Reviews

In a Horrible Time, Talking Baseball and Politics

8/2/2019

Memories: Ed Charles, 1969 World Series. President Obama, in his office.

(I wrote the following Mets/Democrats piece before the horrors of last weekend, and the ensuing hypocrisy in a country that cannot deal with the proliferation of weapons of war, in the hands of racists, surely touched off by the president. Is there room or excuse for musing about reality-show "debates" and a baseball team?)
* * *
I am a Mets fan and I am a Democrat.
I believe these masochistic traits are linked.

The Mets, as I typed this, were on a seven-game winning streak. I was not fooled. This will not go anywhere. The rock will fall down the hill. On our heads. And indeed, they got whacked Friday night in Pittsburgh.

The Democrats are currently not on any kind of winning streak. You saw it.

Both loyalties involve short Dionysian moments of glory and long Appollonian decades of suffering.

In other words, the 1969 Mets were John F. Kennedy and the 1986 Mets were Barack Obama.

This temporary joy goes way back. In the first year of the Mets, 1962, a pitcher named Jay Hook, great guy, pitched a good game and likened it to picking cherries – some are sour, but then you bite into a sweet cherry, and that keeps you going.

In the years to follow, the Mets discarded Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis and Tom Seaver and Justin Turner. They once traded Len Dykstra and Roger McDowell for a mope named Juan Samuel.

At the moment, the Mets are being run by a reforming agent and a former pitching coach. Somehow management avoided the Metsian impulse to blow it all up and start over. At the trading deadline, they kept their good pitchers and have won seven straight. I do not expect it to last.

I was prepared to suffer with the Mets by a childhood rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who signed Jackie Robinson in 1947. They did the right thing.
I was also raised to believe the Democrats tried to take care of people. They did the right thing.

Now the Dems are trying to find a candidate who can beat The Worst Person in the World. They paraded 20 candidates on stage on Tuesday and Wednesday, like some laboratory experiment involving small furry animals, who immediately set upon each other with teeth and claws.

The worst thing was watching some young wannabes whacking away at old Joe Biden, fair enough, but then linking it to the Obama regime, which I found offensive and self-defeating.

I could not tell how much of that act was posturing and how much was real. It was horrible to watch, but I watched, because…because….I am also a Mets fan. I know how to suffer.

Okay, it was summer TV fare. You know how icky summer TV is. It did not count. It did not happen. (I was relieved to see that the entire country – everybody! – reacts to Mayor de Blasio the way New Yorkers do.)

My main reaction to this summer reality show is that I like Mayor Pete (“He ain’t failed yet,” as Casey Stengel used to say about The Youth of America, that is, young hopefuls) and that Elizabeth Warren is the most knowledgeable and most passionate candidate. She is 70 and has the energy of a 45-year-old. She is from Oklahoma and has experienced deprivation.

And as somebody wrote in a letter to the NYT today, if Trump stalks Warren on stage the way he did to Hillary Clinton, Warren has the street smarts, the sense of self, to point to his corner of the stage and say, “Down, boy,” or worse.

But one thing I have learned in a life of noble causes: stuff happens.

Alex Seiler

8/2/2019 03:27:38 pm

So delighted and gratified to find your column. Years of looking forward to pieces on soccer, sports, dreaded steinbrenner and more are remembered and appreciated! Thanks.

George Vecsey

8/2/2019 04:15:41 pm

Dear Alex Seiler: Thanks for noticing. Yes, this is my little therapy web site. Been retired eight years (!) and don't write for NYT these days; so I write a bit more personally. Comments (pro or con) always welcome.
GV

Ed Martin

8/2/2019 04:36:43 pm

George, how could a fellow sufferer, (note: I did not say, “fellow traveler,” although Inexpect we have been called that, as well).
Dodger fans learned to suffer. I saw a game in 1941, Lost WS. In 1942 I was ecstatic as Brooks we’re winning, then blew a big lead in August, winning 104 of 154, and losing to the Cardinals who streaked to 106. In 1946, my first real multi game year, the Dodgers lost to the Cardinals in a two-game playoff. 47 bought Jackie and a pennant, bust the Dam Yankees won the “Serious,” same in 49. This was the worst of times, in 50 the Phillies won on the season’s last day. In 51 B.Thompson hit his “Chinese Home Run.” And “So it goes,” as Kurt Vonnegut wrote so profoundly. As frustrating as the Mets have been, the heartbreak of youth was worse. I was thinking of Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, David Cone, as well as Juan Samuel, a Fair second baseman, playing baseball Russian roulette in Center Field with fly balls.

About the Dems, I won’t watch until the ninth inning in a tie game.

As my one-time boss used to say, “Keep the Faith!”

Gene Palumbo

8/2/2019 10:25:09 pm

"...linking it to the Obama regime, which I found offensive and self-defeating." Yes. See also: Timothy Egan's op ed in the Times: "Worst Democratic Strategy Yet: Attack Obama’s Legacy;
Rather than effectively prosecute the easy case against the worst president ever, the Democrats went after one of the best." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/opinion/democratic-debate-obama.html

bruce

8/3/2019 02:50:43 am

george,

the 'debate' format is ridickless.

shallow, mostly heat with little light.

wednesday's group outshone thursday's.

we seem to think alike about a few things....koufax and gibson plus my thought was that warren and mayor pete look good as a ticket but there's a long way to a go.

and many of the 'folks' might be suspicious of a very smart woman and a young gay guy who speaks too many languages--not just 'amerikan.

harris was subdued, but i'd like to see her on stage with trump.

and, as a non american, i will opine the whole socialist hysteria is, at best, infantile.

it's awful in the true north strong and free....by being born here we can expect a life expectancy between 2-3 years longer than the usa--the horror is that it has to be spent in canada, eh!, lower infant mortality rates, national health care for everybody at a much lower per capita charge, a decent maternity/paternity plan, no capital punishment, a more civilized way to choose a supreme court justice, no gerrymandering and not as many nutbars with guns.

after saying the above, we ain't alone in those things.

unfortunately, you know as a citizen of the world, that we sacrifice out freedom for our socialist paradise, but ya know ya can't have everything.

and, finally, on a baseball note....mets have a winning streak going but stroman might be able to break it for you today.

bruce

Alan Rubin link

8/5/2019 06:22:58 pm

George, contrary to your reflexive pessimism about the Mets, I believe that they will make a run for it. They are currently fairly close to the wildcard slot.

As for the debates, they are not much more than a verbal pillow fight or a dodge-ball game in the gym. Except for a few who are trying to explain their policies and what they would hope to accomplish as president, it all about one up-man ship and got you moments.

A higher bar should have been used initially so that the “never should have been included” crowd could have been avoided.

Each debate should encompass no more than two topics, although thoroughly examining one would be fine. Any answer not related to the question should be stopped, thus making the candidate stay on topic.

Other than the topic, there should not be any questions from the moderator(s). Their function should be to keep the discussion on topic.

Any candidate who shines in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate should be a respectable candidate for president.

My gut reaction to when Trump was circling behind Clinton during their debate was that she should have asked him, why are you stalking me from behind? It should have surprised him and put him on the defensive. Many voters would have related to it.

Clinton was much too cautious during her campaign. She went to every section of NY during her first Senate campaign for small intimate conversations. These were very well received and the voters got to know the person.

It always helps to be yourself as voters like sincerity.

bruce

8/5/2019 07:03:30 pm

alan,

i always enjoy your posts.

clinton was an awful candidate.

snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

you're right about being too cautious. she wasn't 'playing' to win. she was playing not to lose.

not a great campaigner.

she was favoured to win in 2008 but couldn't beat a man who was as gifted as obama tho she was favoured.

then, after a tougher fight than expected, she beat sanders to win in 2016

then lost to a man who brought out the worst in americans.....or at least enough of them to win the electoral college, which is all that mattered.

finally, your president's speech today was, to say the least, mealy mouthed.

he couldn't give a sincere speech via teleprompter if his life depended on it.

bruce.

Josh Rubin

8/6/2019 08:05:00 am

Somehow they've climbed over .500 (the Mets, not the Dems). I'm still not snookered.

Robert Wood

8/7/2019 04:48:22 pm

Watched every day of this year's Tour de France; it was wonderful because there was no clear favorite. Then decided to read Tyler Hamilton's 2012 book, "The Secret Race." Then remembered your column of disappointment about him. Then decided to see how you are doing, since I was always a fan of your sports writing.

See, six degrees of separation explains everything in life. So, how are you these days? Well, I hope.

George Vecsey

8/8/2019 02:50:37 pm

Dear Robert Wood: How nice to hear from you. I hope you check back on this site to see my response. I'm good -- blessed, really -- and still in touch with some readers who remember my work for the NYT.
I've told my friend Randolph, who writes in on this site, that I couldn't tune into the Tour this year, my head in too many different places. I have such great memories of covering the Tour -- even with doping as the main subject -- and we love France, but it's something we used to do, drive around in the Tour's press motorcade, and I can't do personal nostalgia at the moment. As for Tyler Hamilton: I feel connected to him because I saw him ride in 2004 or 5, with a cracked collarbone taped in place. Finished the run that day, somewhere east, near Reims, great show of courage. When the media waited outside the team trailer, he came out and talked to us in a mad scrum -- and I was right up front -- and the mob pushed me into Hamilton and I saw him wince in pain. I felt terrible. So I feel connected. Maybe that's why I was disappointed in his lies that came out later. I didn't feel the same way about Lance, of course. He was a fascinating guy, and a great rider, but as my wife said a few times, "He knows that you know." (Press had no proof at that time.) Somehow I thought Hamilton was different, better. Maybe that explains my different reactions. Seems like a long time ago...and was. Thanks for your note. Glad to see your comment here., GV

Robert Wood

8/8/2019 03:21:49 pm

Thanks,George. Very nice to hear from you, and glad to know you're well.

I actually read your commentary about the Dems and the Mets this time, and your consternation over the so-called debates. I've been reading Jill Lepore's excellent book, "These Truths," and she sheds some light on the debate formats we see today.

I didn't know that, before the Reagan administration, the primary debates were conducted by non-profits, like the League of Women Voters. The Reagan folks wanted the commercial broadcast networks to handle them instead, and made that happen.

From that point on, the "debates" have become less helpful to viewers, but infinitely more profitable to the ratings-driven broadcast media. Today's circus atmosphere is the result.

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In a Horrible Time, Talking Baseball and Politics

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