The Chris Moeller Archives

Low and wide right

Blog contributor Aaron Moeller "texted" me from Cincinnati this morning-- he and his traveling companion scored Opening Day tickets for this afternoon's tilt between the Reds and Cubs at the Great American Ballpark. Not that he needed them, but he's on strict orders from me to boo President Bush, who's on-hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. (I also instructed him to boo Carlos Zambrano.) Where once the nation's chief executive would travel to D.C.'s R.F.K. Stadium or Baltimore's Municipal Stadium or Camden Yards to chuck the first eephus pitch of spring, Bush and Dick Cheney have toured the country the first Monday of each April to repay political favors, and in the case of 2004, sway swing-state voters.

Bush, as everyone knows, has deep roots in the game of baseball. Before he was the nation's First Hypocrite in the war on steroids, he owned the Texas Rangers' clubhouse where Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro were injecting themselves with "the juice" on a semi-daily basis. Before being recruited by his Daddy's wealthy friends to a life of public service and corporate thieving from inside the nation's highest office, Dubya was recruited by a different group of wealthy friends to front a tax fleecing venture in the greater Dallas area that today is called The Ballpark At Arlington. The gist of the development plan was that area residents would foot the bill for a new baseball stadium for the local team, and in return, the team wouldn't pack their bags and leave town for a different host city. With a new ballpark in tow as private asset, Bush and his puppeteers would then sell the baseball franchise for ten times or more what they paid for it-- which they did just prior to Bush's first campaign for Texas governor. It became the first and only time George W. Bush ever made money in the private sector.

In 2004, after his own largely-unsuccessful attempt to rob Missouri taxpayers of their hard-earned tax dollars, former Bush partner Bill DeWitt recruited the President to the St. Louis Cardinals' then-ballpark to throw out the first pitch of the season. (Missouri was considered a swing state in the 2004 presidential campaign prior to John Kerry's wind-surfing escapade at his Cape Cod estate.) Thirteen months after the launching of the Iraqi war, there was a mixed reaction for Bush at Busch Stadium, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncovered shortly after that the stadium's sound operator had piped in artificial applause to cushion the President's reception.

This winter, another of the President's former partners, Bob Castellini, took over a controlling interest in the Cincinnati Reds so Bush is on-hand today to tour the clubhouses and take the pitchers' mound at yet-another of baseball's publicly-financed, but privately-held stadiums. Since the Reds' previous owner, Carl Lindner, was also a "Texas Ranger," and in his case, that's just a GOP financial contributing designation, Bush follows a long line of Republicans to the Opening Day mound in Cincy. Former President Bush, an Astros fan, threw out the first pitch in 2003, and Dick Cheney endured a mild cardio workout a year later.

Politics has no business mixing with baseball, and I've about had it with the Cardinals' ownership. It's one thing to invite the President to Opening Day, it's quite another to ignore half of your fanbase. Bill Clinton grew up a Cardinals' fan, listening to KMOX Radio and Harry Caray in Hot Springs, but he's never been invited to a Cardinals' game, and I contend it was a purposeful cultural slight when the Cards invited only country and Christian contemporary singers to perform the national anthem and God Bless America during the 2004 World Series, two weeks before the national election. For pity's sake, you have legends Chuck Berry and Nelly making music history in St. Louis, and the ballpark feels like an evening at the Republican National Convention.

The early reports from Cincinnati are coming in, and the first are that Bush was received warmly. It's also noteworthy, however, that he took the field along with several wounded Iraqi veterans. Reds' pitcher and former Cardinals' gas can Kent Mercker showed the President his Bush/Cheney hat, the President spent some extra time with superstar Ken Griffey, Jr., and the Prez's first pitch sailed high and wide. Forty dollar tickets were running $150 each on the street and many fans didn't make it inside in time to see the first pitch due to added security. Were Reds' fans Paula Martin and Rita Bartels excited? "It's really not worth all this for the President," said Bartels, 39, "but I'm a big baseball fan." Both women said the long lines and $150 each were worth it when they saw Cincinnati native Nick Lachey in concert.

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McCarthyism update: Many country music radio stations are refusing to play the Dixie Chicks' new single three years after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London concert audience that she was ashamed George W. Bush was her President. Greg Mozingo, program director for WIL-FM in St. Louis says the lyrics of the new single "Not Ready to Make Nice" are too polarizing and that many listeners complained when the song was introduced. "With the hard feelings out there, especially here in the heartland, combined with in-your-face lyrics, I don't think that boded well for them." God forbid that music actually say something. The song is available on the Chicks' website. (Warning-- link has immediate audio.)

posted by CM @ 12:47 PM