Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 214 Editor's Choice: 44
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Alex's Career Path
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The normal progression for a ballplayer is to decrease his average and speed, and increase his power and walks as he ages. A-Rod, who won a batting title at 20, picked up the power relatively early, and then moved to the Ballpark at Arlington, a great home run park, for his peak late 20's years. What is remarkable is how he has continued to hit home runs in Yankee Stadium, a terrible place for a righthander (though see what would have happened if you put him in the configuration it had during DiMaggio's career). Next year, he'll move to the New Yankee, and no one knows what that will mean.
That being said, it's hard to find evidence in his career arc of anything that would stop Alex from getting the record. He has been remarkably consistent and remarkably healthy. He has no particular holes in his game. He plays in the DH league, so he can get a rest without leaving the lineup. By moving from shortstop, he is less likely to get injured breaking up a double play. He hits behind a guy who walks 100 times a year.
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The most telling line is about fighting Muslims versus fighting India
[Read the article: Killing ourselves in Afghanistan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We have a government that believes it can coopt "allies" into performing American policy as opposed to their own. Pakistanis are far more interested in reclaiming land lost to India in 1947. Arabs are far more interested in reclaiming land lost to Israel in 1948 and 1967. This is really not rocket science. But the "grownups" in Washington don't have a freaking clue.
What bugs me is how the MSM essentially won't tell this story, and instead picks on Michelle Obama for being ashamed of America. We should all be ashamed of our government; it's put us in more peril with less power than at any time since the British were burning Washington in 1814.
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As I said with Hillary in 1998
[Read the article: The tragic fall of Eliot Spitzer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What happens between the Spitzers is nobody's business but their own. There seems to be an assumption that any act of infidelity in a marriage must inevitably and immediately lead to divorce. That may happen, but whether it does or they work it out is nobody's business but their own.
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Which way does it go?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you were to have a rule change relating to home plate collisions, it could go one of two ways: the catcher can't block the plate (and per the rule book, he can only do it when he has the ball in his glove or hand, not waiting for it, though that is no longer enforced), or the runner can't knock down the catcher. I don't see any reason why the defense should get the advantage here. Make them do swipe tags if you're going to do something.
But in fact I disagree with either of them. Spring training is training. Training is used to get players, in the heat of real games, to do what is right instinctively. If you spend March not knocking down catchers (or can only do it in intrasquad games, where you're only injuring your own catchers), then when April comes you're not ready to do it right. Yes, if you're Aaron Rowand you really shouldn't crash into a wall in a game that doesn't count, because you know how to catch a ball during the regular season and you're making the team no matter what. But if you're Charlton Jimerson, trying to be the last guy on the Mariners bench and out of options, and your role is going to be defensive outfield replacement/pinch runner, you will be running into every wall and every catcher. If you get injured, that's the price you'd pay for the chance at a major league opportunity. If you injure the other team's catcher, you'll probably get rewarded.
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The False Analogy
[Read the article: Geraldine Ferraro still needs to apologize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for Vice President by one man, Walter Mondale. It's demonstrably true that he was looking for a woman, and picked Ferraro because of her gender. He certainly didn't pick her because of her national standing, experience in campaigning, great speaking style or the correctness of her position on policy issues.
Barack Obama is running for President. He is seeking that nomination from Democratic voters, caucus attendees and superdelegates. In other words, whatever success he has is the result of millions of Americans making him their choice for President. It is undoubtedly true, but entirely irrelevant, that some of them (I should say us) do that in whole or in part because he is black.
It is irrelevant because there is no demonstrable majority or plurality of Democratics who are naturally choosing, say, a black man over a white woman, or over a white woman and innumerable white men. Ultimately, we vote for whom we vote for for our own private reasons, expressed and unexpressed.
At one point, in my lily white Seattle district, we had elected a black mayor, a black county executive, an Asian-American governor, a gay male state rep, a gay male state senator, a woman U.S. senator and I think there were no white males on the city council. This wasn't by design, but because the most attractive candidates happened to have had those particular characteristic, along with being better candidates than their opponents.
For me, Barack Obama is simply a superior presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton, for a lot of the same reasons others have suggested. That he is half African and half Irish is interesting and kind of cool, but not a big deal to me (I kind of enjoy that both our great-grandfathers were in Kenya at the same time). I don't favor Hillary, but not because she's a woman, but because she's s disappointment to me, someone who has run a campaign of fear instead of one of inspiration. Others disagree.