If you can't vote right, you shouldn't count!

Many of you are already aware of the Senate contest in Minnesota which resulted in a very close race. For those of you in places far away from Minnesota I'll give you a brief rundown. Incumbant Senator and Republican Norm Coleman finished on election day with only a few hundred votes more than his Democratic challenger and former Saturday Night Live actor Al Franken. This triggered an automatic recount of the 2.9 million votes cast by Minnesotans on election day. With the balance of power in congress at stake lawyers from each party descended on Minnesota to ensure the recount was performed to their satisfaction in each district. The result has been a pretty remarkable and idiotic display of democracy with thousands of ballots being challenged by each side and numerous questions of voting procedures brought to the forefront. How close is this race? As of today Coleman unofficially leads by 2 votes with many more to be analyzed and debated over. That's just insane, 2 votes differentiate these two clowns after 2.9 million were cast. One may ask, what's so hard about counting a bunch of ballots and determining who won. The answer to that question rests in the hands of court officials now but the examples of improper votes has been ridiculous if nothing else. The ballot one fills out is much like a multiple choice test. You simply fill in the box next to the name of the candidate you support. If you want you can write in the name of someone you want to vote for. Some examples:

• A voter filled in a box for Franken but added to the end of his name -stin....so it said Al Frankenstin. This is funny. But should we allow a vote to be counted if someone is so ridiculous as to make a mockery of the ballot? The argument in court was that the individual did not vote for Franken, but someone named Frankenstin.
• A voter filled in a box for Franken but had written on various parts of the ballot Flying Spagetti Monstor or FSM....what the hell does that mean and who in their right mind would think that this is an acceptable means to fill out a ballot? The vote went to Franken.

Now I voted for one of these two people. I won't reveal who but want to make something known. Voting is a privilege not a right. Much like a drivers license is a privilege. You need to be able to do certain things in order to drive and you should have to be able to do certain things to vote. Disagree with this perspective? Then why don't we let kids vote? Why have any rules, regulations, or procedures at all? Why not simply have people go to any voting station and simply fill in a ballot and cross their name off a list, or mail them the ballots like they mail tax returns?

Voting is a serious activity. The results determine who we become as a society and to know that a person who feels their ballot is a good place to write things like Flying Spaghetti Monster determines how collective fate makes democracy a joke.

My Favorite Character in Baseball History

On December 11th, 1854 Charles Gardner Radbourn, better known as Old Hoss Radbourn, was born in Rochester, New York. Shamefully I had never heard of him until his name popped up on my MLB birthday calendar. It turns out this Hoss may be one of the most colorful characters to ever disgrace a baseball field.

His accomplishments are many. In only 12 years of baseball (1880-1891 and 11 seasons as a pitcher) the 5 foot 9 inch righthander amassed 309 (or 310 depending on who you ask) wins and 195 losses. He never started less than 24 games in a single season, had an ERA of 2.65, and struckout 1830 batters.

The intrigue runs deeper with Old Hoss. In 1884 he was credited with 60 wins, the most ever by a pitcher. However there are discrepencies with some sources stating that Old Hoss actually only had 59 wins, while his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown claims 62 wins.

Radbourne seems to have been quite the character. Roger Kahn quoted Radbourne in The Head Game as saying; "'Tired out tossing a little five-ounce baseball for two hours?' Radbourn asked incredulously. 'I used to be a butcher. From 4 in the morning until 8 at night I knocked down steers with a 25-pound sledge. Tired from playing 2-hours a day for 10 times the money I used to get for 16 hours a day?'"

His colorful personality also lead him to such dubious recognition as; being the first person photographed giving the bird as shown in his 1869 team photo (look closely at the left side of the back row, to the right of the sitting players ear). Radbourne is also considered the namesake of the term Charley Horse for some reason and credited with being the first to actually use the curve ball as part of his arsenal of pitches.

Hoss even has his own myspace page on which an audio file claims he taught Clark Griffith how to throw the curve. Years later of course Griffith went on to own the Washington Senators eventually passing the team on to his son Calvin who moved the team to Minnesota.

Radbourne died in Bloomington, Illinois where he was born on February 5th, 1897 of paresis which in his day was symptomatic of untreated to syphilis. His gravestone is located about 150-200 feet east south-east of well known American politician Adlai Stevenson.

Talk about leaving a mark on the world.

Revisiting The Past

We all have memories of a time in our life was ideal, or at the very least we remember it as ideal. I would venture to say these idealistic periods of a persons life usually involve a pretty girl or handsome young man, travelling, or great success in one's professional life.

I'm lucky, I've had a few idealistic periods in my life and yes they mostly surround a pretty girl, travelling, and professional success.

Oddly, all of my idealistic periods take place in the 90's or early 00's. I don't idealize much of anything in the 80's. Mostly we just make fun of those periods. It makes me wonder sometimes if we are indeed living in a current version of the 80's. My guess is that the internet will never allow a period to be so bland as the time when a BETA seemed like a good idea or ATARI was cutting edge.

If I had to rank the best periods of my life (excluding the present and future as I am an optimist) number one would no doubt be living in Brisbane, Australia. I had virtually no responsibilities outside of playing baseball and having fun. I met my wife there, enjoyed fairly cheap beer, and dipped into the ocean for the first time (I found he last bit frightening to be honest. It makes me wonder, who was the first person to paddle away from a shore line into a 10 foot break thinking, This will be fun?).

The second best period had to be my two seasons in Germany. Again, very little responsibility outside of playing baseball and finding time for flights up to Norway to visit my future (now current) wife. The first season I lived with two very zany individuals who were equally devoted t baseball and extremely more interested in drinking, but I did my best to keep up. I virtually laughed for 5 months.

My second season in Germany was a little more tame. I was the manager of the team that year and lived on my own in a hotel. I was privy to a fantastic breakfast each morning, pool and sauna access whenever I wished, and a russian made service which cleaned my room each morning....maybe that should be number 1?

So I'm off on a series of visits to local coaching clinics over the next few weekends. First stop Vienna which spawned these thoughts. I'm hoping to cross paths with a lot of my friends from my not-so-distant past and hopefully build on my current strides toward a new ideal period in my life.

Baseball and Economic Philosophy

Baseball is always idealized as being about soft values like family, fun, sunny days in June, and the rebirth of spring. You know what I'm talking about. You sit down to watch a game on television and the opening music plays with shots of youngters in awe with ice cream smeared all over their face. This is supposed to be baseball.

Behind all of these fluffy images are people, people performing a job. Baseball my dear readers, is a business (insert sarcastic gasps here). One aspect of the business of baseball that I never understood is the Rule V Draft which takes place well under the radar each December. The low key baseball fan and certainly not the kid with ice cream on his face understand this method of player aquisition. The truth however is that this one event can make or break a team. Johan Santana and Roberto Clemente are the most well known Rule V picks, hell they might be one of the best picks anywhere. Johan or not, many good players have come from the Rule V draft. So, what is it?

Basically, according to Baseball-Reference.com a player is eligible for the Rule V draft if he meets any of the following criteria:

1. He isn't on a MLB 40 man roster
2. He has been in the minors at least 4 years if signed or drafted after age 19.
3. He has been in the minors at least 5 years if signed or drafted before 19.

Upon being drafted, the club that has drafted the player has to keep him on the Major League Roster all season. Before they can send him to the Minor Leagues he has to be offered back to his previous organization.

Minor League clubs can also participate in the Rule V Draft with AAA teams able to pick AA players and AA teams able to pick A ball players. Here they don't have to be offered back.

Right now many of you are saying to yourselves...huh? Don't worry, me to.

The Rule V draft is a glaring example of how baseball is ironically counter-intuitive to America's other national pastime, capitalism. It is a tool used to create balance for your competitors and opportunity for players. I like it for these reasons but find it humorous in many ways.

In these times of financial crisis you hear a lot of discussion and debate over governmental bailouts. Throughout the presidential campaign I heard screams about Barack Obama being a socialist, as if it were a swear word. Yet there, resting in the friendly confines of America's most beloved of sports is Socialism. Let me break it down for you.

Socialism defined: (more or less, obviousley this is up for some debate)

1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2. procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

Based on these definitions the recent government bailouts are possibley acts of socialism, but this doesn't make the U.S. a socialist country. I live in Norway, a country which claims to be a social democracy. This doesn't mean my paycheck is put into a big pot and distributed amongst everyone. Actually, my taxes here are comparable if not lower than many Americans. The point here being that socialism, capitalism, communism whatever, are not definitive terms. They are measured in degrees. So Norway is probably more socialist than the U.S. but it isn't 100% socialist (stay tuned for cries from Marxist supporters please).

Back to baseball....I don't have a problem with socialism. Nor do I have a problem with leveling the playing field in small ways for other teams we play against. It's actions like these that seemingly make it so the Yankees don't buy everything.

From an international perspective however, less socialism would serve the game better. In addition to things such as the Rule V draft, revenue sharing, and uniform minor league contracts the means in which MLB organizes itself is like a corporation with 30 board members. The contradiction is that the 30 board members compete against one another making it stifling for innovation and expansion. This would let the game grow as clubs would seek to expand their market appeal more aggressively than they are now. This would mean academies all over the world, partnership with foreign companies, and games being played outside the North American continent.

On a lighter note; Happy Birthday to Wayne Garrett who was born on this day in 1947.