Left Coast Sports Babe

The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are celebrating 50 years since they moved their teams to the West Coast.

To give you an idea how long ago that was, 50 years ago Barack Obama hadn’t been born yet, Hillary Clinton was running for 4th grade class president based on her “lifetime of experience”, and John McCain had just
received his first senior discount.

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CNN.com talks today about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s discussion of their faith, but notes of McCain, who talks little about his own religion that he is “from an older generation, one that is more private about prayer.”

Either that or based on his recent and repeated confusion of Sunnis and Shiites, his advisors have suggested he keep quiet so as not to publicly confuse Catholics and Protestants.

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And a re-do of the Michigan primary seems all but impossible at this point.  The latest hitch, when it was requested that any do-over in the state include the Detroit Tigers.

New bumper sticker?

If you aren’t bitter you aren’t paying attention.

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Stanford star Candice Wiggins was drafted by the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.  Where as a star rooke she will probably make the WNBA maximum for players with less than  3 years experience – about $42,000.   Which is less than one year’s tuition, room and board at Stanford.

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Congrats to the Boston College Eagles, whose hockey team won another Frozen Four title. Concidentally “Frozen Four” is also the name Bill Clinton uses to refer to himself and Hillary’s three previous boyfriends.

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And is this a strange country or what?  A black man who just finished paying off his student loans can be called “elitist.”  A woman who with her husband has earned over $100 million in the past five years can call herself “middle class.”  And a 71 year old man who has earned nothing but government paychecks his entire adult life can call himself an “outsider.”

Which is more elitist and  out of touch?

In a country where gas and food prices have
skyrocketed, bridges and levees have collapsed, jobs
and pensions have disappeared.

To say that people are bitter?

Or pretend they have no reason to be?

Rough week, ATA, Aloha and Skybus shut down, and Frontier Airlines just filed for bankruptcy.    Meaning a whole lot of people have paid money for nothing, that is, besides donors to Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Actually, it wasn’t that long ago that the high-flying expensive operation that looked most on the verge of collapse was the Clinton campaign.

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President Bush saw his approval ratings drop to 28 percent, at the same time a NY Times polls showed only 19 percent of Americans think the country is on the right track.  George W. hasn’t seen numbers this low since he got his graded exams returned at Yale.

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The top-seeded San Jose Sharks avoided an embarrassing second straight loss against Calgary tonight in the first round of the NHL playoffs.    Thus also avoiding for now the embarassing headline:  “Sharks Flame Out in First Round.”

Matt Dempsey’s two-out RBI bloop single in the top of the 12th inning scored Rikki Foster with the game-winning to lift UC Davis (21-10) to an 9-8 victory over No. 10 Stanford (15-10-1) in a wild
non-conference contest at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Wednesday evening. Foster had started the inning with a leadoff double that was also his first collegiate hit but was stranded there until Dempsey’s game-winner off Stanford reliever Carey Schwartz, who took the loss in the first outing of his career despite a solid performance with only the run and two hits in the 12th inning off him over 3.0 innings of work.

(Carey is my son.  Unrecruited walkon at Stanford.  Gave up no hits in first two innings, 3 Ks, no walks, 1 double play after an error.   Yeah, mom is proud.)

One more reflection, for now on the mens NCAA final last night.

Watching Memphis at the free throw line, you have to wonder who taught them how to shoot…  Dick Cheney?

Chicago baseball holds a special place in the hearts of all three remaining major presidential candidates. Barack Obama is a White Sox fan, Hillary Clinton used to be a Cubs fan, and actually John McCain says he still is a Cubs fan.

Because he remembers having so much fun the last time they won the World Series.

With the announcements that Aloha, ATA, and Skybus have ceased service, thousands of passengers find they have paid money for flights that will never get off the ground. Sort of like donors to Mitt Romney’s campaign.

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And in London, protesters who were trying to stop the Olympic torch clashed with British police.  At one point the torch was put on a bus for safety reasons. 

But the protesters should have just asked that the torch be shipped on British Airways.  No one would ever see it again.

Okay, the San Francisco Giants may have one of the worst slogans of the year, with All Out, All Season. …but there are other contenders.

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Detroit’s “Who’s your Tiger?”  Which with their 0-6 start might be better changed to “Lose, your Tigers.”

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And Baltimore’s “This is Birdland.”  Presumably to differentiate themselves from Washington DC 40 miles to the south, which is “Birdbrain land.”

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And Florida’s “You gotta be here.”  Is this directed at the people who bought season tickets before they dismantled the team, again?

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And the Texas Rangers – “You could use some baseball.”    And as usual, we could use some pitching.

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But regarding “All Out, All Season.”  Would it be too much to ask that Barry Zito has a game where he gets MOST of them out, all season?

Though with a grand total of 12 runs in 6 games, 4 of them in a 13-4 blowout loss, the offense is doing their best to live up to the slogan.

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James Carville recently compared Governor Bill Richardson to Judas for his endorsement of Barack Obama.

What was he thinking?   Let’s get real.  Now, Mike Montgomery going over to coach Cal.  THAT’S Judas like behavior.  But at least he got more than 40 pieces of silver.  $10 million over 6 years.  And now he can recruit all the kids who couldn’t get into Stanford.

No sour grapes or bias on this site.  No chance.

In a recent New York Times poll 81 percent of Americans said the country is seriously on the wrong
track. The other 19 percent were apparently distracted by the lights of the oncoming train.

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And now Senator Debbie Stabenow‘s husband has admitted he paid a prostitute for sex. This right after the Eliot Spitzer scandal. Hey, say what you will about the Clintons, but when Bill was in office at least there was none of this wasteful spending.

For those who need a challenge, here’s a tough question.

What will come first? 

Hillary Clinton releasing her tax returns?

Or John McCain releasing his medical records?

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Rumors now have Brett Favre mulling a return to the NFL with a new team this fall.  If this happens I presume the National Anthem at his first game will be sung by Cher.

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Barack Obama bowled a 37 this past weekend.  Well, so much for all those who say that this campaign he has never been down in the gutter.

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Who knew the sequel to “White Men Can’t Jump” would be “Black Men Can’t Bowl?”

This was the week that male politicians tried to show
how athletic they were: President Bush threw out the
first pitch, Barack Obama threw some bowling balls in
the gutter, and John McCain threw out his back.

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And this year’s major league baseball team with the
lowest payroll – just under $22 million, is the
Florida Marlins.   This year’s minor league team with
the highest payroll – just under $77 million – the San
Francisco Giants.

Stanford’s seven-foot twins, Brook and Robin Lopez, have announced that they will leave school after their sophomore year and declare for the NBA draft.

Guess they figure if they get drafted by the Heat or Knicks they will at least be with a team that might be talented to make the NCAA Final Four.

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In football news, the NFL has approved radio communication for defenses in the 2008-2009 season.  Any truth to the rumor that Bill Belichick was seen shopping for a police scanner?

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And it was announced that A-Rod makes a few million dollars more by himself than the entire Marlins roster.  Though in both cases those salaries don’t really cover playing in October.

Spring is a great time for fans in cities where hockey
teams have not been doing well.   New York Islanders
fans can start thinking about the Mets and Yankees,
Toronto Maple Leaf fans can be hopeful about the Blue
Jays, and Tampa Bay Lightning fans can be glad the
writers strike is over.

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This year the American League had their Opening Day a
week early in Japan to market the league overseas, and
the National League had Opening Day at night in
Washington DC to show off the new stadium.

But baseball still doesn’t use instant replay. Guess Commissioner Bud Selig really hates messing with tradition.

The San Francisco Giants have no real cleanup hitter, shaky spring training pitching, but they do have a new slogan – All Out, All Season.

They are already down 4-0 in the second with Barry Zito starting opening day.

Maybe they should change the slogan to “All Routs, All Season?”

Hillary Clinton said today she was a Rolling Stones fan.

John McCain accused her of pandering and said he wasn’t into that modern music.

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Actually, Hillary is hoping Mick Jagger will allow her to use one of their songs for her new campaign theme –  “Sympathy for the Devil.”

After all the hype and possible Cinderella stories, four number one teams are in the final four.

Which means the only number one seed who isn’t winning these days is Hillary Clinton.

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The Washington Nationals opened their new stadium today to a sellout crowd.  It was a bittersweet moment for old Expos fans – had the team been able to get a new stadium earlier when they were still in Montreal,  they might have been able to sell a few hundred more tickets.

President Bush was at the first Nationals game.  Of course W. loves baseball – expressed as a batting average, his 30 percent (.300) approval rate, actually looks good.

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Actually Bush heard so many boos he felt like a member of the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff.

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And the Miami Heat scored only 17 baskets in their latest loss to the Celtics.   They just might be the worst scoring team since the Star Trek trivia champions went to Mexico on Spring Break.