The Weak In Rock

For some reason last night as I watched game 3 of the World Series drag on and on I got this odd feeling when I saw that Geoff Blum had been brought into the game as part of a double-switch. When I heard he’d be batting third in the next inning I said to myself, “wouldn’t it be funny if he hit the game-winning run,” which he, in fact, did.

It’s one of those ironic moments that seem to happen an awful lot in baseball. Blum was the starting third baseman for the Astros who got displaced by Morgan Ensberg and then shuffled all over creation, from the Devil Rays, to the Rockies to the Padres and finally ended up on Ozzie Guillen’s bench with the White Sox. Who better to knock one out of the park against his former team?

I’d originally said it would be White Sox in 6 games. Now I’m thinking they’ll win it all tonight.

So, the headline over at ESPN.com says this:

Astros first W.S. team in 52 years without black player

Um, has anyone looked at Willy Taveres lately? Dude’s not exactly white.

The point of the article I get - that there are no US-born African-Americans on the Astros’ World Series roster. And yes, that would be troubling if you were, say, Joe Morgan, a prominant US-born African-American Hall Of Fame residing former MLB star. Of course on the other hand Joe Morgan is also troubled by the Designated Hitter rule and spends a third of every ESPN broadcast he’s involved in describing one player after another as a “good fastball hitter.” One wonders if anyone has ever mentioned to Joe that no one makes it into the big leagues unless he’s a “good fastball hitter.” One wonders.

Anyway, yes, there are fewer and fewer US-born black players in professional baseball. Why this puzzles anyone at all is beyond me. Blacks in the US live, primarily, in the big cities. When was the last time you saw a baseball diamond in the vicinity of a black neighborhood in a big city in the US? The largest city proximate to where I live, San Francisco, has ball fields, but they’re in the more affluent neighborhoods, and even those are poorly maintained. In Oakland, with the largets black population in the bay area I have seen a grand total of one ball field, and it was in terrible shape.

Even in the suburb I live in there are very few baseball diamonds. There’s one community park with several well-maintained diamonds, but it’s specifically set up for organized Babe Ruth league, little league and adult organized softball use. The one informal diamond near where we live is rutted and torn up something fierce. What do kids use it for? Kickball. Why? Because it’s on school grounds and baseball is dangerous.

If you look at where the white American players in MLB come from an inordinate number of them hail from the San Diego area. On a business trip to San Diego a few years ago I peered out the window of the plane and counted no fewer than 90 baseball diamonds. That was only what I could see from one side of the plane. The abundance of facilities and year-round baseball-conducive weather in San Diego make it easy to be a home-grown baseball player in San Diego. This is not true of New York, Detroit, Chicago, Washington D.C., or any of the other cities with large black populations where winter shuts down most outdoor activities for more than half the year. A lack of decent places to play the game and weather that doesn’t welcome pick-up games will spoil a kids interest in any sport. So why be surprised when more and more players come from the DR, Venezuela, the Dutch Antilles or other ports of call here the weather stays warm all year.

I’ve said it here before, so I’m not exactly sure why I’m surprised, but damn are my countrypeople stupid.

According to a survey conducted by CBS News:

Fifty-one percent of Americans say God created humans in their present form, and another three in 10 say that while humans evolved, God guided the process. Just 15 percent say humans evolved, and that God was not involved.

Folks, this is, frankly, just retarded. If anyone wants an explanation as to why the USA is “at war” with Islamic Fundamentalist nutjobs your answer is right there - this is a nation of ignorant Christian Fundamentalist nutjobs.

Maybe it was my years of studying at a Catholic college or perhaps my reasonably enlightened family, but I find no difficulty in accepting that life on earth got here through a pretty complex (actually, massively complex) process of nearly random events and that knowing this in no way interferes or should interfere with any kind of religious belief. Maybe it’s my love of literature that allows me to understand and appreciate instructive metaphors, like those found in the Bible, and not have to take them as literal, factual truth.

My point of view is that if your faith in God rests on every word of the Bible being literally and factually accurate then you really don’t have much faith at all.

Regardless, since we’re obviously a painfully illiterate and moronic society I’m beginning to think George Carlin is right and we ought to dump our current justice and prison system in favor of good old fashioned crucifiction. Want to reduce the crime rate? Fine, anyone found guilty of any infraction against the community gets nailed up on the outskirts of town.

Here’s a very concise and balanced assessment of why the Plame leak matters at Strategic Forecasting.

A couple of money quotes…

When it is revealed that you were a NOC, foreign intelligence services begin combing back over your life, examining every relationship you had. Anyone you came into contact with becomes suspect. Sometimes, in some countries, becoming suspect can cost you your life. Revealing the identity of a NOC can be a matter of life and death — frequently, of people no one has ever heard of or will ever hear of again.

and here…

Imagine, if you will, working in Damascus as a NOC and reading that the president’s chief adviser had confirmed the identity of a NOC. As you push into middle age, wondering what happened to your life, the sudden realization that your own government threatens your safety might convince you to resign and go home. That would cost the United States an agent it had spent decades developing. You don’t just pop a new agent in his place. That NOC’s resignation could leave the United States blind at a critical moment in a key place. Should it turn out that Rove and Libby not only failed to protect Plame’s identity but deliberately leaked it, it would be a blow to the heart of U.S. intelligence. If just one critical NOC pulled out and the United States went blind in one location, the damage could be substantial. At the very least, it is a risk the United States should not have to incur.

And one last quote…

But even if we regard the press as unethical by our standards, their actions were not illegal. On the other hand, if Rove and Libby even mentioned the name of Valerie Plame in the context of being a CIA employee — NOC or not — on an unsecured line to a person without a security clearance or need to know, while the nation was waging war, that is the end of the story. It really doesn’t matter why or whether there was a plan or anything. The minimal story — that they talked about Plame with a reporter — is the end of the matter.

My two cents - If Rove and/or Libby outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, regardless of the motivation for doing so, they broke the law and should be prosecuted. Time and the NY Times should also take a very hard look at their editorial oversight functions and give a long hard think how they plan to control irresponsible reporting in the future. The article I’ve linked to above points out that while what the reporters involved in this case did is not illegal it is probably unethical. Outing an intelligence operative, while it may seem like a very sexy story, is irresponsible reporting. The public was not served by these reports. On the contrary, who knows how much damage was done to the US intelligence network Valerie Plame was connected to by her identity being published.

Thanks to Fark for the link.

Read this story in the Seatle Post Intelligencer and if you’ve got insurance through Farmer’s, and a heart, cancel your policy now and tell them that you’d be happy to reconsider doing business with them if they respond in an ethical way to the Ethel Adams situation: The Seattle Times: Local News: Crash victim’s insurer should have a heart

Farewell Red Sox and your odious fans. And thank you Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox. I really couldn’t have stood watching Boston play any more games in this year’s postseason.