the_nub_oct2009.html
October 2009
Archive
(Posted 10/31/09)
Why We Should Care
More About CNN Than the Mets
The Mets and CNN both finished fourth
in their respective
divisions. As ominous for NYM fans as the team’s decline may seem, it’s
not in
the same league as the last-place finish of centrist CNN in the cable
news standings.
Why should we care about CNN’s fall
behind Fox, NBC and HLN,
when the Metsies ended 25th out of 30 in W-L percentage this
season? That’s a real downer!
The cable news game is easy to shrug off:
Teams Fox and MSNBC at the top, one hitting consistently to right, the
other to
left; HLN settling for squibby headlines.
So what? Here’s the nub of the
matter: CNN is the only team in the league that hits up the middle. If fans have lost interest in that kind of
un-slanted swing, it confirms the broader, off-field reality: most
spectators
cheer the approach to hitting they agree with – resulting in drives
that hug
either foul line – and not the reliable straightaway stroke that CNN
still
offers (however imperfectly).
In
the
journalistic
game
it’s
called
objectivity. A
hint
as to why that all-sides tradition is
important can be found in hundreds of record books.
One at hand, “The Penguin History of the
Second World War” recalls how Swiss radio, “with its built-in
reputation for neutral
impartiality,” kept Europeans from being cut off, providing
information that helped them survive the hardships of German occupation. While unconcerned about a similar threat in
our ballpark, we should worry about being cut off ourselves from the
instructive
benefits of the news game as it should be played.
The trend away from
down-the-middle reportage coincides with the relentless cutback in
newsgathering
teams and players. Village Voice slugger
Tom Robbins says diminishing rosters and less competition generally
have left
many significant stories uncovered. The
failure is especially unfortunate, he says, in the run-up to NYC’s
mayoral
election:
“The big
story late
lafile:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.htmlst week
was the stunning court ruling on the illegal Stuyvesant Town
rent hikes. But you'd never know from the
coverage that
Bloomberg had praised the original deal cut by landlord Tishman-Speyer
(headed by one of his
strongest allies). Or that his top aides
had scotched a plan to keep Stuy Town
affordable.”
Off-field performances that should
be considered as part of Election Day decision-making.
- -
-
In the sixth inning Thursday
night, Joe Buck was guilty of a surprising oversight.
He said Pedro Martinez would be facing the
heart of the Yankee batting order, emphasizing only the challenges
posed by Mark
Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. “Don’t
forget Hideki,” one viewer (at least) said to the TV screen. Matsui has been as timely a hitter as anyone
in the NYY lineup. Hideki’s home run may
have caught Buck by surprise, but not fans who follow the team daily.
Insiders
are saying Matsui will
play next season only if the Yankees offer to re-sign him, or, failing
that, Seattle
gives him a
chance to play with his idol Ichiro Suzuki.
It’s not our money, so we say the Yanks should re-snap him up.
Has anyone
else noticed how the
Yankees’ omnipresent HR potential means a game can be drained of
sustained
excitement at any moment? The tension
builds with men on base and reaches a peak when a clutch pitcher-batter
faceoff
unfolds. Home runs - especially solo shots
- are often anti-climactic. Heresy?
Maybe,
but it was certainly true in game 2.
- o -
(The Nub is a team effort skippered by
Dick
Starkey. Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/29/09)
Baseball and Politics
Both Distancing Young People
“Descent into mediocrity” is how the
Boston Globe describes
the plight of the Mets and the team’s outlook for 2010.
It’s what happens to any organization that
doesn’t give priority to planning. The political system is like the Mets – and,
from a broader perspective, like all of baseball: it invests little in
attracting the young.
The signs of anything but a
youthquake in the 2010 midterm elections should come as no surprise. The reality of entrenched incumbency – and
little responsiveness in Washington
- has replaced the anything-can-happen excitement of the presidential
campaign.
That’s part of the turnoff. Then there
is the deadening role of money. Most
campaign money, we know, goes for political TV spots.
And we certainly know that TV and the money baseball
gets for broadcast rights is key to the sport’s less-than-fan-friendly
image.
What’s to be done? Nothing will change politically, says Times
lefty Bob Herbert, “without a big effort
from an
active citizenry, and that means a citizenry fired with a sense of
mission and
the belief that their actions…can make a profound difference.”
Herbert is asking for the equivalent of a walkoff
home run against
Mariano Rivera in a seventh World Series game.
The down economy and what one NY political scientist has called
the
“crisis of democracy” have left people, old as well as young, too
discouraged
to activate themselves.
If there’s a squib of hope for a return
to popular political
action, it clings to health reform, and the potential fallout from its
many
innings in Congress. An eventual law
that includes an opt-out public option could prompt electeds in some
states to
say “no thanks.” If a stance that pits a
state against health care affordability doesn’t reawaken activism in
those
affected, nothing will.
The e-mailbag contains this pertinent
message re baseball’s
poor health: “The final
game with the Angels ended about midnight on a school
night. So kids should not have stayed up to watch. Then I
thought,
what if the game was on earlier? Do I really want my 10-year-old
watching
Cialis and Viagra commercials during a baseball game, along with the
beer
commercials which aren't much better?” –
Frank S, Manhattan
Does anyone think anything will
budge Bud Selig and team owners from permitting post-season schedules
that
yield the most TV money possible? Does
anyone think an appeal based on the need to cultivate future
generations of fans
would work? For that to happen, we know,
would be the equivalent of a seventh-game walkoff against Mariano, this
one
ending in a grand slam.
-
- -
On a night when Cliff Lee and
Chase Utley would be the dominating forces, the Yankees earlier got the
World
Series off to an inauspicious start.
Their usual super-patriotic excess marred the pre-game
activities (and,
later, the seventh inning “God Bless America” break). Then leadoff man Derek Jeter set the tone
against Lee, striking out and looking bad doing it.
A rare lapse by the captain, who singled doubled and singled
again later in the losing cause.
Many Mets
fans thought Omar Minaya
did one thing right early last season: he resisted re-signing Pedro
Martinez,
who was clearly over the hill. Well,
make that one thing minus one: Pedro, we know, bounced back in
unbelievable
fashion for the Phillies. Those who
doubted that his successful comeback was real were surely persuaded
otherwise
when he blanked the Dodgers for seven innings in game two of the NLDS. Pedro will give the doubters another chance
tonight. Meanwhile, Yankee fans have
reason to be unsure about Pedro’s mound opponent: A,J.
Burnett
brings
the
threat
of
unsteadiness
with
him
every
time
he
toes
the
rubber. It
will be an entertainingly unpredictable match-up.
-
o
-
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to
dickstar@aol.com
are
file:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.html
welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous
Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted 10/27/09)
Cracks Causing
Problems for Mayor Mike and the New Stadium
Cracks in the concrete at Yankee
Stadium and in the façade
of Mike Bloomberg: coincidental setbacks
on the eve of the World Series and the cusp of the mayoral end-game. Mike’s team was responsible for the poor
job
done on the Stadium’s pedestrian ramps, not the skipper himself. He suffered self-inflicted damage when he hit
into a political twin-killing: letting Rudy Giuliani play dirty on the
campaign
basepaths and setting up Detroit
for a verbal spiking of his own.
The Yankees say the ramp cracks may be
an embarrassment, but
only a “cosmetic” problem; big-show balladeer Leonard Cohen says it
better: “There is a crack, a
crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”
Bloomberg can’t dismiss the
race-related mischief that darkened his campaign when Giuliani pitched
to a Jewish
group in Brooklyn the idea that only
Mike -
and not his black opponent - can insure community peace.
The mayor could have retrieved the situation
by calling Rudy off-base; instead, he kept the fear-centered rally
going at the
expense of Detroit. Mike warned that the Yankees’ home city could
become another Tigers-town, historically hit by racial as well as
economic
woes.
Even Bloomberg backers are wondering
why? Why the race game on top of negative
TV shots?. He is outspending Billy
Thompson 10-1; his
record campaign payroll is the political equivalent of what the Yankees
spend
to outdo all other major league teams. But
unlike
the
Yankees,
who
must
pay
a
luxury
tax
to
provide
financial
aid
to
low-payroll
competitors,
Mike
faces
no
such
penalty.
(See “The Big Kids Play With
Corked
Bats” at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091109/rosenthal
in this week’s Nation). If the Yanks
had dealt for Cliff Lee or Matt
Holliday while still well ahead last season, it would have been seen as
either
overkill or desperation. So it is with
Team Bloomberg. Whatever the reason, the
mayor’s latest plays hardly do him or his team credit.
- -
-
A dream World Series for some, a nightmare match-up for
others. Imagine how anti-Yankee Mets
fans feel: the big guy on the NY block is nearly back on top. A horrendous thought. On
the
other
hand,
the
Phillies
are
so
smug
in
their
anti-Mets
superiority.
A pox on
them, too. One thing we suspect: If Bud
Selig could choose, he’d want the Yafile:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.htmlnkees
to
win
to
defend
against
talk
of
a
Phillies
dynasty. Better to be able to
boast of (even a dubious) parity and a different champion each year.
Did anybody else notice the trace of
tension in the usually
relaxed face of Derek Jeter Sunday night?
It was most noticeable at the plate, but Derek seemed up-tight
in the
field as well. If the playoff pressure
is getting to Jeter, then none of us is safe from everyday stress. Derek, we know, is the model for cool.
The around-midnight finish of Sunday
night’s game and the
prospect of more of the same during the Series inevitably prompts
recriminations in the media. Bill Dwyre
wrote this lament in the LA Times:
“A telling conversation
last year
during the World Series with Fox President Ed Goren.
The conversation was about the good old days
when they played the World Series during the day, when kids could
watch, when
there was a sense of connection to baseball's vintage time.
”Goren told the reporter that he was amenable, that he could see the
attraction
to that. He also said that it was his
understanding that Commissioner Bud Selig kind of liked that thought. Of course, Goren told the reporter, day games
get much lower ratings than night games, so Fox would certainly have to
reduce
the rights fees it pays to MLB.
”We all know how that day-game-for-the-kids turned out.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/24/09)
No Fault to Find with
Fox Baseball Coverage and Joe Buck
After
the
series
of
stunning
missed
calls
by
umpires
in
Anaheim
this week, Fox’s
Joe Buck asked Joe Girardi what he thought about them:
They were “odd,” Girardi said. “A politic answer,” said Buck.
Fox is fortunate to have Buck, who pitches down
the middle, on its team. That’s especially
true at a time when its
prime affiliate Fox Cable News has been accused by Team Obama of
excessive
hitting to right. Fans like Fox’s bias
so it has every reason to stay with its swing, just as MSNBC can
justify its
pulling to left. What’s useful - it says
here - about the Obama-ignited rhubarb is its instructional value. Most, but not all, cable-TV watchers, know
they’re getting propaganda curves mixed in with straight informational
fast
balls. For a small percentage of
those
fans, however, the built-in bias will be news.
They will have learned that to get straight-down-the-middle
reporting they
must look elsewhere.
We’ve mentioned before how difficult it
is to find truly
objective reportage - that is, coverage of all sides of an issue - in
our
corporate media. The McClatchy chain is
a previously cited straight-hitting source.
The National Journal is another.
The broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC pass muster while being
far from
perfect. The same goes for National
Public Radio.
Entertainment value, we know, long ago
replaced
newsworthiness on TV. That applies to
ESPN, whose mission is to sell sports and not examine its underside. We’re talking about stories like the charging
of unconscionable ticket prices or the exploitation of young Latin
American
ballplayers, cast aside if they don’t qualify as genuine prospects.
Since we can’t pretend to pitch down
the middle every game,
we have a first-hand report on Fox Cable News to toss out this time,
dating
from its early days more than a decade ago.
A lefty non-roster member of the team - and hopeful then of
guiding it
to straightaway coverage - we noticed that the bias consisted, mainly,
of the choice
of stories rather than their content: a small anti-government protest
would be
covered, for example, rather than delivery of aid to drought-distressed
areas. There were minor instances of wording
bias, as
well: a reporter doing an anniversary piece on Senator Joe McCarthy
would be
instructed to list the “good things” the senator had done to balance
out the
bad.
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has a more up-to-date description of what
Fox is
doing that distinguishes it from conventional news teams: “Fox
has
taken
on
a
political
role
that
is
very
rare…
for
a
large
American
news
organization.
Its
news
coverage
is
not
merely
biased
or
opinionated;
there'd
be
nothing
unusual
about
that.
Instead,
it
is
a
major
participant
--
the
leading
participant
--
in
organizing,
promoting
and
fueling
protests,
including
street
protests,
against
the government…
Fox
has
every
right
to
do
that,
but
the pretense that it is a news organization is
ludicrous.”
- -
-
In retrospect, “ludicrous” is an apt word to describe the once-widely
held opinion that the Mets could have competed successfully against the
Phillies had they not lost their “core” to injuries.
Not only did the Phils have a tough core of
their own, they had a more solid bench plus three attractive prospects
to deal
for Cliff Lee, the clinching piece to their World Series-bound team.
Back to Joe Buck, who may one day have
a candy bar named
after him - (remember the “Reggie”(Jackson)
bar? When his Fox sidekick Tim McCarver
said he didn’t want expanded replay coverage slowing down baseball as
we’ve
known it, Buck said “What did it take to see the bad call on Swisher
leaving
third base (in game 4), six seconds?”
The replay procedure in pro football is too
cumbersome and
time-consuming, he said. But with a supervisory umpire watching “from
upstairs”, the controversial calls could be reversed or confirmed
without
disrupting the flow of the game. From his
lips to Bud Selig’s ears.
Had he been listening to McCarver in
the seventh inning
Thursday, Mike Scioscia would have known better than to replace starter
John
Lackey with two out and two men on base. “Lackey’s the best he’s got,”
said
McCarver when Buck wondered if the change was about to take place. “I think he’ll be around for awhile.” After inserting Darren Oliver, Scioscia
watched a 4-0 lead turn into a 6-4 deficit.
Second-guessers would have given Scioscia a Girardi-like searing
(see
game 4) had his team not fought back.
Although they might have preferred a
victory, Yankees fans
couldn’t have minded the defeat Thursday too much.
It set up tonight’s sixth game at the Stadium,
a bonus. And there’s always C.C Sabathia
waiting to pitch the seventh, if necessary.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted 10/22/09)
Betrayals Bedeviling
Baseball and Barack Fans
Pittsburgh
fans must enjoy the Pirates-like bind Team Obama is experiencing. Both outfits – the Bucs and the Barack-ites -
have betrayed their supporters in separate financial plays,
and
failed to rectify the way the game has gone.
The political betrayal, played out
appropriately in Pittsburgh
last month (at
the Group of 20 Summit), concerns Goldman Sachs and other money-making
teams
responsible for the trilliona lost in the worldwide economic collapse. The
question addressed: what to do about
them? The baseball betrayal concerns the
Pirates’ reluctance to invest in top prospects the comparatively paltry
$110 million in
luxury tax
money it has collected as a small-market team. And
what
to
do
about
that?
The Summit
agreements call for tighter regulation over the financial teams, their
deal-
making, and the pay and bonuses they give their top players. Pirates fans are urging Commissioner Bud
Selig to force the team’s owners to use luxury-tax money to be
more
competitive.
The Summit
promises sounded good until last Sunday, when Team Obama’s PR man David
Axelrod
appeared on ABC-TV with host George Stephanopoulos.
He was asked about the tighter regulations
being imposed on Goldman Sachs:
“Well…
first of all, we have… limited sway
other than moral suasion with some of these -- a lot of these
institutions.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “They are
getting an
awful lot of money from the Fed.”
AXELROD: “They
ought to think
through what they're doing, and they ought to understand that, a year
ago, a
lot of these institutions were teetering on the brink. The
United States
government and
taxpayers came to their defense. They have responsibilities. They ought
to meet
those responsibilities.”
The scorebook shows
three “oughts” in four sentences. It
indicates this final outcome: “moral suasion” making noise but
producing “ought.”
Congresswoman Marcy
Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, sees one thing that Skipper Obama can do – a
move
that would dispel some of the disillusionment with him and his team:
get rid of
Treasury Department albatrosses Tim Geithner and Larry Summers. Here is how she put it in response to a
direct question from Bill Moyers on his “Journal”:
BILL MOYERS: “Should
Geithner be fired? And Summers be fired?”
MARCY KAPTUR: “I don't
think that any
individuals who had their hands on creating this mess should be in
charge of
cleaning it up. I honestly don't think
they're capable of it.”
The special
inspector general of the bank bailouts program yesterday reinforced
criticism
of how it was handled. The IG said the
favored treatment to Goldman Sachs and eight others and the failure to
make
banks accountable for how they used bailout money has fed
anti-government
sentiment in the U.S.
Is it any wonder the latest
Washington Post/Pew
poll shows the national percentage of self-described conservatives at
38
percent compared to 23 percent for liberals?
Since the record
book indicates Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t even try to
exert moral suasion
on team owners, Pirates owner Robert Nutting must act on his own,
undertaking a
spending initiative if the Bucs are to respond to the fans’ clamor. He has the added incentive, presumably, of
wishing to end his team’s record-long series of 17 straight losing
seasons.
- -
-
After Jayson Werth
hit a three-run homer off Vincente Padilla in the first inning last
night, the
Phillies - in Ron Darling’s phrase - “never looked back” on their way
to the NL
pennant-clinching victory. The Phillies
had too much offense for the Dodgers, no surprise.
The surprise was the effectiveness of their
much-maligned bullpen. The expected
Phils-Yankees
World Series matchup should feature offensive
fireworks of a highly explosive order.
More on
betrayals: If ever an umpire’s call
betrayed the need for replay overrule, we know it was Tim McClelland’s
on Nick
Swisher’s tag-up at third base in the fifth inning of Yanks-LA game 4. McClelland ruled that Swisher had left third
before Torii Hunter made a catch in center.
But Tim McCarver pointed out during a replay what viewers could
see
clearly: McClelland was watching Hunter, not Swisher, when the play
occurred. Obvious lesson: umpires can’t be
expected to
see two things at once.
And another on
betrayals - this of us ticket-buyers - from the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy: “I’ll
never
understand
why
it’s
OK
for
(teams)
to
go
into
business
with
companies
that
sell
tickets
at
elevated
prices.
I
realize
this
is
tapping
into
the
‘secondary
market,’
but
didn’t
we
used
to call that ‘scalping’?”
How optimistic are
Angels fans that they can bounce back to win the ALCS?
LA Timesman Bill Dwyre gives us a good (already partially
outdated) idea: “The World Series will
open in the
American League city
(next Tuesday). If it matches the
Dodgers and the Angels, Tom Lasorda will be changing water into wine at
home
plate at the Big A.”
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/20/09)
Team USA
Is Slipping
but Still Resented Like the Yanks
Too late in the season to even
fantasize about “Breaking up
the Yankees”. But pinstripe fever in NY
notwithstanding, most baseball fans want to see the Yanks stopped in
their
title-seeking tracks. That’s just the
numerical reality. It’s not only
partisans of Angels, Phillies and Dodgers who have championship hopes;
we’ve
noted how followers of the 26 other teams with lower payrolls resent
the
Yankees for the wealth and power they possess.
So it is on the international field. Polls show that, while people around the
world feel a sense of hope associated with Team Obama’s leadership,
they don’t
like what they see as America’s
superiority complex. The Yankees
certified their leadership by winning more regular-season games,
hitting more
home runs, getting more RBIs, scoring more runs than any other team. Our non-baseball stats hardly qualify us as a
world league leader.
Once we led the league in making things; we’re now down
in
eighth place. Team USA is
lower
than that when it comes to the measurement of economic playing fields. Only Mexico
and Turkey
have wider holes separating the struggling and the well-off. We’re in 13th place in the
affordability-of-education standings. How
about the comfort level – the quality of life – of people in our
coast-to-coast
ballpark? We’re 15th, far
behind such “socialistic” teams as Canada,
France and Norway. As to our slot in the quality-of- health-care
stats, don’t ask: we’re 37th,
according to the World Health Organization.
You get the picture:
the days of “We’re number one” - except in war-related
competition - are
long gone. That has been true for the
Yankees
since 2000. The Angels, Phils and
Dodgers – and non-NYY fans – want it still to be case early next month.
- -
-
When Alex Rodriguez ignored a stop sign at third base in
ALCS game one and barreled home into Angels catcher Jeff Mathis, Fox’s
Tim
McCarver made this interesting observation: “In a play like that
the runner tags himself out. The umpire
can’t tell if the catcher actually touches him with the ball. But if the catcher still has the ball after
impact, the umpire will call the runner out.”
In game two, McCarver remained puzzlingly silent when
Derek
Jeter was called out at the end of a key Angels double-play. Joe Buck said Jeter
looked safe, and re-plays showed that clearly to be the case. McCarver
said, in
effect, “no comment.” Mathis,
incidentally, made three crucial blocks of wild pitches after he
entered
yesterday’s game three, then later hit a leadoff double in the 11th
before
scoring the winning run. “He’s quite a
player,” said McCarver.
They admire Jeter on the West Coast as
much as we do on the
East. His home run and late rally-killing
cutoff play yesterday reinforced that admiration. LA
Times-man
Bill
Shaikin
elicited
these
comments
about
Jeter
from
baseball
people
who’ve
watched
him
closely:
“He’s clutch. He likes this time of year.” –
Larry Bowa
“The
game doesn’t speed up for
him.” – Joe Torre
“(He
has an) extraordinary ability
to take a deep breath
and
deliver rather than yield to a rapid heartbeat in October.”
- gist of baseball execs’ comments summarized
by Shaikin
- o -
(The Nub is a team effort skippered by
Dick
Starkey. Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/17/09)
Is There
Politics-Like Dishonesty in Baseball?
From the e-mailbag: re prevalence of
bad calls in baseball
and politics -
“I think
there’s a problem with
your analogy of bad calls by the umpires and Team Bush (“What
to
Do
About
Bad
Calls
on
Both
Fields”
at
perfectpitcher.org).
I assume
that the umpires are making honest mistakes. By
contrast,
Cheney/Bush
were
not
interested
in
‘making
the
right
call.’
They
wanted
to
go
to
war,
so
the
game
was
rigged,
and
the
wrong
call
was
not
an
accident.”
-
Frank
S,
Manhattan.
We can only
hope reports that complaining
players risk being penalized for “showing up” umpires are
exaggerated…as, we
hope, is the implication that some bad calls on the ballfield are not
totally
honest.
The
situation is different on the
political field. It can be argued that
then-Skipper Bush made an “honest mistake” in justifying the
intervention in Iraq. He believed Team USA
could run things better in Iraq
and the region than those who live there.
He saw his lie about WMDs as a necessary step to achieving a
worthwhile
goal and therefore (in his eyes) morally acceptable.
Lyndon Johnson did the same in 1964 when he
used two fraudulent Gulf of Tonkin incidents to put us on a war footing
in Southeast Asia.
Team Obama,
like its predecessor,
clearly believes in its right - if not to intervene militarily, then to
tell
other teams to shape up to our satisfaction (“Clinton Urges Russia to
Open Its
Political System”- NY Times headline Thursday). We’re
telling
the
military
outfit
in
Guinea
that we
want a stop to the post-coup violence there.
And the coup government in Honduras is hearing -
however
sporadically - about our discomfort with the situation there.
Author Neal Gabler, writing in the
Boston Globe,
sees a “greatest-country-in-the-world” and “last-best-hope-of-mankind”
syndrome
at work. It’s a worrisome self-delusion,
he says, particularly at play in our away-from-home record:
“A
country
that
believes
it
is
the
greatest
in
the
world
is
also
less
likely
to
be
constrained
by
that
world.
One
could
argue
that
the
Iraq
war was a direct result of a
sense of national infallibility. So was
our willingness to torture, our reluctance to admit our mistakes in Afghanistan,
our
culpability
in
the
global
recession,
and
our
foot-dragging
on
global
warming.
Such
a
nation
is
also
less
likely
to
introspect
or
to
strive
for
true
greatness
because
it
believes
its
greatness
has
already
arrived.
“There
is
something
bizarre
about
(such)
a
country…but
that
describes
America
today.”
- -
-
“Bizarre”
is an apt description of post-season baseball, being played in
40-degree
temperatures at night and important games starting at times that insure
the
finish will come long after many fans have gone to bed.
Our first Phillies-LA game-watcher gave up in
the bottom of the eighth, minutes before midnight Thursday. It was an exciting game, flattened out by the
TBS broadcast team. Ron Darling and Buck Martinez are two solid color
men, but
each makes the other redundant. Given
the media flak he has taken, the choice of Chip Caray to do
play-by-play is
odd, if not bizarre,
Darling
uttered the best line in the second Phillies-LA game.
He said Pedro Martinez (seven shutout
innings) made Dodger hitters appear to be were “teetering on a boat in
stormy
weather.” That’s how Pedro’s teammate Chase Utley looked trying to
complete
double plays in both games. He threw
balls away twice with runners bearing down on him.
Yesterday, the error set up the Dodgers’
come-from-behind 2-1 victory.
When
the
first
inning
of
the
Angels-Yankees
series
produced
a
Derek
Jeter
leadoff
single,
an
A-Rod
RBI,
and
shockingly
sloppy
play
by
LA,
the
tone
was
set
for
game
one. C.C. Sabathia made sure there
was no Angelic dissonance. “The Yankees
are acting like they expect to win,” said Fox play-by-play man Joe Buck. “Yes, they are,” said Tim McCarver, “like the
Yankees of the late ‘90s.”
A
mystery connected to the Mets’ descent into moribund-ity is the case of
hitting
coach Howard Johnson. Remembered as one
of the team’s most undisciplined batsman in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Howard
is now
hailed for his effective hitting instruction.
The 2009 team BA was .270, sixth in the majors, but the Mets
finished a
distant last in HRs, and 24th in RBIs and runs.
The Johnson case is relevant because of the
availability of the widely respected Rudy Jaramillo, who declined a
contract
renewal as hitting coach of the Rangers.
Jaramillo’s name, brought up by
Michael Kay on ESPN radio, led to a discussion of the Mets’
front-office
situation. Kay said to guest/colleague
Peter Gammons that Mets GM Omar Minaya
likes Jaramillo. Gammons’
response: “Omar
isn’t the general
manager, Jeff Wilpon is…Omar’s the one out there to take the heat.” When
Jeff signed Minaya in 2004, he agreed –
or so he said – to give Omar total control over baseball decisions; no
meddling. Amid the dismal Mets’ outlook,
the most discouraging development is the return of “decider” Jeff
Wilpon.
.
- o -
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Starkey. Comments to dickstar@aol.com are welcome, as
are
subscription requests. Previous Nubs can
be found by scrolling below.)
file:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.html
(Posted: 10/15/09)
‘Socialism’s’
Non-Threat to Baseball and the Political System
Why are we surprised when someone like
Twins manager Ron
Gardenhire makes no mention of the uneven playing field his team has to
compete
on with the mega-payroll Yankees? Or why
little is said in the political arena about the abyss between the
privileged
and the plain people in our society?
Gardenhire is a players’ manager in
more ways than one. He knows the
big-spending Yankees inflate
player salaries beyond New
York. So he would
never complain about the
inequality baseball allows. On the
political diamond, the hint by an elected player that the economic
groundskeepers
have given one team an edge over another - would earn him the label
“socialist.”
Yet, as a franchise that seeks to
broaden the economic baselines,
socialism should be attractive to the tens of millions of struggling
Americans. That it still has a bad name
in this down economy attests to the clout of the corporate media, which
believes as much in capitalism as Gardenhire does in ultra-free-market
baseball.
In fairness, there’s another reason why
our rampant - and
selectively risk-free - enterprise system goes largely unchallenged. “The Other America” author and home-grown
socialist Michael Harrington explained the paradox a half-century ago: “Tell a
typical poor person that the deck is stacked in favor of the
rich, he won’t say we’ve got to change
the system. He’ll say ‘How do I
get to be rich?’”
Coincidentally,
there’s
a
connection
that
can
be
made
between
the
soft
education
system
this
lack
of
awareness
suggests
and
the
2009
Mets:
“A
stunning
lack
of
fundamentals”
says
MLB.com’s
Marty
Noble
about
the
team. He adds: “flawed performance and
lack of concentration (is) seemingly…tolerated.”
-
- -
Nubby oddsmakers make the Yankees an even bet to emerge from
the final four with the World Series championship.
We wouldn’t take the numerically attractive
bet against the Yanks for five major reasons:
(in alphabetical order) Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex
Rodriguez,
C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira. In the
NLCS, the edge goes to the Dodgers because of Philadelphia’s shaky relief corps. But we wouldn’t bet against the Phillies,
either.
Although much is being made of Chone
Figgins’ potential to
cause the Yankees serious problems in ALCS, LA Times-man Mike
DiGiovanna notes
a consistent Figgins slump in the playoffs: “As productive and
disruptive as he has been in seven big league
seasons, including a superb 2009 in which he hit .298 with a .395
on-base
percentage, 114 runs, 101 walks and 42 stolen bases, Figgins hasn't
been much
of a factor in the postseason.
”In 29 games in nine playoff series since 2002, Figgins is batting .182
(18 for
99) with a .214 on-base percentage, 11 runs, four stolen bases, five
runs
batted in, 32 strikeouts and only three walks….For the Angels to beat
the
powerful Yankees in the best-of-seven ALCS and advance to the World
Series,
they're going to need Figgins to provide more of a spark.
’"I know I need to get on base,’ Figgins said after Tuesday's workout
in
Angel Stadium. ‘I will get on base’.”
Obviously, a lot will rest on whether he
makes good on the promise.
At a political meeting he hosted last night at St.Francis College, Nubbite Frank
Macchiarola was
asked by us to add something about baseball to the agenda.
He said Italian-Americans had something
special to celebrate going into the Columbus Day weekend: “Five of the
eight
playoff teams had Italian-American managers – Terry Francona (Red Sox),
Joe
Girardi (Yankees), Tony La Russa (Cardinals), Mike Scioscia (Angels)
and Joe
Torre (Dodgers). That’s never happened
before.”
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by
scrolling
below.)
(Posted: 10/13/09)
What To Do About Bad
Calls on Both Fields
Bad calls are the curse of baseball. They’ve tarnished the playoffs as they often
do Team USA’s
political
standoffs. Detroit
lost a chance to win its division-deciding one-game matchup with Minnesota when
an umpire
failed, in a bases-loaded situation, to see that a pitch brushed
Brandon Inge’s
uniform. The other night, the Twins
could have evened the ALDS series with the Yankees if an umpire hadn’t
incorrectly called a fair Joe Mauer line drive foul.
Then Sunday night in Denver,
a
missed
call
by
the
home
plate
umpire
in
the
ninth
inning
set
the
stage
for
a
Phillies
victory.
Bad calls after 9/11 – the decisions to
wage an anti-Osama conventional
war in Afghanistan,
and to
justify invading Iraq
because of non-existent nuclear weapons – have, we know, skewed our
national
priorities and caused tens of thousands of deaths.
Baseball, thanks to technology, has a
sure-fire remedy at
hand. A supervising umpire could monitor
the game with the help of TV re-plays.
When the televised picture shows a bad call, he or she can
overrule
it. As it is, umpires on the field don’t
see the re-plays until after the game.
In all the above-cited cases, after seeing the brushed uniform
and fair
ball replays, the umpires conceded too late the errors made. “We all make mistakes,” was - is - the
genetic rationale, an unacceptable one considering that crucial
mistakes can be
avoided. If the playoff umpiring lapses
don’t prompt Bud Selig to budge on the tech second-opinion issue,
nothing will.
In the political field, where the stakes have a
life-and-death seriousness, there is no technology that can rectify a
mistaken
- or misleading - call. The only weapon
the public has is responsible challenge.
The only entities that can mount such a challenge are news
organizations. Internet outfits offer
minimal help because they deliver mainly opinion. It’s
on-the-spot
news-gathering
that
is
needed. That leaves us dependent upon
fast-disappearing
newspapers. We know that nearly all of
them abdicated the challenging role in 2002 and 2003, cheering every
war-run-up
pitch tossed by Team Bush. A tenuous
hope now is that at least some outfits learned from their mistakes. We must support the few good ones, like the
McClatchy media chain - an admirable exception to the cheerleading
outlets. And
we must hope that McClatchy and a possibly reformed NY Times will still
be
around when the next major bad call occurs.
- -
-
Pennant race finales: Depending on LCS
results, we know we could
have a Turnpike Series on the northeast corridor, or a Freeway Series
in the LA
area. Or a mix and match.
Jorge Posada may be the key - one way or the
other - as the Yanks try to beat down the energizer Angels.
Ron Gardenhire summarized the
Twins’ sweep by the Yankees with “We had our chances.”
Then he paid this tribute to the Yanks: “That’s
a
great
baseball
team
over
there. You
have to tip your hat to them…They’ve got the whole deal, and some of
the
classiest players in the league out on the field. A
lot
of
things
are
said about their payroll
and all that
stuff. But the bottom line is they’re
great baseball players and they deserve the money they make.”
Boston Herald columnist Steve
Buckley referenced the Mets (of ’86) indirectly when he wrote this
epitaph to the
Sox’s playoff elimination:
“The Red Sox are going home because
they couldn’t touch Angels starters John Lackey and Jered Weaver in
Games 1 and
2, respectively. They are going home because Jon Lester didn’t have
great stuff
in Game 1 and Josh Beckett petered out in Game 2. They are going home
because,
with Halloween approaching, Jonathan Papelbon has already decided he’s
going to
the party as Calvin Schiraldi.”
sbuckley@bostonherald.com
(33)
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Can’t
spell
‘outplayed’
without
‘D’
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to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/10/09)
Tales of Baseball and
Political Slippage
Two men who have slipped off pedestals
built with public
acclaim in baseball and politics: Manny
Ramirez, once a feared slugger, now a serviceable hitter with LA
Dodgers, and
Mike Bloomberg, once widely, now grudgingly respected as NYC mayor.
The thread linking their decline in
stature: loss of
trust. Manny overstayed his stormy
eight-year sojourn in Boston
last July when he benched himself with the Red Sox in an obvious
protest against
a plan to renew his contract at less than what he thought he was worth.
Then,
after a brilliant end-of-2008 season with the LA Dodgers (.396 BA, 17
HR over
two months), he failed a drug test early this year and was suspended
for 50
games. He finished this season with only
a .290 BA and 19 HR over four months. In retrospect, that same 2008 was anything but
a brilliant year for Mayor Mike.
Although previously renouncing any thought of seeking a third
term,
Bloomberg quietly changed his mind. And
when a poll showed the public would vote against an extension in a
referendum, he
conspired to get approval through 29 compliant members of the City
Council.
In 2004, Manny was the Sox’s World
Series MVP and could have
been elected mayor of Boston. Mayor Mike had not yet become involved in his
one major political mistake, the West Side Stadium/Olympics bid debacle. Polls showed the public liked him mainly for
his trustworthiness; financially independent, he could be - and was - a
straight shooter who did what he thought was right.
There is no such illusion now: Joyce
Purnick’s “Mike Bloomberg – Money, Power, Politics” reviews the secret
machinations cited above, putting the devious Mike into perspective.
Manny could break out any moment, but
so far he has been a
shell of himself in the Cardinals-Dodgers NLDS: a .125 BA - one hit in
eight
at-bats - and no rbi’s.
-
- -
Joe Torre’s Dodgers and his former team are on track to meet
in the series – and won’t that be something?
But the anticipated curtain-raiser between the Yanks and Red Sox
is not
on schedule. The Sox have some serious
sustained winning to do if we are to have a climactic drama before the
season’s
championship culmination.
While the Yankees are stealing most
sports page space, we
shouldn’t neglect the Mets. Newsday’s
Wallace Matthews has these thoughts on where blame should be placed for
the
disaster of 2009:
“The
Mets'
problems
begin
and
end
with
accountability,
and
that
begins and ends
with ownership. The Wilpons have yet to
take real responsibility for anything, from building the wrong ballpark
to
overvaluing their tickets to overrating their team's vaunted ‘core.’ Really, the Mets are rotten to their core,
which extends deeper than the clubhouse. Still, the men responsible for
it all
speak no truth and pay no consequences. No one of any importance pays
for Jeff
Wilpon's mistakes.
“No
one
but
the…fans.”
TBS
playoff
broadcasting
teams
have
provided
a
nice
change
from
their
ESPN
counterparts. It may be
the effect of season-long over-familiarity, but most ESPNers have an
annoying
self-assurance about their baseball savvy.
They’d be better off more sensitive to their viewers, who know
almost as
much as they. The star of the TBS galaxy
is Bob Brenly, doing color in the Cardinals-Dodgers series. Brenly, currently a Cubs broadcaster who
managed the World Series champion Diamondbacks in 2001, and was a
Giants
catcher for most of the 80’s, gives you the goods: “Furcal wants a fast
ball;
he doesn’t like breaking stuff.”
“Catchers have a rule: with a three-and-two count, never signal
for a
high breaking ball.”
-
o
-
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/8/09)
Why It Is Easy
to
Root Against the Yanks and Bloomberg
Unless you’re a bred-in-file:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.htmlfile:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.htmlthe-bone
backer
of
the
Bronx
Bombers,
it’s
easy
to
be
Yankees-averse.
No one likes to see big spenders winning because they have more
money
than the next guy. That applies not only
to the NYYs, but to NY’s mayor as well. The
Yanks
have
a
$201
million
payroll,
three-quarters
of
a
million
more
than
the
Red
Sox
and
better
than
three
times
as
much
as
the
Twins,
whom
they’re
playing
in
the
ALDS.
Mayor Bloomberg, we know,
has spent $65 million on his re-election campaign compared to $3.8
million
doled out by opponent Billy Thompson’s campaign.
Bloomberg has been a good skipper;
among other things, he
has gone to bat for bicycle lanes and pedestrian malls and against the
plagues
of guns and smoking. Had he not used his
financial clout to override the will of the people on term limits, he
would –
it says here – deserve fan support.
The Yankees fielded a dream team; their
dream season left
them so dominant it reminded everyone of the uneven playing field
Steinbrenner money
had made. But, unlike Mayor Mike, the
Yankees merit the backing of all New Yorkers – at least, that’s how we
feel. Red Sox Nation will line up
solidly behind Boston,
Minnesota fans behind the
Twins, LA fans
behind the Angels and Dodgers, etc. The
unwritten baseball code permits – even requires – regional chauvinism
in the
post-season. And NY pro-tem boosters will
be in a no-lose situation: if the Yanks fall by the wayside, they can
revert to
their true state of fandom and not feel too bad.
Whether or not you feel bad for David
Letterman, this from
the e-mailbag is a reminder that his plight is comparatively small-ball
stuff: “The Mets are the John
Edwards of
baseball: lose, lose, lose. Can’t think
of a politician who embodies the Yankees.
Can you?” – Keith W, Manhattan
John Edwards got caught off base and
made the further
mistake of challenging the call. Andrew Cuomo, like the Yankees,
has kept his eye on the ball
and won’t let well-meaning distractions - like “What’s next?” - lead
him to
lose focus.
The events that caused high-flying
Edwards to tumble and
Andrew to rise from the post-2002 cellar point up the obvious: politics, like baseball, is a topsy-turvy
game over the long run. John Edwards’
first mistake may have been – like the Mets – losing sight of the value
of a
solid underpinning. Leaving the Senate
team after one term to seek the top job in Washington left Edwards unhampered
by
official restraints. Unconstrained, he
strayed from the game’s baselines, and eventually was sent down. Andrew ground out a comeback through a series
of barnstorming appearances wherever political fans gathered. His discipline has brought him to the
clean-up position, where he now goes to bat - like the Bronx Bombers -
at the
top of his game.
-
-
-
Win or (probably) lose, the Minnesota
Twins have done a remarkable job
making the playoffs with a team largely composed of no-names. On TBS Tuesday night, Ron Darling said he
asked Ron Gardenhire about the particular skills of the likes of Nick
Punto and
Matt Tolbert. Gardenhire wouldn’t get
specific, but his answer captured the character of the team: “They’re ballplayers,” he said. Of
the
Yankees,
the
Twins
manager
said:
“Say
what
you
like
about
their
money,
they
do
things
the
right
way.”
In a best-of-five series, it’s quality
starting pitching
that counts: Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia
confirmed that conventional wisdom in the playoff openers against the Rockies and Twins.
In LA, pitching depth was the key; the Dodgers had it.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/6/09)
Investments Paying
Off
in
Baseball
and
Politics
Pre-playoffs consensus: The Yankees are
the dominant
team among the final eight, and, barring a stumble against the Red Sox,
should
go all the way. The Steinbrenners
insured the Bombers’ dominance, it turns out, when they invested
mega-millions
in Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. In
the
political
field,
the
insurance
industry
seems
to
have
assured
a
favorable
–
i.e.,
non-threatening
–
health
care
reform
bill
by
investing
heavily
in,
among
others,
the
23
members
of
the
Senate
Finance
Committee. We gave you
the standings in the health-related – largely pharmaceutical – league
last
time. Here is how contributions line up
in the insurance league both in 2008 and from a player-career
standpoint, the Dems
team first:
|
Senator
|
|
|
2008 Insurance Sector
|
Career
Insurance
Sector
|
|
MAX BAUCUS
(D-MT)
|
|
|
$285,850.00
|
$1,170,313.00
|
|
JOHN D.
ROCKEFELLER IV (D-WV)
|
|
|
$107,874.00
|
$394,074.00
|
|
KENT CONRAD
(D-ND)
|
|
|
$56,650.00
|
$821,187.00
|
|
JEFF BINGAMAN
(D-NM)
|
|
|
$1,500.00
|
$160,875.00
|
|
JOHN F. KERRY
(D-MA)
|
|
|
$90,250.00
|
$1,397,367.00
|
|
BLANCHE L.
LINCOLN (D-AR)
|
|
|
$49,500.00
|
$440,033.00
|
|
RON WYDEN
(D-OR)
|
|
|
$45,999.00
|
$229,173.00
|
|
CHARLES E.
SCHUMER (D-NY)
|
|
|
$3,000.00
|
$946,400.00
|
|
DEBBIE
STABENOW (D-MI)
|
|
|
$40,800.00
|
$246,750.00
|
|
MARIA CANTWELL
(D-WA)
|
|
|
$12,300.00
|
$80,850.00
|
|
BILL NELSON
(D-FL)
|
|
|
$22,500.00
|
$520,016.00
|
|
ROBERT
MENENDEZ (D-NJ)
|
|
|
$67,450.00
|
$458,679.00
|
|
THOMAS CARPER
(D-DE)
|
|
|
$28,700.00
|
$447,984.00
|
|
Senator
|
|
|
2008 Insurance Sector
|
Career
Insurance Sector
|
|
CHUCK GRASSLEY
(IA)
|
|
|
$72,200.00
|
$858,224.00
|
|
ORRIN G. HATCH
(UT)
|
|
|
$24,880.00
|
$659,307.00
|
|
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE (ME)
|
|
|
$5,000.00
|
$408,490.00
|
|
JON KYL (AZ)
|
|
|
$2,000.00
|
$533,044.00
|
|
JIM BUNNING
(KY)
|
|
|
$45,100.00
|
$769,016.00
|
|
MIKE CRAPO (ID)
|
|
|
$63,750.00
|
$360,932.00
|
|
PAT ROBERTS
(KS)
|
|
|
$157,900.00
|
$296,342.00
|
|
JOHN ENSIGN
(NV)
|
|
|
$19,150.00
|
$580,690.00
|
|
MIKE ENZI (WY)
|
|
|
$84,250.00
|
$240,953.00
|
|
JOHN CORNYN
(TX)
|
|
|
$289,069.00
|
$568,253.00
|
As
can be seen, Chairman Max Baucus, who led health-league
hitters with receipts of just under $1.5 million in 2008, is an
insurance
league leader, as well. Only Texas
Republican John Cornyn outdid him in last year’s contributions. John Kerry exceeded Baucus’ dollar intake in
the career listing, thanks to his presidential candidacy in 2004. (The above figures - largely ignored by the
mainstream media - became accessible thanks to the work of public
interest
groups like the Center for Responsive Politics, Open Secrets.org and
the
Sunlight Foundation.)
The one cloud on the Yankees’ horizon:
the near-unanimous sense
that only with a World Series victory will their season be a success. The team handled both potential first-round
rivals easily, taking five of six games from the Tigers and seven of
seven from
the Twins.
If you’re an underdog-loving fan and
are normally neutral as
between Detroit and Minnesota, you
should be leaning toward the
Twins in today’s one-game playoff.
Why? Minnesota has the seventh lowest
payroll in
the majors: $65 million. The Tigers have
the fifth highest: $115 million.
Two surprising votes on ESPN for 2009’s
most disappointing
team: Steve Phillips picked the Cubs,
Peter Gammons the Diamondbacks. The Mets
got dishonorable mention, but the network pundits cut them (undeserved)
slack
because of their many injuries.
- o -
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/3/09)
Yankees and Health Care
Reform Taking Hits
Despite
the
team’s
success
on
the
field,
the
Yankees
took
a
13-percent
hit
in
attendance
this
year.
Whether the Bombers finished financially in the black or red, we
won’t
know for sure: The Yanks and all teams
say their books are private. How elected
officials do financially thanks to identified contributors should be
closely
monitored public information. But, like
the baseball profit-and-loss records, the political fund-raising
numbers
seldom, if ever, appear in the corporate mainstream media.
Forbes magazine provides an annual
estimate of how the value
of baseball teams fluctuates each season; Detroit
and Atlanta
were among 10 teams the magazine said declined in value in 2008 while
the
Yankees and Mets finished one, two in estimated value gained. Public interest groups like the Center for
Responsive Politics, Open Secrets.org and the Sunlight Foundation help
citizens
keep tabs on lawmakers who may or may not be beholden to their
contributors. The focus on members of the
Senate Finance
Committee who have voted down variations of a public health reform
option is
particularly revealing.
Committee Chair Max Baucus, who voted
against two the two
public option proposals pitched by fellow Dems John Rockefeller and
Charlie
Schumer, took in more than twice as much private health-related money –
just
under $1,150,000 – than any of the 12 other Dem members in 2008. He also led the Dems in money from the
insurance industry, $1.4 million over his career, $285,800 in ’08. It was Baucus who said he saw “a lot to like”
in the public option but voted “no” because it wouldn’t attract enough
votes to
pass. The logic of a fighting leader. Republican Orrin Hatch, who called the public
option “a Trojan horse for a single-payer system”, topped his nine
party
teammates in career-long, health-related contributions - $2.3 million.
Here are the seldom cited
health-related contribution stats
for the Senate Finance Committee, Dem members first, then Repubs:
|
Senator
|
2008 Health Sector
|
Career
Health
Sector
|
|
MAX BAUCUS
(D-MT)
|
$1,148,775.00
|
$2,797,381.00
|
|
JOHN D.
ROCKEFELLER IV (D-WV)
|
$515,150.00
|
$1,674,229.00
|
|
KENT CONRAD
(D-ND)
|
$117,350.00
|
$1,331,363.00
|
|
JEFF BINGAMAN
(D-NM)
|
$14,151.00
|
$861,841.00
|
|
JOHN F. KERRY
(D-MA)
|
$289,430.00
|
$8,145,141.00
|
|
BLANCHE L.
LINCOLN (D-AR)
|
$226,753.00
|
$1,281,608.00
|
|
RON WYDEN
(D-OR)
|
$96,925.00
|
$1,161,488.00
|
|
CHARLES E.
SCHUMER (D-NY)
|
$10,000.00
|
$1,402,358.00
|
|
DEBBIE
STABENOW (D-MI)
|
$239,018.00
|
$1,188,186.00
|
|
MARIA CANTWELL
(D-WA)
|
$48,951.00
|
$573,076.00
|
|
BILL NELSON
(D-FL)
|
$60,015.00
|
$1,163,210.00
|
|
ROBERT
MENENDEZ (D-NJ)
|
$81,650.00
|
$1,216,476.00
|
|
THOMAS CARPER
(D-DE)
|
$15,450.00
|
$452,000.00
|
|
Senator
|
2008 Health Sector
|
Career
Health
Sector
|
|
|
|
CHUCK GRASSLEY
(IA)
|
$334,237.00
|
$1,876,479.00
|
|
|
|
ORRIN G. HATCH
(UT)
|
$122,300.00
|
$2,311,744.00
|
|
|
|
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE (ME)
|
$6,000.00
|
$744,640.00
|
|
|
|
JON KYL (AZ)
|
$68,550.00
|
$1,971,968.00
|
|
|
|
JIM BUNNING
(KY)
|
$40,450.00
|
$1,045,687.00
|
|
|
|
MIKE CRAPO (ID)
|
$92,000.00
|
$549,192.00
|
|
|
|
PAT ROBERTS
(KS)
|
$657,749.00
|
$903,337.00
|
|
|
|
JOHN ENSIGN
(NV)
|
$16,550.00
|
$1,795,899.00
|
|
|
|
MIKE ENZI (WY)
|
$287,549.00
|
$612,715.00
|
|
|
|
JOHN CORNYN
(TX)
|
$950,669.00
|
$1,994,353.00
|
|
|
Progressive
columnist
Murray
Kempton
said
it
all,
shortly
before
he
died
a
dozen
years
ago: “When I
was a young reporter elected officials responded to their
constituents. Now I am an old reporter
and elected officials respond to their contributors.”
Why
is the way the Senate Finance team swings so important to the future of
health
care reform game? Because Skipper Obama
made cost the key to what he would consider an acceptable bill. The Nation’s Alexander Coburn recalled the
scene last month when Barack went to bat before a Congressional
audience on
behalf of fiscal austerity: “The
president
reached
the
apex
of
lunatic
effrontery
when
he
caused
the
assembled
legislators
to
leap
to
their
feet
in
stormy
applause
by
pledging
that
‘I
will
not
sign
a
plan
that
adds
one
dime
to
our
deficits.’ This is the same
president, these are the same legislators, who are committing billions
in red
ink for the war in Afghanistan
and the continued U.S.
presence in Iraq,”
-
-
-
The Mets haven’t disclosed the depth of the hole in their
’09 attendance numbers. But those
figures – whatever they turn out to be – have them bracing for a lean
2010: witness
announcement of reduced seat prices of as much as 20 percent in some
categories.
Newsday’s Ken Davidoff is
among the first to say the
inevitable – that Jerry Manuel should have managed his
miserable team better and wouldn’t be missed
were the Mets to fire him before next season: “Although
no
one
would
be
so
foolish
as
to
blame
Manuel
for
the
team's
stunning
rash
of
injuries
and
appalling
lack
of
roster
depth,
that
doesn't
mean
he
gets
a
free
pass,
either…The
Mets…lost
41
of
their
last
59
games,
a
woeful
.305
percentage.
That
can't
be
attributed
solely
to
a
talent
disadvantage.
That
screams,
‘White
flag’…
“This
is
a
tough
business.
The
Mets
owe
Manuel
nothing. On
the
other
hand, they owe their fans
everything. Is Manuel everything you've
always wanted? If he is, then, to be
blunt, your standards are too low.
-
o
-
(The Nub is a team
effort skippered by Dick Starkey.
Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
(Posted: 10/1/09)
How Much Is Matt
Holliday and Health Care Worth?
The man who owns the St.Louis Cardinals
says he’s ready to
spend whatever it takes to keep Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday
together on the
team. “We need them both so we’ll find
the money,” was the gist of his message to the fans.
On the other hand, Barack Obama, the man who
runs Team USA,
says
this
about
an
indispensable
cog
in
his
operation,
“I
will
not
accept
a
health
care
bill
that
costs
more
than
$900
billion
over
10
years.”
Boss Bill DeWitt will have to fork over
a total of more than
$50 million a year to satisfy St.Louis’s two offensive stars. “No way he can afford it,” say rival
owners. DeWitt apparently calculates
value differently. If Skipper Obama
checks the record book, he’ll find how a predecessor, Lyndon Johnson,
handled
the signing of another expensive indispensable, Medicare, a
half-century
ago. When told by a key House chairman
that the program was costing too much, he replied “I’ll take care of
(the money)…400 million’s not going (to stop us) when it’s for health.” Obama’s $900 billion 10-year- ceiling figure
for health care reform is only a little more than Team USA
spends on
defense in a single year. That type of
disparity existed in Johnson’s day; he kept it in mind when pondering
his
budget in the mid-60’s. LBJ told his
Vice President Hubert Humphrey “I’ll spend (whatever)
goddam
money (is needed). I may cut back some
tanks. But not on health.”
(Quotations from “The Heart of Power:
Health and Power in
the Oval Office.” – David Blumenthal and James Morrone)
Pujols is signed through the
2011 season so DeWitt can
concentrate on locking up Holliday.
Obama can’t wait if he wants to assure passage of a meaningful
health
care reform bill. He has to rally his
would-be Congressional allies, as LBJ famously did – “Lyndon told me
to,”
explained a senator who switched from opposing to voting for Medicare.”
- -
-
How potent is the Pujols/Holliday punch in the Cardinals’
lineup? After last night, they’d combined for 60 home runs (Pujols 47
in 156
games, Holliday 13 in 56 games) and 167 RBI’s (a remarkable 51 for
Holliday). Pujols’ BA was .330,
Holliday’s .350.
Wednesday was close to
playoff-clarifying night. The Tigers are
now gearing up to meet the
Yankees in the best-of-five next week. The Rockies
ditto,
probably against the Phillies, while the Cardinals and Dodgers play in
the
other bracket. We’ve known for a couple
of days that the Red Sox and Angels will square off in the other AL first-round
series.
Tiger tales (told
chronologically): Minnesota’s
rookie
righthander
Brian
Duensing
tamed
Detroit
a week and a half ago, yielding no runs, four hits in 6.1 innings. Yet on Tuesday night Jim Leyland sent the
same lineup that had done little against Duensing back against him
again. Bert Blyleven who covers the Twins
for Fox in
Minnesota explained why (on MLB-TV): “Leyland’s a smart
manager:
he knows that lineup has seen Duensing
and will be ready for him this time.”
The Tigers reached Duensing for five runs on seven hits in
four-and-two-thirds innings as they scored a crucial first win in the
second of
two games. ESPN’s
Rick
Sutcliffe
foresaw
the
hit
that
would
break
open
last
night’s
near-decisive
game.
With
the
score
4-2
Tigers
in
the
bottom of the
sixth, he said before Magglio Ordonez hit his base-clearing double:
“This game
will be all but over if (Carl) Pavano keeps pitching up in the zone.”
Leyland,
on
how
he
wanted
the
team
to
prepare
for
that
important
game:
“I
tell them to go
to Wendy’s, do whatever they want. Say a
prayer? (maybe). Have a meeting? (no)”
-
o
-
(The Nub is a team effort skippered by
Dick
Starkey. Comments
to dickstar@aol.com
are
welcome, as are subscription requests.
Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.)
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