September Sprint

As the college and pro football seasons begin, the clamor of the media's trumpeting of America's Game nearly deafens us to the dramatic flourish of the end of the baseball season. (Okay, did I manage not to mix any metaphors?) Aside from the weird upset of Michigan by Appalachian State, and Oklahoma's savage beating of two teams--scoring nearly 130 points to avenge their Fiesta Bowl upset by Boise State--there's nothing much notable about the pigskin parade. But baseball is offering its dwindling adherents the fun of the season-ending sprint to the playoffs.

Only a few teams have a clear path to the play-offs. They are the Angels, whose challenge by a clearly weaker Mariner team has collapsed in a dreadful slump, the Indians, and the New York Mets. The Mets lead the division by six games, and the Angels by eight, and with those margins and less than twenty games to go, even Gene Mauch could not blow the division championships. The Red Sox have a fairly meaningful five-game lead over the Yanks and can stretch it in the upcoming series at Fenway. That rivalry is so intense that one can expect either team to sweep. If the Red Sox do it they can heavily damage the Yanks' chances for a Wild Card spot, as the Yanks did last year to the Red Sox in Boston Massacre II.

The only competitive race now in the American League is between the Tigers and Yanks for the fourth play-off spot. The Wild Card used to be a joke, but now it not only provides added interest to also-rans, but often provides World Series participants. Two Florida teams, and the Red Sox have won the title as Wild Card entrants, and others, like Houston, the Mets and the Tigers, have won pennants. The Yanks hold a four-game lead at this moment, with a slight disadvantage in home/away meetings, but the Yanks' schedule is all lesser AL east teams aside from Boston, while the Tigers still have to meet the Indians and the Twins a lot. The Tigers' pitching, which carried them very far last year until those same hurlers forgot how to throw to first base, is less assured now. Bonderman is weak, Andrew Miller inconsistent, and an elderly Kenny Rogers wheezing through his starts. The Yanks have been fortified by decent starts from youngsters Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and the spirited relief work of Joba Chamberlain, so that even if their veterans Mussina and Clemens are struggling, they should probably have enough. Not to beat the Angels in the post-season, but at least to make an appearance. And to give Arod one last chance for October achievement after a career year of magnificent, almost effortless clutch hitting, so he can charge his next team 30 million a year for his services.

The focus of competitive interest this month is in the senior circuit, which still could be represented by any four of nine teams. The Phils are hanging in behind the Mets and have gotten their offense back, with Utley and Victorino back in shape. But they have to climb over the other Wild Card rivals from the Western Division. The Dodgers and Colorado are trailing Arizona and/or San Diego by a few games, and the log-jam there may help the Phillies as the western team slay each other off. Right now it looks like a photo finish between the Diamondbacks and the Padres, with the loser getting the Mets in the first round.

Then there's the absurd NL Central, with Milwaukee, the Cubs and the Cardinals virtually tied. History suggests that the experience of the Cardinals will eventually win out despite their questionable pitching, with the offensive addition of previous starter and likely steroid abuser Rick Ankiel bolstering their formerly anemic offense. The Cubs are the obvious sentimental choice, and the young Brewers are likable for their stubbornness to fold a la Seattle. My original pick for the division, Cincinnati, just didn't have it, but I'm sticking with St. Louis by a game after a very exciting final weekend.

In the end though, I've said it again and again--the Mets should win the World Series. They even have Pedro back, along with a healthy Moises Alou, great speed at the top of their line-up, and an MVP in David Wright. Add to this Carlos Beltran, who thrives in October, and a steady reliever in Billy Wagner, and all the ingredients are there. Only freakish luck should prevent their defeat of either Boston or Los Angeles in late October.

Just Say Yes

Too bad Moliere, or some modern rendition of him, isn't around to gloat about the endless onslaught of hypocrisy that is reeking from the Republican congressional delegation. The mind boggles at every new revelation, and it's hard to keep track any more. Granted, politicians by nature speak with forked tongue (and apparently do other nasty things with their tongues as well). The latest brouhaha, over the solicitation citation bedeviling Idaho senator Larry Craig, is just another in a tiresome series of events, unremarkable in itself but part of a cumulative cavalcade of hypocritical malfeasance.

Now I have issues with the nature of the arrest. It does seem to have been a form of entrapment, though Craig's protestations of innocence, as heard on the officer's tape, are not very convincing. That police manpower--and I use this term loosely--is used on this pointless "moralistic" crusade against what is, essentially, a victimless "crime," is problematic in itself. I wonder what kind of voyeuristic and sexual glee the entrapping officer gets from tempting his prey, then handcuffing them. What a tease! And hey--aren't real crimes actually happening in St. Paul? Don't they have some egregious marijuana smokers to imprison?

The most salient comment I've read about the Craig affair is that he is the victim of the marginalizing of a minority that he is guilty of perpetrating, though his vocal anti-gay stances. If gays weren't forced into uncomfortable liaisons by popular prejudices reinforced by puritanical politicans, then maybe the men's room would be safe for tap-free defecation. There's some satisfaction in this, I suppose.

But it's a truth generally accepted that most real homophobes have a bit of the gay tendency in themselves, and project out at others rather than wallow in self-hate. Most heteros who are satisfied in their sexual skin don't give a damn about the variations of others. Except of course for the religious fanatics, doing their cruel evil shit again, falling back on Leviticus as though there is actually some relevance to the ranting of a three-thousand year old crank. These are the people to whom Larry Craig owes his job and his current situation. No sympathy anywhere here from me.

Everyone's sexual inclinations are varied and should be private, no business but to themselves, but the sanctimonious Republican right just has to pontificate, and thereby hangs the perfidy. And the ramifications are so obvious. They attack Bill Clinton for his marital infidelity while both Robert Livingston and Newt Gingrich, successive House speakers, are boinking on the side as well. Livingston had to resign when that was revealed. What did he think would happen? Schmuck.

One wonders what would happen if a Republican congressman actually came out as gay, as someone like Barney Frank did on the Democrat side. By putting his true self out there Frank became impervious to political sexual blackmail, even when it was revealed that he was harboring a call boy. You see, Frank was not a hypocrite. He was honest. Honestly. And he's still in Congress, doing very well.

I am glad though, that as of this moment, Larry Craig has reneged on his initial urge to quit in shame. He won't run again, obviously, but in staying in office he can at least make the statement that neither being gay, nor being caught in flagrant delicto, are grounds for resignation. Our nation has to get off its problems with consensual sexual activity of any nature between adults. The War goes on, Global Warming has baked Southern California and spawned massive hurricanes, but the country is still gaga over a potential hand job in a Minnesota commode.