Digby has a lovely piece. Go read.
Category: The American Game
The fan
by Susie
I could make a joke that every Mets fan is a blind Mets fan, but I did love this little story.
What baseball does to the soul
America’s favorite pastime
Ah, spring! Todd Snider with a song about Dock Ellis’s no-hitter on LSD:
Pitchers and catchers
Well, at least there’s that. Go, Phillies!
Marlins
I think they’ll find that the building of the stadium as a quasi-public work had more to do with who got the bond and insurance deals:
For two decades now, Major League Baseball has funded its rise from corporate slacker to gilded cash cow on the backs of taxpayers bullied into building new stadiums. It’s a marvel the government took so long to sniff out the rot that emanates from these deals, though not much of a surprise that the Miami Marlins were the target when they did.
The Security and Exchange Commission on Thursday launched guided warheads at the Marlins, requesting the team’s financial records, communications with MLB officials including commissioner Bud Selig, minutes of meetings with local government leaders and political campaign-contribution information, according to a report in the Miami Herald.
While the subpoenas issued by the SEC do not explicitly detail the purpose of the investigation, the feds’ motives are evident: They want to understand how, exactly, a group of county commissioners agreed to fund 80 percent of the Marlins new stadium, which cost more than $600 million, without ever seeing the team’s financial records – and whether bribes had anything to do with it.
We love you, Joe Pa
Here we are again, wondering where to draw the line between fans and fanatics, admirers and cultists, loyalty and blind obedience to the great leader. More here.
Hmm
I had no idea ball players were being kidnapped with such regularity!
Argghh
I was moaning to Amato this afternoon that I just knew Ryan Howard would lose tonight’s game for us, I just knew it. He said nah, you got Halladay, the Phillies will be fine.
But as a lifelong Philadelphian, I have a finely-calibrated nose for the stench of collapse. Oh well!
Go Fightins
Our theme song:
