The long winter is over, it’s baseball season again!
Early this morning (America time), the Mariners defeated the A’s 3-1 in 11 innings in Tokyo, including the first homer of the 2012 season.
Play ball!
Category Archives: Sports
How Big Is America’s National Debt?
These good folks break it down in Superbowl terms. For example:
- Our debt would pay the combined salaries of Ben Roethlisberger and Charles Woodson for 1,365,854 years.
- You could buy every Superbowl commercial for 19,445 years with our national debt.
- It’s enough to buy 1,015 foam fingers for every single man, woman, and child on the planet.
We need to fix this, now, but far too many politicians of all parties (I’m even including the so-called “independents” in Congress and the minor parties) just want to spend more and more and more!
Is there any wonder that the voters are joining Tea Parties?
Baseball Slugger Killebrew Has Cancer
Hall of Famer and Twins legend Harmon Killebrew has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Killebrew, 74, revealed the news in a statement on Thursday morning. He said that he was recently diagnosed and is being treated by a team of medical professionals at the Mayo Clinic.
While acknowledging that his condition is very serious, Killebrew said that he has confidence in his doctors and medical staff.
“I anticipate a full recovery,” Killebrew said in the statement.
The legendary slugger, who ranks 11th on the all-time home run list with 573, called the journey he now faces “perhaps the most difficult battle of my life.”
My prayers are with Mr. Killebrew and his family.
Obama’s Olympics
Well, anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock probably knows by now that the impassioned pleas by both Obamas didn’t get Chicago the 2016 Olympics… in point of fact, Chicago didn’t even make it past the first ballot.
There are several possible explanations for this:
- Rookie mistake. Most experienced political folks know that you don’t bring the President in until the deal has been already made. The career diplomats do the negotiations–based, of course, on the overall policy set by the President–then the President comes in for the fancy signing ceremony and photo-op. Bringing the power and prestige of the President in too early, like happened this time, risks serious embarrassment, like happened this time.
- Obama got played. Given #1 above, it’s possible that the IOC gave the White House the sense that a deal was done, and it was OK to bring in the President to do the fancy photo-op. However, Obama is a veteran of the Chicago political machine, so one might expect that he’d be aware of the possibility.
- Obama’s ego went crazy. It’s also possible that Obama knew that Chicago was a long shot, but thought that he could turn things around with his vaunted oratory. Obama seems to think that his speechifying can solve anything, but it’s possible this time he fell flat.
- The speeches flopped. The Olympics tend to like people who come in with a certain amount of humility. Certainly athletes come in knowing they are very good, but they also come in with the knowledge that they are up against some other very good athletes, so they’re at least somewhat humble about their chances of winning. Yet the Obamas came in with speeches that were self-reverential and almost narcissistic. That might have bothered the IOC enough to vote Chicago down on the first ballot.
- The Obama apology tour. Obama’s also been specializing in speeches around the world telling people that America isn’t such a great place. It’s quite possible that the IOC took that to heart and decided not to give the Games to such a nation.
There are other possibilities, but these seem to be the most likely. Which do you think is the right one?
Farewell, Jack
Reports are coming in that former football player, congressman from New York, HUD Secretary, and Vice-Presidential Candidate Jack Kemp has passed on.
Godspeed, Jack.
A-Rod Admits Steroid Use
Let’s take a short break from politics to look at the world of baseball (since pitchers and catchers report this Friday):
His voice shaking at times, Alex Rodriguez met head-on allegations that he tested positive for steroids six years ago, telling ESPN on Monday that he did take performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period beginning in 2001.
Personally, I think A-Rod has been the most over-hyped jinx of a baseball player in modern history. Get this… no team that he has been on has won a World Series while he was there… not even the Yankees who had won several immediately prior to signing him. Why that is I don’t know, but it’s irrefutable.
This thread is gonna be open for any and all discussions of baseball steroid use, pro or con… but no politics here, folks. There’s plenty of political threads out there.