 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
His second-in-command agrees and disagrees. The recall is a bad idea and a right-wing plot, etc. But…just in case it works, vote for me because my take on California's problems is moderate and sober. In my prudent opinion, everyone is to blame. And the way to fix things is to (all together now) tax the rich. Makes sense to someone. Arnold will be coming up with solutions…soon. So far he is content to point out the obvious: The mess is the fault of the people who made it. The interesting question is: Will that pitch work or are there enough pigs at the trough to salvage Davis or elect Bustamante? One suspects that however the recall goes (and my money is on Bustamante who has almost enough votes, bought and paid for. before the polls open) the likelihood is that the California train wreck will keep us entertained for some time to come. Eventually, the state will become the Argentina of the U.S., with all the people who can pay taxes having moved to Utah or Oregon or Washington and all the jobs having gone to India. One of the deep ironies of California's woes is the fact the tech revolution which made the state prosperous has also made just about everyone who can afford to pay taxes mobile enough to avoid — or at least minimize — them. Still, as train wrecks go, it's a good one. Almost as good as the one certain sports fans have come to anticipate every year, about this time, on the Right Coast. It is time for the annual Boston Red Sox swoon. Even for people who are not sports fans, there is something almost shamefully appealing about the way the Sox fold every year at about this time. There is about it a kind of awful inevitability that would thrill devotees of Greek tragedy — and John Derbyshire, for that matter. The Red Sox are every pessimist's favorite team. Doesn't make any difference how bright the prospects for success — nay, triumph — might be in May or June. Even into July. Come August and September, the team will do itself in. You wonder if the General Manager of the Red Sox isn't an immortal named Sophocles. How else do you explain the bullpen this season? Or the first really big Red Sox trade which was made in 1919. The Red Sox got some money; enough to put on a carnival in town. The other team, the New York Yankees, got the foundation of a dynasty in the (slightly round) shape of a ballplayer named Ruth. This is a well-known saga among sports buffs — and a kind of lament, sung over and over by the chorus of Red Sox fans. It was a trade that makes Gray Davis's energy contracts look farsighted and ever since, the Red Sox have been cursed. They have not won a World Series since the trade. The Chicago Cubs are their only equals in futility but the Cubs' followers do not suffer the exquisite torments of Red Sox fans. Because the Cubs seldom come close, which is something the Red Sox do almost every year. The Red Sox have actually made it to the World Series four times since the trade. They lost in seven games. Every time. One of those World Series defeats came as the result of perhaps the most famous booted grounder in all of baseball history. Bill Buckner let one go through his legs to give the Mets the 6th game. After that error, there was no chance — none at all, the gods were inflexible on the question — that the Red Sox would win the 7th game. Fate despises sentimentality. Buckner, a good player and a good guy, was fated to be the immortal goat of baseball myth. On another occasion, the Red Sox needed to beat the Yankees (of course) in a single-game playoff at the end of the regular season in order to make it to the World Series. Somebody named Bucky Dent, who had hit all of four homeruns during the regular season, hit another to win the game. Bad enough to lose in a playoff. Unendurable to be beaten by a Bucky or a Dent. No matter how bright the prospects in spring, something always happens to darken the skies over Fenway. Usually it is pitching. Somebody had to serve up a gopher for Bucky, and Red Sox pitchers had rolled over on several batters — allowing one run on a wild pitch — before that grounder to Buckner. This year, the Red Sox have one of the best batting averages in baseball and their starting pitching looked strong as onions when the season started. Pedro (Martinez if you need a last name) and Derek Lowe gave the Sox the two strong pillars every starting rotation needs. Tim Wakefield was the knuckleballer who kept the opposition off balance. John Burkett looked like a reliable fourth starter. That left the bullpen. Ah, yes, the relievers who, last year, did their part to keep the Red Sox fans in despond by losing 21 games. After a strenuous off-season attempt by GM Sophocles to strengthen the pen, the relievers have now lost 24 and it isn't even September. Some of the Red Sox faithful think 40 isn't out of the question. A couple of starts back, Pedro pitched a rare complete game. Probably because he figured it was the only way he could get a win. The pattern this year has been for Pedro to go seven strong innings and leave with a lead which the pen then treats like an airhead debutante squandering her inheritance. Tuesday night, it was Lowe's turn. The Red Sox were in Fenway after a cruel road trip. The had lost 7 of their last 11 and they were not shooting dice. They were playing the Oakland Athletics, with whom they were tied for the wild-card position in the post-season. The Sox had dropped 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees for first in their division, after playing them close for most of the season. The wild card was beginning to look like their best hope, so they needed to beat Oakland. Lowe was sharp as a freshly stropped razor. His sinker was working and he allowed just two weak hits in six shutout innings. The Red Sox scored two runs, meanwhile, and should have had more. They hit into three inning-ending double plays (their slugger Manny Ramirez was twice guilty) and they left a couple of other runners on. If you knew the Red Sox, you felt a kind of dread certainty that this would come back to haunt them. Lowe, who was on track for a complete game victory, did not appear in the 7th. Turned out he had a blister on his throwing hand. (A blister? We knew the gods were cruel but this was sadistic.) The pen — in the form of a couple of guys named Scott — promptly gave up two walks and a homerun. A 2-0 lead turned into a 3-2 loss right there. Even though the Red Sox managed to run it out for three more agonizing innings, everyone who has followed the team for more than a couple of seasons knew. It was clear the moment the ball left Ramon Hernandez's bat, headed over the Green Monster, that this train was headed, not for glory, but another calamitous wreck. So the Red Sox were now 6 1/2 behind the Yankees, 1 behind Oakland, and to all appearances, right on schedule. Wednesday night, Tim Wakefield took the mound and his knuckler was dancing. He gave up a couple of homeruns when Oakland hitters timed it right. But the Boston bats were lively and at one point the Sox led 5-1. The hitters could not close the deal, though, leaving an astonishing 17 runners on base, and when it came time to go to the pen, you could feel a cold wind of doom blow through Fenway. Up 6-4 with two innings to play, the Red Sox called on the closer they had acquired in the off-season, Byung Hyun Kim. Kim, baseball fans will remember, nearly gave the World Series to the Yankees, all by himself, a couple of seasons back and there were skeptics out there who thought the Sox had gone looking for a dragon slayer and come home with dragon food. Their insights were validated when Kim got one Yankee out in the process of allowing four runs. The Athletics won 8-6. Had it been a real train wreck, everyone would have been scalded to death by the steam. Pedro pitches Thursday night, in the last game of the series against Oakland. Then the Sox get to play a series against the Seattle Mariners who lead their division and, after that, the Yankees. So the season — and the swoon — could be over by Labor Day. At which time, train-wreck watchers can concentrate fully on California as the Golden State Express cannonballs right on over a cliff. — Geoffrey Norman writes on sports for NRO and other publications. |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
<% dim printurl
printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>
here is something irresistible about a train wreck. See one coming and
you just can't help watching. How else can one explain the fascination
with the California recall? The recall is all the fault of the Republicans,
according to the present governor — voters being inclined to overlook
the $38 billion overdraft, the bungling of the electricity crisis, and
the fact that the unions hold the keys to the treasury in their tight
little fists. State employees retiring at 90 percent of their salaries?
Prison guards who earn in the six figures? Not a problem according to
Mr. Davis. The whole thing is the work of the VRWC.
