Where have all the good times gone?

When I heard George Steinbrenner’s comments about Joe Torre two nights ago, I was surprised. Everything that Steinbrenner says lately, even the most innocuous stuff, comes through one of his spokesmen. I was curious about where these comments came from, and found that Steinbrenner had provided them to the NJ Bergen Record in a phone interview. Steinbrenner has not only been shielded from the media, but he has appeared confused the times that he has appeared. When the TBS broadcast team acted like this was the same old Steinbrenner who antagonized Billy Martin, that this was the same old Steinbrenner trying to motivate the troops, it didn’t add up to me. Regardless, it seems unlikely that Torre will be back. Considering how badly Steinbrenner wanted to can him last year, he won’t offer him a new contract. Despite what I said before, I would like to see him back. He managed the team back from nowhere to a playoff spot, which seems forgotten now. The reason the Yankees are out is the same reason for most of their recent failures. They don’t have stud pitching and they can’t hit it, either. Next year with Hughes and Chamberlain in the rotation maybe they will be on their way. Maybe it’s been enough with Torre. It’s too bad. The Post said that Tony LaRussa isn’t interested in the Yankees job, but Bill Madden at the Daily News says he is very interested. Can anyone imagine that A-hole in pinstripes?

The TBS broadcast team tended to be redundant and repeat themselves and say the same things over and over again (imagine them in a seven game series talking about two-out hits and two-strike counts), but TBS scored a colossal victory last night for sports fans. TBS was about the go to a commercial break at the end of an inning when the Indians protested that Posada had caused catcher interference. Unlike every other network currently carrying sports, TBS actually stayed on the field to sort out what the controversy was and show a replay. After the replay cleared showed that the interference claim was bogus, TBS broke to the regularly scheduled commercials. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox, NBC, CBS, et. al. contact TBS and tell them to cut it out. That kind of stuff is bad for business.

I actually planned on watching the Bills game last night after the Yankee game ended, but after four hours of baseball I was too tired and went to bed. I couldn’t avoid seeing the results this morning. Apparently Dallas scored twice in the last minute to win the game. I can’t even bring myself to read about it, so I doubt if I’m going to be able to ever sit through that game now. It’s great how Paul Byrd waits over 30 seconds between pitches. When the games next round start at 8:30 it will be a real treat for Red Sox fans. Another thing I like is how Joe Borowski licks his entire hand between pitches. I had heard that on cold days, pitchers need the umpire’s permission to blow on their hands. I guess with all the other stuff going on in baseball, what’s a little spit anyway?

Not that there’s a good way to lose, but the Sabres’ two losses so far I think are the worst to watch. They are a team that has no discipline and chases the puck around in their own half of the rink. They think everything is going to be easy, just like they thought it was going to be easy last year. It’s catching up with them early this season.

I caught some of the Democratic presidential debate with the AARP a few weeks ago. Obama was the only one not there. I’m not sure who I prefer at this point. The candidates agreed on most all of the issues. It was a challenge for Judy Woodruff to find any points on which the candidates disagreed. Hillary has seemed like the inevitable candidate for ten years, and that’s part of the reason I’m resisting her. Joe Biden seems charismatic in some ways, but he has some corporate executive type A-holishness there as well that I don’t like. One answer that John Edwards gave typifies why any democrat will have trouble in the general election. When they talked about pulling out of Iraq, Edwards said they needed to involve Iran and Syria, since they have a vested interest in stability in the region. Iran and Syria! I expect many voters are looking for some sort of reasonable approach between that one and the posturing of Rudy Giuliani. Christopher Hitchens thinks that Al Gore is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize and then declare his candidacy. I would probably throw my support to him.

Syd was sick all weekend with a terrible fever. She spent most of Sunday lying on the couch in the front room. Drew is now crawling and climbing and wanted to check out what his big sister was doing. After Syd went to bed, Drew went right back to the couch and I tossed him up there. He couldn’t have been more thrilled. He rolled around and laughed and we played catch with a ball. I had to catch Drew a few times to keep him from falling on the floor. With his sister out of the picture, you could tell he thought he was the king. It struck me as very funny. He is so helpless at his age to do what he wants and express himself, especially compared to his sister. But he won because he stayed up later. Well done!

A Scandal A Day

From the New York Times yesterday:

“With Blackwater and other private contractors in Iraq facing tighter scrutiny, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The bill was approved 389 to 30, despite strong opposition from the White House. It came as lawmakers and human rights groups are using the Sept. 16 shooting by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad to highlight the many contractors operating in Iraq who have apparently been unaccountable to American military or civilian laws and outside the reach of the Iraqi judicial system.”

From the New York Times today:

“When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales's arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.”

472 more days of ineptitude, dishonesty, and cruelty.

Randy Kuhl as no surprise strongly supports George Bush’s veto of the bipartisan bill to expand health care to more uninsured children. I put so much support behind Eric Massa in his race for Kuhl’s office last year because this is exactly the type of disgraceful representation I wanted to avoid. The only reason Kuhl supports my district is because we are gerrymandered with a bunch of small-minded hicks along the southern tier who believe any lies they hear from a republican about a democrat wanting to cut their precious social security. You can’t pick up the Elmira paper without reading some letter to the editor from someone who couldn’t get his prescription filled and went to Kuhl’s office for help and one of Representative Pothole’s flunkies went and sorted it out for him. By the way, Kuhl was one of the 30 representatives mentioned above by The Times who voted against the bill to “Require Accountability for Contractors and Contract Personnel Under Federal Contracts, and for Other Purposes,” goose-stepping right behind Bush. Only 30 out of 419 representatives put Bush and Cheney above all else, and one of them does it in my name as my representative!

New York Yankees - unbelievable. If they lose to another team of young upstarts they all need to go, including Torre, the former Yankee coaches, and the managerial-go-round basecoaches. I'm not bailing out and I'm not pointing fingers, but they have to play to their potential. Lose to the Angels once, I guess it happens. Lose to the Angels again, and maybe you were unlucky. Lose to Detoit, then lose to Cleveland... Like Jimmy from South Park would say, "Come on."

I love that the games are on early. I love that TBS is not trying to outfox Fox with the gimmicks, crowd shots, distractions, and "attitude." I like the roving reporter in the crazy sportcoats. He actually has interesting things to say. Accusing LeBron James of being a frontrunner - and LeBron's answer - were brilliant. His drum isn't the only thing the Indians superfan hasn't changed since 1973. He's still got the same haircut, mustache, and eyeglasses as well.

Good points made by Jerry Sullivan at the beginning of the week regarding why Buffalo will give Edwards every chance to win the quarterback job. Losman has shown that he does a lot better when he's pushed by another QB, but he may not get a chance to show it this time.