Baseball in D.C. -- the cure for partisan bitterness?

[Tonio]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18006-2004Dec21.html

What has been missed by most of the historians and political scientists is the fact that political conditions in Washington began to decline in 1971, the year the baseball Senators decamped for Texas and became the Rangers.

Baseball was the tonic that soothed Washington's nerves. After a hard day in the Senate, members on opposite sides of the foreign aid bill debate could repair to Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, 22 blocks away, knock back a few beers and watch Frank Howard pound the stuffing out of the ball...

Baseball is a slow game. A single contest lasts three hours, a season six months. It focuses your mind on long-term goals: the playoffs, the Series. It accustoms you to errors. It cushions the pain of losses. It provides heartwarming comebacks. It teaches patience. (Especially to those of us who have been Cubs fans.) All these lessons apply directly to politics.</NITF>
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[ylexot]

What a load of

 

[willie]

Now I remember why I skip David Broder's columns.

 

[Cletus_Vandam]

I'd Tell DC to Pi$$ Off

I think the BB Commiss for resuming communication with DC is a load. After he got jerked around last week , I would have taken business somewhere else (so to speak).

I can't wait to see how the Olympic Committee views what DC did in their unethical course of business with baseball.

I hope DC never gets baseball or the olympics... Does anyone here really think they deserve either?

 

[Tonio]

Yeah, I wouldn't have blamed Selig if he had told Linda Cropp to go pee up a rope. She was just trying to accumulate political points for a future campaign at mayor. She's little better than Marion Barry, manipulating people's sense of resentment for her own gain.

 

[Cletus_Vandam]

Tonio

Have to agree with you on the Barry comparision, but I think I saw a crack pipe hanging out of her mouth when they showed the clip of her on the evening news last week.

 

[Lenny]

What has been missed by most of the historians and political scientists is the fact that political conditions in Washington began to decline in 1971, the year the baseball Senators decamped for Texas and became the Rangers.

Baseball was the tonic that soothed Washington's nerves. After a hard day in the Senate, members on opposite sides of the foreign aid bill debate could repair to Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, 22 blocks away, knock back a few beers and watch Frank Howard pound the stuffing out of the ball...

Baseball is a slow game. A single contest lasts three hours, a season six months. It focuses your mind on long-term goals: the playoffs, the Series. It accustoms you to errors. It cushions the pain of losses. It provides heartwarming comebacks. It teaches patience. (Especially to those of us who have been Cubs fans.) All these lessons apply directly to politics.

If Dems and Reps went to the games together today, they'd be throwing punches by the 7th inning stretch.

 

[Toxick]

What has been missed by most of the historians and political scientists is the fact that political conditions in Washington began to decline in 1971, the year the baseball Senators decamped for Texas and became the Rangers.

This is SOOO true.


Before 1971, the sum of American, nay - human history can be shown to be a recording of politicians holding hands and acting in the best interest of their constituants regardless of political divisions, internal machinations or intrigue.

The current political division in Washington is unique - the lack of a sports team is the cause of it, and George Bush is exacerbating an already bad situation by virtue of his very existence.

 

[willie]

This is SOOO true.


Before 1971, the sum of American, nay - human history can be shown to be a recording of politicians holding hands and acting in the best interest of their constituants regardless of political divisions, internal machinations or intrigue.

The current political division in Washington is unique - the lack of a sports team is the cause of it, and George Bush is exacerbating an already bad situation by virtue of his very existence.

That Toxick stuff will fry your brain.

 

[Larry Gude]

OK...you're all wrong, Broder is right...

A pro team is a salve for a region. Go to a Redskins game. You'll see folks who are just as likely to be electricians as people who work in and around elections. I've personally said 'hi' and 'go Skins!' to both Al Hunt and James Carville, people I can't STAND professionally. For that time they were, Hunt, a fellow Skins fan and, Carville, a fellow football fan. I did not feel the instinctive recoil in person that I feel when they open their gaping maws on TV.

I've never heard a word of politics spoken at a Skins game in all the years I've been going. We all hold our breath, together, in intense anticipation when our guy throws a deep pass. We share the anxiety when their guy throws one up. We do the wave. We cheer the kids at halftime. We stand in line together to pee.

The parking lot is one giant bipartisan playground with champagne and Budweiser drinkers tossing a ball together. Salmon on one grill, dogs on another. Kids run safe and free from those who would take their health care or smother them in secure bubbles.

Black, white, rich, poor, left, right, Green, suburbs, whatever your religion, the city, NOVA, Montgomery county. (Very few Baltimoreans though!). Being a transitional place like DC there is ALWAYS a ton of fans for the other team. Friendly jibes are the rule of the day. We are ALL football fans.

Indoor areanas are different; claustaphopic, makes people too tense. Outdoors sports, football and baseball, are special. I concur with Border, especially if the team can build a rich history like the Redskins. And there lies the crime, that baseball has not been able to be there all this time. Look at the Sox, the Cubs. There is a tie that binds.

Saddly, it's gonna take years to build a tradition. The good news is we are on the way.

If this is only so much hokum to you, I suggest you are not a sports fan. Anywhere I go in this nation, if a person is a football fan then they are my brother. Maybe not my favorite brother but one of me none the less. It's an ice breaker, a conversation starter. You start with somethig in common, not something that seperates you.

Hell, dems4me has perhaps only one redeeming characteristic; she is totally wrong about politics but she is a REDSKINS FAN! I'd even have a soft spot for Urbanpancake if he was a fan!

The power of sport! It's fun, it's interesting, there really is no winners or losers because there is ALWAYS next year to play again, better luck next time, it draws intense passions and at the end of the day, it's just a game and doesn't mean squat.

Americans need that. America needs that.

See you at the ball park. Go Nats!

 

[willie]

Very good points Larry but you're pushing the envelope with urbanpancake.

 

[Tonio]

Here's another columnist who makes a similar point, but without baseball:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20996-2004Dec22.html

Talk radio is similar. The invective, the simplicities, the need for controversy and the us-against-them nature of the format are downright dehumanizing. No one is ever merely mistaken but rather is "wrong" in a moral sort of way -- a flawed human being at best, downright evil at worst. It's all nonsense, of course. We have become a nation of B-52 bombers, hitting targets we never see. Even the after-hours camaraderie of Washington is gone. Republicans hang with Republicans, Democrats with Democrats -- and they all get out of town as fast as possible. A little bourbon would do wonders for our dysfunctional government.</NITF>