Swing And A Long Drive, Deep Left Field, That Ball Is Outta Here...

RIP to a great broadcaster and also a colleague, Harry Kalas.

I grew up listening to Kalas on Phillie games, but when I worked for a year at NFL Films, I got to work with him on Inside the NFL. The voiceover system at NFL Films could be best described as primitive; you would sit in the booth with Kalas, and when the VO line needed to be read, you would tap him on the shoulder. I remember the very first time I had to go into the booth with him, and it was another dreary September for the Phils, and I asked him who was pitching that night, and in his signature style, he intoned, "That would be that Mike Grace." Just perfect if you knew Harry and his voice. I didn't have a long working relationship with him, but I'll certainly miss him.

Mark "The Bird" Fidrych died today as well.

Pfightin' Phils

I'll get to Obama's infomercial in the morning, but for now a tip of the cap to the Phillies. The last time they won a championship I was 7. I remember the fireworks going off while I was sitting in bed. When I called home to the folks tonight, the M-80s were going off again.

Philadelphia revolves so much around sports, and they've been continually frustrated and disappointed for a quarter-century. Good to see the local boys win for a change. Although the biggest point of concern for the fans going into the evening was whether or not beer sales would be suspended after the 7th inning, since it was the resumption of a suspended game. But hey, they deserve it.

This has been the obligatory monthly sports post.

They Could Manage To Cover FISA If They Wanted

I sympathize with this lament about the absurdity of Congress spending hours' worth of hearings trying to discern whether or not Roger Clemens injected steroids into his ass, really I do. And I agree that it should be the last thing on any Congressional agenda.

But clearly the reason it was scheduled in the first place is that it's one of the only hearings in the last several years that was televised live on all the cable networks. I mean, you've got the 9/11 Commission, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices, and steroids. They televised the Rafael Palmiero one live, too. More than anything, Congresscritters want face time to show that they're doing the people's business. So I don't necessarily fault Henry Waxman for holding one hearing on this among the hundreds of others about waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and the federal government. I fault the cable networks for picking this one to highlight.

Also, any hearing that can get Mike and the Mad Dog to come out against a Republican has at least some residual benefit.

Mad Dog: "Here's the thing about Shays. I'm gonna go out of my way in November. We're gonna get him the hell out of Connecticut. We're gonna get Himes in there."

A lot of Connecticut voters listen to the 'FAN on their commute.

The thing is, what should you root for - high ratings, so that the execs decide that Congressional hearings are good theater and cheap to produce, and they'll show more of them, or low ratings, so that the incentive to show meaningless Congressional hearings is taken away? I'm not sure.

Go Fightins

The obligatory monthly sports post highlights the Phillies, perennial losers (they're the only franchise with 10,000 of them) who had a killer September and capped off one the greatest comebacks in baseball history today. Now I'm hoping for a Padre win tomorrow so I can go down to San Diego for a playoff game (San Diego D-Day fans, chime in with your hook-ups). I remember working in a diner the last year they were decent, in 1993, and they were something like 15 games in front in the division, and I asked a patron "How about them Phillies," and he replied "I'm waiting for the other show to drop." This is the mentality of the Philadelphia sports fan, and yet they seem completely enamored of this year's Phils. After seeing the Red Sox and White Sox end long championship droughts in recent years, maybe some good things will happen for Philly in the playoffs. We deserve it.

My Monthly Obligatory Sports Post

Good for Barry Bonds. I've never liked the guy as a player, but there's one important thing to note here. Baseball isn't football. Brute strength is not an automatic guarantee of success. It may give you a few more homers a year, but home-run hitting is about bat speed and reading pitchers. It's not like Barry Bonds hits 302-foot shots that barely clear the wall thanks to his new-found pumped-up-itude. He hits towering shots and he did so before he bulked up. I have no doubt he used steroids and that's a violation of current rules. But it doesn't mean he's not a great athlete.

(Actually, the biggest factor in increased hone run output in the past two decades, I would argue, is the expansion to 30 teams and the dilution of the talent pool, particularly pitchers who shouldn't be in the major leagues pitching to the likes of Barry Bonds.)

Play Ball!

But not the President, because he doesn't want his feelings hurt.

For the second straight year, reports the Washington Post, President Bush has turned down an invitation to participate in a Washington baseball tradition started by President William Howard Taft in 1910.

Mr. Bush was there in 2005, to help celebrate the return of the nation's pastime to the nation's capital after a 33-year absence, but last year he left the first-pitch duties to Vice President Cheney. This year, neither man will be there.

The Post says that except for during World Wars I and II, only two other presidents have missed two opening days in a row – Woodrow Wilson and Richard Nixon.

So why can't Mr. Bush, an ardent baseball fan and former part owner of the Texas Rangers, make it out to the ballpark this year? A White House spokeswoman says Mr. Bush will be in Washington today, but "it's not possible with his schedule. … It just wasn't going to work out."

With the president's approval ratings stuck below 40 percent, was Mr. Bush concerned that he might get booed? "No," the spokeswoman said. "Certainly not."

More like "just above 30% than under 40%, but the implication is clear: The President doesn't want to hear the rabble, so he'll throw out the first pitch in the White House bowling alley with Rove and Hughes and Rice cheering him on. And Bush is such a small man, that not being able to throw out the first pitch must be killing him. He was a baseball owner. This is what he lives to do, these crappy photo-ops. He'd rather throw a baseball than face the soldiers at Walter Reed, a photo-op he ended up cutting short.

He wants to play dress-up and look like a hero. But this emperor has no clothes, so he can't. That's gotta hurt.