Out of Right Field

Baseball players are, on the whole, a conservative GOP-leaning bunch. If only I could get my head fully around that basic point. The recent White House visit by the Red Sox has run this issue up the flag-pole again, distressing the lovable, arch-Sox fan at Asymptosy [midway down the post]. While some are more rabidly conservative than others, and some are merely self-aggrandizing dicks, the teams I root for are mostly playing for the other side (politically, that is). This cognitive dissonance must be a hangover from childhood--baseball cards don't have an ideology column.

Last September the Mariners were surveyed about politics and it appears that the team is the most right-leaning organization in Seattle. Now, I don't mind a difference of opinion, but ignorance always grates, even in professional athletes. "'I think about what happened on 9/11, and I think about what would have happened if Al Gore had been in charge,' said reliever J.J. Putz, who hails from the important swing state of Michigan. 'This country would be in shambles.'" At least my boy Bobby Madritsch was pulling for Kerry, like a proper lefty should. It's a difficult reality, but one that I must come to grips with: when it comes to ballplayers, some are Clementes and some are just Putzes.