Baseball and Politics
In hindsight, perhaps it was a mistake for the Yankees to raise a “Mission Accomplished” banner above their dugout after Game 3.
Seems to be a common mistake…
I turned in the middle way of Game 4 of the Boston Red Sox — New York Yankees series, the Yankees were leading the best of seven series 3-0, a deficit no major league sports team– save apparently a hockey team or two– has ever recovered from. I watched Mike Timlin go into the game for Relief Pitching. He used to be in the Seattle Mariners bullpen. He gave up the Boston Red Sox’s lead. Just to remind everyone of the Mariners bullpen, apparently.
The Fenway Park crowd became sullen. The tv started showing crowd shots with signs saying “I’m Sorry You Made Us Believe Yet Again”. The atmosphere was akin to a funeral march. I turned away.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, down by one, the Red Sox scored, throwing the game into extra innings. The game went on and on and on, and finally in the bottom of the twelvth, David Ortiz hit a homerun and the series went to the a fifth game.
Where, an eight inning rally pushed the game to a tie, and into fourteen innings. Which was when David Ortiz hit the game-winning hit.
Game six saw new meaning to the name “Red Sox”. Pitcher Curt Schilling’s injury was showing, and the cameraman kept showing close ups of the Red Sox pitcher’s bloody sock. Red… Sock…
My prediction, after Game five, was I predict the Red Sox win tommorrow easily, setting up a game 7 where events in the seventh inning pretty lead the Yankees to victory.
The Red Sox made a bizarre pitching change in the seventh inning, replacing a pitcher that was breezing along with Pedro Martinez. Martinez’s troubles with the Yankees had lead him to say “What can I say? The Yankees are my daddy.” The crowd, of course, started chanting “Who’s my daddy?” What happens? Martinez gives up two runs, seeming to confirm my prediction. He then got his three outs. The Red Sox immediately had a homerun, shutting down their momentum, and my prediction came to be way off base.
In the end, I could care less who wins or loses the World Series. But it brings up some odd political ramnifications.
It’s hard to say who we want to win Game Seven of the National League Championship Series (a series that has been thoroughly overshadowed by Yankees – Red Sox). You have the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals.
If we see Houston, we’ll inevitably get comparisons with the presidential race — Massachusetts versus Texas. The winner of the Superbowl, in case you’re curious, was the New England Patriots… who are on such a roll that they have broken the record for most consecutive victories (spanning over two seasons). In that case, we want Boston to win… if Massachusetts has two victories, a third one looks to be right on the way, right? On the other hand, should the Astros win that hypoethetical series, we’d want the series to mean squat. Troubling, ain’t it? To innoculate us in case of a loss, it may be best for this match-up to not materialize.
St. Louis offers another challenge. Who do we want to see win? Missouri is a swing-state, and what would happen if the Boston Red Sox defeat the the St. Louis Cardinals, and the baseball fan takes out their frustration on John Kerry? On the other hand, a Boston defeat destroys that Boston mojo.
Or pretend like this doesn’t exist, and perhaps just move along… nothing to see here. For his part, Kerry is mum and liable to make a crack about “keeping the eyes on the prize” and Tora Bora.