Major League Baseball will recover from the latest revelations regarding the use of steroids. After all, fantasy teams continue to drive the box office as passive fans found a way to finally participate in the game as manager-general manager-owner.
Thank goodness for gambling. That is what keeps professional sports afloat. The fan cannot field, bunt, or throw but they can field a team and they can wager.
Now the steroids have destroyed more than the game.
Arguing about the game is pointless.
Steroids make everything meaningless. There is no point to arguing over who was the greatest left handed hitter, the best second baseman whose last name started with the letter 'F', or which pitcher dominated his league for the longest period of time.
Those were ageless debates; debated for the ages. Every season players provided the fodder for fans of all ages to argue the merits of Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson and Willie Mays.
Now comes more revelations of steroid use. Are the debates and arguments to be punctuated by asterisks? Do we now compile the all-Texas-born-team and divide it into two lineups -steroid era and not?
It was easier to catch a few burglars hiding behind the President of the United States than a couple of hundred ball players playing in front of millions of fans every summer.
Important Food Safety Legislation Debate Obscured By Media Obsession With "Beer Summit"
While the media machine obsessed over the absolutely trivial "beer summit" in President Obama's backyard between Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard Professor Henry Lewis ("Skip") Gates, Jr., the House of Representatives has, after days of dramatic wrestling, passed an important bill, HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009.
Luckily, Obama Foodarama has been all over the story, calling it "the biggest change to the food safety landscape in fifty years."
It's terrific to actually have a food safety Bill passed, but if there's a recall this afternoon for, say, half a million pounds of ground beef due to E coli contamination (as there was just two weeks ago...) well, American eaters are still on their own. The Senate is concerned right now primarily with health care reform, and food safety still has adopted-child status. But the burdens to public health from foodborne disease can't be overlooked, either, which is an interesting disconnect on Capitol Hill. The Bill should be fast-tracked in the Senate, too.
So is it safe to eat again? Not yet.
Any way you pour it, the Beer Lobby is, in general, thrilled as they have been for months, as president Obama has been photographed a couple times drinking beer in public--at a hometown DC basketball game, and more recently with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. And all those questions about beer track vs. winetrack voters that arose during Campaign Season? They're clearly over. The President is positioning himself, right now, as a beertracker. It works swell for generating all kinds of political capital, particularly for health care reform.
So now it's time to contact our Senators, and remind them that food safety is too important to ignore. They (at least the two from Wisconsin) are smart enough to work on at least several issues at once, even as a recess period beckons. If you see your Senator back home this August, remind them that attention to food safety shouldn't be left entirely to the week or so after each contamination recall story.
Ryan, who sided with big business and big lobbies for his entire congressional career, is now the champion of the folks on Main Street.
It was Ryan who attended the April 15, 2009 'Tea Party' in Madison, decrying government spending to a modest Capitol steps crowd after voting for the record stimulus spending package last fall.
It was Ryan who voted for the George W. Bush plan that deprived the federal government of using its bulk purchasing power in negotiating the price of prescription medications with the giant pharmaceutical companies. That decision increased the cost of health care to the federal government and taxpayers as well as health care recipients by tens of billions of dollars.
Right now, the nucleus of power lies with third parties - insurers, employers and bureaucratic administrators.
Ryan had a dozen years to fight for patients and consumers. So long as the battle was against the private sector lobbyists who supported his campaigns he was silent.
Now that reform is in the air, he muddies the waters by claiming to be the champion of the people.
The recent induction of Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox and Rickey Henderson, who always had his suitcase packed, into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame (HOF) fueled the discussion about Pete Rose's absence from Cooperstown.
MLB commissioner Bud Selig is not about to admit Rose, the all time hit leader, into the HOF, for fear that it will do nothing but contribute to an already sordid roster of pirates and thieves. And not the Pittsburgh variety.
We know that the content of his character is holding back Rose's admission, though some might argue it had more to do with his personality.
The problem for Selig is that every time Rose is mentioned, it raises uncomfortable reminders of the past and more uncomfortable reminders of the future. Steroids and the Hall of Fame are not a good mixture.
Charles Comiskey experienced success as a player, manager and owner for a half century. He became player-manager of the American Association's St. Louis Browns at age 24 in 1883 and won four consecutive pennants from 1885 to 1888. He became one of the founders of the American League in 1901 and owned the Chicago White Sox for 31 years, winning five pennants. In 1910, he built famed Comiskey Park, an impressive steel and concrete structure that lasted 80 years.
Comiskey was a disreputable businessman who lied, mistreated his players, and engaged in deception that rivaled his Eight Men Out, his Chicago White Sox, accused on throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
may have been baseball's greatest player, if not the game's fiercest competitor. His batting accomplishments are legendary -- a lifetime average of .367, 297 triples, 4,191 hits, 12 batting titles (including nine in a row), 23 straight seasons in which he hit over .300, three .400 seasons (topped by a .420 mark in 1911) and 2,245 runs. Intimidating the opposition, The Georgia Peach stole 892 bases during a 24-year career, primarily with the Detroit Tigers.
Ty Cobb was as racist and as bigoted a man who ever walked the planet, let alone ran the base paths.
All of which leads us to Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Illiterate, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, Jackson was one of the greatest players of all time. There is less and less evidence that he conspired to throw the World Series in 1919, and more and more evidence indicating that what personal flaws and defects the man had, they pale next to Ty Cobb, Comiskey, Pete Rose and the dozens of players of this generation that juiced their game.
While providing a welcome boost to high-tech entrepreneurship, Wisconsin's new budget on the whole solidifies the perception of the state as a tax-happy, business-unfriendly place, company owners and leaders of business groups say.
Of course it was preceded by the perception, least anyone believe that this might be the party line over at the MJS.
Critical to all of this was the source of such concerns, company owners and leaders of business groups.
I needed to know who were these key players in the state so I read on. Business owner Michael L. Hansen pulled no punches, "They've sure given a lot of people the impetus to get the hell out of here." Lots of facts, lots of data and no emotional response, just the way Hansen makes decisions at his place of business?
Hansen, 58, moved recently from Wisconsin to Florida - because of the weather, not taxes - but still has his business interests here, and a summer home in the North Woods. Wisconsin, he said, isn't doing much to help itself foster a strong private sector.
The article is actually more balanced than the headline.
There was the usual failure to note the distinction between taxes and fees, and what that means in terms of total revenues collected. Wisconsin, while a high tax state, is a low fee state and consequently total revenues collected from both individuals and businesses puts us in the middle of the rankings of state spending - something lost on Todd Berry and the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance - or did Berry caution the MJS and the author fail to put it in?
The remainder of the article contains perspectives from Zach Brandon from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, Tom Still from the Wisconsin Technology Council, and even some moderate tones from Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce (WMC).
There was an assault on job creators, It sends a signal to people not to invest here."
Which leaves the rest of us wondering what was the point of the story.
Despite substantial reductions in U.S. infant mortality during the past several decades, black-white disparities in infant mortality persist (1). Among 40 states with sufficient numbers of black infant deaths to generate reliable rates for the years 2002--2004, Wisconsin had the highest black infant mortality rate (IMR) at 17.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, approximately three times the state rate for whites (2). However, in contrast to trends in Wisconsin and the other 39 states, the black IMR in Dane County, Wisconsin, has declined substantially, achieving parity with whites and meeting Healthy People 2010 objective 16-1 for reducing fetal and infant deaths (3). The county rate declined 67%, from 19.4 per 1,000 live births for the period 1990--2001 to 6.4 for the period 2002--2007.
the entire article: "No significant changes in local health-care systems, infrastructure, or practice that correspond to these improvements have been identified..."
While Waxing America mostly deals with state and local politics, we range over the waterfront of topics to include sports, popular culture, and whatever else catches our interest. Local Madison culture is always right up our alley, as are the accomplishments of our friends, and today we feature both.
Running into the fall at Steep and Brew's State Street (#544 State) location is a showing of wonderful photographs by Rich and Joan Gassen, featuring both rural and iconic Madison views. Most feature handmade reclaimed barnboard frames that echo the rustic subjects, and are all less than $100; most cost less than $50. They make great gifts for ex-Madisonians longing for a glimpse of Madison landmarks like the Capitol or the Terrace.
Nina covered the show's opening gala, and provides a glimpse of the camera-shy photographers, who take "photos that only people who understood farming from the core could take."
Tony Bernazard, a New York Mets executive, recently challenged one of club's minor league teams to a fight during a postgame clubhouse tirade, the New York Daily News reported, citing multiple sources with ties to the team.
The tirade by Bernazard reportedly occurred ten days before the All Star game, and only now are the New York Mets reportedly investigating the matter.
MLB.com is silent on the subject as of this postin;, it is fortunate that we have John Kruk to reflect on this matter.
The former Philly slugger and artful ESPN sports commentator made it clear that there is no role in professional sports for this kind of management.
Leadership is about calmly coaching, building teamwork and perfecting the craft. It means creating a comfortable and inspired culture, not one of intimidation and fear.
Leadership is about building trust. Taunting and challenging your own people to fight, whether it is literal or figurative, does not cut it.
Those of us concerned about management practices in both the public and private sectors wince whenever bad sports analogies or bad mindless 'inspirational' performances are presented as examples of coaching and managing. As we have noted before, the style of Lakers coach Phil Jackson is far preferable to the fiery and erratic performances of Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.
Now if we could just get a response from MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. Or perhaps the wiser thing to do is give the job to Kruk. He has a sense of humor and he can get those honorary first pitches over the plate.
A couple of weeks age Steve Prestegard attempted to drag my name through his column.
I corrected Prestegard in a post What was Steve Prestegard thinking? Was he?
I made an assumption in that statement.
I assumed that Prestegard, as a right wing expert on tax policy and business taxes knew how Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) worked. I assumed that Prestegard understood that TIF has the 'But for Test.' I assumed that Prestegard could follow the discussion. I assumed he was not into gamesmanship.
Silly me. Then Prestegard got too cute by half, writing back, "So basically if I read him correctly, Soglin does not believe in tax breaks for business, period, other than TIF districts, “which are to capture new taxes.” I hope this sets the record straight," as though he had a gotcha.
With a TIF, there are new taxes collected because of the new construction. The taxes I referred to are not a new tax as in a new tax rate or a new tax on an item previously free of taxation. No one was paying a higher tax rate or finding a new item subject to taxation.
can someone explain this to him?
Drastic times call for drastic measures, so maybe it is time to admit the possibility that the best Chicago hot dog for Madison isn’t a Chicago hot dog at all.
To Doug's credit he was up front about his betrayal. He distingushes between Chicago Hot Dog and any old hot dog. He betrayed Chicago and more importantly disgraced his idol, Mike Royko.
Catsup: an accoutrement that does not belong in the same sentence or even paragraph with the aforementioned works.
Hot Dog: any variety of wieners, most not Kosher and all in need of repair; thus the introduction for a variety of adornments including chiles, cheeses, tacos sauces and whizzes.
Food reviewer: usually the top person at a newspaper that eats cheese and wines, expensive meats and 'veggies.' Anyone claiming to be a 'foodie' has no business passing judgment on a hot dog, let alone eating one.
No one can be forgiven for putting catsup on a hot dog, any hot dog unless they are under the age of eleven. If you are over the age of ten, there are only two ways to order a Chicago Hot Dog - with "everything" (also "the works") or "everything but peppers." There are guys sleeping with the fishes in Lake Michigan who uttered the word catsup.
As for Falkenstein's review, she should be banned from sampling any important culinary delight. Her lead is, "It's hard to get too persnickety about a food that's usually sold out of stainless steel street carts or hawked from boxes at ballgames.."
...raises the question of the pickle or 'cuke.' The pickle that nestles alongside the hot dog is to be a 'new' pickle. One that has not been seasoned for a lengthy period of time. By definition that means it will crunch as the teeth penetrate.
I watched the young woman take out the bun and carefully build my hot dog. Immediately I suspected there was something wrong. Missing was the the grizzled knuckles, hairy arms, the sweat dripping off her just as hairy brow, topped by a paper hat that looked like it been used to clean her shoes.
And that is my review on the newest place in Madison to offer hot dogs.