A Swing and a Miss (or dis)...

Photo: Kevin Lemarque/Reuters

                            Photo: Kevin Lemarque/Reuters

    The World Series has finished, although using the term "world" is a bit of a stretch since Major League Baseball is limited to the US and Canada.  And with all that is happening with the tariffs and tensions, Canadians and other fans may have thought twice about heading to the US, wondering if ICE or the National Guard might be waiting outside Customs upon their entry or return (not counting the new procedures to Canadians for being fingerprinted and photographed, AND paying a mandatory $60 processing fee, wrote Money Canada).  But the Series was a welcome and needed release for many, including me, a chance to watch outstanding talent and plays rarely seen elsewhere, the multiple cameras showing evidence that the high-price of the tickets did little to deter people from packing the stadiums.  Besides, when a single baseball player is being paid $700 million (not a typo), then monetary excess is somehow accepted (the average hot dog at Dodger Stadium is $8, but that 40" larger version will cost you $40).  And dieting at a ball game (or golf course, from the looks of our lead-er), is something to be dealt with later...

Political cartoon: Harley Schwandron/Cagle

    And those numbers.  You've likely read that so far those tariffs have brought nearly $200 billion into our Treasury, reported the Bipartisan Policy Center, which sounds great until you see what we've paid in interest on that big-beautiful-bill's debt in just the first nine months -- $970 billion (on its way to $1.22 trillion by the end of the year, according to the US Treasury).  That 6 times the amount being brought in (so far) by the tariffs.  And speaking of which, Trump's recent trip to Asia brought some concession from China on placing a small order of soybeans from our farmers, but nowhere near enough to make farmers feel pleased, wrote the Des Moines Register.  More concerning is what he may have promised China in return...access to advanced computer chips, something that has been denied by the past 7 presidents, reported Aljezeera.  But what may be more concerning is the immigration.  Not only has Trump accomplished what he promised --which was to slow and eventually stop the flow of immigration-- but added a $100,000 bounty for those companies seeking to obtain H1-B visas (which is a visa for highly-skilled workers, but would have earlier included immigrants such as Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella).  For Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the cost for the 12,000 H1-B visas they got approved last year alone will be an additional $1.2 billion (if Bezos decides to use all those workers, despite the recent outage Amazon Cloud experienced).  And while just 1% of our doctors are here on H1-B visas (from a study by JAMA), the immigration tightening shows that 75% of scientists are now considering moving their research overseas (a study in Nature).

      Nonetheless, I couldn't help but picture all of this happening as a big ball game.  The owner, high in the palatial box above it all, would be Trump, feeling that he is making the plays and the calls but is really just an owner who can hire and fire and knows little else.  All of that is run by manager Stephen Miller, someone too old to play but who knows the game and thus can call the shots and direct his coaches, telling them how he wants the games to play out by using his previous Project 2025 team's playbook.  Then come the coaches, the ones there to boost the players, hone their skills, and praise or berate their talents and egos.  This team needed only a few real coaches, placing the many others as assistants or leaving them in the dugout or catching warm-ups.  Main coach Russell Vought combined hitting and pitching and was just shy of becoming the manager himself, but is happy with getting his players to just win games, even if it takes many seasons.  And coaching both first and third bases is a relatively unknown in the big circles but is key to stolen bases and scoring runs, a coach who's been traded many times but has now comfortably settled into this team, Peter Navarro.  One surprise has been talent scout Marco Rubio who skipped all the coaches and went directly to the owner, convincing him that he shouldn't recruit players from Venezuela.  Rubio's cultural dislike of the managers there was presented as a case of drugs entering the team and thus bad publicity...the ruse worked on the aging owner.  A few other coaches such as Kash Patel and RFK, Jr. were shoved off to the background, all while being told how important they were despite them being expendable and easily replaced.  On to the players themselves, only one of which really mattered, the other initials-only teammate, JD Vance.  He once called the owner an idiot and someone who might turn into "America's Hitler."  But he was the team's star, batting cleanup and he quickly realized that it was better to make up with the old owner than to try and butt heads.  Besides, that was all in the past and quickly forgotten by the owner, as many things are these days, his infatuation with gold and being in that upper tier box being all that really matters to him.  A host of other players, even a few ladies, rounded out the lineup, but they were all incidental as well, making the occasional line drive or turning a hit into a double play.  But while each has been surprised at their quick jump from the minors (some even coming straight from high school) to suddenly being pros and in the Series, they have come to believe their power is real and now eagerly act the part, even flaunting their newfound riches by showing off $60,000 Rolex watches to the hungry (if poor) fans.  But this JD player, unbeknownst to the even the coaches, has his eyes on becoming the new owner, praising the old man on one end while undermining him on the other.  But the fan base overall has continued to drop, which the owner denies, so his coaches and team are doing everything they can to keep the stadiums full: buying out the broadcasters and allowing only certain reporters into the locker rooms.  But the star-struck JD already knows what worked for the owner and is quickly learning how to mimic his antics, telling foreign reporters one thing, then doing the opposite while playing.  In the meantime, all the fans want to hear is "play ball," even as each side is happy when the game is in their city and have the home field advantage (and may be lucky enough to be ahead).  Now where's my Cracker Jack?

     It's easy enough to make this current administration into a major league game, especially since so much equipment also needs to be moved each time the teams head back to their home cities.  And surprisingly, little is different when Trump heads overseas, or to short campaign speeches, or even when he heads home each week to golf (same for any president, except for the weekly golf trips because one should note that each round-trip flight to Mar a Lago cost the taxpayers $1.6 million, wrote the Palm Beach Post). One would think that when it comes to moving a president, it's only Air Force One that carries the entourage.   But behind the scenes are two additional C-17 Globemaster III cargo carriers, wrote Car & Driver, hauling the presidential motorcade (at least 4 armored vehicles) and a minimum of 40 additional Secret Service agents.  Three massive planes, whether the flight is 300 miles or 3000.  But the Treasury is unlimited in its funds, isn't it?  Uh, no...it's draining and draining quickly, trickling down but not in the way conservatives preached.  As China looks to Brazil for its soy beans because of the steep tariffs (soya beans are the number one export crop to China for US farmers), companies such as John Deere and Caterpillar have announced layoffs in 3 of their plants due to owing an additionally combined $600 million in tariffs, wrote The Wall Street Journal.  As to the day Trump introduced tariffs on packages valued less than $800?  The volume of such mail dropped 80%, wrote Axios.  The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach saw container shipments drop nearly 7% in  September, as reported in the WSJ.  And those grocery prices?  A majority of our crops come from Mexico (think Green Giant and other large growers) and now has an added 7% tariff (compared to other products from Mexico which face a 25% tariff), wrote The Global Statistics.  And those cars?  Many of the foreign assembly plants now have a minimum 25% tariff, wrote AAA.

     So Jimmy Darts (real name: Jimmy Kellogg).  I'd never heard of him but on social media he's apparently quite well known, his unexpected "kindness" videos having been viewed by millions.  Darts' way of operating is to often act the part of someone needing help, often asking for a dollar or so outside thrift stores or on the street corners of shaky neighborhoods.  Now Darts admits that more often than not, his appeals get rejected or he gets brushed off like some sort of pest.  But many more people --often those in need themselves, hard-working but fighting to get out of a rut themselves, a rut that seems to grow deeper with each passing day-- will turn to help him out.  He then gives the people anywhere from $500 to $1000 back, telling them that since they helped him, he wants to help them, which often brings them to tears, and they begin telling him how much that extra money will help them feed their kids or pay a bill or get them a needed medication.  He films such encounters and later posts the videos on Tik Tok or Instagram, often directing his many subscribers (he has well over 2 millions of them) to try and chip in to help with his campaign to help this person, his GoFundMe campaigns often raising $50,000 or $100,000 for some of the people (Darts himself has become a multi-millionaire from his many views on social media sites).  Here's one example from his book, Undercover Kindness: When Darts posed outside a Nashville thrift store asking people for an extra dollar so he could buy a pair of crutches, a big Honduran man abruptly told him "no!", then added, "I buy them for you."  He even offered to buy Darts one of the wheelchairs outside.  Turned out that the man was there to buy crutches and wheelchairs for others back in Honduras.  But he was also trying to save for an operation on his son's leg which had been badly damaged in a car accident.  Darts' video and GoFundMe appeal not only brought in $50,000 to help fulfill that wish, but caught the eye of a doctor who had a few contacts at Vanderbilt University Med Center.  Doctors there discovered that both of his son's legs needed surgery, and the amount would be much more than the $50,000  raised.  But both the hospital and folks from the Tennessee area donated enough to have the surgeries performed.  Wrote Darts in his book:... people in general aren't as harsh as we are led to believe.  It turns out, mean people often need the biggest hugs... Every day we have a choice.  Choose love.  Choose kindness.  Speak life.  Change lives.  All of that seemed to echo the words of Zora Neale Hurston: I have known the joy and pain of deep friendship.  I have served and been served.   I have made some good enemies for which I am not a bit sorry.  I have loved unselfishly, and i have fondled hatred with the red-hot tongs of Hell.  That's living... So I give you all my right hand of fellowship and love, and hope for the same from you.  In my eyesight, you lose nothing by not looking just like me...You who play the zig-zag lightning of power over the world, with the grumbling thunder in your wake, think kindly of those who walk in the dust.  And you who walk in humble places, think kindly too, of others.  There has been no proof in the world so far that you would be less arrogant if you held the lever of power in your hands.  Let us all be kissing- friends.  Consider that with tolerance and patience, we godly demons may breed a noble world in a few hundred generations.  Maybe all of us who do not have the good fortune to meet or meet again, in this world, will meet at a barbeque. 

Disrespecting Canada in 1992's Series in Atlanta
Photo: Hans Deryk, Canadian Press

    One friend of mine mentioned that he felt that this World Series had turned political, that fans were almost rooting less for the games themselves than they were rooting for Canada, as if seeing Canada's differing provinces unifying around their Toronto Blue Jays had provided a stark contrast of our own country desperately wanting to do the same.  It's as if we in the US have adopted the slogan: I quit following politics for good. Now I'm following it for evil.  But I disagreed with my friend, because a much more political World Series occurred back in 1992 when the same Toronto team played the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta, and our Marine "honor" guard walked out with the Canadian flag upside down (Toronto would win the Series, but hasn't won since).  But even with our heightened tensions today, it was my feeling that people watching this World Series just wanted to see a good game of baseball, even if the players were making unheard of amounts of money.  The designated hitter rule change in 2022 put a bit more action in the game, as did the pitching clock change in 2023.  But none of that was enough to satisfy Washington Post writer and fan, Jane Leavy, author of her new book, Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It.  She argued, as do I, that what baseball once represented was fun, and sportsmanship, and teamwork (she also noted that the percentage of black players on MLB teams has dropped from 20% in the days of Maury Wills and Willie Mays, to just 6% today).  One of her proposals: let anyone 10 years old and younger into major league ball games for free.  The baseball world of Mantle and Koufax and Mays was a day outing to remember, no matter who won.  Bring back the fun and excitement of the game, she wrote, and let politics take a rest for a bit, that 7th-inning stretch if you will (and if you watched the Series, you had to admit that this was one exciting and nail-biting finish).

     So back to politics (okay, not really), although I did get a chuckle out of the recent 2024 election in the UK when the Looney Party got on the ballot.   As reported in The New York Review: ...5,814 Britons cast their votes for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, whose current “Manicfesto” includes a call to establish a “Court of Human Lefts” and a proposal to end identity theft by renaming everyone in the country Chris.  Some of these voters probably thought they were expressing serious disapproval of the establishment parties.  Others may have just wanted to do something silly.  But no one challenged their right to “vote for insanity,” as the party put it.  It was their choice.  And as the historian Sophia Rosenfeld puts it in the introduction to The Age of Choice, “Both having choices and making choices are largely what count these days as being, indeed feeling, free.”  Which brings me to when we got lost.  My wife and I had decided to get away for a few days, and friends had invited us to their home down south, and to bring our dog, wheelchair and all.  So we rented a car for the 4-hour drive, and call us what you will but we never quite figured out how to work all the gadgets and buttons that come with today's vehicles (what, not USB stick outlet?).  We could pair our phones and listen to downloaded music and such, but adding the navigation map overrode all that (what??).  We had never had that problem with other rentals (our cars are both from 2010 so we tend not to chance them when we drive more than a few hours).  But fortunately we had brought along our trusty old school paper travel atlas so no worries...or so we thought.  We gassed up in a small-ish town, then asked the attendant if we could continue down the road and get back on the freeway from the the other end (to our mind, this would save us backtracking to the offramp a mile back).  And off we went, and went, and went.  We should see a turnoff sign, my wife told me, and I agreed, even if we had already driven about 15 minutes and that admitting my error and heading back was not something I looked forward to.  But we pulled over, unplugged the phone, and typed in the navigation map.  And as luck would have it, we were less than a mile away from the "alternate" route, a backway in that would take us behind Arches National Park and have us follow the path of the Colorado.  Dang, we thought, even as we breathed a sigh of relief.  But fate was on our side because the entire drive, winding and slower (it was still a state highway so was fully paved and somewhat traveled), became ever more beautiful (the photo below is but one example), forcing us to slow down willingly and to take in the views.  It was something we would have never seen, or thought to see, had we stayed on the original path.  And this World Series was like that.  Baseball fan or not, it was fun to watch, perhaps because of the stadiums full of fans all cheering a break from all the usual noise.  And despite the similarities of big-money ownership on both sides,* Rogers Stadium prohibits ANY sort of political sentiment on signage or clothing (even a Canadian fan, wearing a Canada Is Not for Sale hat, was turned away from an earlier game).  This was baseball after all, and a ball game was no place for anything else but for watching the game and rooting for your team.  Now if only we could learn to do the same as a country....

*Lest you think I was rooting for just one side, I sort of was in the beginning, thinking that the underdog Blue Jays (fifth highest payroll in baseball) would show that Dodger money doesn't always win, or at least not easily (the LA Dodgers have the highest payroll in MLB history if factoring in deferred salaries, wrote The Sporting News).  But when it comes to ownership, take a look at how similar the Toronto Blue Jays are to the Dodgers, as reported by The Conversation: Rogers Communications purchased 80 per cent of the Blue Jays in 2000, with Interbrew retaining 20 per cent [note: original money for privatizing the team came from the Labatt's brewery which was later purchased by the conglomerate, Interbrew].  The on-field performance changed little, but the business model evolved significantly.  Rogers acquired the remaining 20 per cent of the team in July 2004.  Before the year was out, it had gained control of SkyDome for $25 million, a fraction of the $600 million that the stadium cost to build only 15 years earlier.  Now privately owned in full, it was renamed the Rogers Centre.  Today, the Blue Jays reflect the vertical integration of modern commercial sports.  The team is the primary tenant in a stadium operated by their owners.  Their games are broadcast on television channels, radio stations and streaming services owned and operated by Rogers Communications.  These channels market other Rogers-owned content during Blue Jays games.  Meanwhile, fans consume this content on cable subscriptions and internet services that are Rogers’ core businesses.  The newest extension of this revenue-generation model is the increasing prominence of sports betting, which is integrated fully into broadcasts by on-screen commentators providing odds as though delivering sports “news,” not paid advertising.