a-half years ago.
Alberto was Bush’s first major appointment in
his second term. When he came before the
Senate Judiciary Committee, the then-White House Counsel had been
linked to
arguments justifying America’s
use of torture. Nevertheless, Schumer
voted to approve Gonzales as Attorney General.
If Rangel is eventually proved to be
correct and Alberto is
pulled from the game, it will be because moderate Republicans like
Specter are
being joined by conservatives who don’t want Alberto to remain. Columnist Robert Novak used that trend to
ratchet up the pressure on Bush in a recent column:
“Republican
insiders are enraged by Bush's retention of Gonzales, whom they
consider a
political and governmental disaster. Beyond the president's affection
for
Gonzales, he is reported to fear a new attorney general could not be
confirmed
without pledging to name a special prosecutor to investigate the firing
of U.S.
attorneys. That explanation suggests a lame-duck regime, preferring to
stay
with a crippled, leaderless Justice Department.”
- -
-
Going into last night’s game with the Dodgers, the
Mets were
2-8 in June, and 1-6 in the first third of their 22-game early crunch
part of
the schedule. Is the team running
scared? David Wright made clear the Mets
are anything but serene in some candid remarks to Newsday’s David
Lennon:
“You try not to think
ahead, but
we have a tough schedule overall and a tough interleague schedule.
They're all
playoff teams from last year and we know that. We know that we’re going
to have
to elevate our game. It’s kind of a tough spot in the season to scuffle
as we
have, and then play these teams… We’re going to have to recuperate
quickly or
we’re going to get embarrassed over these next couple weeks.”
The
Yankees entered their current series with Arizona 9-1 since June
1. That was the day Jason Giambi went on
the disabled list. Newsday’s Wallace
Matthews thinks there’s a connection between Giambi’s absence and
Yankee wins:”the absence of Giambi
has been addition by
subtraction. This should come as no
surprise to Yankees purists, for whom the signing of the greasy-haired,
tattooed captain of the bad-boy Oakland Athletics to a seven-year,
$120-million
contract signified the franchise's crossing over to the dark side. In
his years
as a Yankee, the postseason record stands at 19-22 with one World
Series
appearance, the six-game beatdown by the Marlins of Wal-Mart.
”Dollar-for-dollar, win-for-win and ring-for-ring, Giambi probably is
the worst
deal the Yankees have ever made this side of Carl Pavano, and like it
or not,
they are stuck with him, to the tune of $47 million - $21 million each
for this
year and next, plus a $5-million buyout.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous scorecards can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics and baseball, baseball and politics
–
6/12/07)
A year ago, Denny Farrell seemed
to have an outside chance
of remaining chair of the state Democratic Party and, at 74, becoming
the Julio
Franco of New York
politics. Denny, longtime legislator
from Upper Manhattan, was a key
member of
Speaker Shelly Silver’s Assembly team.
He was thus not a favorite of soon-to-be Governor Eliot Spitzer. But Spitzer, and Democrats generally, had done
well statewide during Denny’s five-year watch.
Why not keep him on for another season or so?
Many Democrats considered that still a
possibility until the
party staged a pre-Convention rally, at Dunn Tire
Park, home of the
Triple-A Buffalo
Bisons. On the
edge of the outfield, a platform had
been set up for Spitzer to show his stuff to the several hundred fans
on
hand. Denny greeted Eliot, running mate
David Paterson and their coterie when their motorcade arrived 50 yards
from the
platform. The state chair joined the
procession through the crowd to the platform steps.
That was as far as he got. While
the Democrats’ future phenoms mounted
the stage to lead the pre-victory celebration, Farrell was left to take
part…as
a spectator.
Those who witnessed the snub were not
surprised when Denny,
having been replaced as state chair, announced last month that he hoped
to
trade his state legislative slot for a
City Council berth in 2009. His
further hope is to become his new team’s leader - Council Speaker at
the age of
77.
Franco, the 48-year old with
Farrell-like longevity in
baseball, is not the reason for the Mets’ current tailspin. But he drags down the potential of an already
unproductive bench. The other day,
Newsday’s
David Lennon put it this way: “There is
a feeling among the (Shea) crowd that Franco is like a houseguest who
has
overstayed his welcome; he seems to be the target for growing
dissatisfaction
-- at least among fans -- with the Mets' bench.”
The Nub hopes that, by August, when
Franco turns 49, he will
still be a Met, but by then an added member of the coaching staff.
The Barry Bonds
Watch, as reported in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle: “ Bonds often looks as though he barely can move
in the
outfield. Opposing runners at first base are beginning to tag up and
take
second when Bonds catches balls at the warning track.
“More significantly, Bonds has stopped hitting. He has one
home run in 76 at-bats, and all the questions about Hank Aaron are
beginning to
look moot.”
-
o -
(The Nub
is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous scorecards can be found by scrolling below.)
(baseball
and
politics, politics and baseball – 6/11/07)
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen
is a proud Venezuelan, known
for not taking any guff about his outspokenness. “I’m
embarrassed,” he says about his team,
which has lost 12 of 15. “We
stink.” Guillen went public the other
day on another subject. He complained about baseball officials implying
that
the sport’s drug problem may originate in Latin American countries like
Venezuela. “I said, ‘Wait a second, BALCO is not in Venezuela…BALCO is in California’.”
Guillen has not spoken out on the
mainstream media’s
coverage of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s refusal to renew the
license of
RCTV, the country’s major opposition outlet.
But the lack of balance in the coverage warrants strong words
about
media bias against Latin American countries that don’t play the game
the way
the U.S.
wants them to. The other day, the
New
York Times went so far as to run an anti-Chavez op-ed piece by former
Peruvian
President Alejandro Toledo, voted out of office after one term last
year. The Times itself suggested then why
Peruvians
soured on him: Toledo’s
“American-inspired free-market model” made him “the most unpopular
leader in
the region.”
Amid the welter of damning articles and
TV pictures of
anti-Chavez protests, there have been a few exceptions.
The LA Times published a piece on its op-ed
page that put the situation into perspective:
“Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez’s refusal to renew the
license of Radio Caracas Television might seem to justify fears that
Chavez is
crushing free speech and eliminating any voices critical of him…But the
case of
RCTV — like most things involving Chavez — has been caught up in a web
of
misinformation….After Chavez was elected president in 1998, RCTV
(sought to)
oust a democratically elected leader from office…
“(On
April 11, 2002) after military rebels overthrew
Chavez and he disappeared from public view for two days, RCTV’s biased
coverage
edged fully into sedition. Thousands of Chavez supporters took to the
streets
to demand his return, but none of that appeared on RCTV or other
television
stations… On April 13, 2002, (RCTV’s Marcel) Granier and other media
moguls met
in the Miraflores palace to pledge support to the country’s
coup-installed
dictator, Pedro Carmona…
“Would
a network that aided and abetted a coup against the
government be allowed to operate in the United States?... Chavez’s
government allowed it to continue operating for five years, and then
declined
to renew its 20-year license to use the public airwaves.”
Commented the Bangor (ME) Daily News on its op-ed page: “Venezuelais
going through an experiment for the benefit of the poor.
We should wish it well, and leave it alone.”
-
-
-
Keeping track of the Mets, early in a 22-game “crunch” stretch that
pits
them against six 2006 playoff teams (Tigers, Dodgers, Yankees, Twins,
Athletics, Cardinals), as well as the Phillies, whom they’ve already
played: a 1-5
record, with a shaky bullpen and no reliable stopper (unless you count
Jorge
Sosa) reinforcing the damage caused by injuries.
And of the Yanks, closing in on wild card-leader Detroit: after winning 11 of their
last 13,
the Bombers are only five-and-a-half out of a playoff-qualifying spot.
Joe Girardi, during Yankees-White Sox game, on Robinson Cano: “You don’t notice it because he’s not flashy,
but I think he’s the best at turning the double play in the league.”
Nobody asked The Nub but:
There are no stats kept on the pressure a player’s overall
ability
imposes on the opposition, leading to bobbles and missed double plays
that keep
innings going. There is no doubt that
Derek Jeter would be atop that category.
The frequent unrecorded mistakes his presence forces on
opponents is
another measure of his greatness.
- o -
(The Nub
is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous scorecards can be found by scrolling below.)
6/8 - The Nub
is on the Few Days DL; here is a page from the record
book.
(politics and baseball, baseball and politics - 4/9/07))
When Circuit City laid off 3,400 of its most experienced salesclerks
late last month, planning to replace them with lower-wage rookies, it
brought back memories of baseball legend Branch Rickey. Best
remembered for recruiting Jackie Robinson to be the first black major
leaguer, Rickey was also founder of baseball’s farm system. He
made it a practice to do what Circuit City is doing - get rid of the
more senior and higher paid members of his team, replacing them with
younger, hungrier (and cheaper) players.
Unlike Circuit City, which gave cost-savings as the rationale for its
cuts, Rickey claimed he was making the changes to improve his
team. He likened an older player to an “anesthetic” - one who
makes you feel good but whose effectiveness is diminishing.
Rickey and his management colleagues got away with treating players
like Circuit City (and other firms) treats its employees until baseball
was unionized in the late ‘60’s.
Although much has been written - especially in the New York Times -
about the CC layoffs, the mainstream media has neglected to suggest
unionizing as a remedy for harsh treatment of the non-organized
labor. Equally puzzling is the silence of progressive elected
officials at all levels. In New York City, it almost seems as if
officeholders have adopted vis-à-vis union organizing the
position taken by Michael Bloomberg on the measure to prevent the use
of metal bats: It’s not a government matter.
The busiest early campaigners for mayor would, under ordinary
circumstances, be the most likely to speak out: But Queens
Councilmember Anthony Avella, the fastest out of the starting gate, and
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer have been content to
concentrate on community issues. As for Brooklyn/Queens
Congressman Anthony Weiner, he seems to be re-positioning himself right
of center and therefore sympathetic to Bloomberg’s hands-off approach.
Some clubhouse chatter concerning two other prominent political
players: At a Democratic fundraiser in Queens Village not
long ago, an aide to Councilmember John Liu was asked whether her boss
would be running for comptroller or public advocate in 2008. "The
only office I hear talked about," she said, "is mayor."
At a party gathering in Greenpoint, someone suggested that Council
Speaker Christine
Quinn would be a formidable mayoral candidate. One veteran consultant
wasn't
so sure: "That will depend,” he said, “on whether an openly gay
candidate can persuade
African-Americans to overcome their traditional anti-gay voting
pattern. I think that's a big challenge for Quinn."
- o -
(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey
(dickstar@aol.com).
Previous editions can be found by scrolling below.)
6/7
- The Nub is on the Few Days DL; here is a page from the record
book.
(baseball and politics, politics and baseball -
4/6/07)
Not much good is being said about George W. Bush these days. But
baseball fans can at least understand his blowing off the Washington
Nationals on their season opener in DC. The president has been
associated with too many setbacks over the past several
weeks. As a once-part-owner of the Texas Rangers, he is surely
aware of what much of the media are predicting: that the Nationals
could suffer a record number of losses this season. Despite the
official reason - a schedule conflict - the decisive attitude in the
White House was surely - “Even a remote connection to another failed
enterprise: who needs it?”
Not long after Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield, now in management with the
San Diego Padres, hailed (on WNYC) the founding of the players union as
the “best thing” that happened for him and baseball’s salaried stiffs,
Boston Globe columnist Bob Kuttner put the dismal state of organized
labor outside baseball into perspective:
“Supposedly, the “new economy”
doesn’t lend itself to unions, and most workers no longer want them.
But according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, surveys
show that 53 percent of US workers would join a union if they could.
And recent union growth is mostly in service-sector work — the essence
of the new economy.
“In truth, academic studies…document
the principal reason unions have declined, from more than 30 percent
after World War II to fewer than 8 percent of private sector workers
today. It is mainly the result of business making clear that workers
who support union drives risk losing their jobs.”
The Democrats in Congress hope to try to begin rectifying the situation
this session. But Republicans are talking of a filibuster and the
president a veto.
Perfect Pitchers have been Met fans since the team’s Polo Grounds
days. But never blind fans. We believe, the fast start and
the positive media/Minaya spin notwithstanding, that the Mets will
finish out of the money this year. They are soft in three key
departments: starting and relief pitching, and the bench.
Would-be subs Damian Easley, David Newhan and Julio Franco are
uninspiring. Franco is finished; one hopes the same can’t be said
about for-now-right fielder Shawn Green. But he doesn’t inspire
confidence either at bat or afield. The pitching staff is
obviously vulnerable to age-related breakdowns. And there will be
injuries to everyday players. Willie Randolph said revealingly
after an Orlando Hernandez hamstring scare two weeks ago: “He’s one of
my starters…He’s going to be there.” Maybe two-thirds of the
time, Willie. At most.
Brit Wyckoff, of Washington, DC, took this spirited swing at the
possibility, raised here yesterday, of Barack Obama benefiting from his
multi-cultural similarity to Derek Jeter: :
“Separated at birth. Obama and Jeter
eye the sky with cool, calm power. Do these brothers under the skin
share that inner balance that will make them both legends? One
writes books explaining himself. The other lets action become his
autobiography. If Barack Obama is going to write his name across two
baseball seasons to make the White House home base, he will have to
smash ideas into the bleachers.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey
(dickstar@aol.com).
Previous editions can be found by scrolling below.)
6/6 - The
Nub is on the Few Days DL; here is a page from the record
book.
(baseball and politics, politics and baseball - 4/5/07)
If Barack Obama regains his early campaign momentum, one reason is
likely to be the Derek Jeter factor. That Barack and Jeter share
similar multi-cultural backgrounds will surely seep into the broader
voter consciousness as the baseball season unfolds. The racial
comparison will likely lead many even casual observers of the sport to
connect Jeter’s attributes with those of Obama. Jeter has earned
the admiration of fans throughout the country and world for his skills
and conduct. Obama can benefit from a transfer of that admiration
if he handles himself in the political field with the same unruffled
assurance that Jeter exhibits when he steps to the plate or corrals a
difficult ground ball.
Just about every member of the baseball media picks Jeter’s team the
Yankees to make the American League playoffs along with their main
Eastern Division rivals the Red Sox. An exception is ESPN’s
Buster Olney, who says the wild card team will come from the Central
Division - Detroit, Minnesota and Cleveland vying for two playoff
places. Most close observers believe either the Eastern Division
Mets, Phillies or Braves will pick off the wild card in the National
league. The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, who earlier called the
Cardinals a good bet to compete for another championship, made a
surprise switch later. He now picks Milwaukee to finish first in
the NL Central Division.
Perfect Pitch likes the Yankees’ playoff chances but believes the Mets
will finish out of the money. More on that tomorrow.
If Obama doesn’t become a genuinely credible threat to win the
Democratic presidential nomination, that failure was signaled back in
February by Ed Garvey of the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin.
Here is part of what Garvey, the first of our pinch-hitters, wrote
then, even as Obama was climbing in the polls:
“The race for president is in full swing, but feel no need to get
excited, contribute to a candidate or watch the debates. Selecting the
"American Idol" will be a more democratic process than nominating the
Republican and Democratic candidates for president.
“You, my friends, are not needed. Big
media conglomerates, pollsters,
consultants, big drug and insurance companies, and other captains of
industry will take this burden from your shoulders. You have plenty to
keep you busy just making a living, so you can let the big boys
("bigs") and their bagmen make the decision for you. Rather comforting,
wouldn't you say?..
“The Democratic Leadership Council
bigs decided five years ago to
nominate Hillary Clinton in 2008. Sure, Barack Obama is a rising star
with charisma Hillary would kill for, but he won't get the big money he
needs. You say, "But people like him." So what? Too unpredictable. The
bigs don't know enough about him. You will be told, "not enough
experience." Translated, that means "he might have his own agenda."
The $25 million Obama has raised is impressive, but Howard Dean raised
big money in 2004 and it didn’t win over the “bigs” who preferred
someone they felt safe with - John
Kerry.
- o -
(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey
(dickstar@aol.com).
Previous editions can be found by scrolling below.)
(baseball and
politics, politics and baseball – 6/5/07)
Barry Bonds has returned to the
Far West – the Giants play
at Arizona
tonight – but the ruckus over how his imminent breaking of Hank Aaron’s
home
run record should be treated is becoming more and more racial.
Sunday’s Newsday and the latest issue
of The Nation both
have articles saying racism lies behind much of the anti-Bonds
sentiment. Warren Goldstein, a baseball
historian who
teaches at the University of Hartford, points out that, according to an
ESPN-ABC poll, three times as many white as black fans hope Bonds falls
short
of the record. On the other hand,
two-and-a-half times more blacks than whites want Bonds to break
Aaron’s career
mark of 755 home runs.
Goldstein expands on the poll findings
this way: “Bonds’
surliness makes it easy for most white folks to say, ‘Race has nothing
to do
with this. Bonds is a jerk (or worse).’
But why then do twice
as many white fans as black believe that Bonds ‘knowingly used
steroids,’ even
though it’s never been proven in court?”
Both the Goldstein article in Newsday
and one written by
Jonathan Cohen in The Nation suggest that Bonds’ possibly
steroids-aided record
will be no less legitimate than records set when major league baseball
was
segregated and there were no Bob Gibsons, Don Newcombes and Lee Smiths
to keep
batters in check.
Most active players believe that Bonds
should be honored for
breaking Aaron’s record as a matter of simple justice – under our legal
standard he must as of now be considered not guilty of using illegal
performance-enhancing drugs. Tom Glavine
gave his layered view of the subject to Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman:
"We all have our reservations and
doubts. But until something's proven, you have to respect what he's done," Glavine said.
“Glavine
was then asked whether he thinks Bonds is guilty, and he made a face as
if to
indicate he could go either way on that one. Asked if he was ‘50-50’ on
Bonds'
innocence, Glavine gave Bonds the benefit of doubt. Glavine said,
‘Probably 55-45, somewhere in that range’."
Mets rookie Carlos Gomez had a good weekend while
his team
was losing two of three to the
Diamondbacks. Going three-for-six, he
kicked his BA up 62 points to .229. His two-for-four on Sunday
could have been the result of
reading a renewed vote of confidence from an unnamed scout the Boston
Globe’s
Nick Cafardo had quoted a week earlier.
No sooner did the scout say Gomez was a future superstar than
the rookie
had a terrible few games, leading Willie Randolph to indicate he’d be
sent back
to New Orleans. In Sunday’s Globe, however, Cafardo relayed
this encouragement to Gomez:
"’I love Carlos
Gomez,’
repeats a National League scout about the young Mets outfielder.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous editions can be found by scrolling below.)
(politics and baseball, baseball and politics –
6/4/07)
Here’s what baseball fans know –
or ought to – about the
presidential race: the two leaders in the polls Rudy Giuliani and
Hillary
Clinton are Yankee fans. We’ve
always known that about Rudy; we know it
about Hillary because of a book “I’ve Always Been a Yankees Fan:
Hillary
Clinton in Her Own Words.”
Barack Obama, whom the polls say
is Hillary’s closest
competitor on the Democratic side, is a White Sox fan.
He’s from the Chicago
area, so that’s fair enough. Obama has
been prominent the past few days,
thanks to “high-five” pieces in the Times and the Daily News. Rudy and Hillary, in particular, may not
consider that fair. The Times article
can lock up the aging hoop-jock vote for Obama, for what it may be
worth. The column in the News by Mike
Lupica,
usually in the baseball pages, is grudging about Giuliani: “Now
he is rich and famous and still the front-runner to be the
Republican nominee. Lately it does seem
he is the only voice out there anybody is hearing.”
But it’s Lupica’s call for more Obama
visibility in NY that is noteworthy. “Obama
needs a big, loud New York
event soon, in Giuliani’s city and
Hillary Clinton’s state to show that…(he) is not just younger…he is
different
and not afraid to come right at anybody.”
The DC clubhouse grapevine says Team
Clinton and Team Obama
have agreed not to stage any spectacular appearances in each other’s
ballparks. If the polls tighten, it will
be interesting to see how long that deal lasts.
As of now, there is a fair chance the country will have two New
Yorkers
– and Yankees fans, to boot – as the major presidential nominees.
Perfect Pitch
is not involved in the presidential race. But
if we were advising Obama, we would urge
his campaign to buy and distribute as many copies of its candidate’s
first book
“Dreams From My Father” as the treasury will allow.
That is not an endorsement, except of the
book, a remarkably good read for a political auto-bio, written by the
subject.
Coming right
now: early crunch time for the Mets. Beginning
tomorrow, successive series over
three-and-a-half weeks against the Phils, Tigers, Dodgers, Yankees,
Twins, A’s
and Cardinals. If they are still in
first place after that stretch, even The Nub will acknowledge these
Mets are
for real.
Correction: Last week,
based on a misreading of a Crain’s item, The Nub
said Assemblyman Vito Lopez, State Senator Bill Perkins and Yvette
Clarke were
the only NYC elected Dems not to endorse Hillary Clinton.
Crain’s Erik Engquist points out there are
many like Lopez and Clarke who have yet to put any candidate on their
presidential
lineup card. But Clarke is the only NYC
Dem
Congress member not to have endorsed Clinton
so far. Perkins is the unique city
office-holder to have signed up with Obama.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous editions can be found by scrolling below.)
(baseball and politics, politics and baseball –
6/1/07)
Dirty tricks?
That subject links the Yankees’ Alex
Rodriguez and Democrat
Vito Lopez, an assemblyman and successor to convicted Clarence Norman
as Brooklyn party leader.
The world knows by now that the base-running Rodriguez called
out to Toronto’s
Howard Clark as
the infielder was camped under a pop fly in the ninth inning of a close
game
Wednesday night. What Clark
heard A-Rod say was “Mine!” What A-Rod
says he said was “Hah!” Lopez is in the
news because – according to Crain’s - he is among only three NYC
office-holders
who have not streaked to Hillary Clinton’s team in the presidential
race. (The other two: Manhattan State
Senator Bill
Perkins, who has swung to Barack Obama, and Brooklyn Congresswoman
Yvette
Clarke, who, like Lopez, hasn’t gone to
bat for anyone.)
Lopez, known for his sharp political spikes, was
accused of
threatening a member of the Brooklyn organization with the loss of his job
if he
didn’t vote as Vito wanted him to. That
was in the battle for state attorney general party endorsement, which
Andrew
Cuomo won a year ago. Lopez has
never
denied his sometimes ruthless use of power. Rodriguez should have
admitted saying
“Mine” instead of peddling the laughable “Hah” story.
To say he was simply trying to win and that
the team is “desperate,” was enough. One
of the accepted 2007 game rules (to which some would say “alas”) on the
political, baseball or any other field: You do whatever it takes to
gain an
edge.
Footnote: Savvy fans
who know Larry Bowa’s rambunctious rep had to smile at the way he
finessed
whether what A-Rod did was bush-league:
“If he said ‘I got it,’ I think that’s very unacceptable.
-
- -
Fans trying to decide whether to support the Yankees’ and
Mets’ objections to a legislative bill to relax laws limiting resale of
entertainment tickets – a.k.a. “scalping” – should take this test: try
to call either club, or both, for
any reason other than making a purchase.
If you reach a live person, other than an intern-type, who can
talk to
you coherently about club policies, give the teams the benefit of the
doubt on
this issue. The Nub bets you’ll come away
feeling negative about both organizations, if not their players.
- -
-
A dozen years ago, the Mets gave a 24-year-old former Cleveland
farmhand a shot
at the majors. Paul Byrd spent two seasons
at Shea, then moved on to six other clubs, winding up with the team
that
originally signed him, the Indians. Byrd
(6-1) pitched Cleveland
over the Red Sox Wednesday night. Here
is part of the appreciation he received from Boston Globe columnist Bob
Ryan:
“Hey, if you're
going to lose, why not lose to Paul Byrd? The man comes in here with
his 1936
windup, not having walked a man since April 26, and throws first-pitch
strikes
to 25 of the 27 batters he faces. He leaves the game after six innings
(plus
three singles to start the seventh), and now he's gone 43 innings
without going
ball four. That's craftsmanship.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey (dickstar@aol.com).
Previous editions can be found by scrolling below.)
the_nub archive
