The Nub
September 2008 Archive
(Posted 9/27/08)
In the debate game last night, John McCain kept hitting away, forcing Barack Obama to field his “he doesn’t understand” shots. But in the overall contest, Team McCain’s no-longer secret weapon is the suicide squeeze. The candidate has put the play into motion twice – once, late last month, when he brought Sarah Palin up from the Northern League to take second spot in his presidential lineup; then when he put the squeeze on debate organizers in Mississippi, pulling out of that game - temporarily, it turned out - to go to Washington for a bailout-crisis photo-op with the president.
Democrats said it was suicide for Team McCain to turn the rookie Palin loose in such an important contest. But the surprise aspect of the move – and the feistiness of the player - got it off to a good start. Then the play ran afoul of the financial crisis, stopping Palin’s momentum. When the crisis showed McCain slipping behind Obama on the polling scoreboard, the veteran competitor decided to pull off his second squeeze. Laying on a sudden, White House-organized meeting on the crisis was called, among other things, a “tactical gimmick” and “not the behavior of a confident man” by some media observers.
At the same time, a NY Times news analysis noted these positive results of McCain’s tricky offensive maneuver: (His) actions have shaken up the campaign…put him at center stage, permitted him to present himself as putting his country ahead of the campaign…(It also has) put him on deck to…at least be associated with a (bailout deal).”
In the debate last night, McCain showed no loss of confidence. And if , despite his to-ing and fro-ing, he gets credit for helping to get the bailout deal completed, his second squeeze play might work in the end. As for McCain’s first surprise play, his number two’s out-of-her-depth performance while interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS prompted one viewer to shake her head: “From George Washington to Sarah Palin,” she said.
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The final word on the last three playoff positions probably won’t be in until tomorrow, although the Mets could take fans out of their misery today. One thing is clear, however – three of the five teams competing for those positions do not deserve to make it into the post-season. The Mets, Brewers and White Sox have disqualified themselves - it says here - because they could not meet the litmus-test challenge of winning big games in the crunch-time homestretch. Although anything can happen in a three-of-five series, any of those three would be justifiably heavy underdogs against their (probable) first-round opponents: Cubs (Mets), Phils (Brewers), Rays (White Sox). While the NL wild card can’t offer any team better than the Mets or Brewers, the AL Central has an exciting alternative to the Chisox in the Minnesota Twins.
Before losing to the Marlins last night, the Mets,
more revealingly, had to scramble to win Thursday night against a Cubs lineup
lacking most of its best hitters, including Alfonso Soriano, Derrick Lee and
Aramis Rodriguez. Lou Piniella, in
effect, said “Here is a farewell gift” to the Mets. In the SNY broadcast booth, Gary Cohen
asked Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, “How do you think they’re going to feel
in
(Posted:
9/25/08)
Their underwhelming performance is one thing, says a local columnist, but “it is their arrogance…that is truly unforgivable.” Wallace Matthews could be talking about NYC’s electeds, seeking to extend legislatively their term-limited time in office from eight to 12 years. But Matthews writes sports for Newsday; he is referring to the Mets.
Both the politicos and the ballteam consider themselves special, the electeds because of the savvy they allegedly glean through time in office, the Mets because they are consistently considered legitimate contenders for a pennant or even a World Series championship. The electeds who claim phenom status are just as off-base as the Mets.
Anyone politically attentive knows the longer incumbents remain in office the less responsive they tend to become toward their constituents. Since the system rewards incumbency with longevity, veteran officeholders need not work as hard as they once did to keep voters happy. All they must do is remain visible, something they achieve with the help of the media and their own promotional materials.
The NY Times reports that 27 of 51 Council members favor extension of term limits. They know how resistant the public would be if the proposal were passed in-house without a referendum. So, many are hoping that Mayor Bloomberg will announce he’s going to bat for the extension, ready to use his popularity to rally support for Council action. Should he make that effort, Bloomberg might find he has overreached. There will surely be a court challenge. People resent pitchers whose “out” delivery is a hard sell. Bloomberg heard their boos once before when he pitched hard for the ill-conceived West Side Stadium. The mayor should also be aware, that, despite having earned MVP status on a tough playing field, no one, not even he, is indispensable.
Before taking on the Mets, let’s gather in this lob from left field, then look ahead to the regular season’s decisive last few days:
“The federal bailout of
the financial market (YAWN) is a calamity that people accept as if it were just
one more hurricane. An air of
crisis, the secretary of the Treasury striding down a hall at the Capitol with
minions in his wake, solemn-faced congressmen at the microphones. Something must be done, harrumph
harrumph. The Current Occupant pops
out of the cuckoo clock and reads a few lines off a piece of paper, pronouncing
all the words correctly. And the
newscaster looks into the camera and says, ‘Etaoin shrdlu qwertyuiop.’ Where is the outrage?” - Garrison Keillor, Salon
Although Lou Piniella would surely rather have his Cubs play the Mets
than the Dodgers in the first round of the NLDS, he is making it more difficult
for the NYMs to gain the playoffs than he will the Brewers, whom the Cubs meet
in Milwaukee this weekend. Where
the Mets had to deal with ace Carlos Zambrano in last night’s debacle, and will
face Lou’s number 2 starter Rich Harden tonight, the Brewers will only get the
Cubs’ middle- and back-of-rotation guys – Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Jason
Marquis. The Twins now have a good shot to overtake the White Sox and meet the
Rays in what would be a Cinderella AL playoff. The Red Sox-Angels series will,
nevertheless, be the no-contest central attraction of the four playoff
pairings. The Phillies still don’t
know if they’ll be playing host to the Dodgers or the Brewers. Mets fans are praying the opponent in
Media people must take the rap for the annual overselling of the Mets. Early in the year, they allowed the acquisition of Johan Santana to blind themselves to gaping holes on the team’s roster. The consequence now is what fatalistic fans can see coming: where, last year, the post-collapse lament was “If only we had had some young reinforcements,” this year it will be “If only we had had a bullpen.”
The blame game last year centered on Willie Randolph. This time around the fall guy has to be Omar Minaya, he the recipient of a four-year contract extension. Omar let the 2008 team compete with only two semi-reliable backups to Billy Wagner. One was the shaky Scott Schoeneweis, who demonstrated early that he never should have received a three-year, $10 million-plus contract; the other, Aaron Heilman, was still an unpredictable work-in-progress as a reliever. As we know, both would-be alternatives fizzled badly. Omar is in danger of being labeled the Mets’ “If only” GM.
Let’s give a last word on the team today to Governor David Paterson:
“The Mets' bullpen is going to kill me. "It's not the budget, it's not AIG, it's
not the Federal Reserve -- it's the Mets' bullpen.”
(Posted:
9/23/08)
While the U.S bailout play was dramatizing the dimensions
of the system’s disastrous capitalist error, our diplomatic traveling team was
attracting unwelcome attention on a political playing field in
Team Bush is accused of “meddling” in a secessionist game designed by
anti-government leaders in
In the current secessionist game, Morales has assembled a
potent nine to help him take on his domestic opponents and what he calls the
“Empire.” The lineup:
Our current financial crisis may add to the trend, further dimming the
aura of inevitable Yanqui dominance, as has happened to the team in the
Lob from Left Field: “The lobbyists and corporate lawyers, the heads of
financial firms and the crooks who control Wall Street, all those who spent the
last three decades assuring us that government was part of the problem and
should get out of the way, are now busy looting the U.S. treasury. They are also
working feverishly inside the Democratic and Republican parties to blunt any
effective regulatory reform as they pass on their distressed assets to us. The
process is stunning in its hubris and mendacity, and two of the most potent
enablers of this unprecedented act of corporate welfare are John McCain and
Barack Obama.
“The federal government, reeling backward
from the meltdown of financial markets, is now considering taking responsibility
for the bad assets of numerous financial companies. But if that intervention
does not include robust new mechanisms of regulation, accountability and control
we will see nothing more than a massive taxpayer-funded bailout of stockholders
and the financial industry. The
rhetoric of the two presidential candidates about the crisis has been filled
with pious outrage about the abuses of Wall Street and short on actual
solutions. John McCain and Barack
Obama know, after all, who funds their campaigns…” – Chris Hedges,
TruthDig.com
- - -
Looking at last night’s action that counted:
(Possibly premature) epitaph for ’08 Mets: Any team that can neither fight back nor tack on does not deserve to make the playoffs. A three-run deficit in the first inning (usually, with Pedro pitching, or a five-run deficit in the fourth, as happened last night), and the Mets are dead. A three-run lead at mid-game and the Mets are finished scoring. Never mind the lack of a bullpen: A team that can’t find a spark when behind or ahead would stand little, if any, chance in the post-season.
Is it a bad time to be opening new stadiums? Sports economist Andrew Zimbalist
(quoted by Newsday’s Ken Davidoff) indicates the Yanks and Mets may find it is:
“The baseball model… since about 1990, has been to cater to the
more rapidly growing income groups. The corporate executives, the top people
in the financial sector, to make money off corporate suites and club
suites. These are the population sectors that are getting hit hard
right now. It seems to me logical
that (this) model is going to be taking… a hit.”
(Posted:
9/20/08)
Leading off today, pinch-hitter Gretchen Morgenson of the NY Times:
“SO, ladies and gentlemen, how
does it feel to be the new owner of those two big and banged-up mortgage
companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Not exactly the kind of real estate you
were looking to buy, you say? Felt you had swallowed enough garbage after the
Bear Stearns bailout tapped you for $29 billion?
“Make no mistake: we, the American
taxpayers, are amassing quite a portfolio of flotsam and jetsam in the mortgage
bust. It certainly brings new
meaning to the notion of an ownership society, doesn’t it?”
Morgenson, hitting the long ball, neglected to note additional items in the portfolios of NYC taxpayers: the glitzy replacements for Yankee and Shea Stadiums, both being built - as has been noted many times - with the help of millions of tax dollars.
To reiterate further: The
Yankees are shedding promotional crocodile tears about the imminent dismantling
of the “cathedral” of baseball, (“This is the very last time Mussina will be
leaving the mound in the stadium,” Suzyn Waldman informed radio listeners of the
game the other night) It’s a desecration that could have been avoided through an
upgrading of the existing ballpark.
The city has been complicit in the public-be-damned project; in addition
to benefiting the Yankees through subsidies and dubious financial bookkeeping
now under investigation in
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who has
monitored the Bronx project as a member of the state legislature’s Sports
Development Committee, summed up the boondoggle at the construction site the
other day: "This stadium is being built by
the people of the city and the state of New York,” he said, “and in return they
are getting almost nothing.
This deal does not serve the
peoples' interest. It serves the
Yankees' interest."
The same can be said for the Citi Field project in Willets Point project; it serves the Mets’ interest. The public there, as at the new stadium, will be priced out of the best seats, and second, third and fourth-best, as well. Tickets to games at both new parks will, by and large, be sold at corporate expense-account rates (cost of single-game best ticket at the new Stadium: $2,500.00!). The average fan can either be content to sit far from home plate, or at his home, watching on TV. And he can thank our elected officials, beginning with Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn for cooperating in the betrayal.
- - -
Five of 30 teams still fighting for three playoff berths – a realistic
estimate - on the eve of the final week of the season. The White Sox must hope that home-field
advantage means little at this point: they’ll be playing five of their last
eight away – two in
The Mets have two more games against the Braves in what for the NYM’s is the quicksand of Turner Field. Then comes four against the killer-Cubs at Shea, followed by a hold-your-breath series with the Marlins. Could it be any worse than last year for Mets fans? How about twice as bad – losing both the division and the wild card?
Stat city: The five teams still contending for three playoff spots have a total of 10 blue-chip starting pitchers, a reasonable designation for starters who, going into last night’s games, were among the ML’s statistical top 50. The teams each with three blue-chippers – the Phils and White Sox – should have an edge in the last week. The Mets have two, which might give them a shot, the Brewers and Twins, one each, which could make them long-shots.
Here are the pitchers, team by team, with their places in the numerical
order: Phils – Cole Hamels, number
2; Denny Moyer, 41; Bret Myers, 44.
White Sox – Javier Vazquez, 15; Mark Buehrle, 18; Gavin Floyd, 35. Mets – Johan Santana, 3; Mike Pelfrey,
33. Brewers - Ben Sheets, 23. Twins – Nick Blackburn, 47. The Brewers have an additional
challenge: Sheets is questionable, owing to an aching elbow. (But the Brewers do have a genuine stud,
C.C. Sabathia, obtained from
(Posted: 9/18/08)
It’s been an eventful sorting-out week in baseball and politics.
With seven of eight playoff spots
now filled, or virtually so (the White Sox and Phillies look to be locks in the
AL Central and NL East), many savvy observers foresee a Red Sox-Angels AL
championship series, with the winner going on to the World Series title. The NL titlist – possibly the Cubs –
isn’t projected to have much of a chance against the
The economy’s losing streak has introduced a dramatic change in the dynamic of the presidential contest. The buzz fodder - lipstick, celebrities, computer savvy - has been shoveled off the campaign field to make room for a single issue: how the country can turn back the threat of hard times. It’s an issue that transcends race, gender, religion. The slogan version you may remember: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne says these days working class people of all ideological stripes are becoming aware of the distinction between “tax policies geared to the wealthy investing class” and those “toward the paycheck crowd.” It’s why he thinks the eco-crisis is so presidentially significant:
“For
some time, McCain's strategists figured they could deflect attention from the
big issues by …launching so many ill-founded attacks on Obama that the truth
would never catch up. The approach
of the McCain strategists reflected a low opinion of average voters and some
Obama supporters began worrying they might be
right.
“But those so-called
average voters understand the difference between low- and high-stakes elections
... The stakes in this year's election went way up this week. The days of…(attack-dog)
exploitation…are over. “
Political analyst Charlie Cook, using a basketball
analogy in the National Journal, sees a new trend as almost inevitable:
“While
managing the economy is not exactly Obama's strong suit, it does pull the focus
even further away from national security, McCain's strength. It would seem a better bet that this jump
ball would be more likely go toward the team that hasn't been in power, and the
edge would go to Obama.”
- -
-
Last night’s loss to the Rays means the Red Sox may have a
last, big obstacle to winning the division and avoiding the Angels in the first
round. The Rays don’t have an easy
remaining schedule – four games each with
Bad
financial judgments - paying big, long-term money to fragile or unproductive
players - is why the Mets are the Lehman Brothers of baseball: bankrupt of the
resources - relief pitchers, mainly - needed to survive into the playoffs. The Phillies, on the other hand, have
Brad Lidge, one of the ML’s best closers, ready to wrap up victories. The battle for the division should
rightfully be considered no contest.
If the Mets lose the wild card as well, fans can console themselves with
this thought: their holes-ridden
team would not have made it out of the first round.
Lots of culprits in the Mets’ latest collapse;
among them, says SI’s John Donovan, is the man who should be their table-setter:
Jose Reyes’ two-for-four (with a HR and SB) last night was long overdue, as
Donovan pointed out yesterday “Though still considered one of the
most electric talents in the game, a blend of speed and skills and all-around
baseball awesomeness, Reyes is pulling off a second straight disappearing act in
the Mets' push for a playoff spot. And, once again, it's taking the knees
out of the Mets, whose standing is awfully shaky as it
is.
“This month, (Reyes was) hitting
just .204 with a miserable .283 on-base percentage in the first 13 games. That'd be alarming enough on its own.
It's positively shocking when you
compare it to Reyes circa 2007. Last year, as the Mets frittered away a
seven-game lead and missed out on the playoffs, Reyes was equally as bad,
hitting .205 with a .279 OBP In 27 September games.”
(Posted: 9/13/08)
The other night at
Many media observers have wondered similarly about the compromised integrity of political journalists. Why can’t they simply report in a balanced way without injecting “analysis” into accounts that tilt their coverage in one direction or another? The problem is particularly prevalent in this election campaign. It’s a time when many journalists don’t want to do journalism. They want to be players in the political strategy game.
Thus, much of what we read and hear about the campaigns has to do, less with the substance of what the candidates are saying, than with the impact the reporter thinks the rivals are having on the voters. That’s the job of consultants, says Jamison Foser of Media Matters, not journalists:
“A reader doesn't need
The
Washington Post to tell her whether she feels a
‘connection’ with Barack Obama or John McCain. If the reader cares about ‘connections’
with candidates, the reader knows far better than the Post whether she feels one. The ’analysis’ is perhaps marginally
interesting as cocktail party chatter; as journalism, it is pointless vanity and
role-playing -- if reporters want to be campaign managers, they should go do
that. But if they want to be
journalists, they should start by giving their customers important information
they can't get on their own -- like helping them (figure out) the…differences
between the candidates’ plans.”
The Post’s syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne amplified the point yesterday, concluding with a pertinent warning to Obama and his team:
“The
campaign is a blur of flying pieces of junk, lipstick and gutter-style
attacks. John McCain's deceptions
about Barack Obama's views and Sarah Palin's flip-flopping suggest an unedifying
scuffle over a city council seat.
The media bear a heavy responsibility because "balance" does not require
giving equal time to truth and lies.
“McCain has shown he
wants the presidency so badly that he's willing to say anything…to win
power. Obama can win by fighting
for what he believes. What he can't
do is wait for the media to call McCain out.”
- -
-
We’ll all wait a long time before
baseball beat writers call the MLB out for this interference with the sport’s
integrity: allowing the wealthier teams (usually) to pick off star players from
other rosters before the July 31 inter-league trading deadline. The Dodgers and Brewers might have
made the playoffs without Manny Ramirez and C.C. Sabathia. And they should have had to - it says
here - to establish a fair measure of how well organizations prepare for the
season. That’s not to say in-season
trades should be barred; only blockbusters in which contenders strip away
players with high current value from struggling teams. Why, for example, should
If owners cared to show a faint sign of fairness in their sadly unequal universe, they would require that stars remain in season-long alignment with their teams.
Two trades - one on July 31, the other pre-season - have transformed a pair of GMs from goats to geniuses. Fans in LA and NY were ready to ride Ned Colletti and Omar Minaya out of town for not doing enough to make their teams contenders. That changed, first, when Minaya wangled Johan Santana away from the Twins late last winter. Then, at midsummer, Colletti may have saved his job by latching on to Manny in the three-way deal with the Red Sox and Bucs. Going into last night’s game, Ramirez was batting just under .400, with 14 home runs and on-base-percentage of just under .500. Those figures - compiled in six weeks - tell a big part of the story of the Dodgers’ surge to the top of the NL West. If the Mets avoid a repeat of their ’07 September collapse, it will be because they have a stopper they didn’t have last year - and a great one in Santana. Johan has proved to be a workhorse as well as a winner - more than 30 games and 200 innings already accounted for, with many big challenges ahead.
(Posted: 9/11/08)
If you’re a Mets fan or an Obama supporter, your middle name is “Trepidation.” Your teams are ahead - of the Phillies and Team McCain - but…
The Mets were well ahead a year ago, we remember all too well; and Al Gore and John Kerry seemed victory-bound in 2000 and 2004. But just as was their teams’ earlier fate, both contenders are bedeviled now by the sound of footsteps: the Mets, trying again to fight off the Phillies, have lost their closer Billy Wagner and fifth starter John Maine; Team Obama was knocked off stride by the appearance of McCain’s surprising new relief pitcher Sarah Palin.
How big an impact does Palin’s
presence portend? NY Timesman Frank
Rich put it this way the other day: “The Palin choice was brilliant
politics - not because it rallied the G.O.P.’s shrinking religious-right base.
America loves nothing more than a
new celebrity face,… McCain operatives are hoping to ensure that whatever
happened in
The “new celebrity face” factor
scored big in
Frank Rich’s righty Times teammate David Brooks thinks McCain is scoring, as well, by playing up the unpredictable aspect of his game: “The maverick theme allows McCain to talk directly about character. Obama can hint at his values when he describes his tax cuts and health care plans, but he is indirect. Most voters, especially ones who decide late, vote character over policies.”
Team Obama’s necessary double-play strategy: seek to persuade voters that McCain is “more of the same” masquerading as a maverick, and that, in Palin, McCain has confused a relief pitcher with a foul ball.
- - -
The Mets are looking good after
their two-game sweep of the Nationals.
But the going gets tough from now on. It’s no secret that Pedro Martinez is
the shaky reed on which the team must lean if it is to make the playoffs. Presumably Pedro will only have three
scheduled starts as the Mets begin their fateful final 17 straight games (the
period in which they collapsed last year) tomorrow. Jerry Manuel will have him pitch
Saturday against the Braves, then, likely, next Thursday, the 18th,
at
Josh Beckett demonstrated last
night he has rounded back into top form just when Tito Francona needs him most -
for the final push to the playoffs and the post-season. The Rays are battling
The Diamondbacks couldn’t have
picked a worse time to go 0-6 on the road.
The Giants gave the surging NL West-leading Dodgers (now three-and-a-half
ahead) a big assist by completing their sweep of
(Posted:
9/9/08)
The Palin pop-fly that dropped into the presidential
contest distracted fans from a double defeat suffered by Team Bush on the
international field. The defeats -
involving NATO and the
The loss Team Bush suffered in
“When a
tool is used for the wrong purpose, it may break. NATO has now been broken
because it was used by the
“NATO has been
conducting this (expansionist) policy towards
Pfaff then made clear that
“Today the world’s
only expansionist ideological power is the
Pfaff says Team Bush plays up
its ideology as “generous,” while working on “control” – of “energy resources,
raw materials, trade and finances.” He might also have mentioned that the
drive for democracy - or “freedom” -always seems to yield generous results for
U.S. armsmakers.
- - -
The bad news for Mets fans is that their team is almost certainly going to have to do it without either Billy Wagmer or John Maine. The good news is the team spirit (so absent a year ago) apparently typified by Pedro Feliciano’s message to Jerry Manuel after the team lost two straight to the Phillies: “Nobody’s scared, nobody’s scared.”
The Yankees brass may be a little unsettled at the possibility Joe Torre will make the playoffs with the Dodgers while his replacement Joe Girardi couldn’t work a miracle with the pinstripers. Girardi will be cut less slack if the Yanks fail to rouse themselves for a respectable finish.
The AL final four shapes up as Red Sox, Rays, White Sox and Angels. Only one other team -
The White Sox have a challenge of their own:
Carlos Quentin, who has been their unlikely sparkplug, is out for the season
with a wrist injury. A late-summer trade that brought Ken Griffey to the Chisox
may help neutralize the loss of Quentin.
GM Ken Williams surely hopes that will be case, although he told Cafardo
he thought at the time that Griffey would be of more supplemental
use: "Brought
Griff in for the offense he could bring, but also because of the hunger
factor. He and Jim Thome have never
won a championship. I think that desire and hunger will hopefully rub off on the
rest of our guys."
(Posted: 9/6/08)
A year ago, as the Mets were preparing for their late-September swoon, manager Willie Randolph was getting bad press for lack of communication. “The players don’t know where they stand,” went the complaint. “Carlos Delgado has no idea if he’ll make the lineup, and, if so, where.”
Another manager - elected to run
Skipper Mike has hinted he would
go to bat for a four-year contract extension for himself and everybody. Instead of stopping such talk before it
reaches the plate, many Council members, giddy with the thought that the popular
mayor could sell the idea to their constituents, are assuming a stance of
helplessness. “Tell us where we
stand, Mike.” they’re saying. Translated: “Will you give us cover by
asking us to amend the law legislatively?”
Koppell is trying to nudge Speaker Christine Quinn to take charge of the rally to keep incumbents in office awhile longer. Until Bloomberg started flashing signals, Quinn was swinging away in support of term limits. Now she’s playing Willie Randolph’s - and Mike’s - game of not communicating. The kind of leadership that sent Willie to the showers for good.
Quinn should challenge her team
members to stand firm and wield their power the way the people want them
to. Tony Avella,
- - -
When the dust cleared after a
couple of midweek
In an early post-mortem of the
team’s playoffs-less season, the Yankees brass consider the likes of Jacoby
Ellsbury, Jed Lowrie and Dustin Pedroia painful reminders. The team’s player development people
concede that they overemphasized recruitment of pitchers at the expense of the
type of young position players
There’s no legitimate young second baseman with upside ML potential in the Mets’ pipeline. Nevetheless, the team has signaled it will cut its losses with oft-injured Luis Castillo. Castillo will be owed $18.75 million over the next three years – dividend of a disastrously bad $25 million contract Omar Minaya gave him. Chances are the team will have to eat most of that money to find a taker for over-the-hill Luis.
Important as the Mets-Phils series is to the teams and their fans, it is not the most meaningful matchup of the weekend. That designation goes to the Diamondbacks-Dodgers series, the last three times the two prime NL West rivals will play each other.
In the AL Central, the Twins, playing the Tigers, have a chance to gain ground on, if not overtake, the White Sox, who must deal with the Angels
(Posted: 9/4/08)
“The
early returns I am hearing…suggest that McCain's gambit (of choosing Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin as running mate) may prove to be a home run for Obama.”
– William
Greider, The Nation
Baseball metaphors lend themselves
to the recent vice-presidential selections. Barack Obama happened to follow the
Mets’ lead of deciding to try to win with an experienced player. Where the Mets imported Johan Santana
from
The Mets are no sure bet to win in
their division, but the Yankees have clearly lost their gamble on youth. Even McCain supporters, such as NY Times
columnist David Brooks, worry publicly that Palin is a poor, if not fatal,
Yankees-like choice:
“If McCain is elected, he will
face conditions tailor-made to foster disorder. He will be leading a divided and
philosophically exhausted party… He will confront Democratic majorities that
will be enraged and recriminatory…
“He really needs someone to impose
a policy structure on his moral intuitions. He needs a very senior person who
can organize a vast administration..,He needs a near-equal who can turn his
instincts, which are great, into a doctrine that everybody else can predict and
understand…
“Palin, for all her gifts, is not
(that person). She underlines McCain’s strength without compensating for his
weaknesses. The real second fiddle job is still unfilled.”
- -
-
The Yankees are exposing
Al Leiter, on SNY, chastised Carl
Pavano when the pitcher responded with visible disgust to a failed catch by
Johnny Damon: “(Pavano) should know better than to show up a teammate.” Most impressive sight on an impressive
afternoon in
Jonathan Niese is clearly not the fifth starter the Mets will need over the last 22 games of the season. One difference between this season and last is that the manager will not allow a repeat of asking an untested call-up to start clutch-time games. Remember Philip Humber being sent out to make his first start the last week of ’07, and falling on his face? Jerry Manuel hinted he was unhappy giving the 21-year-old Niese the start Tuesday night: “This…is not a time to be grooming…people for years to come,” he said before the game. “We’re in a pennant race, and we’re going to put the best people out there.” Asked after the game what his “gut” was telling him about future Niese appearances, Manuel said tersely: “My gut isn’t talking to me right now.”
The Rockies, who had won seven of
10, lost a chance to gain ground on
Wingless Orioles:
(Posted 9/2/08)
In
the season of "meaningful games,"
While
the
How
meaningful a political game this has become can be gleaned from these analyses
from today’s main pinch-hitters, two Europe-based columnists - first, the
International Herald Tribune's William Pfaff, then the UK Guardian's Seumas
Milne:
"The crisis has been
a turning point in current international relations because it demonstrated that
the United States could not or would not defend Georgia, despite the widespread
international impression that Washington, after having trained Georgia’s troops
and showily displayed the Saakashvili government as its protégé, was in some way
implicated in the Georgian attack on South Ossetia, and on the Russian soldiers
legally there under international mandate." (Pfaff)
"The
days when one power was able to bestride the globe like a colossus, enforcing its will in every continent,
challenged only by popular movements for national independence and isolated
"rogue states", are now over. For nearly two decades… the
“Now,
pumped up with petrodollars,
The implications
domestically are sobering indeed, as Robert Scheer suggests in
TruthDig.com:
“Sen.
John McCain…thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now
stands a good chance of being our next president. A very good chance, if
the Russian recognition of the independence of two breakaway
- -
-
The
Mets, who finished Labor Day two games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East, can
be taken seriously - it says here – if 21-year-old emergency starter Jonathan
Niese holds his own against the tough Brewers tonight. The Mets can become favorites to beat
the Phils only if Billy Wagner returns as closer, fully recovered from his
injured left elbow.
Whether that’s a realistic possibility should be clear
later this week.
Impossible dream dept: The Yankees gained a half-game on the
idle Rays yesterday. All they have
to do is sweep the Rays over the next three games, then sweep
Fans
outside Red Sox Nation may have been surprised by the emergence into super-star
status of Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. After last night’s winning game in
An unidentified general
manager told the NY Post’s Kevin Kernan that Pedroia represented a missing
Yankees ingredient. Kernan put it
this way: “The
difference in the Red Sox and Yankees can be diagrammed in many ways, but the
difference at second base between Dustin Pedroia, who is batting fourth for the
Red Sox lately, and Cano, in style and substance, is dramatic.
"’The
key (said the GM) is
you have to find players like Pedroia, who really want to win. Those kind of
players are getting harder to find’."
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