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> (Posted: 6/24/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Crash!...Go the Astros, Orioles, Pirates and Economic Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Say what you will about inter-league baseball, the games tell teams where they fit in the broader scheme of the sport.  The Astros, Orioles and Pirates, for example, now know that they really, truly suck.  Together (up to last night’s games), they had won six and lost 26 – Houston, 2-10,  Baltimore, 2-8, Pittsburgh, 2-8.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>In the same way, Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> found out after the recent crash its perceived place in the global financial league of nations: at Double-A level.  Super-scout Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, did the bird-dogging that placed the world military power where it belonged in the securities field.  His most sobering discovery: that the finance industry has taken control of our government instead of the other way around.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>In his report, published in the latest <st1:place w:st="on">Atlantic</st1:place>, Johnson reminds us that our team triggered the crash by playing an error-filled minor-league brand of money-ball: “Financiers …played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse.  More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive.  The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.”     <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Johnson says Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> fell under the thrall of gashouse-gang financial play over the past decade when “the attitude took hold that what was good for Wall Street was good for the country. The banking-and-securities industry has become one of the top contributors to political campaigns, but at the peak of its influence, it did not have to buy favors the way, for example, the tobacco companies or military contractors might have to.  Instead, it benefited from the fact that <st1:state w:st="on">Washington</st1:state> insiders already believed that large financial institutions and free-flowing capital markets were crucial to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s position in the world.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> is scrambling to reestablish the standing it relinquished in the rout of 2008-09, Johnson says.  Meanwhile, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> taxpayers are being penalized for misuse of the capital, just as Astros, Orioles and Pirates fans have been hurt by their teams’ unrewarding transactions and unproductive investments in player development.  LA Dodger fans have a different gripe: their team’s 2-8 inter-league record could be partially blamed on a schedule that has them meeting the Angels (six times), Tigers, Red Sox and, as of tomorrow, the Yankees.</big> <big>                             -     -     -</big> <big>What We’ve Learned over the last several days:  Streaks by Texas (nine straight and 12 of 13) and the White Sox (seven straight and 11 of 12) all but confirm that the Rangers and Angels will duke it out in the AL West, the Sox, Twins and Tigers in the AL Central.  Less sure, but possible: the Padres will hang in to make it a four-team donnybrook – Dodgers, Giants, Rockies and SD –in the NL West.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Hard to believe the Rays - 10 wins in 26 games through Tuesday - are fading in the AL East, but both the Yankees and Red Sox are looking strong now, and both have deal-making power should their teams sputter.   How hot are the Bosox? At 36-20 (up to last night), <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city> has the best record in the majors since April 20.  Jon Lester, John Lackey and Clay Buchholz are 14-4 in the last 22 games.  Each worked six innings or more in 21 of those games.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Query: Which teams among the 20-plus still in playoff contention most need, and have the resources, to rent Cliff Lee? Answer (It says here): 1) Phillies, 2) Dodgers, 3) Mets, 4) Angels, 5) Yankees, 6) Red Sox, (7) Cardinals.  </big> <big>                                   - o -</big> (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> (6/22/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Will Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> Hit Out Toward the Income Gap?<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Thanks to MLB-TV, attentive baseball fans know the meaning of the term “economic inequality.”  The channel does “look-ins” of games around the majors each night.  And what viewers see, more often than not, is crowds clustered in corporate-box sections of the grandstands and yawning swaths of empty seats elsewhere.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Nubbite Frank Macchiarola is certainly attentive to baseball (and may even watch MLB-TV).  But he e-mailed an objection to the pitch launched here last time that progressive taxation hitting the rich on down in a proportional way would begin to narrow the income gap.  “The simple fact is,” he wrote, “that governments which tax at higher rates inhibit economic growth.  Governments which tax at lower rates promote that growth and hence jobs.”  The record book shows Brooklynite Macchiarola to be a heavy hitter in the financial field.  And national polls show his support of tax-restraint is seconded strongly by most Americans, including elected officials like Andrew Cuomo, and the corporate media.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>But polls consistently show something else that is seldom publicized: Even in hard times, people have no problem investing in public services through taxation if a condition is met.  The taxes, if imposed on income, must be seen as fair, in keeping with what a person can reasonably spare.. Why, then, with most new jobs on the menial/service roster, has progressive reform of the tax code been low-bridged in NY and around the economically unequal nation?  The Macchiarola stance amplified by an anti-tax offensive in the right-side media is one explanation.  Despair or exhaustion is another:</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“In a two-party system,” wrote the late historian Howard Zinn, “if both parties ignore public opinion, there is no place voters can turn.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The scorecard confirms Zinn’s reference:  Team GOP had its opponent as accomplice in skewing the American political game.  Repubs and Dems came together after the 1976 Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited amounts of money to be used in political races. Lefty author William Greider notes that “the moneyed elite first began to win big in 1978 with the Democratic party fully in power well before Ronald Reagan came to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Washington</st1:state></st1:place>.  Democratic majorities have supported th(e) great shift in the tax burden every step of the way.”  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>A sign as to whether the shift will at last be reversed nationally may be flashed in the inheritance tax contest.  There’s a chance Congress will reduce instead of ratcheting up taxes on heirs to mega-million-dollar estates.  That would deprive the economy of billions-a-year in income-gap-narrowing revenues.  But Dems may well join with GOP players to hit to right and move the cut into scoring position. </big> <big>                     -     -     -</big> <big>Weekend Overview:  By taking two of three from the Mets while the Rays lost two of three to the Marlins, the Yankees gained both first place alone in the AL East and the best record in the majors.  But it was the Red Sox, only a game behind the Yanks, the White Sox, on a six-game tear, and the Rangers, who’ve won eight straight, who swept in the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">AL</st1:place></st1:state>.  The Braves were the only NL team to win three inter-league games, beating KC.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The Rays had been atop their division since April 22, but they’ve won only 10 of the last 25 games.  <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city>’s sweep of the Dodgers enabled the Padres to sneak back into first in the NL West by a game-and-a-half over the Giants and two games over LA.  The Rangers galloped four-and-a-half games ahead of the LA Angels in the AL West with their dispatch of the Astros.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The Inter-league won-loss record was 42-42 after the first weekend.  Since then <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">AL</st1:place></st1:state> teams have gone on a spree.  The tally was AL 92, NL 76 after Sunday night.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>On ESPN’s Sunday night game, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city>’s Mike Cameron failed to run out a pop fly that could have resulted in the Dodgers deliberately dropping the ball and turning a double play.  The four men in the broadcast booth – Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, Orel Hersheiser and Curt Schilling – acknowledged that Cameron was in a depressing slump but refused to cut him slack:  “All teammates ask is that you give the impression of hustling,” Hersheiser said.  “You can’t be expected to hustle all the time (something Morgan noted), but you can give 80 percent.”    </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>On Manny Ramirez, Schilling said “No one I ever played with worked harder.”  But Manny had a tendency to loaf, he added, “and after he let a ball drop in front of him when I was pitching, I wanted to discuss it with him.  But I was told to leave him alone.”  Schilling didn’t mention Tito Francona by name, but implied he didn’t approve of the manager’s kid-glove treatment of Manny.  </big> <big>                             <o:p></o:p></big> <big>Updating (with apology) an item by the Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers: “Look out for CC Sabathia.  His victor(ies) over Roy Halladay…(and Johan Santana) reminded us that we have arrived at his time of the year. The Yankees' ace has gone 29-6 from mid-June until the end of the season the last two seasons.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                     - o - </big> (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: 6/15/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Unpredictable Cuomo Takes Ballplayers’ Stance on Taxes<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>If Andrew Cuomo had followed his father into professional baseball – Mario Cuomo was a highly regarded Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand – his stance on taxes would make sense: ballplayers hate anything, even the sport’s minimally close-shaving luxury tax, that might brush back their income.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>But <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Andrew</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">NY</st1:state></st1:place>’s probable next governor, didn’t play ball. And he comes from a progressive tradition that deplores economic inequality.  It’s a surprise, then, to discover he’s rejected membership on a team pitching for a tax code that socks it to the under-assessed rich.  Most press box observers have given young Cuomo a free pass: he makes positive news almost daily with his bearing down as state attorney general against alleged wrongdoers in and outside government. </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>A journalistic exception is the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, who consistently hits the telling long ball in the political-coverage game.  After cheering much of candidate Andrew’s reform-Albany offensive strategy, Barrett swings out against his approach to taxes: </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“’God helps those whom God has helped’ was Mario Cuomo’s (wry) refrain about tax cuts for the rich.  Now his son, the man who exposed the gargantuan bonuses Wall Street continues to pay, is against taxing them…..Cuomo’s<o:p></o:p> (published program)….notes…that the state and local tax burden falls heaviest on the middle class, is kindest to the rich (those earning between $33,000 and $56,000 pay 12 percent of their income in New York taxes, while those earning more than $3 million pay 9.4 percent).  Yet he…never discusses how he will attack economic inequality in his program.<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Indeed, Andrew Cuomo’s (program) contain(s) a crisp statement of his core beliefs, and they are resoundingly liberal…but the list does not include any commitment to progressive tax policies or even to maintaining the temporary restructuring of the state income tax…(which) raised state taxes on the wealthiest.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Why would Andrew resort to a small-ball, hit-to-right strategy when he doesn’t have to for success in the gubernatorial game?  Barrett notes a “Clintonian triangulation” stance, a sign the younger Cuomo may already be looking beyond <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>.  Whatever his game plan, Andrew does take after his fiscally conservative father.  When, many years ago, we suggested a progressive tax hike as a way of dealing with a budget crisis, Governor Mario was incredulous: “I can’t believe you said that,” he said.  “If you believe in more taxes, you’re the only one in the state who feels that way.”</big> <big>                       -     -     - <o:p></o:p></big> <big>Re: Baseball’s luxury tax: Only two of 30 teams have payrolls in excess of this year’s spending limit, $170 million – the Yankees, of course, and the Red Sox.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Weekend Wrap:  Six of the 28 teams involved in the three-game inter-league series swept:  the Yanks, Tigers and Angels in the <st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state>, the Mets, <st1:place w:st="on">Rockies</st1:place> and Giants in the NL.  The Yankees earned top billing by moving into a first-place tie with the Rays, who lost two of three to the Marlins.  June 13 could be remembered as the day the clicking NYYs reached the top to stay.  The Angels demonstrated that the façade of Dodger dominance in the NL West could be dented.  That the Astros, Pirates and Orioles were swept was unsurprising; <st1:city w:st="on">Toronto</st1:city>’s loss of three to the <st1:place w:st="on">Rockies</st1:place>, however, was surely a psychological jolt to Jays fans.   The Mariners salvaged what could have been a life-preserving victory over the Padres Sunday.  Being swept might have started a plank-walking process rumored to be imminent in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seattle</st1:place></st1:city>.                                  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Dusty Baker invited second-guessing when he chose to rest red-hot Scott Rolen against KC’s Zack Greinke on a day another hot hitter, Brandon Phillips, couldn’t play.  Result: the Reds lost the rubber-game of the series and a chance to extend their lead over the Cardinals in the NL Central.  Rolen had gone six-for-10, Phillips five-for-eight (including a HR) in the first two games.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Final weekend (W-L) tally: AL 23, NL 19.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“I’m not trying to hype this guy,” said TBS play-by-play man Dick Stockton about Stephen Strasburg Sunday.  Too late to express restraint: Stockton’s TV colleagues Dennis Eckersley and Buck Martinez had already likened the rookie to Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Josh Beckett, Ubaldo Jimenez and Justin Verlander.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>                       - o -</big> (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> A minor medical problem will put The Nub on the DL for about a week.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> (Posted: 6/12/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Baseball, Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the Need for Heroes<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>It’s no secret why baseball is celebrating the exploits of rookies Stephen Strasburg, Jason Heyward and even Ike Davis: the sport needs heroes.  And what about war?  If we wage it in the future primarily using drones – that is, in hero-less fashion, by remote control – how can our skippers hope to get the people’s support for devastation done in their name?</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>These thoughts were triggered by a pair of messages in the e-mailbag.  One, from Seth, of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cliffside Park</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">NJ</st1:state></st1:place>, who wondered if the (presumed) drop in steroid use has led to an erosion of baseball’s offensive numbers?  A stat check over the past five years showed no such falloff, but did suggest why baseball was short on position-player heroes.  Of the four players who led in at least three of the 15 separate-league categories (BA, HR, RBI) between 2005 and 2009, two, Alex Rodriquez and David Ortiz, have been tainted by substance-abuse charges. Joe Mauer and Ryan Howard are the two who cleanly earned their pedestals.  Albert Pujols is a third; he only finished first in one category – HRs in 2009 – but he made the top five in a total of 10 categories throughout the five years.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>It was Rolf, of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Manhattan</st1:place></st1:city>, who said wars waged at long distance would be unpopular, having left no room on the field for heroics.  The wars would still be waged, he said, probably in the name of freedom, but to insure that this country’s material needs are met.  Charlie Rangel identified the major need as a three-letter word:  O-I-L.  News services, meanwhile, are reporting that Team USA is allowing Iranian oil into our bailiwick through non-American companies like Royal Dutch Shell and, yes, BP.  The O-Team does not want to prohibit oil exports from Iran lest it trigger a shortage and escalating fuel prices   Protecting a way of life is the highest priority.       </big> <big>                        -     -     -</big> <big>Why Reds could well be for real:  As weekend began, more than a third of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city>’s victories - 12 of 35 – had been pulled out in a last at-bat.  And Dusty Baker has a deeper rotation than the Cardinals’ Rudy La Russa.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Praise for the Padres:  After splitting their six games with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Diego</st1:place></st1:city>, the Mets had nothing but admiration for Padre pitching, particularly the relievers: “(Theirs) is the best bullpen in baseball,” said Jeff Francoeur. “They’re going to be tough to beat…I’m not going to miss seeing those guys the rest of the season.”  Added <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jason</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place>: “They’re by far the best staff… we’ve seen…(Their)bullpen shortens the game considerably.” <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>While the Padres were taking three of seven from the Phils and Mets on the road, the Dodgers took five of seven at home from the Braves and Cardinals.  In so doing, LA leapfrogged SD into first place in the NL West.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Open for business: <st1:city w:st="on">Baltimore</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Kansas</st1:state> City, <st1:city w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:city>, <st1:city w:st="on">Seattle</st1:city>, <st1:city w:st="on">Houston</st1:city>, <st1:city w:st="on">Pittsburgh</st1:city> and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Arizona</st1:place></st1:state>: Those are teams perceived to be ready to sell off their player-assets for the right price in prospects and, perhaps, dollars.  The Astros’ Roy Oswalt, the Orioles’ Kevin Millwood and, lately, the Mariners’ Cliff Lee are the most-mentioned sales items.  One more tailspin and the White Sox could join the sellers’ list.  </big> <big>                           - o -</big> <big>(The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments </big> <big>to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  </big> <big>Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) </big> <big> </big><o:p></o:p> (Posted: 6/10/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Big Changes Seen in Baseball and the Waging of War</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Momentous changes in baseball and politics may be just ahead:  former managers Buck Showalter and Bobby Valentine, and Ron Swoboda, key member of the ’69 World Champion Mets, all see expanded use of video replays during games as inevitable.  Boston Globe columnist James Carroll sees a similar but sinister change occurring in the political field – the outcome of our conducting a remote-control war in the <st1:place w:st="on">Mideast</st1:place>.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“We can’t let baseball become archaic,” Showalter said while appearing with Valentine on ESPN.  Swoboda, who spent two decades as a TV sportscaster, predicted that baseball “would have to concede to the camera’s eye.”  Speaking by phone from his home in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Orleans</st1:place></st1:city>, Swoboda, now a local TV baseball color commentator, said the sport’s decision-makers cannot ignore for long that “cameras catch everything at a ballgame.” Pictures of crucial mistakes, he added, “will be shown everywhere.”  He implied the potential embarrassment would speed the game’s adoption of the new technology.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Carroll calls the use of pilot-less drone aircraft a “military revolution…No one can predict the consequences for the meaning of war of this total removal of one combatant from the field of battle on which the other is met.  War’s mainly personal character has, until now, been its only check.  The video-screen pilot in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Nevada</st1:state></st1:place>, whose weapon obliterates lives half a world away, is a psychological mutant.  The technically ingenious Pentagon has set devils loose here, without regard for ultimate consequence — either to drone victims, drone victimizers, or a drone-infested world.”  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>A propos:  Helen Thomas (newly retired Hearst White House correspondent) epitomized what young journalists should be taught: that reporters ought not take sides, except on the side of life.  That is, they should challenge any rationale for visiting death on people. That idea informed much of her questioning of presidents through the years.<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                  -     -     -<o:p></o:p></big> <big>Stat city:  The disparity in AL-NL offensive stats is striking: going into last night’s games, the top BA in the AL was .370 (Robinson Cano) compared to .325 in the NL (Martin Prado); in home runs, the margin at the top was 18 (Jose Bautista) to 15 (Corey Hart); RBIs 52 (Miguel Cabrera) to 35 (Troy Glaus and Casey McGehee); stolen bases, 23 (Rajai Davis) to 19 (Michael Bourn). </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>(The Mariners’ Cliff Lee has the mlb’s best strikeout-walk ratio, by far:  In 61.2 innings, Lee has struck out 57 and walked only four.   </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Swoboda, remembering the ’69 Mets:  There was an anti-Vietnam war consensus among attentive members of the team.  “(Tom) Seaver even said publicly ‘If the Mets can win the World Series, we should be able to get out of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>’.”  On the possibility the “miracle” could happen: “(Catcher) Jerry Grote said he had known we could do it as early as spring training.  I wish somebody had told me…(First baseman) Donn Clendenon knew.  He asked to be traded from the Pirates and picked us as the team he wanted to go to.  He said he thought early on we could win it all.”  (Clendenon was ’69 Series MVP.) “Hardly anybody knew that (manager) Gil Hodges was an ex-Marine who had fought in the Pacific.  It wasn’t something he’d talk about.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big>                    </big> <big>Former Texas Rangers scout Frankie Piliere monitored the amateur draft for FanHouse earlier in the week.  Here are squibs from his report:</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big> “By getting Kolbrin Vitek, Bryce Brentz, and Anthony Ranaudo, the (Red Sox) netted three of the best college players in the country and three guys that aren't that far away from the big leagues… If they can sign all these guys, it was a tremendous day for the Sox.”  <o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“Hats off to the Mets.  There were some questions about their willingness to spend on the draft, and by taking Matt Harvey, it sure looks like they are willing to go above slot. (He)… is one of the few college arms in the class to show front-of-the-rotation upside.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“The…Yankees had a player they really wanted, regardless of where he was in the draft, and that was Cito Culver, who they picked 32nd overall…Culver… got stellar grades from the MLB Scouting Bureau this spring, grades that could have pushed him into the top 25.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big>                               - 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: 6/8/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Why Can’t Both Pastimes ‘Have It Both Ways’?<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“You can’t have it both ways,” said Steve Stone to Hawk Harrelson on WGN-TV.  “You can’t keep the human element in baseball and resort to using video replays.” The subject came up during a White Sox broadcast after the missed call last week at the end of Armando Galarraga’s perfect game.  </big> <big> Stone is one of the best baseball analysts on the air.  But he knows that baseball  games offer as much individual spontaneity as does any sport; that’s true, whether or not umpires are involved in a play.   </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Indeed, having it both ways is the American way.  That’s certainly the case in politics.  Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is a current example.  He wants Team Obama to get the spilled oil out of the <st1:place w:st="on">Gulf of Mexico</st1:place> and at the same time let drilling continue; that is, he wants the government to respond simultaneously to his state’s environmental and economic needs.  Of the skipper’s moratorium on deep-sea oil exploration, Jindal wrote this to the White House: "The last thing we need is to enact public policies that will certainly destroy thousands of existing jobs.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>We know that Team USA, as the world’s preeminent power hitter, felt entitled through the years to have it both ways.  Possessor of the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, it has sought to keep other nations from going similarly to bat on even a modest scale.  We know, too, that while encouraging democratic elections, it reserves the right to oppose winners who decline to play ball with our home team.  An unwillingness to take any stance in a contest is another strategy designed to have it both ways.  Robert Fisk of the UK Independent cites an Israeli-Palestinian case in point:<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>“The Goldstone report…found that Israeli troops (as well as Hamas) committed war crimes in Gaza, but this was condemned as anti-Semitic - poor old honorable (Richard) Goldstone, himself a prominent Jewish jurist from South Africa, slandered as ‘an evil man’ by the raving Al Dershowitz of Harvard - and was called ‘controversial’ by the brave Obama administration.  ‘Controversial’, by the way, basically means ‘fuck you’.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The “both-ways” list includes a <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> pledge to avoid the killing of civilians in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> while using pilot-less drone attack planes incapable of discriminating between the innocent and the enemy.  Many in the mainstream sports media treat possible use video replays as the equivalent of a drone attack on the umpiring human element and baseball in general.  This pitch from Globe ace Nick Cafardo is typical:<o:p></o:p></big> <big> “Baseball has always wanted the human element involved. That means you’re not always going to get the call right.  The techno-geeks will argue that in the 21st century, why not utilize instant replay?  Why not use technology?   But if you’re going to do that, then why not remove the umpires altogether and have a guy in the press box watch each play and make a ruling, then push a button.”    <o:p></o:p></big> <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cdickstar%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml">  <style>  </style> <o:p></o:p> <big>Baseball will always need on-field umpires focusing up close on plays in and around the bases.  If allowing managers, say, two replay challenges of particularly close calls, and that insures getting most of them right, why not let baseball enter the 21st century?   <o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                -     -     -<o:p></o:p></big> <big>Few weekend brooms:  In only two of the 15 weekend series did teams sweep: the Mets took three from the Marlins (partial revenge on the four <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> won from them late last month); the Angels swept the Mariners to move a half-game out of first in the AL West.<o:p></o:p>  Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar went nine-for-14, a .644 average, in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:place></st1:city>’s four-game series split with the Dodgers.  Escobar’s BA jumped from .217 to .252 over those four days.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The Yankees gained another reassuringly solid performance by Javier Vazquez but might have lost a third straight to the Jays Sunday were it not for a puzzling strategic mistake by <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Toronto</st1:place></st1:city> manager Cito Gaston.  With the score tied 2-2 and men on second and third in the top of the eighth, Gaston let Jason Frasor pitch to dangerous Robinson Cano instead of purposely putting him on first.  Cano drove in the decisive runs in the 4-3 victory.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The weekend results left little changed anywhere except in the AL West, where the streaking Angels (five straight and eight of 10) look poised to take command yet again.  Either the Braves or Dodgers could have lost momentum in their four-game set, but neither did with the split.  It seems certain both will be around at September crunch-time.                       </big> <big>                               - o -</big> (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: 6/5/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Selig Should Follow Obama’s Lead on Reversing Crucial Calls<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Time for Bud Selig to reconsider – and do for the missed call in Wednesday’s perfect game what the national umpire-in-chief did on the oil-spill call: try to undo the political damage.  Selig has the authority to reverse Jim Joyce’ s two-out “safe” call that ruined Armando Galarraga’s unblemished no-hitter.  Since Joyce conceded he made a mistake after seeing a video replay, the reversal (media traditionalists notwithstanding) will elicit universal public approval.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Chief Obama, we know, originally justified the decision to let BP, as the “responsible” party, clean up the mess.  Belatedly he saw the error: BP was to blame, Team <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> - the government – was responsible for returning the Gulf to what it was.  Obama fans can hope his slowness to take charge – seen by many as a characteristic failing – will not do him and his Dem team permanent harm.  But lefty supporter Jim Hightower is unsympathetic, and vehemently so:</big> <big> “What we're witnessing is not merely a human and environmental horror, but also an appalling deterioration in our nation's governance.  Just as we saw in Wall Street's devastating economic disaster and in Massey Energy's murderous explosion inside its Upper Big Branch coal mine, the nastiness in the gulf is baring an ugly truth that We the People must finally face: We are living under de facto corporate rule that has rendered our government impotent.<o:p></o:p></big> <big> “Thirty years of laissez-faire, ideological nonsense (pushed upon us with a vengeance in the past decade) has transformed government into a subsidiary of corporate power. Wall Street, Massey, BP and its partners — all were allowed to become their own "regulators" and officially encouraged to put their short-term profit interests over the public interest.”  (Common Dreams) </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Hightower only hints at the most troubling part of the indictment: Mega-corporations like BP and Goldman Sachs can at least match many governments in resources – money, connections, power, legal expertise, etc.   Team <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s challenge to do a better clean-up job than BP will be watched worldwide, especially by anti-government spectators.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Unlike Obama, Selig knows he has the technology to insure against any recurrence of the mistake made in his baseball bailiwick.  He hints that he will broaden the use of video replays;  He should do it soon, insuring at last that baseball is getting controversial calls right.</big> <big>                        -     -     -</big> <big>Who would have guessed that, going into the first weekend of June, three games would be the largest margin a first-place team would have in any of the six divisions?  The single team with such a margin: the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:place></st1:city> Braves in the NL East.  Their remaining games with the Dodgers will be the most notable in the majors through Sunday.  The Rays-Rangers matchup of two first-place teams warrants extra attention, as well.  That’s especially true since the LA Angels seem ready to try to push aside both <st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state> and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:city> at the top of the AL West.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Epitaph for Dave Trembley:  The newly-fired Orioles manager sounded like he knew the boot was coming with this complaint about his team in late April: "It's time to dial it up and get this thing going in a positive direction and quit accepting it and saying, 'It's OK.’  It's not OK.  It's not OK at all.  And I'm tired of covering for them. I get questions point blank, and I feel like I'm a damn presidential press secretary sometimes.  Instead of telling them how it is, I have to smooth it over.  I ain't smoothing it over anymore.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>Interim manager Juan Samuel has the “smoothing-it-over” job now</big> <big>                    - o -</big> (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: 6/3/10)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <big>Why Can’t Baseball Play a Whole New Political Game?<o:p></o:p></big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>It’s hard to boo the way baseball observed Memorial Day this year, but let’s try: the “Welcome Back Veterans” motif and the idea of raising money to address their needs was fine.  The men and women who have served in our two endless wars deserve all the help baseball can offer.  But the flag-waving associated with the observance – the selling of “Stars and Stripes” caps – is another, too familiar  story:  It equates wars and patriotism, something baseball has done slavishly since 1898 and our intervention in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>. </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>If <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region></st1:place> have taught the American people, including baseball fans, anything,  it is that the rationales for these wars are questionable.  Polls confirm the substantial lack of support for them in much of the country.  To expect baseball to amplify that widespread doubt would be unrealistic.  But asking for a different, less militaristic emphasis is surely appropriate.  </big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>One such approach might go like this: “Welcome Back Veterans…to a Whole New Ballgame - Playing for Peace.”  Elaborating the theme would be an expression of hope that military conflicts could be brought to an expeditious, and permanent, halt.  And, more pertinently, that the deaths of so many – allegedly “not in vain” – would come to an end.</big> <big><o:p> </o:p></big> <big>The Globe’s heavy thinking James Carroll could have had baseball in mind when he launched this Memorial Day pitch:  </big> <big> “Just because we necessarily make something noble of war, by thinking gratefully of those who served to the point of death, does not remove the indictment of what killed them. War is a crime. Among its victims are its heroes. Yet in the modern era, they have been vastly outnumbered by men, women, and children for whom war was only catastrophic, in no way valorous.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big> Through the centuries there may have been a few “good wars”.  Historians count World War II as one.  In his book “Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph”, Geoffrey Perrett says that war did more than just defeat Hitler.  It produced “the closest thing to a real social revolution” in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>  For Memorial Day, Washington Post-man E.J. Dionne advanced that particular Perrett thesis: “(World War II) sharply reduced ‘barriers to social and economic equality which had stood for decades.’  It was a time when ‘a genuine middle-class nation came into existence’; when ‘access to higher education became genuinely democratic for the first time’; when ‘the modern civil rights movement began’; and when ‘the only basic redistribution of national income in American history occurred’."   <o:p></o:p></big> <big> History thus shows that good things can ensue if a war perceived as “good” unifies a country.  We’re a long way from that national stance today, seemingly stranded on a torn-up political playing field. <o:p></o:p></big> <big>                                 -     -     -<o:p></o:p></big> <big>In the third month of the season, three teams are running on a winning habit developed in May: the Dodgers have won 18 of 22, the Braves 18 of 23 and the Red Sox 12 of 15.  Then there are the Reds, who have 18 come-from-behind victories as they battle the Cardinals for the NL Central lead.  The consensus on MLB-TV the other night was that St.Louis had too many weapons - pitching and hitting – for <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city> to match.  But the Reds have character to go with their resiliency, so they might just remain a surprising team into September.<o:p></o:p></big> <big> Role models: “There’s ‘being in the major leagues’ and ‘major leaguers.’   Major leaguers are ready to play every day or night, and play hard, no matter what the standings show.” – Astros first baseman Lance Berkman, interviewed on MLB-TV Tuesday night.  </big> <big> The Reds’ Johnny Gomes on the lessons major leaguer Scott Rolen offers the team: “He doesn’t argue with the umpires, he runs every single ball out, he makes great plays, he makes routine plays, he gets the runner in when he needs to get him in, he gets the runner over when he needs to get him over.  He just plays the game exactly how it should be played.”   (Quoted by Tyler Kepner in NY Times)                <o:p></o:p></big> <big> Bobby Valentine is to ESPN what Mike Lowell is to the Red Sox: an edgy designated hitter, waiting for a chance to move on.  Valentine, owner Jeffrey Loria’s choice to replace Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez (should it come to that), is called on to pinch-hit as well as to make regular appearances on Baseball Tonight.  The other night he was asked to fill in as co-anchor when the Phillies-Braves game was rain-delayed.  Valentine took the occasion to lecture the Tigers front office about reducing the team’s stock of starting pitchers.  “They gave Nate Robertson away to the Marlins and now (Dontrelle) Willis has been let go to the Diamondbacks.  They better watch out; they’re starting to fall behind in their division.”<o:p></o:p></big> <big> Valentine mixed an impressive array of stats into an overview of the pennant races; he had prepped well, it seemed, for his turn at the TV plate.  But then he erred on an identification play, referring to Yankee outfielder Kevin Russo as “Romano.”  A tell-tale sign, perhaps, that he’s looking ahead to returning to what he really wants to do.     <o:p></o:p></big> <big>                           - o -</big><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> <big> </big> <big> </big> <big> </big> </body> </html>

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