01/20/13 - President Romney?

At the Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol weighs in with his view of the upcoming race for the presidency.

"(I)f I had to put money down now, I'd bet that Mitt Romney will win an easy victory after a relatively predictable, issue-focused, and not-too-nasty campaign. Indeed, I'd bet Romney will win precisely if he runs such a campaign. But if he allow the race to degenerate into name-calling and gotcha gimmicks, he could lose. Democrats are better than Republicans at the small and nasty stuff."

There is starting to be a little momentum amongst the commentating class regarding the likelihood of a Romney victory. I've kind of been thinking this way, too. I really believe he has a chance to win this thing in a big way. I heard Mary Matalin say the same thing Monday. (I'm not claiming to be an expert. At one point, I didn't think there was any way Obama would win in '08.)

Here's hoping it comes to pass. The sooner the policies of President Obama are history, the sooner we can begin to get the country moving again.

Fenway and Pedro

An article at Grantland.com recounts the weekend the Boston Red Sox just completed, including the celebration observing the 100th Anniversary of the Fenway Park, the home field. Former pitcher Pedro Martinez talked about the Fenway experience:

"My feeling here is unique to Fenway. The funny thing is, you can't find it anywhere else. It must be the closeness of the people to you here. You mess it up, you're going to hear it. You do it well, you're going to hear it, too. You can feel the people breathing close to you. The only other place you can go to get that feeling? You got to go to winter ball (in the Dominican Republic)."

Mizzou, the 'M', and the Uniforms

Saturday was the day Missouri uniform geeks waited for. Saturday was the day the new Nike uniforms would be unveiled for the first time. There was excitement and fear. Excitement because it would be new, probably would be slick, and it would appeal to 21st Century tastes regarding sports uniforms. Fear because it probably would be slick and appeal to 21st Century tastes regarding sports uniforms.

We were given a warning early and it was probably wise to give it. The 'M' was leaving the helmet. This is bad news to me. It is a very classy look, as far as I'm concerned. I would have liked to see a return to a more traditional uniform, but I knew this would not happen.

Here's what we were afraid of. Another Oregon mess. Nike made the uniforms for Oregon and well, you can see what happened:

Four or five helmets, feathers on the shoulders, and why not the most obvious combination here? Yellow jersey and green pants? You know, the actual school colors? This was the fear.

As it turns out, our fears were mostly unwarranted. After being prepared for the disappearance of the 'M', the actual uniform was, in my mind, a nice presentation that is definitely up-to-date, yet has a traditional feel. I am not crabby about these:

I think the black jersey and gold pants is the best combo. It pleases my eye the most, and, yes, it does look more 'traditional'. But I can live with any of it. The all black is terrible, I think. There is a lot of black in uniforms these days and mostly that's a bad idea. Some teams have black as one of the team colors, Steelers, Raiders, Penguins, Bulls, Heat. Even so, all black just looks terrible, I think. And if it's not one of your colors - leave it alone.

Overall, well done Mizzou and Nike.

Four Songs, All Different

Driving home the other day and heard, for what I believe to be the first time, a song called "Walk Between Raindrops" performed by Donald Fagen. Not ever hearing the song before, it should be no surprise to acknowledge that I had no idea who Donald Fagen was. Ah, well, I have learned. Even at my age, though, Fagen is probably someone whose name I should have had some familiarity with, given the span of his career. All that aside, "Raindrops" is a happy little tune.



As I often do after hearing a song on the Tube of You, I looked at the other selections offered on the page. Well, I found this. It's Michael McDonald doing "Lonely Teardrops", a classic, old song. The piano player is Fagen.



I decided to change gears and hear something really different. The Beat Farmers fit the bill.



And we finished up with Junior Brown. I really dig the Beach Boys reaction to Brown's take on their song.

It's Poetry. It's Beauty. And It Smells Great.

Baseball is back.