Landslide!

Congratulations to Barack Hussain Obama, the newly elected 44th President of the United States of America. This is the proudest I've ever been of my country.

If there's anyone in this country who doesn't believe in "Yes We Can," then they've been under a rock for the last year. Yes We Can? Yes WE DID!

Just got home from partying with my friends.

Sonoma County went for Obama by more than 70 percent. When I heard the news, I yelled it out to my friends where we were eating dinner. The whole restaurant -- except one guy who gave an adamant thumbs down gesture -- broke out in applause. Someone made a toast. The whole place stopped eating and joined in. it was inspiring.

It was surreal walking through town. People stopped to hug me, cars drove by honking. People were running around screaming "Yes we can!" Someone was playing Bill Withers' "Lovely Day." People stopped to dance with strangers.

We watched the speech on a large-screen TV at a local restaurant. There were tears and hugs. Everybody I met sounded the same theme, that anything is possible. That we've got a chance to shake off the darkness that was the Bush Administration and fine a unity and togetherness, a new hope for our future. There's nothing more inspiring than that. Nothing greater than one man who can bring a whole country together.

Obama is right. It all happened because of what we did. We, every one of us, should be proud of what was accomplished tonight.

After Bush eked out a win four years ago, his message to America was that he had won political capital and he was going to spend it. He said "fuck you" to the millions of Americans who voted for the other guy. President-elect (!!!!) Barack Obama invited every American to join in the process, no matter who they voted for.

Now we know again the beauty of a man who believes in the We The People, not We The Power.

They called him socialist. They said he hung out with terrorists. They said he was a Muslim. They his birth certificate was a lie. The American people heard them and flipped them the biggest bird ever. Good for us.

I guess they wanted them to know that the real America is everywhere. As much as this was a landslide victory for Obama (as I post this, his victory in Indiana put him at 349 electoral votes), it's also a repudiation of the last eight years of George W. Bush and his behind-closed-doors grab for presidential power, an administration that was run by unelected lawyers who operated in the shadows, who didn't trust Americans enough to abide by the important transparency of our government's checks and balances.

We should have thrown the bums out four years ago, but perhaps we were a moment waiting for its champion.

If there's anything clear about Tuesday's historic election, it's that we have found him -- and more important, he has found us.

Obama is the man for our moment and nothing the righties could say or do, none of their lies could change that. It's a great day to be alive. I'm glad I witnessed it. The only thing that would make it sweeter is to be sitting next to Sean Hannity right now. Ah, but gloating would be so un-Obama-like.

Tell you what, though, I'm going to Washington on January 20 to witness history first hand.

In case you're worried you'll wake up tomorrow and discover this whole thing has been a dream, here's tomorrow's New York Times front page.

Congratulations, President Obama. You told us you would change the world and God damn it, if you went and did it.

Wow.

RIP - Tony Snow

This is a tough one for me.

Tony Snow died today. He was 53. For those of you who don't know why he's front-and-center on the NY Times obituary page, read about him here. When Jesse Helms left us on July 4, I knew a bad man was gone and I had no qualms about feeling glad that he could no longer pimp his flaming bigotry. But this one is different.

I knew Tony. He was a mentor and a friend when I was a young journalist at the Washington Times. We sparred about politics and life and religion and sports and he was a good, sweet-hearted man who I came to admire and respect. That doesn't mean knowing him is all that takes for me to be okay with the part he played in the Bush revolution.

I mean when he left to be Bush 1's speechwriter, I wasn't surprised -- he was a Republican, after all. But when he eventually ended up at Fox News, it was a weirder, because when we were debating over lunch in the Times' cafeteria, he seemed closer to the center than the other Conservatives I knew.

I never was able to comfortably reconcile the Tony Snow I knew with the man who was a Fox commentator or later, the mouthpiece for an administration whose policies led to the death and injury of so many young Americans and countless more Iraqis.

And it's even more complicated than that. I was working for the Times when I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I think Tony had left by that time but he somehow found out and contacted me. Believe me, when you're young and you have Cancer, it's not easy for some people and I had many friends who couldn't reach out to me, for whatever reason. I've come to believe it's hard for some people to be forced to consider their own mortality. But Tony knew about Cancer and his words that day were backed up by the authenticity of having gone through the darkness and come out of it. We were connected by it and he knew this long before I did.

So, I can't say Tony was a bad guy. And yes, his support of Bush at a time when it was pretty damn apparent to even the True Believers that the war and everything that came out of it was a royal fuck up, a cost measured in blood and human lives, is going to be part of his legacy. So I can't say he was a great man, either.

That he was there for me, and others, that he loved his family and was good to them, that he was a good and decent friend to folks on both sides of the political aisle, is also part of what he leaves behind, and it's that part I'll choose to remember about him.

NBA Finals - Green is Good

Had to interrupt my sabbatical for a shout out to my favorite current NBA player and his new crew, who are at the moment on the verge of winning an NBA title. Over, I might add, the heavily hyped and pre-series favorites Los Angeles Lakers.

Y'all know by now what I think of Kobe Bryant, possibly the most overhyped superstar in the history of the NBA. Bryant is a frighteningly talented offensive force, a self-made one-man band who is known for his focus and determination, but as I've said here before, his leadership qualities are severely lacking. Kobe wants us all to think he's changed his spots, he's become a leader, a team player, that he's been more involved with off-court team activities. And when he was awarded the league MVP this year, he invited his teammates to stand on the floor with him in a move that sports commentators positively gushed about. Around these parts, there was a lot of gagging.

Kobe, you might remember, was the guy who bitched about his team, his team's management and owner over the summer and begged them to trade him -- or at least trade their young players for someone who could help him. To be fair, Paul Pierce of the Celtics bitched about his team too, asking to be traded in the off season, but Pierce didn't chase away the best center in the NBA, when he apparently still had another title in his large hands.

Kobe knows how to yell at his teammates but he has no idea how to be a true on-the-court leader. Pierce, certainly less of a talent than Kobe, is proving to be the best leader of this series.

Nobody was even sure if Kobe would show up for the season, but he did arrive and wouldn't you know it, those kids weren't half bad and then boom! the NBA gods dropped Pau Gasol into the Lakers lap in exchange for a piece of paper with a date on it. Suddenly, the Lakers are the team to beat. They earned the top spot in the West and then pretty much sailed through the playoffs right into the NBA finals, where they were considered heavy favorites -- 9 out of 10 of espn.com's experts picked the Lakers to win the series, even though they didn't have home court advantage and the Celtics had beaten the Lakers in both meetings during the regular season.

Ooops.

The C's held court in Boston, winning the first two games fairly easily -- though not without drama. It was clear the plan was to stop Kobe from beating them, to put the ball in the hands of his young supporting cast, which hasn't really been up to the big-stage pressure. But then neither has Kobe, really. Four games into the series and he still looks confused.

Except early in Game 4 when the Lakers were building a 24-point lead, have the Lakers looked to be as good a "team" as the Celtics. And even that went all to hell when the C's climbed back by crushing L.A. in the third quarter and then completing the historic comeback in the fourth and putting them on the brink of an NBA title.

If you were watching the entire series, you would see that the Lakers have only been able to solve the Celtics' defense during short bursts, the most important at the end of the game two (that furious comeback that fell short) and then at the end of game three, which they won. Game 4 seemed like a sea change in the series. Whoa, not so fast.

Even as they were building that big lead, I thought the Celtics weren't giving the same defensive effort and they were missing a lot of easy shots, shots they would normally make and have been making. The Lakers won the first quarter 35-14 but the C's took the third 31-15 -- the fourth time in the four games where they've won the third quarter, a quarter the Zen Master has always stressed as being all-important to winning NBA games.

The Lakers only have two true superstars (Kobe + 1/2 Gasol and 1/2 Lamar Odom). While both are excellent players, they are not in the same league as Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Even more impressive to me is how KG, the heart of all those Minnesota teams he played on, has easily slid into the second/third banana role in Boston. They are superstars playing like role players. I mean Allen played the whole game and had nine boards. Every time they get a defensive start, they fist pump in the way other teams do when they get a three or a dunk.

Defense has been the difference. The C's have cut the Lakers' scoring by 10, 20 points a game off their average (of course, scoring often drops off in the half-court nature of the playoffs but you get my point) and they've neutralized Kobe who hasn't had a decent shooting night against them all season -- he must have nightmares about getting suffocated by green jerseys. I think Doc seems to have taken a page out of Larry Brown’s playbook from the 2004 playoffs, when the Pistons basically keyed on Kobe, hoping to make him have to make more decisions with the ball and therefore, use more of the shot clock.

Kobe has been forced to give up his beloved rock, and he may indeed be bitching to and about his teammates about why they haven't been taking advantage, but Kobe isn't a playmaker in the strict sense of the word. He's a shooting guard who looks to score first, only giving up the ball if he doesn't have a look or a near-look or a sort-of look. Most of the time, when a player like that passes to an open man, it's in the flurry of competition and not often in the best place or way or situation for said role player to get off his best shot. That's asking a lot of your teammates, especially on the sport's biggest stage.

The rap on Gasol all those years in Memphis was that he was soft. I think y'all can see that now, not to mention his defense is pretty ordinary for a 7-footer with a wingspan like that. Odom is a guy who fills up the stat sheet but his impact on the game is not as great as it could be (or is perceived to be). He loses focus, is easily confused and after that tremendous start, disappeared in the second half. Seriously, one minute he was driving to the hoop, making big play after big play, digging the flow and the next, POOF! he was gone, gone, gone.

I think Doc Rivers is out-coaching the Zen Master in this series. Going with the smaller lineup may have been obvious with the C's down by 20 points, but putting in Eddie House was a brave move. Even the ABC commentators were saying Rondo wasn't taking advantage of his open looks -- which was Philip's strategy, to have Kobe roam off of Rondo, to give him those short jumpers, figuring he wouldn't make enough of them to make a difference. Even though his scrappy defense was helping his team, they needed a guy who would take what the Lakers were giving them -- or in civilian terms, to shoot the damn ball. And when House came in, he hit two huge freaking shots, making Doc look like a genius.

Seriously though, I'm beginning to think Phil Jackson is overrated. How is it that he has Sasha grab-and-bitch Vujacic on Allen in the fourth quarter with the entire series in the balance? Anyone can tell by watching Vujacic play that he's a jerk of mammoth proportions and his penchant for playing dirty is hardly good defense.

Goes to show all that extra-curricular nonsense doesn't substitute for moving your feet and staying in front of your man. Remember Vujacic was the guy who earlier in the game, fell to the floor while holding onto Allen and when he didn't get the call, used his legs to hold Allen down directly in front of referee Steve Javie. It's the most obvious foul call of the series (which is saying a lot) and Vujacic looked at Javie like he just asked him on a date.

I'm thinking this game, this series, ought to put to rest now and forever, the comparisons between Kobe and MJ. It's unfair to Kobe anyway -- they aren't the same kind of players and never were. But then nobody will ever be like Jordan, so maybe it's doing him a favor. Still, I don't see MJ blowing a 24-point lead in a crucial game 4 at home.

I think it also puts into sharper focus the idea that Kobe is some bigger-than-life factor at the end of close games. All of these games have been within the Lakers' grasp in the fourth quarter and Kobe, who one of the ABC announcers called the NBA's best closer, has only been a factor in one of them. If it's true, then when is Kobe going to get it done. I mean if he's not doing it (and didn't in his last NBA Finals appearance) when it really counts? If all Kobe needs is teammates who can keep his team close into the waning moments of the game so he can take over and lead them to victory, then the only person Kobe should be bitching at is the guy looking back at him in the mirror each morning.

Because to be fair, the Lakers have been in all of these games and the Closer has been out closed out.

Sure, the Lakers could still make history and win, but I think everyone can see by now, including the participants, who the better team is in this series. I'll give you a hint: they wear green.

See ya soon, sports fans....

A Sabbatical. Duh.

Bummer.
I'm writing, folks. Which is what I do for a living. How the bills get paid. And right now, I'm writing hard, as in working my ass off, as in all-day, all-night, nonstop attack mode, as in I got no time to post here, obviously.

I'm telling you, if they took a sample of my blood right now, it'd be at least 10 percent caffeine.

But I'm not giving up, not on K.G. or the Mets, or this here blog. And even if the Lakers win the NBA title, I still think Kobe is overrated.

Seriously, though, I hardly have had any time to do anything except see Iron Man (awesome) and Indiana Jones (ugh) and catch a tiny bit of the NBA playoffs and the first half of the baseball season (what the fuck is wrong with the Mets?). But work has to come first sometimes so I'm in my writing cave pounding the keyboard. The end is in sight but the closer I get, the less time I have for posting here. So I'm officially taking some time off. I hope to return by the MLB All-Star Game in July. And if all goes as planned, I'll have some very awesome stuff to post here.

Peace to all, or as my friend Robert Crais always says, "write hard, die free."

I hope my peeps will still be here when I return.....

PLAY BALL!

Dodger Stadium, Summer 2007 (see note below)
I’m in the middle of project which has kept me from blogging even irregularly of late.

I do have some things to say about the NBA season and I’ll be chiming in here as the season comes to a close but let me drop in and say a hearty “welcome” to the Boys of Summer as the MLB Season officially kicks off stateside tonight in Washington, D.C.

I always look forward to baseball season but this year couldn’t come soon enough. The total historic collapse of my beloved Mets last year was part of it (nothing like a new spring to banish the old demons) but their signing of Johan Santana, done in the midst of the Giants’ amazing Super Bowl run, really got me excited for baseball.

I sense good things for my boys this year and I’m looking forward to seeing them on the field.

To my surprise, I saw that no one on Saturday that ESPN’s Baseball Tonight picking the Mets to even win the NL East. That’s right. Instead, former player Eric Young and former Mets beat writer Buster Olney both picked the hated Atlanta Braves.

I gotta give the A.T.L. its due. They got a nice pitching staff and some great young players and I do think they’re going to be better than the overrated Phillies but I just don’t see how the Mets, barring some major injuries, are going to not win the East by at least four or five games. And really, how much more does Tommy Glavine have left in the tank anyway? As much as I love the guy, I'd be surprised if he wins more than 10 games this year.

Santana is a big reason. When you’ve got a guy like Santana going every fifth day, you’re not going to have many long losing streaks. The bullpen is much stronger and will get even better when Duaner Sanchez returns from injury (he won't until after the Mets break camp in Florida) and Jose Reyes is going to have a monster year, if only to shut up all the folks who said he was taking the game too lightly.

Carlos Beltran and David Wright are going to be battling all year long for the MVP I think. I don’t remember Beltran looking so good, so comfortable this early in the year. And confident.

And if Pedro can continue to throw like he has this spring, the Mets are going to be very hard to beat. Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson told ESPN the other day during the Civil Rights Game broadcast that during a pitching session, he complimented Pedro on his throwing. To which he said Pedro answered, "Don't call me Pedro. Call me Picasso." Nothing like competition at the top of the rotation to bring out the fire in a competitive pitcher's belly. He's in great shape after his year-long rehab. He's learned how to pitch to his diminishing skills and speed -- I expect a huge year from Pedro this year.

Think about this: the Mets are a better defensive team than they were last year when they were one of the top fielding teams in the league and they got better in those areas – bullpen, right field where they were suspect. Maybe they could use one more right-handed power hitter but every team is weak somewhere.

All good reasons why the Mets will return to the top of the division this season but the real reason I’m picking them is John Maine.

Maine is the Mets’ big right-hander who pitched 7 2/3 of hitless ball n what at the time was the most important game of the Mets season last year. He started the season last year on a roll and was almost unhittable in April and May.

He ended up winning 15 games last year but he should have won 18 at least and that’s why I’m predicting Maine as the NL Cy Young Award winner for 2008. With this lineup and the way he’s capable of throwing, Maine should win 20 games this year.

Right now, he’s slotted as the number 4 starter behind Santana, Pedro and Oliver Perez and in front of El Duque. He’s always had great stuff but he’s learning how to harness his talent AND keep his focus on the mound. You read it here first: John Maine is going to win 20 games.

Now for my 2008 Predictions:

NL East – Mets
NL Central – Milwaukee Brewers
NL West - Arizona Diamondbacks
NL Wild Card – Colorado Rockies

AL East – Boston Red Sox
AL Central – Cleveland Indians
AL West - Seattle Mariners
AL Wild Card – Detroit Tigers

World Series: Mets over Seattle

Enjoy the spring everybody!


Full disclosure: Particularly observant fans might note that I've altered this photo, taken at Dodgers Stadium last summer. I actually reversed the score in a game the Dodgers won but it's spring and it's baseball and we should all be able to look at our teams through rose-colored glasses, even virtual ones.

Shyonelung at the Game

Went to see the Phoenix Suns play the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland last night. Shaq was in the building, folks although he was in street clothes. I did notice he was joking and laughing with his new teammates. Alas, the Suns lost in a track meet but they did seem a little more freer than they've been this season. Like maybe they were having fun again. Ah, the weight of expectations. The impact of the big fella will interesting to see, the most interesting game coming up on Feb. 20, right after the All-Star Break against the Lakers and their new acquisition.

Here's some pictures from the game Wednesday night. Click on any of them to see them actual size.

Steve Nash, using his feet in pregame warmups




Shaquille O'Neal sighting. (He's the one in street clothes).



Baron Davis in the lane. Grant Hill (33) and Raja Bell closing in.



Mismatch. 6-2 Baron Davis tries to guard 6-11 Amare Stoudemire


Al Harrington driving to the hoop.



Artistic shot of Amare



Steve Nash and Boris Diaw



Warriors young star in waiting Monta Ellis



Warriors 'Captain' Jack -- Stephen Jackson, driving late.


Suns forward Amare Stoudemire goes up to rock the rim



Ellis driving the lane. He scored 37 points in the win.

Rocket Juice

After the Storm
I've been avoiding the baseball steroids stuff. For no other reason than it makes me feel dirty just to talk about it.

I have mixed feelings about steroids. I mean I understand the outrage by parents who don't want their kids to follow their "heroes" and juice up. But on the other hand, I've seen and heard and read enough to seriously wonder if steroids are as bad as they're made out to be. I mean last week even, the New York Times' George Vescey mentioned Lyle Alzado in a cautionary tale column about the downside of steroids. Alzado, for those of you don't remember that the Oakland Raiders were once in Oakland and that John Madden was once a coach, was the gregarious, hard-living face of the Just Win, Baby Raiders.

He is also one of the first professional athletes to publicly acknowledge steroid use. He claimed that his addiction to steroids, begun in the late 1960's, led to his contracting brain cancer, which killed him in 1992 at the age of 43. For many years, Alzado has been the poster athlete against steroid use -- use them and you will die. But the truth is more complicated and even though his personal physician repeatedly said that steroids had nothing to do with Alzado's illness, the myth lives on. Even, apparently, the mind at least one NY Times columnist.

The cheating part of steroids irks the hell of me which only serves to highlight my particular naiveté, one shared by many other sports fans and that is that sports is the last arena where competition is mostly fair, where character and heart are revealed in sometimes starkly simple ways. Don't sorry, I have that other, more cynical side of me too. I know that baseball tacitly approved steroid use at a time when it needed fans more than it needed to give players piss tests. I was happy, in fact, when the Mitchell Report, for the most part, did not take prisoners, particularly among the upper echelon of baseball officials. Names were named for better or worse, no matter who they were or how good they turned out to be for their cheating - or even if their uniform was a business suit.

One of those names is Roger Clemens, the fire-balling, hot-headed Texan who many consider to be among the top five pitchers ever to play in the big leagues. Like another famous accused steroid user, Clemens has vociferously denied using steroids. Indeed, he has mounted a relentless campaign to clear his name, which was muddied by the accusations of his one-time personal trainer who claims to have personally injected 'roids into Clemens' ass.

This coming Wednesday, Congress is getting involved as the House Oversight Committee is holding hearings on steroid use. I'd like to say right now that these hearings are a perfect example of an issue where Congress doesn't belong. It seriously boils me that my tax money is paying for a hearing that isn't necessary and in fact, is more likely to turn into a public relations photo-op for the Congressmen involved. I bet attendance will be 100 percent.

And yet, in the weeks leading up to this ridiculousness, has not been devoid of juicy details, if you'll pardon the pun.

I would argue that Clemens, who has assembled an expensive, high-class defense team, is not getting his money's worth. He's either a complete and utter egomaniac who is blind to reality or he is getting the worse legal advice in the history of the world.

After all, Clemens went on "60 Minutes" and denied steroid use even though right after the report was released his bestest baseball buddy, Andy Pettitte, was shared Clemens' trainer and was also accused by him, admitted to using steroids. Then last week, Clemens was one of several people subpoenaed by the House to give sworn depositions about this week's testimony. Which, by the way, he did. Can we all stop and spell stupid?

Giving a sworn deposition to Congress is the same as in a court of law. If you are caught lying under oath to Congress, it's a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. I mean, duh. When Clemens' accuser Brian McNamee produced used syringes (along with other alleged evidence) he claims have traces of both steroids and Clemens' DNA on them, it put the seven-time Cy Young Award winner in a serious, serious situation, one that could end up with him pitching in pinstripes.

(Let me talk for a moment about these alleged syringes. Lots of folks have wondered why the fuck McNamee held onto them years after he claimed he used them on Clemens. I mean it's not like he could sell them on eBay. I don't pretend to know why and a part of me thinks it's all too convenient to be The Smoking Gun, but if it's really true, I have a guess as to why he kept them. I think McNamee was close enough to understand who Clemens is and he was worried about his future. The general feeling about the Rocket around baseball is that he wasn't exactly the world's nicest guy. Ornery, tough, a little bit of an asshole at times and while loyal to a small group of his insiders, tended to be aloof, a guy who looked out for Number One. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's probably a pretty good self-defense mechanism for a guy as big and as great as Clemens. The way he pitched, living on chin music in an era when most pitchers shied away from throwing inside, you can understand his "me against the world" mentality.

It's possible few people really understood this part of Roger's ego, than McNamee, his long time trainer, confidante, friend. I mean who knows an athlete better than his trainer? A guy you see every day, who knows all your imperfections (literally), who has pushed you to the breaking point and held your hand beyond it?

Maybe McNamee was afraid that Clemens wouldn't protect him, if the shit ever hit the fan, that Clemens would not have his back, that in fact he might sell his ass down the river to protect his own legacy. Or maybe he didn't want to be his Greg Anderson. Maybe he thought that Clemens might have to be convinced to pay for his silence or that he would never be convinced to pay up or maybe he didn't think he could stomach the lies and was afraid his old friend and boss wouldn't understand. So maybe, just maybe he saved those syringes for that rainy day when he would he would be left twisting in the wind. I have no idea if this is true but don't tell me it's not a reasonable theory. )

Back to the present.

Tonight, word comes out that Pettitte, who also gave a sworn deposition last week, has asked to be excused from testifying. Speculation is that he may have implicated his old friend in the depo and doesn't want to make the situation worse by saying it in front of the world. And he won't have to testify according to reports which now say only Clemens and McNamee will be giving testimony at the Wednesday hearings. If y'all aren't feeling dirty yet, this ought to seal it.

Things are looking very dicey for Clemens about right now. Give the guy credit for facing the music but this all feels like he's protesting way too much. Everybody on his team is claiming he never took steroids, even as the evidence seems to be mounting with every vehement denial. It's been one public relations disaster after another. Can it all be unseen forces out to ruin a star's reputation?

Indeed, Clemens has a lot to protect. His legacy for one. His getting voted into the baseball Hall of Fame but now his reputation -- added to the mix by the Rocket himself. What if it comes out that he really did do steroids now? He might have been able to admit it two months ago and survive, but now that he's stuck with his story so vehemently, going back now seems like an impossible mountain to climb. I'm not sure even Checkers could save him now. It's possible the damage to his legacy might even be beyond repair.

I never thought I'd be watching these hearings but I admit I'm thinking about it now, especially now that Roger Clemens has turned himself into the tragic figure (or unrealistic egomaniac) at the center of this brewing storm.

One guy who must be okay with all this is Barry Bonds if only because nobody's been talking about him much lately.