"Transcendent Importance"
1. This is what John McCain, a US Senator, a former Presidential candidate with future aspirations for that office, said in actual Senate hearings to Donald Fehr (MLBPA union head):
"Don't you get it that this is an issue of such transcendant importance that you should have acted months ago?" Now, Fehr had nothing to do with levees in Louisiana, emergency preparedness, farming subsidies, or bridges in Alaska, so it's pretty clear that the issue is: steroids.
Now, I am a sometimes Republican who strongly supported this man in his bid for the top office in 2000 (I ended up voting for Nader), and probably would have voted for him as a D or I in 2004. But that is just such a stupid thing to say. And I cannot now imagine myself voting for this man in 2008.
In addition to being about something of, at best, minor importance, the union has currently agreed to a new testing regime with announced penalites that has been working with some success (catching one big fish) and has just agreed to expanding testing and doubling the penalties. With the current regime, we have one player's career destroyed/ended and his HOF entry aborted during his victory lap, for one positive test. I think there is incentive to not use.
1a. The union was put in a jam here. If no one had been caught, Mac&Co would have complained: the current regime isn't catching anyone, it's not working! Instead, because a few were caught (including one who testified to congress), it's: people are getting caught, it's not working!
1b. And then there's the whole unfairness thing that so many things are not currently detectable and only the users without chemical advisors will get caught. (I would have thought Raffy was a big enough star to have had a chemical advisor if he actually used. Makes me think that something is still fishy about the test.)
1c. If I still were a Democrat, it would probably get me really worked up that Senators are threatening a union to make concessions to management to avoid government from invalidating part of that agreement. If I still were a tin-foil-hat conspiracy theorist, I'd wonder if MLB rigged Raffy's test to get government backing for beating the union up on this issue.
1d. Twins could use a big stick. Raffy should be available, probably for cheap (redemption time). He'd definitely hit better than Bret Boone. Raffy
1e. So who should I hope wins the R nomination in 2008? Rudy Giuliani? JEB Bush?
2. Kyle Lohse pitched his last game of the season last night, maybe his last for the team. I think he had a much better season than last, but maybe not as much as I thought.
2004: 5.34 (9-13), 194 IP, batters hitting .305/.368/.473, WHIP 1.63
2005: 4.18 (9-13), 179 IP, batters hitting .299/.345/.455, WHIP 1.43
His ground-out/fly out ratio went from 1.09 to 1.27 and BB/9 from 3.53 to 2.22.
Improvements everywhere, becoming a ground-ball pitcher, but not a huge drop in anything other than walks and ERs.
3. Magic Numbers:
ChiSox: 2 ALCD, 2 ALWC
Hafners: 8 ALCD, 5 ALWC
Damnit, Cleveland. Stop losing to last-place teams!
4. Over-.500 numbers (4 games remaining):
Twins: 2
Brewers: 3
Padres: 3
"Don't you get it that this is an issue of such transcendant importance that you should have acted months ago?" Now, Fehr had nothing to do with levees in Louisiana, emergency preparedness, farming subsidies, or bridges in Alaska, so it's pretty clear that the issue is: steroids.
Now, I am a sometimes Republican who strongly supported this man in his bid for the top office in 2000 (I ended up voting for Nader), and probably would have voted for him as a D or I in 2004. But that is just such a stupid thing to say. And I cannot now imagine myself voting for this man in 2008.
In addition to being about something of, at best, minor importance, the union has currently agreed to a new testing regime with announced penalites that has been working with some success (catching one big fish) and has just agreed to expanding testing and doubling the penalties. With the current regime, we have one player's career destroyed/ended and his HOF entry aborted during his victory lap, for one positive test. I think there is incentive to not use.
1a. The union was put in a jam here. If no one had been caught, Mac&Co would have complained: the current regime isn't catching anyone, it's not working! Instead, because a few were caught (including one who testified to congress), it's: people are getting caught, it's not working!
1b. And then there's the whole unfairness thing that so many things are not currently detectable and only the users without chemical advisors will get caught. (I would have thought Raffy was a big enough star to have had a chemical advisor if he actually used. Makes me think that something is still fishy about the test.)
1c. If I still were a Democrat, it would probably get me really worked up that Senators are threatening a union to make concessions to management to avoid government from invalidating part of that agreement. If I still were a tin-foil-hat conspiracy theorist, I'd wonder if MLB rigged Raffy's test to get government backing for beating the union up on this issue.
1d. Twins could use a big stick. Raffy should be available, probably for cheap (redemption time). He'd definitely hit better than Bret Boone. Raffy
1e. So who should I hope wins the R nomination in 2008? Rudy Giuliani? JEB Bush?
2. Kyle Lohse pitched his last game of the season last night, maybe his last for the team. I think he had a much better season than last, but maybe not as much as I thought.
2004: 5.34 (9-13), 194 IP, batters hitting .305/.368/.473, WHIP 1.63
2005: 4.18 (9-13), 179 IP, batters hitting .299/.345/.455, WHIP 1.43
His ground-out/fly out ratio went from 1.09 to 1.27 and BB/9 from 3.53 to 2.22.
Improvements everywhere, becoming a ground-ball pitcher, but not a huge drop in anything other than walks and ERs.
3. Magic Numbers:
ChiSox: 2 ALCD, 2 ALWC
Hafners: 8 ALCD, 5 ALWC
Damnit, Cleveland. Stop losing to last-place teams!
4. Over-.500 numbers (4 games remaining):
Twins: 2
Brewers: 3
Padres: 3
posted by amr at 9/29/2005 11:18:00 AM
3 Comments:
Are you hoping for a Republican you can vote for, and one who might win, in 2008? Until the party cuts ties with the Roves, the Abramoffs and Norquists, and the Dobsons, I don't think there is such a thing as a fresh, appealing Republican on the ballot. The R's control the government now. The only reason to vote for one is if you like what you've seen of the results. A vote for any R in 2006 and 2008 is a vote for more of the same.
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Did you not think him dreadful low-spirited when he was at Barton?
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