(Posted 6/24/08)

Baseball and politics: brought together on a joint playing field, thanks to two separate surveys.  The results in one - based on SI interviews with 500 players - found Derek Jeter to be the most overrated major leaguer.  In the other - conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News - three of 10 people who took part acknowledged feelings of racial prejudice.

That Jeter belongs to a small minority of African-American players (8 percent) suggests a racial aspect to the vote, particularly since it’s the second time in three years he has been so selected.  But resentment over the positive exposure Derek receives in the publicity capital is considered a more likely explanation.  That’s especially true since the same people who named him overrated picked Jeter runner-up to Alex Rodriguez as players they would choose “to build a team around.”

The results of the Post/ABC poll - connecting as they do to Barack Obama’s presidential hopes - are not so easily dismissible.  If 30 percent of interviewees indicate it would be a possible problem for them to vote for an African-American, how many might feel that way but prefer not to admit it?   Pollsters say it is impossible to tell how many participants “moderate” their racial views when responding to survey questions, but there is no doubt many do.  

The poll results seem to reinforce the case for Obama to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate in hopes of getting normally anti-black working-class white women to swing Barack’s way.  On the other hand, he could seek to neutralize the biased white vote by rallying Hispanic support with Bill Richardson on the ticket.      

The Post/ABC poll indicated that even more people had reservations about John McCain owing to his age (71) than about Obama because of his color.  But age bias is considered easier to overcome than race prejudice.   

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Déjà vu?  If history is a great signaler, the addition of former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky as his special assistant should make Omar Minaya nervous.  Back in 2004, the Mets had newly added super-scouts Al Goldis and Bill Livesey as special assistants to then-GM Jim Duquette.  The signings indicated no confidence in Duquette, who was soon shown the door.  Goldis and Livesey were implicated with Duquette, Jeff Wilpon and Rick Peterson in the notorious deal that sent Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay for Victor Zambrano that July.  Minaya now has Krivisky as well as Tony Bernazard and Jeff W looking over his shoulder.  Bernazard is officially VP for player development.  Amid the furor about his role in the firing of Willie Randolph, little mention has been made of the woeful job he (and Omar) have done with the Mets, unproductive farm system.

Stat city:  Top three among AL players with hits in late (7,8,9) and close games:  Chone Figgins, Angels, .435. (10/23), Mike Lowell, .429 (15/35), Hideki Matsui, .424 (14/33).   NL, same category: Greg Dobbs, Phillies, .481 (13/27), Jimmy Rollins, Phillies, .429 (15/35), Aramis Ramirez, Cubs, .410 (16/39).

 In case you didn’t notice: AL East, with an .800 pct (four of five clubs on the plus side), is one of only two MLB divisions with a single sub-.500 team.  The AL West has a .750 pct. (three of four plus-side teams).   At the other extreme, the NL West boasts only one of five teams - Arizona - above .500.       

(Posted 6/21/08)

The campaign battle lines have been drawn – or so the media believes - Team Obama  offers hope, while Team McCain touts the value of a healthy fear.  If this were baseball instead of presidential politics, the Obama-ites would resemble the young, exciting Tampa Bay Rays, McCain’s squad the stolid, experienced Mets.

The political polling consensus reflects the baseball standings – Obama, like the Rays, is ahead, youth and verve having the edge over battle-scarred, Mets-resembling McCain,  It makes sense until one encounters another consensus:  that in contests like this, hope trumps fear.  Bloomberg.com’s Al Hunt makes the case this way:

(Posted 6/19/08)

It might have been a poorly executed parody of the deadly anti-terrorist game of rendition – the spiriting away of suspects to secret interrogation sites.  The baseball version’s victims – Mets manager Willie Randolph and coaches Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto – were accused of doing their jobs terribly. They were flown 3,000 miles before the penalty - firings - was imposed.  And that happened in relative secrecy - long after midnight, in a hotel room rather than a prison.

The triteness of it all contrasts starkly with coincidental disclosures this week about the real thing – the botched and shameful way Team Bush has been handling rendition detainees in Guantanamo.  It is there, in Cuba, that the supposed “worst” of the hundreds of accused terrorists were sent after being seized and stashed in clandestine prisons.  An eight-month inquiry by the McClatchy Newspapers found that many of the detainees were three-strike victims: innocent, and abused or tortured, as well as deprived of their legal rights.  A former secretary of the army said at least a third of more than 700 detainees did not belong in Guantanamo.   Finally, last week, the Supreme Court picked up the ball and ruled 5-4 that the camp’s prisoners could challenge their detention in the federal courts.  Regrettably, the decision does nothing to help possibly innocent det

ainees in secret prisons other than Guantanamo. 

Just as Team Bush has refused to apologize for its flouting of international and U.S. law, the Mets say they’re innocent of any deviousness in deposing of Willie and the coaches.  No need to replay the bludgeoning Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya have received in the press.  A fair question the chain of events raises is this: How is it Omar was able to keep his job while Seattle GM Peter Bavasi, not manager John McLaren, lost his this week?   Minaya hinted at the probable answer when he emphasized his close personal ties with the Wilpons.  The guess here is that McLaren, whose team is 17-and-a-half games behind in the AL West, was tighter with Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln than was Bavasi.  

We know from statements made at CIA Counter-terrorist meetings that the desired relationship between interrogators and Guantanamo detainees was a ruthlessly uncaring one.  At a  meeting,in 2002, according to documents released at a Senate hearing this week, CIA lawyers found it legally acceptable to inflict “cruel, inhuman or degrading” punishment on suspects.  The group’s top lawyer is quoted as saying -  In“rare instances, aggressive techniques have proved very helpful.” Separate from the hearing, John McCain uttered this pained response to the High Court’s decision upholding the prisoners’ legal rights: “These are not citizens.”  

As to the treatment received by Citizen Randolph, fans may quibble with the timing of his firing, but few can disagree with the sense that a change was needed.  Though it is doubtful that interim manager Jerry Manuel can jump-start the Mets, we know he can’t do any worse than what happened on Willie’s watch dating from almost a year ago.  

From Wednesday’s (6/18) Boston Globe:  “Since last season baseball people have just shaken their collective heads at the chemistry issues on (the Mets).  No leaders.  No go-to guys.  A collection of underachieving players like Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran.  A pressing David Wright.  Pedro Martinez might have saved the franchise…but his injury litany has hurt the Mets terribly.  The best thing Minaya has done recently is trade for Trot Nixon, who could be the guy to instill some much-needed toughness to the team much as he did for the Cleveland Indians last season.” (Nick Cafardo)

Illusion of Central Position – from The Nub of 5/29:  “Thoughts while watching the Mets’ overmatched Double-A call-up Nick Evans swinging wildly at a third-strike pitch the other night:  Send him back to Binghamton forthwith; sign someone at a bargain rate who belongs in the bigs like…Trot Nixon, batting around .300 in Triple-A with the Tucson Sidewinders.”   

The Yanks and Mets are both only five-and-a-half games out of first in their divisions.  But Joe Girardi’s streaking team has already begun putting the annual scare into Red Sox Nation.  The Mets, under their new manager, have a lot to prove before the Phillies worry about them,.

(Posted 6/17/08)

Hillary Clinton as closer, called in to stop the bleeding in a save situation? 

That’s how one of Hillary’s pitching coaches, Jerry Nadler, sees her role with Team Obama as the pre-convention period reaches late innings.

Nadler spoke the other day in an impromptu interview on Amsterdam Avenue in the Upper West Side part of his Congressional district.  He was clearly still feeling the sting of Clinton’s defeat in the Democratic primary.  Why not?  Jerry would have been in line to replace her as senator had she gone on to become president.

If the election were held now, he said, Barack Obama’s chances of beating John McCain would only be “even.”  When told that sounded unduly pessimistic, Nadler waved the sentiment away.  “Obama has problems with six constituencies,” he said.  “And the Jews are not the biggest of them.”  He put Hispanics ahead of Jewish voters; then, in no particular order, he added working-class whites, women, seniors and Asians.

“Why Asians?”

“I don’t know.  I just know they have problems with Obama.”

Because of all the potential hits Barack will be taking from that six-group lineup - and

polls indicate Nadler might have added Catholics as a seventh – Jerry said he thought this would be Obama’s game plan:  “He’ll wait a few weeks, check the polls, and if he sees he needs help to win over many of those people, he’ll pick Hillary as his running mate.”   

Wishful thinking?   Said a member of Obama’s NY team: “An Obama-Clinton ticket makes a lot of strategic sense.  It’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t rule it out.” 

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The Mets clearly disposed of Willie Randolph in a cowardly way, the middle-of-the night firing 3,000 miles from New York a spectacle the Times’ William Rhoden calls “more fitting for an amusement park than for Major League Baseball.” No argument with Newsday’s Wallace Matthews, who said before the fact that the Mets’ front office had callously left Willie hanging:

“The Mets (should have) had the decency, and the guts, to deal with Randolph the way Randolph deal(t) with everyone else.  But Jeff Wilpon, who has made a rise from non-entity in this town to first place among the idiot sons of rich fathers, seems to lack the capacity to display either.

”As recently as last Monday, he could have put the issue to rest at a charity function in Connecticut the Wilpons dragged their weary team to after an all-night flight from San Diego, where they had just dropped four games to the Padres.  When asked…for his opinion of the Mets' miserable road trip, and by extension, the status of his manager, Wilpon said: ’I’m going to keep that to myself. Let's talk about the charity.’

”Randolph neither wants nor needs Wilpon's charity.  But a little straight talk would (have been) nice.”

Obviously, the buck for the move stops with team owner Fred Wilpon.  And the bucks  Omar Minaya has Fred paying for the Metsian disaster surely got to the boss.  He had to do SOMETHING.  Now the Minaya death watch begins, with Jeff (oh, no, not again) Wilpon, waiting outside the chapel door.

The Yankees, in contrast, have a comparatively miniscule problem: they’re on a roll with four straight, and if Joe Girardi can keep his first-string lineup healthy, the extended loss of Chien Ming Wang should not be fatal to their playoff hopes.  Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain give them a strong top of the rotation, and the offense can neutralize any weaknesses at the bottom.  

(Posted 6/14/08)

Yankees historians tell of an era, a half-century ago, when the Bombers were said to use the budget-conscious Kansas City Athletics as a farm team.  In a series of one-sided trades with the A’s, the Yanks added Bobby Shantz, Roger Maris and Clete Boyer, among others, as part of their financial as well as competitive domination in the AL. 

The Yanks are still the richest franchise in baseball, but they no longer dominate.  Team USA is by far the most powerful franchise in the league of world nations.  And it wants to insure its domination, as the Yankees of old did.  Under skipper George Bush, America is currently trying to make Iraq a U.S. farm team instead of a sovereign state. 

Team Bush wants to provide the players to Iraq - not receive them - in the form of troops, officials and contractors.  Iraqi resources are what the U.S. really has its eye on - oil, and energy in general.  First, the U.S. team is seeking to stay on indefinitely after its legal right to remain temporarily expires at the end of the year.  That deal would include Baghdad’s acceptance of “dozens” of U.S. bases (compared to the 30 that now exist) and its giving us the right to grant most of our players exemption from Iraqi law. In other words, our installations, including the Green Zone in the capital, would be separate, sovereign entities.

In the words of the International Herald Tribune’s William Pfaff , “The Pentagon…wants to bind Iraq to these terms, since for it, indefinite occupation and sovereignty over the bases is what the war, strategically, has been all about. “

The mystery surrounding the deal is that, while opposition to it grows among Iraqis, there’s an eerie silence among Democrats at home.  John McCain has expressed public support for the agreement, which would bind the next administration.  Barack Obama has yet to say a word about it.  As for Congress, the UK Independent’s Patrick Cockburn sees the situation this way:  “The…deal…is in theory a ‘status of forces agreement’, which the US already has with more than 80 other countries, but, in practice, it is a maneuver by the US administration to avoid calling the agreement a treaty which, under US law, would then have to be submitted to the Senate.  With American politicians wholly absorbed in the presidential election, there appears to be only limited interest by congressmen and senators in demanding that the agreement, when signed, be submitted to them.” 

It would seem to be time for Senator Obama to step up to the plate.

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Add to the Mets’ many problems this - No Relief in Sight: When Willie Randolph sent Joe Smith out to be his set-up man against Arizona Thursday afternoon, it became clear that the Mets bullpen is destitute of reliable performers: Aaron Heilman seems to have permanently imploded; Duaner Sanchez is a shadow of his pre-taxi-accident self; Scott Schoeneweis’s middle name is “You never know”; Pedro Feliciano appears tired; Claudio Vargas is clearly not the answer, etc.  The sight of Smith cannot have instilled confidence in Mets fans, even with their team ahead, 4-0, thanks to a masterful job by Johan Santana.  The fans were right to worry: Smith yielded two big runs, setting the stage for Billy (“Just awful”) Wagner to yield two more in the ninth. 

When the Mets lose a lead this season, we know they NEVER fight back. (OK, hardly ever).  So Arizona’s 5-4 victory in the 10^th was inevitable.  These June games have become “meaningful.”  They mean it’s doubtful there will be truly meaningful games in July, August and September.   The team, so highly touted by some at season’s start, is becoming more and more of an embarrassment.  And the badly run organization - with no minor league backup and garage-sale bench irregulars - is most to blame.

The D-backs deserve a salute for their resiliency; with an energetic crop of young players from their system, they are the reverse image of the Mets.  As of mid-June, Arizona is one of five teams that look to be safe playoff bets: the Red Sox, Angels, Phillies and Cubs are the others.  The Yanks have a wild-card shot.  The Mets? “This is the year NOT.”