A Small Ray Of Sunshine Amid The Rain From The Natural Disasters

• Mets 7-Cubs 6:

Just another ho-hum night in the lives of the New York Mets; trying desperately to screw

up their entire season with another late September swoon; getting stunning contributions from such ne'er-do-wells (or rare-do-wells) like Ramon Martinez and Robinson Cancel; having Daniel Murphy miss a sign, bunt with two strikes and strike out (which emitted a rare show of emotion from stoic manager Jerry Manuel); Ryan Church's bizarre, unintentional end-around slide that looked like the dance

John Belushi was doing at the end of Animal House; and coming back from a 6-3 eighth inning deficit to win on a Carlos Beltran single in the bottom of the ninth.
The Mets are playing with fire just about every night now; usually it's with the bullpen, but now it's become clear that Pedro Martinez is no longer able to provide anything more than six innings and (if they're lucky) four runs. It's like throwing darts at a dartboard to see which reliever to use and Manuel guessed right tonight with Joe Smith (who's usually reliable anyway). As for the appearance of the 35-year-old Ramon Martinez in the starting lineup----why not? He couldn't be any worse than Luis Castillo's been over the last month and the bloom is off the rose from the "find" made by the Mets stat-guys in Argenis Reyes. (There are generally reasons why players are relegated to the minor leagues for the majority of their careers.) There's no point in quibbling with anything as long as they win. Whatever works is going to be seen as the correct move and with the way the team is patched together with pitchers 3-14 on the staff, a win is a win is a win.

• Brewers 5-Pirates 1:

The game just ended about a minute-and-a-half ago and the Pirates are rotten. Just plain awful. The Brewers relievers did an above-and-beyond the call of duty job by keeping the game

close (admittedly against a Pirates lineup that would never be confused with the 1927 Yankees; or the 1627 Yankees----and I know they didn't exist then, that's the joke), but like the Mets, a win is a win is a win.
The problem the Brewers now have is that they have no choice but to pitch Jeff Suppan tomorrow night against the Cubs and play while the Mets are likely to get rained out. The Cubs, while resting their regulars periodically in the Mets series, didn't use Carlos Marmol last night or tonight and will undoubtedly be looking to get him some work in the Brewers series; they'll also want to make sure to play the games to win just as they did against the Mets. After the way this last month has gone, I'm not even going to speculate on what might happen this weekend with either the Brewers, Mets or Phillies. Anything can happen and I wouldn't be surprised to see a playoff game on Monday or even playoff games on Monday and Tuesday if all three end up tied----a realistic possibility.

• The incoherent Sarah Palin:

I generally don't indulge in capricious ridicule, but I'm trying to figure out what the John McCain campaign is trying to pull with Gov. Sarah Palin. They've kept her in a cocoon for a

month now, only letting her do select interviews with select reporters; keeping her under tight constraints and hoping to use her attractiveness and extreme right wing views as a shield for the fact that she's not only unqualified to be vice president, but she's incoherent, ludicrous and offensive to those that are able to look past their own agendas to accept what is best for the country.
For those that are still defending her after the video of her in church with a pastor whose sermons are far more frightening than anything Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor ever said, how is it possible to watch the two interviews that played today and still entertain the notion that she would be able to handle potentially being president of the United States in January? The brief time she spent at the podium following her tour of the World Trade Center site this afternoon showed her sticking to the basic, non-specific

talking points of "taking the fight to the terrorists over there" rather than risking another attack. That was bad enough, but the interview with Katie Couric in which Gov. Palin sounded like a twelve-year-old taking an oral exam and trying to say a whole load of nonsensical stuff in the desperate attempt to hit on a couple of the answers to the questions and score some points was inexplicable. Palin was quite literally making no sense whatsoever in her ramble about how Alaska is close to both Russia and Canada and how Russia utilizes Alaskan airspace, etc. And Katie Couric ain't exactly Mike Wallace when it comes to interviewing. At best Palin sounded incoherent and unprepared; at worst she sounded imbecilic.
Normally, this wouldn't be such a problem, but the circumstances surrounding this election make the Palin choice so dangerous that there's no way to know whether or not her blatant stupidity is going to result in a win for Obama. For all the polls that show Obama to be leading, there is always that possibility that people are saying one thing with the intention of doing another when they enter the voting booth. It may be because they're embarrassed, don't want to be seen as racist or whatever. Obama is so new, so different that it's hard to believe the polls wholeheartedly. Add in that Sen. John McCain is 72-years-old; not in the greatest of health and is evidently so desperate to get elected that he'll do and say anything to achieve that end, and this is a recipe for a dangerous disaster.
It takes a lot to frighten me, but the very idea of Sarah Palin as the president of the United

States is terrifying. She's not just inexperienced anymore; every time she opens her mouth, she's proving herself to be woefully unprepared and bottom-line uninformed and unintelligent. The incoherence of her answers in every interview she does would normally disqualify her and by proxy, the man who picked her as his running mate. I have to believe that enough secular republicans are going to look at the situation and realize that the risk is too great and vote for Obama with an eye on 2012, but that's not necessarily what's going to happen. I've made it clear that I'm not a supporter of McCain (I liked him in 2000 and this isn't the same guy), but I could live with him as president if he'd picked Mitt Romney or someone who would be a competent president. That is not the case with Sarah Palin and I can only hope that people watch the interview and put personal beliefs aside and send her back to Alaska because she's completely inept and a true danger to us all.

By Monday, Both The Mets And Phillies May Be Heading For The Playoffs

• Phillies 6-Brewers 3:

The one game the Brewers had to win was last night's; everything else for the rest of this

series was built on that. They had Ben Sheets going; they were facing a gutty, smart, but hittable pitcher in Jamie Moyer; and the Phillies were desperate and reeling knowing that they'd just lost two straight games to the Marlins and were in danger of falling five games behind the Mets in the loss column, which, last year aside, would have likely sealed their fate. Now it's official, the Brewers are in the midst of an implosion and they're going to miss the playoffs.
Despite the obvious flaws of the Phillies, they never quit. As was proven last year, they're going to fight until every last ounce of blood and sweat is left on the field; is the same true with a Brewers team that is taking on the same tight, petrified countenance of their manager, Ned Yost? After last night's favorable pitching matchup, the rest of the weekend is probably going to have at least two games in which the scores resemble something that would be analyzed on ESPN College GameDay instead of Baseball Tonight; and with the way the Brewers bullpen has detonated so many games, they're going to be in big trouble if it's close going past the seventh inning.
If Sheets wasn't able to hold down the Phillies lineup, what chance do the likes of Manny

Parra, Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan have in Citizens Bank Park? The Phillies pitching isn't all that much better, but with Cole Hamels going tonight, they have the advantage; and Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick aren't going to just give in to the Brewers bashers; plus this is a case where Phillies manager Charlie Manuel's quick hook and overuse of his bullpen will be an advantage because the Brewers won't be able to win a battle of the bullpens.
The Mets have a Braves team that doesn't have the manpower or wherewithal to be able to win more than one game this weekend; if both the Mets and Phillies take care of business, both are going to be ahead of the Brewers and both are going to be in great position to make the playoffs.
And what of the Brewers? They're going to have some tough questions to answer after the deadline deal for C.C. Sabathia; after they were rolling along and looking not only like a team that was going to make the playoffs, but a team that was primed to do serious damage in the

playoffs. I don't know any team that would want to have to deal with the prospect of Sabathia and Sheets in a short series as both are looking to pad their resumes to make even more money in free agency this winter. At this rate, with the Phillies and Astros right behind them and closing fast, they need their back of the rotation pitchers and powerful lineup to step up and carry them home; considering the way they're playing, it doesn't look like it's going to happen and this is to the advantage of both the Mets and Phillies, for whom the road to the playoffs may not have anything to do with one another after all.

• I got the skillz to pay the billz and Canada's Most Wanted:

I suppose I'll take it as a compliment that so many Blue Jays fans who've gotten all riled

up over my cold-blooded and accurate assessment of their team of the past and future think I'm an embittered Yankee fan. If anything's an indicator of my writing skills and an ability to stay neutral, it's that. To adjust a quote Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm (before it got really annoying), "I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish!"; I'm embittered, but it has nothing to do with being a Yankee fan; in fact, I'm a Mets fan, for which I think I have an ingrained right to be embittered. Good thing I didn't say anything about the Maple Leafs. (Be on the lookout for the man on the right, he's extremely dangerous and devastatingly good looking.)

• Governor Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson:

The interview hasn't played yet, but the main points are already out in the media. The objective truth about the interview and Gov. Palin herself is that the country is running the risk

of electing as the Vice President for a 72-year-old man what amounts to a pretty version of George W. Bush from the year 2000. Charming, likable and ingratiating herself to the religious right with conservative values, references to God and vague populist talking points, Gov. Palin stays on message to a remarkable degree while clearly knowing very little in depth of what she's talking about.
Those main points----war with Russia is an option to protect Georgia; she was quoting Abraham Lincoln during that speech in her church about God and the Iraq war; she hadn't the faintest idea what the "Bush Doctrine" is and what it entails----are frightening to those that are in stunned disbelief of the idea that she's capable of taking over as the President of the United States on a moment's notice.
Does she really believe that a war with Russia, which was avoided during all those years of the Cold War, is an option while this country's military is trapped in the Middle East? Is she suggesting military action to protect a small republic that is, in truth, of little import to the United States? Does John McCain believe that?
Is she expecting the public to think that she was studying the speeches of Abraham Lincoln to find quotes when referencing God as she discussed the Iraq war?
The sheer look of panic as her brain was searching for a way to stickhandle (let's use a hockey term for the hockey mom) her way around the question without having a viable answer or even a passing knowledge of what the "Bush Doctrine" is was frightening and painful to watch.
The slogan for the McCain/Palin ticket is "Country First". Is it in the country's interest to put a 72-year-old man into the oval office with another version of George Bush as his VP? As

Barack Obama says, it's enough. Enough with the bullet points; enough with the populist speeches designed to attract the masses; enough with someone who doesn't know what they're doing and tries to pass off being able to "see Russia" from the Alaskan soil as foreign policy experience. And for those that are ready to say that she has as much experience as Obama, she doesn't. Obama has been running for president for almost two years now and, with all due respect, I find it very difficult to believe that Gov. Palin is as smart and skilled as Obama. There's a very real possibility that she'll have to step in and be president very quickly and that is something that cannot be risked.
I'm very concerned that the Obama campaign is not hitting back as hard as they should against the republican campaign strategy for fear of being labeled as "sexist". If anything should awaken the voting public of the danger of having someone with no experience whatsoever as a possible commander-in-chief, it should be the anniversary of September 11th.
Amid all the remembrances should be the scene of President Bush, sitting in that school classroom for seven long minutes after being informed of the attacks and not having the faintest idea of what to do. As much as it's been spun with varying stories of the president not

wanting to alarm the children; of deliberating what to do next; of whatever reason they give for his lack of action and look on his face of sheer confusion and panic, does this country want to run the risk of putting another person of flimsy qualifications and questionable knowledge in that position? This has to be pointed out for what it is and the democrats have to take a page from the book of the republicans and point out these hard facts that the interview Gov. Palin hammered home.
The same mistake that the Gore campaign made against Bush cannot be made again. All along, I think the Gore people looked at then-Gov. Bush and thought that the public can't be taken in by this; they can't think that the Bush name recognition, support of the republican base and his likability will mask his complete

inadequacy and unpreparedness for the job. They were outhustled; they underestimated the message of Bush as it was presented in simple and easy to understand well-articulated bullet points that were designed to attract swing voters who were sick of the Clintons. They shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders and thought, "no one's gonna buy this crap", and they lost. The Obama campaign is still in a great position, but they can't repeat the mistakes of the past by being gentlemanly, because if Hillary Clinton were on the ticket, the republicans sure wouldn't.

Yankees Show Some Fight, But Is It Too Late?

• Yankees 3-Red Sox 2; "A little fight in you. I like that."

The Yankees and their defiant veterans in Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi showed some

fight (see the above quote from the Joker in The Dark Knight), but they may have just given themselves a stay of execution and, trust me when I say this because I speak from experience, it's going to be more painful for Yankee fans if this thing is prolonged any further than it has to be.
As I said the other day, I don't believe the Yankees are dead as other hypocritical voices have suggested, but it's got to be put into context what they're going to have to do to get back to even having a chance at making the playoffs as the games dwindle. They have three games with the Blue Jays, a team which (if taking on the personality of their GM, J.P. Ricciardi) would like nothing better than to drag the Yankees down into the muck of mediocrity in which they wallow; in two of those three games, they're facing A.J. Burnett, singing for his soon-to-be-free agent supper; and Roy Halladay, a relentless competitor going for a second Cy Young Award.
After that they play the Rays for the start of six games against the upstart youngsters over the final month. They'll play the White Sox, fighting for a playoff spot of their own and also in front of the Yankees in the Wild Card race; the fading Orioles; the Blue Jays again and the Red Sox for the final three games of the season which are, at this point, unlikely to mean anything to either team. Unless the Yankees take those six games with the Rays and put them in their place, they're not going to be able to even come close to the Wild Card and one way or the other, as long as their using the likes of Darrell Rasner and Carl Pavano as

starters, they can pretty much forget about the division.
Being three games behind the Twins and five behind the White Sox doesn't help matters either. The Red Sox and Rays will be playing each other six times over the next month, but that advantage for the Yankees will be non-existent because it's unlikely to cause any change in the separation between the two teams and the only way it would possibly help the Yankees would be if they won at least 22 of their remaining games and if any two of the four teams ahead of them collapsed completely, which is highly unlikely.
While it's admirable that the Yankees haven't looked at their current circumstances; that because Hank Steinbrenner has given them a free pass to look toward 2009; and the weak starting pitching that they've been forced to use three out of every five days as reasons to give up, their predicament is dire and no amount of comeback wins----even satisfying ones against the Red Sox----are going to change that reality.

• Cubs 6-Phillies 4:

With the way the Phillies bullpen gacked up the game last night against the Cubs, it's becoming clear that manager Charlie Manuel's overuse of his relievers, most of whom are

going to have to pitch in around 80 games apiece if the Phillies are going to make the playoffs, is going to come back to haunt him. With a month to go in the season, Chad Durbin looks exhausted; J.C. Romero looks hurt; and the other pitchers are scuffling as well. This battle with the Mets is going to come down to which bullpen is able to stagger to the finish line because neither team is in the greatest shape right now.
On the bright side for the Phillies, they lost to a team that looks eerily similar to the 1986 Mets. The Cubs are never out of any game because they never stop coming; never give up; and never quit grinding. This comes

directly from their manager, Lou Piniella. Mark DeRosa has quietly thrust himself into the conversation for National League MVP and they've gotten significant contributions from veterans picked up off the scrapheap in Jim Edmonds and Reed Johnson; youngsters like Jeff Samardzija; and players in different roles than before in Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster.
Their bullpen is still going to be a question going into the playoffs, but they've delivered so far and Piniella has a habit of dragging his teams further than any logical reasoning would expect them to go. One of the main reasons that Piniella never won a championship with some high-powered Mariners teams was because they kept running into the Yankees dynasty and getting knocked out of the playoffs; with no similar team in the National League, they're well on their way to the World Series if they keep playing like this.

• Nationals 11-Dodgers 2; what's wrong with the Dodgers?

Dodgers GM Ned Colletti deserves blame for some of his expensive decisions that haven't

worked----specifically Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt (remember him?); but the other veteran acquisitions he's made over the past month for Casey Blake, Manny Ramirez and Greg Maddux cannot be questioned. In Joe Torre, they have a manager with a Hall of Fame resume and proven track record of getting his teams into the playoffs no matter what; they have a large corps of young players whose legs should still be as fresh as they were in May; and they have other proven veterans like Jeff Kent and Derek Lowe who come through in the clutch; so what's wrong with this team?
I don't have an answer. The team looks lost; like they can't get out of their own way and are looking toward someone to pick them up on his shoulders and carry them over the last month. Even with all their injuries, the Dodgers should be better than 65-69 and if they intend to make the playoffs, they certainly can't be getting swept by the Washington Generals...er...Nationals.
They've been lucky because the Diamondbacks made big trades and acquisitions of their

own and can't seem to get out of their own way either, so the division is there for the taking. Ordinarily, one would look at the management of both clubs and say that the Dodgers have an advantage with the calm, steady and proven successful leadership of Torre; but now that they've lost seven in a row (including those three to the Nationals), I'm not so sure and what makes it worse is that there's not one specific thing to point to as to why they've played like this other than that they're just playing badly and as if they're in a stupor. Torre's getting the big bucks and his reputation is on the line; he'd better figure it out and quick.

• A different perspective on Barack Obama's acceptance speech:

I doubt that anyone who's been paying attention to Senator Barack Obama over the past year and a half could be surprised that he hit such a tape measure home run with his speech

accepting the Democratic nomination, but to get a different perspective and to see if he was given his due, I turned to Fox News to see what they'd say about the speech and if they were going to give Obama the deserved credit, and they did----for about a minute----until Brit Hume clumsily interjected Obama's full name into his analysis.
Referring to Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama" wasn't an accident; it was done with the implication to those watching Fox News, some of whom may be teetering on voting for Obama, that they shouldn't vote for him because his name sounds somehow "un-American"; that he has the middle name of a great "enemy" of the United States; that the unsaid rhetorical question is: "Are you really considering voting for a guy whose middle name is Hussein to be president of the United States?"
Will this work on some people? Probably. But I would also think that those who see

through this poorly executed charade would be offended at the lack of dexterity with which it was done. Some people like a little sweet talk when someone else is trying to screw them even if they're willing to get screwed; with the way Fox News handled this, it's almost more offensive than the original intent that they think so little of their viewers----conservative and not----that they didn't even try to mask their implications more smoothly.
Like it or not, there has to be a grudging respect given to someone who is so immersed in their scams and lies that they begin to believe their own crud. For a snake-oil salesman like Kevin Trudeau, who's gone from convicted credit card thief and doctor impersonator; to a TV salesman of junk that doesn't work; to

portraying himself as a leading "consumer advocate" and health adviser is a window into Trudeau's sociopathic nature; but it's also somewhat admirable that he's such a predator that he realized he might get busted and prevented from one venture (selling coral calcium as a cure all; advocating Scientology to cure drug dependancy; hawking the Atkins diet; selling a videotape for a "business" of your very own) and utilized his right to free speech to start writing books about nutrition, medications and getting out of debt. You have to tip your hat to him because he knows the system; works the system; and has a large number of people believing and buying into what he's selling.
It's a similar situation with a "spiritual medium" like John Edward (not the disgraced former Vice Presidential nominee, the guy who "talks" to the dead). His argument would be (if he

ever admitted what it is he actually does) that he's using his skills at reading people's emotions and desire for closure with departed loved ones to make them feel better about their loss and get on with their lives. His scam is so well-constructed that people believe him despite the absurdity because he, like Trudeau, never leaves character. (Here's a flash: he ain't talkin' to the dead!!!) With Fox News, there's not even an attempt to make things look "fair and balanced"; the truth is right there for those that want to see it.
This is eerily similar to the ruse put on the world that the Russian prime minister is Vladimir Putin and the president in Dmitry Medvedev and that Medvedev is in charge. When the Georgia crisis started, no one even bothered to put forth the idea that anyone other than Putin was calling the shots; that there was a "president" in running Russia as the conflict escalated; that it's unsaid but understood that Putin's still in command and Medvedev takes his orders directly from his subordinate. They tried to undo the open and insulting revelation of the ruse after a few days by thrusting Medvedev into the spotlight, but the damage was already done.

It's one thing when the true nature of the backroom operators is known to everyone but unsaid with some plausible deniability still remaining, but the openness of the partisanship is so clumsy, so lacking in deftness and so offensive that it's not even worthy or grudging respect; it's like they're saying that you the target viewers of Fox News are so stupid that it's not worth it to even bother trying to plant the seed of doubt anywhere other than in the middle of your forehead with a sledgehammer. If such a maladroit and contemptible attempt is worth any attention at all, it's because it deserves ridicule and scorn. Barack Hussein Obama indeed.