Baseball Roundup: Jackie Robinson Day

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the day Major League Baseball corrected a major wrong created by a long-defunct baseball league, and solidified by racist men who abused their star power to promote their bigoted views. On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey and the Brooklyn Dodgers chose to ignore (as best they could) the unofficial policy of baseball to exclude Black players from the Major and Minor Leagues.

Every athlete from that day forward should be grateful to Jack Roosevelt Robinson for paving the way to bring sports to its highest level by admitting the best athletes, without exception; but more importantly for helping to change race relations when most people in the public eye seemed content with the status quo. Today, MLB honors Robinson by unretiring No. 42 and allowing any player (and the entire Dodgers roster, among other teams) who wishes to pay homage to wear it. The game-worn 42's will then be auctioned off, with proceeds going to the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship Fund.
On the Bomber front, the Yankees just wrapped up a six game road trip by dropping the rubber game vs. Oakland with Mo Rivera blowing his first save opportunity of the season. The Yanks went 3-3 for the road trip, which isn't bad, but heartbreaking considering they came within a strike of heading into their off-day on a good note.

On the pitching side of the picture, the staff did well against Minnesota, but by week's end New York was falling behind early in games and Sunday saw Mike Mussina and the uninsurable Carl Pavano hit the DL. The Yankee defense has been a train wreck, leading the Majors in errors (13), and in Saturday's game commiting 4 flubs (miraculously, this is the game they won).

In the rest of the AL East, the Toronto Blue Jays went on a tear, leading the pack in runs scored (38), hits (75), and OPS (.861) for the week, good for 4 wins and a share of the lead. Boston seems to have righted the ship on all fronts, with the pitching staff surrendering just 7 runs in the four games played. The offense is running on all cylinders, making blowouts of all last week's games except a one-hit loss to Seattle's young phenom Félix Rodríguez. Baltimore's pitching looked good last week, earning them 5 wins in 7 contests, putting the O's at 6-6 and 3rd place in the division.

In the Central, the Tigers are riding a wave of good pitching performances this week to compensate for mediocre hitting. Detroit's 5 victories for the week puts them within a half game of the Cleveland Indians and 1st place in the AL Central. The Chicago White Sox's lackluster hitting (.211 batting and 18 runs in 6 games) spoiled what should have been a good week for the pitching staff.

Out West, the Texas Rangers lineup finally woke up, clubbing 11 homeruns and scoring 35 runs for the week. But their 3-3 record for Week 2 proves yet again that pitching wins ballgames. Aside from the previously mentioned stellar outing from King Félix, the West is devoid of any noteworthy news.

Over at the Senior Circuit, the Mets' bats couldn't carry over the momentum from last week, going yard just twice all week and striking out 41 times. The Amazin's' pitching also faltered this week, which was to be expected, but not so precipitously. New York's staff held opponents to a .211 average for the week, but the 37 walks allowed (worst in ML) led to a 3-3 record for the week, keeping them a game behind the Braves in the East. The Phillies led the pack in run production (31) in the NL, but their dismal pitching (5.82 ERA, worst in ML for the week) limited "the team to beat" to 2 wins. In defense of Jimmy Rollins, aside from the costly error that opened the floodgates for the Mets on Monday, he's been pulling his weight on the team (6 HR, .411 OBP). The Marlins used solid pitching and hitting to match their Week 1 mark of 3-2.

Checking out the NL Central, Milwaukee's excellent offensive averages (.286 AVG, .361 OBP, .439 SLG%) didn't translate into a ton of runs (23), but superb pitching (2.06 ERA, 50 K's, 8 BB) made for a 4-1 week and a tie for 2nd slot in the division. The Redbirds displayed a similar inability to produce in critical spots, but kept the the opposition in check, allowing only 8 runs all week (1.50 ERA).

Pitching ruled Week 2 in the NL West, with only the Giants turning in a staff ERA above 3.20 (5.02). Colorado's dead bats (.213 AVG) spoiled an uncharacteristically good run for their pitchers. The D-Backs are totally dependent on their arms, while the Dodgers are getting it done on both sides of the game.


That's all for the baseball roundup this week. On an unrelated note, I'm boycotting the news in most forms in protest of the self-created media hype surrounding the Don Imus-Rutgers Women's Basketball scandal.

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A-Rod Lifts the Bombers, So Is He Finally a Yankee?

Today Alex Rodríguez bailed the Yankees out of losing their first series of the season in dramatic fashion. With the bases loaded and two outs, A-Rod smashed a homerun into the black in centerfield for a walk-off 10-7 victory. With all the recent drama surrounding him in training camp, and the boos coming from the Yankee Stadium crowd as early as his second at-bat of the season, the question now is: Will he finally stop sticking out like a sore thumb on the roster and get to enjoy being on the Yankees?

I was hoping the answer was "yes," but history isn't on my side. While browsing the Daily News website, I was reminded by this article by Mark Feinsand that last year, as Alex was deep in a slump in June he hit a walk-off dinger which bought him exactly one at-bat without boos. Hopefully his hot start this year (3 HR, 9 RBI through four games) coupled with him finally speaking frankly about his relationship with Jeter are enough to let him finally relax.

In other Yankee news, the rotation isn't looking too good. Carl Pavano (0-0) did just well enough for the Yanks to win the opener; Pettitte (0-0) lasted only 4+ innings, surrendering four runs (2 earned) in the 7-6 loss Thursday, Mussina (0-1) didn't even come out for the 5th inning as he got tagged for 6 runs, all earned, in a 6-4 loss on Friday, and Kei Igawa will probably be buying A-Rod dinner tonight, throwing 5 innings of 7-run baseball in an unimpressive Major League debut, coming away with a no-decision.

More of a concern to me than the struggles of the rotation is the strain it puts on the bullpen. In 36 defensive innings they've played, the relief corps has thrown more innings (18⅔) than the starters (17⅓). This wouldn't be such an issue to me if I had confidence in any of the starters to be able to pitch a complete game. The guys most likely to do it are either too old to pull it off (Pettitte and Mussina) or injured (Chien-Ming Wang). Plus, the Yankees head to Minnesota on Monday; the chances of going deep into late innings against the Pirahnas are very low.

Elsewhere in the AL East, Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-0) was on point in his Major League debut, allowing 6 hits and one run through 7 innings while striking out 10 for the win. Curt Schilling (0-1) showed signs of his age in the opener, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings for the loss. Josh Beckett (1-0) was solid vs. the Royals, hurling 5 innings of two-hit, one-run ball for the Red Sox first win of the season; however, he did allow 4 walks and threw only 46 of 94 pitches for strikes. As expected, Tim Wakefield (0-1) frustrated the Texas Rangers lineup with his knuckleball, giving up two runs (one earned) through 6 innings, but Robinson Tejeda (1-0) bested him by shutting down Boston through 7 innings, earning the Rangers their first victory. Tonight, the Sox test their project in Julián Tavárez (NR) against Kevin Millwood (0-1) and a struggling Texas lineup that's batting an embarrassing .149 and averaging one run per game in the first week of the season.

The Boston lineup stumbled out of the gate, batting a meager .227 through four games. The Sox join the San Francisco at the bottom of the heap in long balls with one apiece (Kevin Youkilis for BOS, Barry Bonds for SF).

Out West, Vladimir Guerrero is having batting practice with the opposing pitchers, hitting .500 (tied for 4th in MLB) with 3 HR (tied for 1st) and 9 RBI (tied for 1st).

In the National League, the Mets are living up to expectations early. The lineup is getting on base and scoring runs well, the starting staff has been lights out with the first four starters turning out gems, and the bullpen has been even stingier.

The Cincinnati Reds are riding on good outings early by their starting staff for a 4-1, with only Bronson Arroyo turning out a less than respectable outing.

The NL West is looking as disappointing as expected. Maybe this division should be demoted to the minors.

That's all for now; I'll try to have a baseball roundup once a week.

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MySpace Goes Political

I guess it was only a matter of time. I mean, how long could Rupert Murdoch last without using such a wide-reaching resource to promote his political agenda?

The social networking website MySpace.com has opened a new channel called Impact, which features promotion community awareness events (concerts, etc.), PSA videos, ads for current events magazines, a collection of candidate-created MySpace profiles and voter registration tools, among other content.

According to an article in ECommerceTimes.com, "[MySpace] expects it to play a major role in the 2008 U.S. presidential election." That's all well and good, but when you've got a partisan CEO that's been documented to use his media outlets to spin stories and give more air time to stories that benefit the conservative agenda, you need to be very wary about his intentions when it.

But so far, so good; at least on it's surface the portal actually seems to lean toward the left, featuring a lot of pieces focusing on global climate change. But it's been less than two weeks and the 2008 elections are more than a year and a half away, more than enough time to turn the tables on the message. At least I know that as long as my head doesn't get run over by an 18-wheeler I'll still be able to spot the bullshit.

I wish I could say I'll be keeping an eye on this, but I'm not about to start looking to Tom Anderson and News Corp. for political news.

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The Orphan

I have two parents, but both of them deny me. One gave birth to me, raised me, supported me and gave me everything I need to be successful, but whenever the topic comes up, she insists that I'm not her child. I speak her language fluently, I know her history, I've lived all my life with her, but I'm still a black sheep because my last name doesn't sound like hers.

My other parent gave me his culture, I speak his language too (albeit with a smaller vocabulary), I wear his last name proudly, and I show interest in his well-being, but whenever I go to visit, my brothers and sisters think differently of me because I flew in with a blue passport.

So to one group I'm a "hyphenated American," and to the other I'm simply "un gringo que por casualidad habla español."

Nevertheless, I'm proud of my heritage, both of them. But I feel that I need to stress my American pride more for two reasons, neither of which is because I'm more proud to be American. First, because I outwardly display more Dominican pride (because I haven't gone in so long); and secondly because I'm a liberal and a lot of conservatives have gone out of their way to state that liberals are un-American and out to destroy the country. It's just silly name-calling, but coupled with my foreign roots, I feel I need to defend myself.

The United States gave me life, gave me a free education, gave me public assistance whenever I needed it, and lets me speak freely and do as I please. I don't have to be rich to get a decent education, and I don't have to inherit a fortune or be a corrupt businessman or politician to become a wealthy man in the U.S. These luxuries aren't birthrights to anybody; the American Constitution protects these principles, but that's no reason to take them for granted. But I'm also very aware of the fact that the U.S. twice invaded the Dominican Republic; on the first ocassion leaving a dictator in power and in the second blocking the reinstatement of a democratically elected president.

The Dominican Republic gave me its language, its food, its music, its popular culture, baseball (an American invention, but I definitely get my deep interest in it from my Dominican roots), my revolutionary spirit, and my open-minded worldview. Because I have plenty of family out there and I want the country to prosper, my perspective of the world stage is different from that of a purely American or purely foreign point of view. But I'm also ashamed of the fact that the Dominican upper class tries to deny its African heritage, even though the musical instruments in our music suggest a strong link to Africa. The evident multiracial physical traits of our people are attributed to the indigenous people of Quisqueya according to revisionist historians, in spite of the mass extermination of the Taino tribes by the Spaniards upon arrival.

This is part of who I am, an imperfect person from two imperfect cultures. On this day in 1844, the Dominican Republic regained its independence by defeating the occupying military of Haiti. I thought this would be an appropriate time to share this bit about myself. ¡Felicidades a todos los Dominicanos celebrando hoy! Que Dios bendiga nuestra patria.

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Baseball Roundup

Bronx to host '08 All-Star Game in old Yankee Stadium's last year

Unnamed sources within Major League Baseball have unofficially announced that Yankee Stadium will host the 2008 All-Star Game. You'd think I would be excited about it.

I'm not.

I'm actually a little pissed off. The last time the Bronx had an All-Star Game was in 1977, the year after the Stadium was remodeled. Venues for the Midsummer Classic were picked by alternating AL and NL parks, and cities with new ballparks got preference. Now that the Yankees and New York City have finally reached an agreement on a new stadium, MLB decides that they'd rather have one last look at the old park. It's like having an old relative who doesn't keep in touch suddenly wanting to visit you when you're about to move to a better place.

And then the question becomes, "When do the Mets get to show off the new pad?"

The same story that announced MLB's plans for the '08 All-Stars has the 2009 edition earmarked for St. Louis. This leaves Queens's earliest possibility at 2011. Would the Commissioner's office really vouch for two All-Stars to be held in New York City in such close proximity? Given its contempt for large markets, the answer is most likely "No."

A rookie or not?

This week, Baseball America and ESPN's Alan Schwarz wrote an article for ESPN outlining his predictions for potential Rookies of the Year. First he offered a definition (actually the definition as defined by voting guidelines) of a rookie:

Like it or not, Daisuke Matsuzaka, eight-year veteran and 108-game winner in the Japanese Leagues, has officially pressed the reset button, kicked out the cord, and is rebooting as far as the major leagues are concerned. It doesn't matter that Hideo Nomo, Kazuhiro Sasaki and Ichiro Suzuki made mockeries of the official Rookie of the Year awards in their first seasons after coming west.

That's all well and good, but let's not forget that Hideki Matsui was left off some Rookie of the Year ballots completely in his "rookie" year of 2003. The writers who declined to vote for "Godzilla" claimed that he wasn't a pure rookie, being a seasoned veteran from the Japan Leagues.

Will Daisuke Matsuzaka be held to the same standard? Will he be good enough to put this potential hypocrisy to the test? I'm not so curious as to wish Matsuzaka well to find out.

Prosecutor investigating BALCO forced to resign

U.S. attorney Kevin Ryan, who has headed the investigation on the BALCO steroid distribution ring, was among a group of federal prosecutors who announced their resignations. There has been talk that the White House is pressuring these prosecutors to resign so Washington can appoint "interim" attorneys without Senate confirmation and no term limits, thanks to last year's USA Patriot Act reauthorization.

The provision in the Patriot Act was a last-minute addition by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). What a schmuck.

Un-American to cheer for the Bears?

Rush Limbaugh took issue with Illinois Senator and potential presidential candidate Barack Obama for saying that New Orleans's football season was all but over. This is a reference to the upcoming Conference Championship between the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Bears. The Saints have become something of a feel-good story given New Orleans's plight with Hurricane Katrina. Rush Limbaugh feels that Obama's comments are insensitive given that the Saints are "America's team."

Limbaugh thinks that it was politically incorrect to trash talk the Saints. Really, Rush? You mean like suggesting that Donovan McNabb's fame was due to the media overcrediting him for his team's success to fuel the media's own desire for an African-American quarterback to do well? I was just waiting to hear in the news that some right-wing asshole suggested McNabb an affirmative action hire.

Umm, so does this mean that it was un-American to root against the Yankees throughout the playoffs and World Series in 2001? Is Luís González an asshole for daring to get a bloop hit off Mo Rivera over a drawn-in infield? Or is this just Limbaugh's pathetic attempt to lead his audience away from the fact that the Bush administration was slow to provide relief to the citizens of the Gulf Coast, FEMA was incompetent in their efforts to do the same, and Sen. Joe Lieberman is backing down from his vow to use his position as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to investigate the administration's handling of the situation.

The conservatives are cringing at the very idea that a brown man might be President. Play the clip below to hear Rush spin this non-story.

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The Twilight Zone: No Time Like the Past

This clip is timeless.

The most ignorant statement in this dialogue: "The virility of a nation is in direct proportion to its fight qualities." This declaration ignores the simple truth that power corrupts. Any person, corporation, institution, government or global power who gains or is granted too much power will abuse it. Yes, that goes for the United States, too, flag-wavers.

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Hoping for a Better World in '07

Happy New Year, world. At this time every year, we hope that a new calendar offers us new beginnings, the opportunity to right the wrongs of our past and accomplish the goals we fell short of last year. Que Dios nos dé la fuerza y la voluntad para cumplir nuestras metas y mucho más.

Despite our wishes to start anew, we know that our actions in the past will have an impact on the future, and we must deal with them accordingly.

"Iraq" ended last year by hanging Saddam Hussein for killing 148 Iraqis in 1982. Somehow, a portion of the United States believes this is some kind of victory in the "War on Terror," despite no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, no link to Al-Qaeda, no real attempt to obtain yellowcake uranium from Niger and no credible imminent threat from Hussein's regime.

The following is a crude video of Saddam Hussein's hanging being carried out. It was taken by an eyewitness with his or her camera phone.



Dead or alive, Saddam had been irrelevant since his capture at the end of 2003. It took a mere three weeks to overtake Baghdad and after that, Hussein's only realistic goal was to make it out alive. While it's true that much of the violence in Iraq was being made in hopes of bringing him back to power, he had no influence over those warriors, and we would imagine that under American custody he would not be able to issue orders to anyone.

At the end of the day, history will look back at December 30, 2006 (Iraq date) as the day Some Guy Who's Not Osama Bin Laden Was Hanged. Now our supposed mission in Iraq is to establish democracy out there. See, that's the new plan after we couldn't find any WMD. And the capture of Saddam Hussein? Well, that was kinda like a bonus, since he wasn't a nice guy anyway. It's true that he was a harsh dictator, as dictators tend to be almost by definition.

And exactly how "established" does this democracy have to be before we pull out? Didn't Iraq have elections already? I remember it well since right wing media outlets wouldn't shut the fuck up about how there was a 90% voter turnout and how they were risking their lives to be free. Supposedly Iraq doesn't have a trained army to keep the peace. No shit, is that why the U.S. took it over in less than a month? Even military leaders were surprised at how quickly and easily coalition troops seized Baghdad, which speaks volumes about our intelligence gathering agencies.

If the goal of the United States in the 21st century is to eradicate dictatorships and monarchies, I expect to be alive when America falls on its ass from the weight of a massive national debt.

America scored a victory last November when the Democratic Party took over both houses of Congress, putting a leash on Bush for the first time since he took office. But at the end of the day he's still Commander-in-Chief of the military. So unless Dubya grows a brain or a conscience, it's a countdown to January 20, 2009.

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