What we know:   Pretty much nothing.  We did not agree on anything.  The betting lines have Mike Trout as a 1:1 favorite to take home the AL Most Valuable Player hardware, but it is interesting that none of the Jockeys see the Angels in the World Series despite the potential output of Trout, Pujols and Calhoun.  As a group, we see Felix Hernandez dominating the AL.  (Spound is still waiting for Tanaka to produce for his 2014 fantasy team, and we are not quite sure what Brittany is seeing that the rest of don’t with respect to Joe Kelly of the Red Sox.)

Ian really wanted to take a flyer on the Mariners in the Series and likes Cano as a dark horse AL MVP pick, but he couldn’t pull the trigger.  Britt and Craig both go all-in with an old skool LA-NY series and Chris and Ian both projected the same unlikely AL Champ to lose versus the pitching depth of the Nats.  And of course, the ever-diabolical Spound is rooting for the Cubbies to find their way back to the Championship just so Billy Sianis’ curse can play-out yet again…106 years and counting.

Send us your thoughts in the comment section.

• 1) Who are the most accomplished political leaders who also played a professional sport? 
• 2) Should the citizens of Puerto La Cruz decide to elect Ordonez, how have professional athletes performed as political leaders?

First we turn to Issue 1.  For starters, there have been no US Presidents who have also played a professional sport, but  there have been a few Presidents with notable collegiate careers (and some who have purported to have been college athletes*). The Bench Jockeys dug into the stats and offer our top three for consideration:

• 3.  George H.W. Bush (#41 )was first baseman, batted .354 in his senior year and played in the College World Series for Yale.
• 2.  Dwight Eisenhower  (#34) was a linebacker and running back at Army, Nicknamed the “Kansas Cyclone,” Eisenhower injured his knee while tackling one of the greatest athletes of all time, Jim Thorpe, in the famous 1912 Carlisle vs. Army game.
• 1.  Gerald Ford (#38) was an All-American and played center for 1933 National Champion Univ. of Michigan Wolverines football team.  He was voted team MVP in his senior year.

*Although there was a great deal of talk about the college basketball career of Barack Obama, there seems to be no documentation of the assertion that Barack Obama led the Occidental College Men’s Basketball team in scoring in 1979 as has been reported.  He attended Occidental for two years and we can find no corroboration that as a freshman he even played on the school team.  (You never know what will surface when you start doing a little good ol’ fashioned investigative journalism.)  As for other professional sportsmen turned public servants, we found the following tasty tidbits for your consumption:  The most accomplished member of this select group is former US Senator from New Jersey, William “Bill” Bradley who was a member of the 1964 Olympic basketball team and was voted the NCAA Player of the Year in 1965. He played on the New York Knicks for ten years, winning two championship titles.   He was also a Rhodes Scholar so I am guessing he is a pretty smart chap.

US Congressmen from New York, Jack Kemp was appointed as Housing Secretary under George H.W. Bush. Kemp was selected as the Vice Presidential running mate in Bob Dole’s failed 1996 election campaign against Bill Clinton.  Ironically, like Barack Obama, Kemp also attended Occidental in the 1950’s where he was a record-setting javelin hurler and played several positions on the football team: quarterback, defensive back, place kicker and punter.  Interestingly Occidental does have a record of Kemp’s collegiate accomplishments.  Kemp went on to play professional sports as a quarterback for 13 years, with brief stints in the NFL and CFL, later securing star status in the AFL with the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills.  Kemp was selected as the AFL’s Most Valuable Player award in 1965 after leading the Bills to a second AFL championship.

Although appointed to the role, defensive tackle and the most celebrated member of the Purple People Eaters, Alan Page, serves as a Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.  Fellow Minnesotan Jesse Ventura was elected as Governor of the state, but to count him would mean we are calling the WWE a professional sport – which it is not – so he is out.   However, the late Jack Mildren, a two-way player who over the course of a three year career with the Colts and Pats made three interceptions as a defensive back and rushed for 22 yards and threw 1 incomplete pass as a quarterback, served as Lt. Governor of Oklahoma.  He meets the pro-pol crossover criteria on paper. 

Internationally, there have been some instances of professional sportsmen transitioning  to public office.  Both Alexis Argüello, who was Mayor of Managua, Nicaragua for a few months before he was assassinated (or committed suicide depending on who you ask) and Philippine House of Representatives member, Emmanuel “Manny”  Pacquiao, were professional boxers who became mid-level political leaders.  Sanath Teran is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a current member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.  Ari Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally car driver who won the World Rally Championship in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times was a member of the European Parliament.  But perhaps the most successful foreign-born professional athlete is Donald Ross Getty, a Canadian politician who served as the Premier of Alberta after quarterbacking the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.  As Premier, Getty served as the de facto Chief Executive for the territory.  Nice work.

And then there is Ahhhhnold.  If bodybuilding is a truly professional sport – and according to ABC’s Wide World of Sports (which I grew up watching as a kid) it is – The Austrian Oak’s election as Governator of California has to trump them all.  But notice some interesting coincidences…and that leads us directly into Issue 2.  Schwarzenegger oversaw the workings of one the most financially unstable states in the US, with the majority of Californians suggesting his limited concepts of state management made fiscal matters even worse.  Imagine that?  

Similarly, there have been two US mayors who were former professional athletes: the Mayor of recently bankrupt Detroit is former NBA-er Dave Bing and the Mayor of cash-strapped Sacramento is Kevin Johnson, formerly of the Phoenix Suns.  (As a former Bullet, I like Dave Bing, but that’s a big 0 for 2 on assuming NBA skills sets prepare players for the complexities of leading a city.)

Which brings us right back to Ordonez.  What experience during his 15 year career in the Major Leagues possibly prepares Magglio Ordonez for the leadership of Puerto La Cruz?  Given the vast anthology of professional sports figures who have come and gone over the last 125 years, success stories are scarce.  In fact, the lion’s share of those stories can be condensed into less than 1000 words (see above).  Ex-athletes seem to be able to serve as a part of a body politic, or a team, but when it comes to leading a state or a city, they fall flat.  With the exception of Don Getty, there is no success story where a professional athlete was elected to the role of a chief executive of a city, state or province.  Bill Bradley and Jack Kemp were strong representatives of a constituency, but effectively leading that same populace requires a completely different array of talents.  Maggs, please reconsider your political aspirations before you get in over your head, or even worse, lose it.  

These days everyone is writing a Bucket List.  I wrote my list back in 1999 and one of the items I included was a autographed baseball from the 9 baseball players who I thought were the best n their respective positions.  As with everything I do, I had rules: 1) The signatures have to be on a official major league baseball – no commemoratives, autosigned, HOF or gimmicky balls; 2) all balls have to present with only the player’s autograph, no multisigned balls; and 3) the signature has to be authentic and 4) it has to be a clean and visible signature.

My list of players was developed by looking at each players stats and their overall meaning to the game, while considering my rule constructs and the virtual impossibility of securing a verified autograph from players from the turn of the century like Christy Matthewson and Nap Lajoie.  I will say up front, I did not select Babe Ruth who many consider to be the best player of all time.  Why?  I just do not like him and I really do not want a signed ball from Ruth.  The rest of the list may have a bit of slant to my hometown Birds, but I would challenge the nay-sayers to consider Brooks Robinson and his strong defensive play combined with MVP stats, longevity and and World Series appearances against the typical Schmidt and Brett selections for a 3rd baseman.  The same is true of Cal Ripken and his 2632 games, 19 time All-Star selection, two AL MVPs and ROY honors .  His quest to top Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak came at a time when the next closest player in Major League Baseball with an active games played streak was Albert Belle at 327.

Here is how I size them up:  Pitcher – Sandy Koufax; Catcher – Johnny Bench; 1st Base – “The Hebrew Hammer,” Hank Greenberg (a rather price ball); 2nd Base – Jackie Robinson (that ball is also going to leave a mark in the ol’ wallet); SS – Ripken; 3rd Base – “The Hoover”; Rightfield – Hammerin’ Hank Aaron; Centerfield – Willie Mays,”The Say Hey Kid”; and in Leftfield – Ted Williams (but I am not averse to swapping him out for Stan “The Man” Musial).

Comments and analysis are always welcome but you are free to make your own list and grab your own balls.

Two things that irritated me: 1) Tony LaRussa (who I respect for his years of baseball experience and knowledge) took a shot at the umpire’s strike zone disparities. Strike Zones for both teams were questionable all game, but it’s low to go on national television and whine about it.  Charlie Manuel in his post-game interview said, “I’m not blaming the umpire, they outplayed us on the field.” EXACTLY.  If the umpire gives you a smaller strike zone, then you have to play better defense and also actually hit the ball.  2) Swinging at the first pitch:  Did the Phils not learn from the prior night’s experience (an 11-run rout) that swinging at the first pitch (and causing an inevitable out) yielded nothing?  Swinging at the first pitch rarely gets you a hit and especially in the Playoffs when adrenaline might be running a little higher than usual causing you to hit a quick pop-up or ground out to second base.  

Weather forecast for St. Louis on Tuesday for Game 3….a sunny 77 degrees with no chance of rain.  We’ll see…

It wasn’t the “shot heard ’round the world” or Kirk Gibson’s remarkable one-handed home run off of the Eck in the 1988 World Series, but last night was most definitely one of the most memorable nights in baseball history as the fate of four teams trudging through the marathon of a 162-game season weathered the perfect storm of rain delays, improbable comebacks, momentum shifting plays and managerial “stick it to yas.”   The Rays down a hockey stick in the 8th comeback to force extra innings and beat the Yanks who opted not to trot out their closer Mo Rivera, while Red Sox in control of their game against the O’s with the taste of victory one out away give up three consecutive base hits in the bottom of the 9^th and lose 4-3.  The Cards pound the hapless Astros 8-0 and wait through extra innings for the results in Atlanta where the Braves jump to a 2-0 lead only to lose at home in 13 against Philly.  The Divisional races long settled, baseball needed last night’s drama to kick start the Playoffs.

Boston, which held a 9 game lead in the wild card race on September 3rd, limped to a 7 -19 record over the ensuing 26 days, losing to the AL East doormat, Baltimore Orioles, 5 times in 7 games.  The “2011 Fold” as it will come to be known by the Red Sox sets the new standard for “failing to close” as Boston became the first MLB team to miss the postseason after leading by as many as nine games for a playoff spot entering September.  In the yin/yang of baseball, Atlanta proceeded to cough up the second largest September lead – 8.5 games – as the Cardinals passed them for the NL Wild Card.   Is it also possible that the unholy alliance between LeBron James and the Fenway Sports Group has so skewed the balance of Boston lore that karmic forces also impacted the 2011 Atlanta Braves (formerly of Boston)?  Could be….

Until 2002, the All-Star Game had no impact on the MLB post-season.  It was purely an exhibition game where fans could simply enjoy a game that featured the league’s best players all on the same field, but in 2003 current baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, mutated the Mid-summer Classic from a passive, easy-listening showcase into an ill-will-inducing, results-driven competition with a significant post-season impact.  The League that wins the All-Star Game earns home field advantage in the World Series when the AL and NL Pennant winners square off in October.  The baseball season is a punishing 162-game marathon which occurs over the course of 183 days.  Using the results of an exhibition game to establish home field advantage (or have any influence whatsoever) for the league championship of the sport is positively idiotic.

The very composition of the all-star team is incongruous with the critical effect of the game’s outcome.  At least one player from every major league team must be included on the all-star roster in this “everyone is a winner” play date.  In consideration of this requirement, this year, the following players are being deemed All-Stars:

These five players are perhaps the better players on their respective teams but in no way, shape or form do any of them merit All-Star status.  Gio Gonzalez has a solid ERA, but he is 7-5 and other AL pitchers are more worthy.   Yes, closer, Brandon League leads the AL in saves, but he is far from dominant. (I don’t get this one; Ron Washington already had King Felix from Seattle on the squad and didn’t need to add League.)   Wieters has a gun for an arm at catcher, but he is not the 3^rd best catcher in the AL. (Granted, he is better than Russell Martin of the Yanks who was inexplicably selected, but Victor Martinez is having a better season.)  Cuddyer’s numbers are very pedestrian for an outfielder just as Sanchez’s are for a first baseman.

So these players are filling All-Star roster slots while players who could actually help either Bruce Bochy or Ron Washington win this game will be watching on television.  Enjoying the play-at-home version will be:

The All-Star Game used to be a way that baseball gave back to the fans; kind of a breather from the daily grind where the best in the game played something akin to a pick-up game, just for kicks. Everyone got to play because the outcome was irrelevant.  Bud Selig extinguished the light-heartedness of the original game, causing fans began to consider more weighty discourse relative the match-up.  If the All Star Game is going to affect the post-season, isn’t it time to re-examine the roster composition requirements?  Shouldn’t the managers set the starting rosters instead of the fans?  If winning is the new objective, why wouldn’t the best players simply stay in the whole game while the more marginal selections ride the pine?  What value does the “player form every team” requirement add to a game? It is no coincidence that players from NY and Boston dominate the starting rosters in the AL, should the teams with the largest fanbase hold such selection power?   Over countless hours, fans can debate the highlights of every season, the merits of every team, the strengths and weaknesses of every player and the true value of every statistic.  This is the constant of baseball.  Courtesy of Bud Selig, the All-Star Game is now no different.

Fast Fact:  In the two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right department, the modification of the All-Star Game to establish World Series home field advantage was devised by Selig in response to his 2002 all-star gaffe where he was roundly criticized for letting the 2002 game end in a tie.

Baseball has a several unwritten rules:

1. Opposing batters do not walk across the pitching mound on the way back to the dugout;
2. Hitters do not work the count or steal bases when you are creaming your opponent – just get the game over with;
3. If there is a brawl, all players must leave the bench and either engage or act like they are going to engage;
4. You don’t stand and admire your homers; and
5. You don’t blow a kiss at a pitcher who just served up a meatball.

On monday night, The Chosen One violated rules 4 and 5 within a span of 30 seconds. However, the Rook failed to consider Rule 6: If you violate any of the unwritten rules, there will be blood. (It may not be your blood, but you or someone on your team is going to get a ball in the ear.)

In Harper’s next at bat – two innings after the pucker he directed toward pitcher Zack Neal – Greensboro reliever Grant Dayton threw at the Harper, backing him off of the plate. Dayton missed him, but major league pitching won’t.

Greensboro is an affiliate of the Florida Marlins, an NL East foe of the Nats.  It may not be public, but I am reasonably certain that Harper now has a bounty in the minors and I would also speculate that there is an underground ‘plunk pool’ funded by the Grasshoppers.

It was two years ago today that Sports Illustrated ran a feature on Harper and his phenom-like potential.  Then-sixteen year old Harper declared, “I love the way people talk crap. I hear it all the time. Overrated. You suck. I’ll just do something to shut them up, like, I’ll show you. It’s like in regular pregame work. I like to show off my arm. Just so it’s like, There you go. Don’t even think about trying to run.” The Chosen One was anything but humble in adding, “I love showing up the older guys.”  That’s not going to earn him many points around the clubhouse.  Yes, he was only 16 at the time of the SI piece, but the last two years have not yielded much in the way of maturity. Having moxie is one thing, but acting like a d-bag is entirely a different can of fish.

Harper is not far from his days of leaving piles of empty bowls of Fruity Pebbles in his bedroom, but someone in the Nationals organization needs to take Harper aside and teach him what is expected of a major league ballplayer so that he can fill out the Nationals’ Uni with honor and integrity in 2012.  And while the Nats continue to mold him for the bigs, the Hagerstown Suns better school the Chosen One in some Matrix-like ball avoidance maneuvers because the idiotic warpaint, the newly-groomed porn moustache, and the overly-cocky MVP attitude all add up to a recipe for big game head-hunting for opposing pitchers.

Major League Baseball has its own form of recycling: the signing of another team’s free agents who are over 35.  Not a practice without costs, the 2011 season has produced its share of suspect reclamation projects:

However, sometimes recycling can be beneficial.  Adam Kennedy, Henry Blanco, and Miguel Batista have been serviceable,

while players like: Lance Berkman, Orlando Cabrera, Barton Colon, Scott Downs, Kyle Farnsworth and the timeless Arthur Rhodes all have been valuable acquisitions.

It is interesting to note that aside from Berkman and Cabrera, the hitters from the recycling class of 2011 have been sub-par, while the pitchers by and large have continued to hold their value.  Assuming that we are past the quarter-pole of the 2011 MLB season and that the players noted above continue to perform in line with their existing arc, it appears that ballplayer recycling has about a 33% success rate.  Some players from the 2011 free agent class failed to make teams and others landed on the DL with too many old parts.  Which brings us full cycle… right back to where we started…in Japan.

With Japan’s robust recycling system, what about ballplayers who spent years in the Japanese League and then came West in their 30s?  The 2011 free agent signings of Hisanori Takahashi and Takashi Saito have been less than stellar.  The Angels signed 36 year old, Takahashi for $3.8M.  Takahashi is 1-0 with a 4.74 era and a dreadful 1.68 whip.  Saito (41) who signed for $1.75M remains on the DL after pitching 2 innings this year.  Saito’s ‘end of useful life’ signing is reminiscent of quite a few Hiroshi-Come-Latelys.

• the Orioles post-prime acquisition of injury-plagued Koji Uehara (34 at signing) in 2009;
• Takhito Nomura (33) and his 8.86 ERA in one year in Milwaukee;
• Norihiro Nakamura (32) who hit .128 with the Dodgers;
• Masumi Kuwata (39) who went on the DL at 0-1 with 9.43 ERA in 2007 in Pittsburgh; and
• Kazuo Fukumori (32) who landed a two year, $3M deal with the Rangers and pitched for about five minutes in the Majors recording a 20.25 ERA.

Maybe the imports are not quite what we thought they were.  And clearly, although the Japanese recycling system is overachieving in its span of implementation and return on investment, the lion’s share of baseball players who sign with Major League teams after a lengthy careers in Japan belong in the scrap heap.

On the flip side, I think all Presidents could use a DH.  While those who sit in the Oval Office think they can do everything (the obvious character flaw in politicians being oversized EGOs) who wouldn’t need a little help in running the country?  Watching President Obama’s lack of business sense filter through the economy, it seems we would be better served if a professional businessperson came in and pinch hit.  President George W. Bush needed a designated speaker so he would never have had to open his mouth in public and record an error.  The DH concept could trickle down right into our homes.  What parent wouldn’t want a professional nanny to come in and discipline their kids when mom and dad were too gassed to continue the inning?  Wouldn’t most families love to have a designated kitchen cleaner for mop-up duties?

The first DH in baseball was Ron Bloomberg.  My favorite was Edgar Martinez, who spent his entire career with the Seattle Mariners.  As a baseball purist, I would dump the DH.  But in today’s ADHD society, the average  fan’s desire to see home runs, and the constant barrage of Top 10 highlights on every sports channel, it’s hard to see it going anywhere.