Baseball mulls a “Global World Series”

My late colleague Steven Wells used to make a frequent point about American professional sports: They always christen their champions the “world” champions … even though America isn’t exactly the entire world. I wish he was around to react to this:

TOKYO — The United States and Japanese baseball champions could meet in a Global World Series, Japanese daily Nikkan Sports reported Thursday.

Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato was quoted as saying his Major League Baseball counterpart, Bud Selig, had agreed the winners of the two countries’ professional leagues should play each other.

Steven, I’m sure, would feel compelled to point out that Japan and America are still only two countries and thus not the entire global world. There’s baseball played all over the world, especially in Latin America. If those teams end up being added to the mix at some later date, what are they going to call it? The Super-Duper Universal Global World Series? The redundancy is hilarious.

On the other hand: Getting the Japanese and American champs to play each other would be pretty cool. So game on.

First: Van Jones. Next: Bill Conlin?

I doubt the venerable Daily News columnist actually has anything to fear from Glenn Beck. But the right has found something new to be outraged about, since Obama’s socialist indoctrination of kindergarteners didn’t work out the way they’d hoped: The intrusion of lefty politics into sportswriting. Jay Nordlinger:

I struck something of a nerve last week with a nerve-striking subject: the intrusion of partisan politics into sportswriting. You’ll be reading along, just as nice as you please, and bam: The writer has to stick in some anti-Bush jab, or anti-Palin, or anti-Cheney. (Funny, but the jabs never go the other way — at least in my experience.)

Many, many readers wrote in saying, “Yeah, and you know who an especially irksome offender is?” And they named a “favorite” writer.

So, do you yourself have examples of this politicization of the sports columns? Do you have writers whom you like reading, on sports, but who get your goat by (near-obligatory) injections of politics? If so, please let me know, by using the link over (is that the word?) my name, just above. Reason: I am planning to do kind of an omnium-gatherum.

I’m sure Nordlinger will find plenty of examples: Ideologues usually find what they’re searching for. But so what? Do conservatives have such fragile psyches they can’t take a Dick Cheney joke in the middle of a sports column?

More evidence that Andy McCarthy is completely insane

He writes 717 words about how the sporting press is clearly in the tank for Obama, based on their coverage of his first pitch at the All Star Game. His paranoia, grievance and fact-free speculation know no bounds.

Harry Kalas, RIP

Harry Kalas, the Phillies Hall of Fame radio announcer, is dead.

I am new to Philly, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have an appreciation of Kalas. He had that voice. And the voice, of course, is what people are going to remember.

But what struck me on Opening Night this year — while the Phils were going down in flames against Atlanta — was how sensible Kalas was in using that voice. Sometimes, he didn’t use it at all.

Instead, he let you live with the sounds of the game. While the batter entered the box and started to get dug in, Kalas stayed quiet. You could hear the rumble of the crowd. You could hear the occasional shout above the din. You could hear baseball. That was part of Kalas’ genius. He will be missed.

A-Rod admits steroid use. It just wasn’t his fault.

NYT:

Alex Rodriguez admitted in an interview with ESPN on Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs for several seasons at the beginning of this decade, but he said he has not used the substances since then.

“When I arrived at Texas in 2001 I felt an enormous amount of pressure to perform, and perform at a high level every day,” Rodriguez told Peter Gammons. “I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”

“I am guilty of being negligent, naïve, not asking all the right questions,” Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman, said.

Well, it seems like that last paragraph is a lie in triplicate. By his own admission, Rodriguez took banned substances to get a performance edge. That’s not negligence; that’s intentional action. He kept his use of such substances under wraps — lying to CBS in 2007 about it — which suggests adult cunning instead of naivete. And he didn’t “ask all the right questions” because he — again, by his own admission — had the answers he wanted.

I’m not an A-Rod hater. But he’s trying to have it both ways, getting credit for honestly confronting the accusations while weaseling out of responsibility for his actions. It’s kind of pathetic to watch.