February 16, 2004

"Storied" Yankee Franchise Built With Lots and Lots and Lots of Money   Summer or Winter, the Yankees Show the Red Sox How to Win. In the end, the Yankees' trade for Alex Rodriguez is just another instance in which the Yankees beat the Red Sox. By Murray Chass. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] The people in New York who cover the Yankees are a joke. They prattle on about the pride and legacy of the Yankees, about this "storied" franchise and its legends. But the modern Yankees are just filthy rich. They've made a farce out of Major League Baseball by spending obscene amounts of money to be competitive, making the rest of the league (maybe minus a few teams) look like a joke by comparison. What legacy? This is the just "deep pockets." I used to watch baseball, like ten years ago. Now I can't fathom why people in at least 25 major league cities buy tickets to watch this Major League Farce. Why do you patronize this joke of a league, people of Milwaukee, Kansas City, Detroit, San Diego, Montreal, and the rest of the also-rans who don't stand a chance of winning the title from the opening day of spring training? I'm sure the league will use examples like Anaheim and Florida to suggest that small market teams can make it to the World Series. But when the Yankees can put a 30-home run guy in the eighth spot of their batting lineup, I know where I'm putting my money. On another sport.   7:49:36 PM    comment []

Bush Goal Was Dodging War Jimmy Breslin: In Texas, George Bush might have even had a uniform on. But he was not in Vietnam. And now, today, he is a guy who ducked the war, dodged the war, reneged on any chance to go to war, and yet without even a hint of personal shame sends young people to die in a war that his record shows that he would duck. That Bush was not near any of this is his business. Of course he had joined the National Guard so he wouldn't have to go to Vietnam. That he barely went to any National Guard drills is also his business. What matters to all our senses is that he is a president who struts around as a war hero, who dodged Vietnam and most of the National Guard drills and who with less shame than anybody we have had maybe ever, sends your kids to a war that he ducked as if he was allowed to do it by birth. The picture of him playing soldier suit on an aircraft carrier, the helmet under his arm like he just got back from a run over Baghdad, marks him as exceedingly dangerous. He believes he is a warrior president. He is not. He is a war dodger. Therefore, it is preposterous for George Bush to be a commander of anything. He doesn't have the right to send people to war and yet he orders them off, and almost cheerfully. 12:00:11 AM    comment []

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