Readers love lists, but I challenge them to find one that has two Baldwin brothers, both halves of Bennifer, Michael Moore AND George W. Bush. Can’t do it, can you? Film Threat has released its 2004 Frigid 50 — the most honest assessment of Hollywood players that I’ve ever seen.
From ESPN, leading purveyor of “the conventional wisdom” and located here.
Player: Tony Batista
Comment: “Quietly put together a great offensive season. Was especially effective after the All-Star break….”
Most inappropriate word: great
Second most inappropriate word: effective
Great
Of the 13 NL third basemen who had enough plate appearances to qualify for a ranking, Tony Batista found himself 12th in OPS. To include a few more players, I dropped the plate appearance requirement to 350. In the new list of 17 third baseman, Batista ranked 15th. In an effort to peer more deeply into the ol’ 3rd sacker’s greatness, I expanded the list to include NL players with qualifying plate appearances at any position. Tony’s ranking? 66 out of 78. And get this, Tony Batista ranked dead last in runs created per 27 outs. Have our standards fallen so far?
Effective
The word, “effective,” suggests that Batista has some impact on the result of the game that benefits his team. Perhaps this is true if one were to go by the parameters of whoever put together that list. However, as I see it, he hasn’t had an effective season in a few years. Batista’s best seasons could both be described as “good.” He posted solid numbers in both 1999 and 2000. Despite the thump in his bat, he doesn’t hit well enough to justify his starting job.
Everyone’s favorite icon of female sexuality-cum-cultist is sounding off on the U.S. election. In an article on the ABC News Website, the one-time Material Girl said, “In terms of the elections, I don’t agree with so many things and the decisions that George Bush has made and I’m not happy with the situation in Iraq. I do believe that the American public has been manipulated to a great degree.” I have no quarrel with her there. The part that concerns me is the sentence that follows:
“In the end, we have to say, ‘OK, we didn’t win, but there’s other ways to fix the problems, so now what else can I do to help?’ ”
The reason that I’m troubled by the previous sentence is that it seems to be a rhetorical question. Does Madonna really want to know what she can do to help? She can stop pontificating. This election demonstrated quite clearly that she, Puff Daddy/P.Diddy, Michael Moore, Janeane Garofalo, Sean Penn, and a host of others were absolutely ineffective at rallying the Democratic base. I suspect that there are few things on television more galling that rich celebrities pushing their agendas. Interesting, isn’t it, how the Democratic party — the party that looks after labor unions, the poor, and blue collar workers — has been tagged with the elitist label? If one looks at the Democratic platform, it’s quite clear that this isn’t a policy issue, but a marketing issue. So I urge them to get off the boob tube, dig into their pocketbooks, and put their money where their mouths were.
I wonder if my 50 or so daily readers can guess my political affiliation. I don’t think it’s surprising, but what the hell do I know? Anyway, here are some interesting pieces that have caught my eye the past few days.
One of the many (many, many, many, many) things that bothered me about celebrities’ taking to the streets to encourage young people to go to the polls was that they missed the issue. Of course I’d like every eligible voter to take part in the democratic process, but I’d rather have a smaller number of voters who have done their homework than a massive turnout by the ill-informed. Bob Herbert points out that “nearly 70 percent of President Bush’s supporters believe the U.S. has come up with ‘clear evidence’ that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda.” Yikes! How about opening a newspaper because voting in ignorance can undermine the goals of a free society.
Yasir Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize less than a decade ago. Now Thomas Friedman thinks that he’ll be remembered as the man who padded his pockets while standing in the way of a Palestinian state.
Do tax cuts stimulate growth? History seems to bear this out. Do tax cuts curb spending? Au contraire. It seems as if federal spending rises whenever taxes are lowered. That is not a good formula for a healthy economy in the long term.
Much has been made of Karl Rove’s “brilliant” plan to put the “morality” behind sexual preference to a vote. Even my buddy, Doug, suggests this. Although I agree with much of what he wrote in his blog entry, I don’t think that “the gay issue” tipped the election in Bush’s favor. The statistics (and Paul Freedman) seem to agree with me.
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