Yank You Very Much

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Bits & pieces from the Yankees’ 2009 World’s Serious win:

• If Game 6 was Hideki Matsui’s swan song in the Bronx, that was one sweet sound.

• Andy Pettitte is what used to be called a hoss – as in workhorse, a guy who ate up innings and won more than he lost. Turns out most-wins-ever-in-the-postseason Pettitte was, in hoss terms, Secretariat.

• So can we agree that most-hits-ever-in-the-postseason Derek Jeter is now officially a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer? Except some moron sportswriter in Des Moines will vote for Jeter third. Free the Derek Jeter One!

• So can we agree that most-saves-ever-in-the-postseason Mariano Rivera is now officially a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer? Except some moron sportswriter in Des Plaines will vote for Rivera third. Free the Mariano Rivera One!

• From our Ministry of Retractions©: The hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider has since 2004 said that the New York Yankees would never win anything (and by “anything” we mean the World’s Serious) with Mr. September Alex Rodriguez on the team. We were wrong. Rodriguez didn’t exactly carry the Yankees in the Serious, but he did a lot to carry them to it.

 

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Dead Blogging Election Day

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

So I woke up Election Day and here’s what I found in my emailbox:  “Mayor Tom Menino is now following you on Twitter!”

My first instinct, of course, was “that can’t be good.”

But then I thought, “it must be because I’m following him on Twitter.”

Except I’m not.

Anyway, with or without me following him, Tom Menino cruised to a fifth term in Tuesday’s election.

(As of 1:33  Wednesday morning, the Boston Globe had yet to replace Tuesday’s edition on its website, while the Boston Herald had this splashed across the top of its homepage: “Mayor Menino clinches historic fifth term.”)

By the numbers:

Menino garnered roughly 57 percent of the 109,000 votes to Flaherty’s 42 percent, according to unofficial numbers posted by the city last night.

So it’s time to clean out the 2009 Boston Mayoral Election file.

Item #1:

In the runup to Election Day, the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider predicted a two-to-one winning margin for Menino.

The hardworking staff was obviously wrong.

Item #2:

Stick “Menino fifth term” into the Newsletron, and the first story you get (at 1:45 Wednesday morning) is this New York Times piece:

It was the toughest re-election fight of Mr. Menino’s career. But in the end, his name recognition and impressive political machine, fortified over the years by his die-hard devotion to constituent services, trumped Mr. Flaherty’s efforts. Already the longest serving mayor in Boston history, he sealed his latest victory by mobilizing an army of volunteers, city workers and union members on Tuesday to get out the vote across the city.

Translation: Menino’s fear recognition and arm-twisting political machine “sealed his latest victory.”

Official Campaign Outsider Prediction®: Tom Menino will regret ever running for a fifth term.

Discuss among yourselves.

 

 

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Yanked Around, Part Three

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Well that was tantalizing, yes?

The question going into Game 5 of the Yankees-Phillies World Series bakeoff (or is that baseoff?) was: Who can replicate his first pitching gem from this Series – Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee or New York’s A.J. Burnett?

Lee, by a landslide.

And yet the Yanks did manage to make it interesting, scratching to within 8-5, then putting two on with nobody out in the top of the ninth.

Sad to say, the inestimable Derek Jeter (now hitting a mere .364 in the Series) grounded into a double play and Mark Teixeira struck out, while the newly potent Alex Rodriguez watched impotently from the on-deck circle.

Here’s one thing you can count on:

The Phillies will not Go Fishin’ gentle into that good night.

Pedro back on the mound in the Bronx Wednesday night.

God, I love the World’s Serious.

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Ads ‘n’ Ends: Mass. Senate Race

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

From the race to (don’t say) replace Ted Kennedy:

• If you only watched television, you’d think Steve Pagliuca was running unopposed for the U.S. Senate. (He’s got ads on USA’s NCIS retreads for heaven’s sake.) Pagliuca (accent on the “pal”) is supposedly on track to spend $10 million on his campaign (which has yet to rise to the level of quixotic). If so, he’s probably halfway there. It makes no sense, but he’s Steve Pagliuca and he approves this mess.

• If you just paid attention to the debates, you’d think the Senate race had been privatized. Sponsors so far: the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate (a sort of talent show that seemed rigged from the start for Mike Capuano), and the AFL-CIO. Who’s next – Ernie Boch, Jr?

• The Boston Herald sure likes to needle Martha Coakley, doesn’t it? Sunday’s Halloween candydate profiles were priceless: the Herald reporters practically needed a subpoena to get the AG (who was dressed as herself) to reveal what treats she was dispensing:

[Coakley] was highly reluctant to say what kind of candy she handed out, or even to allow a reporter look in the bowl. After Coakley’s husband joined her at the door, she questioned what the story was about.

“We’re doing a story about the different kinds of candy the candidates are handing out,” a reporter said. “Do you mind if I take a look in the bowl?”

“It’s not in a bowl,” she corrected. “We’re having kids reach in the frog’s mouth and pull candy out.”

Just inside the entryway sat a large plastic frog with a gaping maw.

“Do you mind if I take off the frog’s head and take a look inside?” the reporter asked.

“No. I’d rather you didn’t,” she said.

At this point Coakley’s husband Thomas F. O’Connor queried, “You’re doing a story about candy?” and smirked, as though questioning the news value.

That’s a first for the Herald, eh?

Meanwhile, memo to Martha: Loosen up. The idea is to play hardball,not be wound tighter than one.

• Alan Khazei dressed as a pirate for those of you keeping score at home.

 

 

 

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Kinda Yanked Around

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Joba the Hurt.

That’s how Game 4 of the World’s Serious felt in the bottom of the eighth when the Phillies’ light-hitting (at best) third baseman Pedro Feliz homered off Yankee reliever Joba Chamberlain.

But then it all turned around (via New York Times reporter Tyler Kepner):

The Yankees were so different nine years ago, when they won their last World Series, so different and yet somehow the same. They revolve now around a constellation of imported superstars with extravagant contracts. But their ethos is the same. They grind.

Grind on.

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The Googletron Makes a House Call?

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

No sooner had the hardworking staff  at Campaign Outsider filed a post about The Googletron than – lo and behold! – The Googletron seemed to post us.

Email from admin.official@google.com:

Thank you enter MP3-FREE.ro

We thought that this site can help a lot of people who have not taken music from where we will offer every genre of music: house, hip-hop, manele,R & B.

It will offer just music, you can find here on the site in May, the category programs, useful software Yahoo Messenger!

Will we provide on this site, if you are using Yahoo Messenger, a program directly on the site, which you can see who is hiding from you on messenger, who sits on invisible.

This program shows you who is online or offline, or who stay in the invisible!

Only with your help we can make this site famous! Tell your friends about this site!

CLICK HERE FOR JOIN www.MP3-FREE.

THE NEW EVERYTHING IS FREE! Go and download what you want for FREE !!!!!

Clearly, this is not an Official Googleplex Communication, although it did remind us that Google’s quest to absorb every popular web platform includes iTunes.

Regardless, THE NEW EVERYTHING IS FREE makes a helluva bumper sticker.

 

 

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Not Yanked Around

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Finally (!) the Yankees played like the Yankees in Game 3 of the World’s Serious.

And for once I agree with Fox Sportscaster Tim McCarver:

After Carlos Ruiz homered off Phil Hughes in the bottom of the ninth, Yankee manager Joe Girardi had to bring in the great Mariano Rivera.

Great.

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Use Your Bean, Wall Street Journal

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Very smart piece in the Weekend Wall Street Journal about Pedro Martinez. Headline: “Pedro: Baseball’s Last Great Ego.”

Too bad the Pedro paean also included this:

During his career, teammates have seen him singing and dancing in the clubhouse in his underwear at one moment, and then later, bloodlessly beaning a hitter in the ribs.

Yeah . . . except you can only bean someone in the head. In the ribs, you plunk them.

Not to get technical about it.

 

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Tom Menino Comes Out of the Closet

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Saturday’s Boston Globe features a full-throated “Tom Menino for Mayor” endorsement, along with Menino’s head-scratching contribution to the Globe’s Quotes of note:

“This is the me you’re going to get. I’m not going to get a haircut, new clothes, new blouses, a facelift.’’ — Mayor THOMAS M. MENINO, on whether he would change his demeanor if reelected

New blouses? Honest to God, I don’t want to know.

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The Googletron

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Just as the Internet sucks up all other media – newspapers, television, radio, etc. – so does Google suck up all other web platforms. Already colonized: email, emaps, webvideo, your platform goes here.

Currently under construction:

Google Books – Amazon without the cost

Google Wave – Twitter and Facebook on steroids

Google’s GPS App – So long, Tom Tom and Garmen

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera asked on Saturday if Google is in an antitrust jackpot.

I’ll go one further:

Is Google actually becoming the Internet?

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