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November 30, 2003
Thoughts after a holiday weekend
Thoughts after a holiday weekend full of events:
1) The Red Sox signed Curt Schilling. I'm of two minds on this deal. From an on-the-field perspective, I am thrilled. Schilling is a bona-fide horse - an innings eater who wants the ball deep into games; a power pitcher who will strike out 250-300 a year; a born competitor with a history of success against the Yankees. Martinez-Schilling-Lowe gives the Sox as potent a 1-2-3 as anyone in the league. Theo Epstein and the Sox ownership have sent a very clear signal that they have every intention of doing whatever it takes to beat Steinbrenner and the hated Yankees - and I have to admit, I like that gumption.
That said, I have some serious misgivings about what this means off the field. For years, I have raved about how evil the Yankees are and how the only reason they win is because of the money they spend - and how their free-spending ways are ruining baseball by eliminating small-market teams from budget contention. Hearing the Schilling news this week, I was reminded of Kevin Costner's unmistakeably melodramatic monotone in "The Untouchables," when he is bemoaning having to stoop to Capone's level of violence in order to beat him. "I have become all that I have foresworn." I could almost hear Sean Connery angrily berating Theo Epstein. "Ya wanna know how ya get Steinbrenner? One of his guys pulls a Boone, you pull a Williamson. He gets a Sheffield, you get a Schilling. THAT'S how you get Steinbrenner!"
What we rapidly have evolving is Major League Baseball's very own version of the Cold War. Just like in the real one, we have "good guys" whose hearts are in the right place, and we have an Evil Empire. However - also just like in the real one - the good guys are so blinded by the evil on the other side that they seem to have adopted a "whatever it takes to win" policy that disregards any damage their actions may do to the rest of the world. America overthrew democratically elected governments in Guatamala and Chile, and supported brutal dictators in Iran and Indonesia. Boston is ratcheting up the budget and spending whatever they must in order to beat the Yankees. American foreign policy turned much of the world against Americans during the Cold War, and brought billins of people worldwide with us as we played dangerous games of brinkmanship; Boston's behavior is exacerbating the problems that MLB has with the distribution of money. Small market teams have less chance than ever of competing for the best talent; the only difference now is that instead of ONLY the Yankees spending money, now we have only the Yankees and the Red Sox. We've become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
During the Cold War, world events were dictated by the United States and the Soviet Union, with the rest of the world simply along for the ride. In Major League Baseball, it appears that events will be dictated by the Red Sox and Yankees, with the rest of the league solely along for the ride. The fact that the Sox are wearing the white hats in this battle of good vs. evil is of little comfort to me; the overall situation is still Mutual Assured Destruction, as far as I am concerned. Baseball needs to do something to limit spending so that all teams can compete. Otherwise, the Yankees - and now the Red Sox - will simply continue to buy pennants year after year.
2) Thursday was one of the saddest days in American history - and one of the most telling.
George W. Bush is getting a lot of political mileage out of the alleged "bravery" he showed in going to Iraq to visit our troops. Sure, I'll concede you this point: a Commander-in-Chief's job is to visit and show support to his troops, on location, where they are. Dwight Eisenhower went to Korea; LBJ went to Vietnam; Bill Clinton went to Kosovo, and nearly every president since the Korean War has made a visit - and gotten a photo op - at the Korean DMZ. So as much utter disdain and disgust that I have for George Bush, I cannot and do not fault him for visiting the troops in Iraq. Even though everything this president does involves showboating of some sort, this trip was by and large a part of his duty as the president.
What no one is paying attention to is the WAY the visit happened. Bush's Thanksgiving Day trip was a monumental admission of failure on a grand scale, and it seems to be escaping mass attention.
Every other US president who has visited our troops in a combat zone has been able to acknowledge that they were visiting. The operational details of the trip were of course secret, but everyone knew he was coming. Clinton announced he was going to the Balkans. LBJ told the world a month out about his impending trip to Vietnam. Hell, Eisenhower *campaigned* on the promise he would go to Korea - he told the world that the US President was going to Korea several months *before* he was even president.
But not this time. George W. Bush had to sneak into Baghdad in the cover of darkness, not telling anyone as he crept through the back door to Iraq like a thief in the night. The official explanation was security concerns... but Korea was an active war zone when Eisenhower went; the Vietnam War was raging when LBJ arrived in Saigon; Clinton walked into an active war zone in Kosovo. Each time, we were able to tell the world we were coming. In years past, American prestige was such that it was a mark of pride - not shame - that the President was visiting, and we didn't have to hide and sneak around like cowards.
In 2003, after nearly three years of buffoonish, clownlike, arrogant behavior on the part of this president and his administration, marked by mistake after mistake, international anger with the United States runs so high that *this* president had to hide his intentions. The visit of an American president to his troops is no longer a badge of honor, it's a scarlet letter. It's something to be hidden, snuck in the back door in the middle of the night. The fact that the world wasn't told of Bush's trip until he was already well on his way back to Crawford illustrates that even the president's handlers understand that his foreign policy has been such a failure, and has made him so hated around the world, that the leader of the United States of America cannot travel freely and of his own will in this world anymore. We must take extensive security precautions and sneak him into countries in the dead of night. We must treat the President of the United States like an illicit mistress or whore whom we're sneaking in the back door of the hotel while the wife sleeps soundly at home.
Thursday was a colossal admission of failure on the part of George W. Bush, and it was a sad day for our country. Thanks, Dubya.
