POLITICS: 2008 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: OBAMA 3 McCain 2



October 16, 2008



By Muggles 'I Don't Run For Nobody' Greenwood



2008 (c) Mr. Clovis Shea and Mr. Mark Stueve. All Rights Reserved.



In wednesday's third and final Presidential Debate Democratic Candidate Barack Obama defeated Republican Candidate John McCain in a close fought match by the final score of 3 to 2.



After taking an early lead, Obama was able to hold McCain's attempted late rallies off with solid defensive play and a strong left-handed bullpen. In contrast, McCain was plauged throughout with sloppy defense, committing several 'Ayres' in the field, and inconsistent right-handed pitching that was at times both wild and dangerous. After shutting down several of John McCain's late inning attempts to remount his campaign's earlier momentum, courtesy of the Palin Bounce, Obama sealed last night's victory with a Manny Ramirez two-out homerun deep into the right field bleachers.



When asked about Ramirez's late inning heroics, Obama stated, "That's just Manny being Manny."

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A celebration of sorts

In Cleveland , Ohio major league baseball is a celebration of losing traditions. Like some sorry old dog that reappears after it's drunken owner whoops on it , baseball season rolls around back here every year since the inception of the American League in 1901. Since 1901 the Cleveland American League teams entered have managed to capture the world series flag only twice , 1920 and 1948. Second place finishes are not really worth mention. Losing is losing and Cleveland professional baseball is a career study in loss. Sitting in the grandstand a few rows back from the home team dugout this past Tuesday evening's game with the Baltimore Orioles with my old pal Steinie gave me plenty of time to get a real closeup view of two last place teams " playing out the string". Both of these teams seasons are over , all that remains is the month of September for their 2008 efforts. Watching the village idiot manager Eric Wedge visit the pitching mound gave me the feeling that the creepy cabal of dunces led by Wedge and GM Shapiro have managed to take a first place team in 2007 {whose choke in the ALCS remains my favorite example of Cleveland baseball losing traditions in the 21st century } and due to their off season inactivity resulted in a 2008 cellar dwelling . Baseball demands tradition and it is insulting to watch third base coach Joel Skinner at work this season. Skinner's pivotal error in base running judgement in the 2007 ALCS would have cost him his job in any major league city save Cleveland. Losing is rewarded here. The 2008 Cleveland American League team is more akin to the high minor league teams that were fielded here in the seventies and eighties , insulting any hometown fans sober enough to notice , and led by such rank amateur players as Rick Manning and his like. The reason for attending games then was always to watch the opposing teams real baseball clubs chew up the home team. Baltimore fielded great teams who fielded competitive teams from the mid sixties through the early eighties. I recall a night game in the mid seventies that went extra innings at the old Cleveland Stadium that was approaching the American League one a.m. cutoff , that forced Brooks Robinson to come off the Orioles bench to put away the hapless Cleveland team with a pinch hit home run down the left field line that made a deafening clatter as it bounced from seat to concrete. Lights out tribe fans , home a little after one a.m. Could not have been more than a few hundred fans left in the stadium to witness Brooks walk off dinger. A few years later I attended a game at the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium after dining at Brooks restaurant a few blocks from the Baltimore stadium. The food was all right , she crab soup , crab cakes , white tablecloths good service , though the baseball fans led by upper deck leather lunged " Wild Bill Nagy " a real trip to witness. We sat in the section occupied by this local rabid Baltimore Orioles fan Nagy and were amazed by his active antics versus the lonely drumbeat metered out by the Cleveland equivalent John Addams and his incessant annoying drumming in the Cleveland Stadium bleachers. Then who would have guessed it ? The Orioles fielded competitive teams based on superb pitching and stellar defense , led by real managers , a stellar roster , and embodied by playing baseball " the Oriole Way" , described by Cal Ripkin Senior as " perfect practice makes perfect". The opposite held sway in Cleveland baseball traditions , drunkenness , wife swapping , mental illness , horrible trades , and managerial incompetence the bell weather for losing that continues to this very day in Cleveland American league baseball traditions. The last real competent field manager the Cleveland American League team hired was Al Lopez , and he was gone by the late nineteen fifties....... It is with great sadness that I take my hat off to the sad fate suffered by Detroit baseball fans in the loss of their beloved baseball architectural gem Tiger Stadium. Having watched fifty or so games at the corner of Michigan and Trumbell from it's original green colored confines to it's later blue painted interiors , I feel that this is a loss of no small matter. The upper deck " Tigers Den" seats perhaps the best in baseball. The flagpole in deep center field unique as the lower deck bleachers. The right field overhang which dated back to it's original place as the area behind home plate. The legion of half nuts fans that graced the upper deck bleachers , giving it an insane asylum on holiday air unique in baseball. I could go on. Comerica Park is a large mistake and indicative of the new generation faux intimate baseball stadiums that plague professional baseball today. I would no sooner visit Comerica park than I would revisit Camden Yards. I visited Camden Yards to watch a game in the 1993 season and witnessed the end of traditional baseball from a fans point of view. We sat in the lower grandstand of Camden Yards past the third base line towards left field and spent the game staring into right field due to the position of the seating. To view the balls and strikes or infield play meant to spend the game with the neck tilted right. Good night! Same goes for the majority of the baseball stadiums constructed since. Commerica, Progressive , Camden Yards. All the same to me. Phony and without any real heart and soul. I do not easily suffer the fool these days so attendance out of pocket at any professional baseball game played at home or on the road best come with a positive hook. No Commerica Park in my future though I sure do miss Tiger Stadium already............In this season of loss , I prefer to end on a high note. I was fortunate enough to witness Cleveland catcher Kelly Shoppach's five extra base hit performance earlier this month. Rebuilding a team like the 2008 Cleveland American League baseball team starts with a solid catcher. Shoppach might fit the bill.The 2009 is sooner than you think , and it is time to start cleaning house now from the top , Shapiro , down , Wedge. Those tow jokers , like Rick Manning and his ilk need to be excised once nad for good from this town along with the sorry racist mascot wahoo and that little stinking pinko hallucination slider. Ughh!

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Post mortem for Cleveland baseball

With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer.

But there is no joy in muttville.
Chief Wahoo hangs in effigy.
For Eric Wedge mismanaged our Tribe
He choked and lost all three.
"Say it ain't so?"

Afraid the 2007 baseball season with all it's promise is as dead as "Kelsey's nuts". Or perhaps as brain dead as Eric Wedge's 2007 post season ALCS managerial efforts. Back to school on you Eric Wedge! Bone up on your three B's. Bench , Bunt , and Bullpen.

Twenty five players suit up for your games, and you fail to utilize their talents. Shame on you Wedge! It took you until the eigth inning of the seventh and final game to have Grady Sizemore leading off lay down a bunt for a single. Sure wish you might of thought of utilizing the speed on your bench by bunting and running hard against Curt Schilling in game six.

C'mon, a forty year old pitcher on the mound for Boston and you miss the opportunity to make him field his position? Instead you turned game six into a boxing match and the Boston hitters delivered the knockout combination early on and put your team away.

No excuses for not having your bullpen up and ready in the three final games from the fourth inning on. Just what were you saving their arms for? Did you really believe C.C. Sabathia when he told you he still had gas and you sent him out to start the seventh inning in game five? Sabathia was well over one hundred pitches and it did not take a baseball Einstein to figure out he was heading for the showers.

And poor Travis Hafner having to suffer your obdurate and reckless inclusion of him as the three hole hitter while he is mired in an 0 for fourteen slump!

Give Travis a break and bat him down in the lineup and put your hottest hitter in the three slot.Mix up your lineups for heavens sake. Your predictable style of filling in your lineup card played right into Terry Francona's hand. Take up chess over the winter. All this is now water over the dam , and yeah I listened to your pathetic Wedge self offer to the tv talking head after loosing three straight , that Boston had lost three straight to begin the series. No shame Wedge , you and the Wahoo got to go.

Have a great winter , go take a long walk in the woods and consider a more cerebral manner of baseball management for next season. Your efforts expose you as the rube and boob of this post season. Shave off that ridiculous Popeye beard and stop using whatever is causing your nose to twitch like a rodent.

More than a few of us are fed up with your stodgy managerial style and it is high time you are called out on the carpet. In the baseball off season or "hot stove league" as it was once known, a great way to while away an evening while dreaming of spring training is curled up with a book in your lap.

We can suggest two that can help chase away the off season blues. First Lee Allen's THE HOT STOVE LEAGUE, or if you are in the mood to celebrate the last Cleveland American League World Series Championship Franklin Lewis THE CLEVELAND INDIANS, will fit the bill.

In all fairness the 2007 Cleveland baseball season was more than it promised in its snowy April infancy. The post season victory over the New York American League team featured great pitching and play worthy of celebration.

The Boston Red Sox choke difficult to swallow.Those of us born in Cleveland since 1948 have never had the occasion to celebrate a World Series championship season with the Cleveland baseball club. 2007 seemed as good a chance as any for this rare sporting occasion.

Tough to be left at the altar , and tougher to suffer an embarrassingly complacent manager in Wedge , not even strong enough to argue Kenny Lofton's being tossed "out" by Manny Rameriz in the critical early innings of game seven. Chemistry changes from season to season on a baseball team , and I do not see the Cleveland American League team returning to the post seson anytime soon.

Hats of to Zagreb Meats on Saint Clair Avenue, Milan, Sue, Larry, Rie, Drew , Deb, and all the other faithful. John, Kim, and Slim. My wife Deb , my brothers and our Mother, and all the other Cleveland baseball fans who felt that 2007 could have been a special year.

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Silent autumn

near perfect day. Sunshine and seventy five degrees. Tribe advances to 2007 American League Championship series by way of hardscrabble Bronx Indian trail. Ball yard in the Bronx good for one last postseason pennant chase in 2008, then reduced to a sad rubble pile as new New York stadium opens in 2009.

Victor Martinez hit the game winning home run in the 2007 all star game and with the AL victory in this event comes the home team advantage in the 2007 World Series.

A best of seven series between the Tribe and the talented and dangerous Boston Red Sox will determine the AL Champs and who will progress to the West in the 2008 World Series chase. Boston's two aces in Beckett and Schilling match up well with the Tribe's Sabathia and Carmona. Boston the edge on paper with a powerful offense, and recent WS rings.

Tribe batters no slouches in postseason run production however, and look for relief pitching and managerial capability from both teams to factor in the ALCS outcome. Hunch it will go the full seven games and be some damn exiting baseball. High time for Victor Martinez and his Tribe to claim the 2008 World Series home field advantage by claiming this tater prize.

Go Tribe!

Hey Cookman!

Hard to believe the weather up here on the south shore of Lake Erie in early October. A veritable unseasonal heat wave. Tomatoes planted on Memorial Day still giving ripe fruit, and a great way to serve these heirloom tomatoes is in a bit more sophisticated version of a shrimp cocktail.

1. Procure two pounds of fresh not frozen 10 - 16 to a pound wild , not farm raised shrimp and steam them in one cup white vinegar, a shot of Tabasco or commercial hot sauce , and one cup fresh cold tap water with a good measure of commercial crab or shrimp boiling spices , until done , about three to five minutes.

2. Drain, peel, devain and chill the shrimp, leaving tails intact.

3. Easiest choice for spices is to grab a can of Old Bay Seasoning.

4. Dice or quarter your fresh tomatoes and combine with a generous amount of horseradish, to taste, and yet another shot of hot sauce.

5. Drape chilled shrimp in a fancy fashion over the edges of a crystal or glass serving bowl placing the tomato and horseradish sauce in the bowl, shrimp with their tails at the ready for the greedy food snappin' fingers that will follow.
6. Serve with ripe haas avocado sections, celery spears, oyster crackers, lemon wedges, hot sauce, and more horseradish to taste.

7. Serve with a cold beverage, close your eyes, and feel summer creep back into a silent early autumn day.

Rachel Carson along with Aldo Leopold did more to raise the postwar ecological conscientious in these United States of America than any other citizens. Both served early alarm warnings concerning the human impact on Natures realm, and the inherent consequences of our collective actions.

When I spot an American Eagle wild in nature around these south Lake Erie shores we can thank Rachel Carson in her ground breaking SILENT SPRING, for her examination of the use of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides and their effect on the fabric of species of flora, fauna, avian, and all other natures living web of life that an industrial society can interact with.

A decrease in the domestic usage of ddt allowed the American Eagle Deb and I spotted this spring in an old growth tree on the north side of Euclid Avenue across from the Cleveland Clinic to fly around this urban street corner looking to establish a rookery.

Having never viewed an Eagle in the wild in the southern Lake Erie region until well into the 1980's, and being familiar with their form from viewing them in California and the American west I can now offer this advice.

Look up sometimes while near a body of water and you might be fortunate to spot this reestablished white cowled avian wonder. Symbol of our National pride, viewed while perched or hunting is always a good omen.

Perhaps we should rename the Cleveland American League baseball team THE CLEVELAND EAGLES, sure sounds a whole lot sexier than gnats, Tribe, Naps, or Spiders!

Send your suggestions!

A tip of the fedora to all the bald eagles out there , John , Kim, and Slim , and a good night blessing to my recently deceased friend Harry Barber, a true gentleman of the old school, wisecracker of jokes , trencherman with a prodigious appetites for meats and potatoes, veteran of world war two, Dear Father of my lifelong friend Cindy Barber, all around good egg and sport.

You are missed Harry, and in our thoughts daily!

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Game Three - A new day dawns

and all of the baseball fans who wandered here to watch their beloved NY AL team loose two to the upstart 2007 Cleveland AL team are all rested up and ready to view a spirited third game played this evening in the old Bronx ballyard up near Arthur Avenue.

Good luck fans!

A crafty future hall of famer Roger Clemens takes the mound for the hometeam against a working man middle rotation starter for the visitors in Jake Westbrook. Irrespective of Clemens or Westbrooks outings this evening, NY AL slumbering bats will awaken, and the hometeam will win this evening.

Not so much the fabled "pride" often associated with the NY AL team, as much as saving face considering their current 2007 postseason team batting average of .121. will result in a fourth game in the 2007ALDS , and more likely than not a fifth game.

Friday evening's victory for the Cleveland AL team simply stated a masterpiece complete game for starter Fausto Carmona trumping the superb scoreless seven innings tossed by Andy Pettitte. Then came the Canadian soldiers to the rescue, extra innings, and finally sweet victory.

It was a pleasure to attend this pivotal game in person, due to the good graces of a fellow terminal baseball habitue, who laughed up his sleeve and broke into a rousing version of " Oh Canada,", while the person of NY reliever Joba Chamberlain was being sprayed with bug juice, and then proceeded to toss two wild pitches and pave the way for a hometown victory.

You see folks, those 'gnats' that offended Chamberlain so much are actually a late hatch of the Lake Erie "mayfly", also known as ' Canadian Soldiers'. Their collective appearance being enough to unhinge Chamberlain, despite the fact that they do not bite or sting in any way, they are totally impervious to bug sprays, and their life span is twenty four hours in length at best. Their timing sublime, their collective outcome ' priceless'.

As lucky as I was to have attended the game in the grandstands with my pals Rudy Shakes-Moore, James McKnight and his polite and savvy thirteen year old son Will, a mutual friend who is so known as Cheeze was doomed to a hellish baseball evening while in the left field bleachers.

The cheeze reported great drunken mayhem occurring between the hometown Cleveland fans and those NY visitors who insisted in wearing their hometown team garb. The cheeze is a polite fan, whose baseball knowledge is copious and not prone to braggadocio or venomous comments.

Our poor Cheezely was seated near a beer and nachos battle between rival fan factions resulting in a total drenching of beer and nachos on his person, and many others around him.

The cheeze got cheesed up!

Not a nice way to view a ballgame. The fan culprit most at fault was a Clevelander who insisted in pelting the ears of all around him, including a few children, with invective concerning the perceived sexual orientation of the NY AL Fan. No place for this inside a major sporting event where customers have laid down hard currency to view a game.

These 'lager louts' are best tossed from the venue as early as possible , and in no way should be allowed to create havoc among the relative civility of a baseball
game.

Shame on the Cleveland AL team security for not nipping this in the bud. A heartfelt apology goes out to any NY visitor to the "Jake", aptly named, having to have suffered this hooliganism of these hometown sots. An old adage concerning social behavior in a new situation is ' act like you have been there'.

Never would this be as true as to be embraced by current Cleveland baseball fans with social diseases, behavioral problems, and low self esteems. Grow up, and turn off your lousy diseased cheerleader, Mike ' twib' Trivisano, and his half baked "mister know it all" sports mentality!

While hoofing up East Ninth Street one mile north to our parking spot near the old Cleveland stadium, Rudy and I saw a fine elderly couple, in their eighties, holding hands, with matching HAFNER 48 team jerseys on their backs. A nice omen. Hafner having supplied the game winning RBI, and 48 being the last year the Cleveland AL team won the World Series. At least we can dream, and the fat lady has yet to sing, merely the buzz of our Canadian soldier pals.

Early results in the new nickname contest for the Cleveland AL baseball team. "Gnats", who woulda thunk it?

And the perennial "Tribe", our collective multi-cultural Midwest heritage expressed at its best, and my personal fave so far. Keep your suggestions coming, and do not forget we are renaming the NY AL team nickname as well.

Time to sell a book department. We have had two requests this past week towards the purchase of a truly rare baseball volume and are proud to offer a copy for sale of Gerald Beaumont's 1921 HEARTS AND THE DIAMOND.

The words of the author in his one paragraph introduction says it all:

"To the men of the diamond, worshipped yesterday, abused today, forgotten tomorrow, - and to their sweethearts, wives, and children, - who will understand."

A tip of the old Tacoma Tigers baseball cap to all of our own long suffering spouses, my wife Deb especially, John and Kim and all the good folk downstate, Every Family directly involved with any form of war on the face of this planet. We all deserve a better collective fate. Pray for peace.

Final note. Yes, LeBron James has the right to wear his NY AL baseball cap anytime, any place he chooses to. After all he is "King James", and we all know that what is “good for the King is good for his subjects".

Consider the previous paragraphs and the "Much to do about nothing" that the team garb clothing wars account for. Not much except the materials they are printed upon, and you will never catch this party advertising any sports team in cloth in public, save the Tacoma Tigers, while in Cleveland or on the road.

Go Tribe!

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One down three to go

and the hometown Cleveland Indians have taken the first game of a best of five series with the New York American League baseball team. It is of no use to refer to the losing NY team by its nickname ' yankees' of which it seems to have little more in common with than Cleveland has with it's Indians , nickname. I dislike both team nicknames for different reasons.

Indians are either folks that come from the continent of India and enjoy the ancient sport of cricket, not baseball as a National pastime , or native folk from the North or South American continent that resent being portrayed as mascots for a midwest North American sports franchise.

In any case not many of either of the above " Indians ' exist around here in Cleveland , Ohio. What passes for ' Indians ' are mostly caucasian suburban sports fans who like to paint and dress up in red and white attire and whoop it up while vomiting around the sidewalks of downtown Cleveland after watching their beloved 'Cleveland Indians' beat up the New York American league ' Yankess' or some other baseball team. These same fans often change color with the seasons.

Not uncommon for some of them to paint themselves orange and brown while stumbling around half baked and on all fours while barking like dogs and rooting for yet another local sports team nicknamed aptly enough , ' Browns'. This current strain of "Browns' however are actually alien invaders , the original 'Browns' having fled here sometime ago to become 'Ravens'. I realize all this is quite confusing and hardly literary , stick with me and I will finish soon.

Promise.

This being the 21st century no more actual "Yankees" reside in New York City. These mythical 'Yankees' became extinct around the time of the publication of Washington Irving's Knickerbocker Tales , or the Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

These original 'Yankees' lived up the Hudson River and knocked around in canoes or horses , not the automobiles , taxicabs , or subway trains of today. Time has come to rename the above sports teams.

Send your suggestions here , the best entries will recieve a free sports book of our choice.

Speaking of books on baseball and sports we have many in our inventory these days of need of a new home. In keeping with the season, we can offer over four hundred different baseball titles for your reading pleasure.

Please go to olderiestreetbooks.com and have a look at our baseball titles offered for sale.

Reading about baseball is a far less expensive way to follow our American pastime than attending the actual games these days , and if you turn on the radio and close your eyes while listening to a baseball game perhaps you will be fortunate like myself to awake to find that the Cleveland ' Indians' gave the New York 'Yankees' a good old fashioned arse kicking by a score of 12 -3.

Rip Van Winkle's first name seems to spell out the remainder of the New York 2007 baseball futures.

RIP NY AL 2007.

Make a nice custom automobile license plate as well. Though not to worry , the Cleveland team is cursed as well, never will the Cleveland American League baseball franchise win the World Series while nicknamed ' Indians'. Better the Cleveland bunch is revived as one of their former nicknames 'Spiders', 'Naps', or 'Forest Cities'.

Or any modern moniker that reflects the rapidly deserting population of Cleveland ,Ohio.

Send suggestions.

I prefer 'Naps' , but will accept any nickname save 'Indians'.

Break the curse!

Curl up with a baseball book this winter . A great read I can recommend is DAMN YANKEE BY Maury Allen, available from olderiestreetbooks.com.

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