Spring Training for Leap Frogs
Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class Victor Maldonado, left, Chief Special Warfare Operator Justin Gauny (SEAL), right, and Aviation Survival Equipmentman 1st Class Thomas Kinn, all assigned to the U.S. Navy parachute demonstration team, the Leap Frogs, jump from the ramp of a C-130 aircraft during the opening ceremony of a Chicago White Sox spring-training baseball game at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz., during Phoenix Navy Week. Navy Weeks are designed to show Americans the investment they have made in their Navy and increase awareness in cities that do not have a significant Navy presence. (U.S. Navy photo by James Woods/Released)
In: Images, Military · Tagged with: baseball, Leap Frogs, US Navy
AP: Obama’s a Jock
In case you didn’t know, this is what passes as journalism at the AP (emphasis mine):
[Obama has] spent his adult life in big cities — New York, Chicago and, now, Washington. Basketball, golf, and bodysurfing are how this jock rolls. Indoor daily gym workouts are the norm.
How this “jock” rolls? I don’t know how he rolls, but I remember how he bowls: a very non-jock-worthy 37. And afterwards he had the audacity to make fun of special olympians.
Isn’t this the same jock that threw out the first pitch to the All-Star Game? The Fox Network cameras were positioned so that they would not show the actual pitch. MLB cameras however did show the entire pitch. Albert Pujols was positioned on top of the plate, rather than behind it, and the ball still hit the ground.
Not quite what I would call a jock, but I am not an active duty member of the White House Press Corps, either.
From my AP Style Manual (the only thing written by the AP worth the ink):
jock Used when describing athleticism of Democratic presidents.
See Barack Obama.
In: Media · Tagged with: Associated Press, Barack Obama, baseball, media bias
Obama crowd: 1.8 million*
Obama wasn’t even sworn in yet, and we already had inflation.
While I could really care less how many people attended Barack Obama’s inauguration, there is an interesting story behind the head count, or rather, the lack thereof.
The National Park Service (NPS) conducted an estimate of Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March in 1995 and found that the march actually came well under one million people. Naturally, organizers cried racism to Congress — who promptly banned the NPS from conducting further estimates.
So back to Obama’s inauguration: the NPS went ahead and did another estimate. After all, this is historic. But this time, it was a bit less scientific — they just went with the Washington Post’s figure of 1.8 million. Presto! The biggest event in Washington, D.C.’s history.
But satellite imagery may deflate Obama’s head count. Experts at Jane’s Information Group figure between 1.3 and 1.7 million, and George Mason University professor of tourism puts the figure at much closer to 1 million.
In: Politics · Tagged with: Barack Obama, baseball, racism
Duane Kuiper and the 110th Congress
Out of 3,379 at bats in his career, second baseman Duane Kuiper managed to hit only one homerun. Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, but when compared to Congress, Kuiper looks more like Mickey Mantle.
When Kuiper got his shot in the majors, manager Frank Robinson told him, “I’ll give you ten at-bats. If you hit more than two balls in the air, I’ll send you back to triple-A.” For twelve seasons, he kept the ball on the ground. When American voters gave the majority to the Democrats after twelve years in the minority, we were promised many wonderful things (See the House Democrats’ Top 100 Broken Promises). Besides raising the minimum wage, what exactly have they accomplished?
Congress has not got around to passing any of the twelve annual spending bills for the last fiscal year, which ended on October 1st. They weren’t even able to vote on the defense authorization bill before they went home for their summer recess. Of the forty pieces of legislation intended to withdraw the troops from Iraq voted on by the 110th Congress, only one has made it to the President’s desk, and President Bush vetoed it. For all their grandstanding anti-war drama, the only thing they have accomplished is to give the President what he wanted in the first place. What a waste of time.
What have they had time to work on? Congress was able to get around to their impeachment resolution of Vice President Dick Cheney. They got rid of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (for what?). They found time to craft a dangerous resolution condemning Turkey for an alleged genocide that happened almost a century ago against Armenians. They found time to promote their alternative foreign policy by bungling Middle East diplomacy with Syria’s dictator Bashar Assad. They also found time to censure radio host Rush Limbaugh for something he didn’t even say.
While Congress’ approval ratings are currently setting new all-time lows, Kuiper was good enough to stick around for twelve seasons. What he lacked for in power he made up in other aspects. He was a solid contact hitter and a sure-handed fielder. He was one of only three players in the 20th century to hit two bases-loaded triples in one game, showing that you don’t have to swing a big bat to drive in runs. Congress has been swinging for the fences lately – trying to undermine the Bush administration at all costs. This may look good to their far-left constituents, but how does it look to the American voters?
Kuiper still has the seat that his homerun ball bounced off of, the bat, and the ball in his attic. What will the 110th Congress have to show for their time in office? We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
©COPYRIGHT 2007 UNTO THE BREACH MEDIA
In: Politics · Tagged with: baseball, Congress, Rush Limbaugh
Asterisks for Baseball
Crush’s Solution to Steroids in Baseball
Baseball has a new home run king as Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron this week, but there is a huge dark cloud of steroid allegations surrounding Bonds and his feat. I remember going to many games in old Busch Stadium to watch Mark McGwire race Sammy Sosa to the single-season homerun record in 1998. It was a wonderful time for the nation’s pastime, but now the integrity of McGwire’s and Sosa’s campaign is questionable as well.
There is no doubt that steroids make a lot of people in baseball a lot of money. Homeruns pack the stands. Everyone cashes in from the players to the owners. So why would baseball want to stop the gravy train?
Who is looking out for the fans? True baseball fans want to root for players like Hank Aaron, a guy who hit 755 clean homeruns. But why do it the right way if you can get rich the easy way? Steroids enable a mediocre player to rise to the top. Real fans want to see real, natural people, just like they are, doing extraordinary things on the field. They do not want to see genetically engineered behemoths cranking homeruns into the ocean. But if there is no significant deterrent to taking performance enhancing drugs, how do we clean up baseball?
What I suggest for an improvement to Major League Baseball’s limp-wristed steroid policy is this: the first time a player is caught with a banned substance, a red asterisk will replace the number on the back of his jersey. The asterisk will follow him for the rest of his career. If the player is caught a second time, he will be banned from the game forever. Commissioner Chris Carter just cleaned up the game without even needing a congressional committee.
Marketing strategists may disagree, but droves of disheartened fans would return to a clean sport. Which would you rather root for: a team with Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Ken Caminiti, and Jason Giambi, or one with Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, Jackie Robinson, and Lou Gehrig?
What about the supposedly tainted records? Unfortunately they will stand. But remember, they are just numbers in a book. We don’t need a book to tell us who our heroes are. However many homeruns Barry Bonds hits, he will never escape the story behind the numbers. Besides, records are meant to be broken: Alex Rodriguez has just hit his 500th homerun, and at a pace faster than any one else in baseball history. A-Rod did it at age 32; Bonds did not accomplish that feat until age 36. And there are no steroid allegations surrounding Rodriguez.
Now the issue of Hall of Fame voting I would leave to the voters. Instead of a baseball writer’s association, I would open the vote to the fans. If enough Americans feel Barry Bonds should be elected to the Hall of Fame, then let him enter. I don’t think they would elect Bonds, but I could be wrong. This would give Pete Rose, who has the most hits in history, a second chance. Bonds and Rose will always have their baggage. Baseball is for the fans – let them decide who they want in the Hall.
There are more than records at stake here. If baseball does not remedy the steroid issue, we are in danger of losing an American tradition. Our children have enough negative influences in their lives. Baseball should not be one of them.
Chris Carter is the host of “Unto the Breach with Crushing Chris Carter.”
http://www.crushingchris.com
COPYRIGHT 2007 CHRIS CARTER
In: Society · Tagged with: baseball
