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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Rantin' Randy Levine, king of the handouts, invokes a bizarre baseball metaphor to promote Trump

Sunday, NY Times' columnist Michael Powell unhorsed, unbuckled, and undressed Yankees President Randy Levine on the lone game in which the iconic franchise still dominates all of baseball: Receiving government subsidies.

You need to read it. In a nutshell, Powell systematically dismantles Recipient Randy's gin-addled claim that the Yankees receive no taxpayer handouts. Slowly, piece-by-piece, plank-by-plank, the writer outlines the hundreds of millions of public dollars poured into the franchise - a national symbol of nepotism and cronyism, which charges the highest ticket prices in the animal kingdom. This wasn't a debate. It was a flogging. Levine looked like the guy who brings hand lotion to a semen fight.

Normally, after the groundhog sees its shadow, it skitters back down into its abyss until - say - the next hair plugs medical procedure. But Levine - whose mop suggests a trip to the Ronald McDonald House - has followed up his masterwork. He has penned an article in the right-wing website Newsmax, comparing Donald Trump's current GOP delegate battle to - gulp - a pennant race.

I'm not making this up. Here is what he says.

Gov, Kasich has already been mathematically eliminated and soon, the same will happen to Sen. Cruz.That said, Gov Kasich continues on, lingering in the race, hoping to win at the convention and claiming he should be selected because he believes the polls show that he does better against Democrats than his fellow Republican candidates.

This argument makes no sense. It would be as if one decided to substitute the winner of the American League pennant in the World Series with the team which came in third place



Wait a second. Isn't Levine complaining about the Wild Card?

Yes... the third place team taking the place of the pennant winner in the World Series! It's called the Wild Card. Isn't that what the Yankees have been chasing for the last three years?

You win or lose on the field or at the ballot box. It is OK to play as a spoiler, as many teams do to effect the final standings, but if that is your goal you should acknowledge it.
What? Come September, when Levine's Leaches are chasing yet another Wild Card, should our esteemed team president announce that the club is now a gentlemanly spoiler, and that it actually has no intention of going all the way? That it is fundamentally wrong to use the Wild Card as a route to the World Series? Doesn't the team with the best record in the AL deserve to play in the final runoff.

Listen: I have no issue with Levine being a right-wing blockhead. (That ship sailed long ago.) If he wants to support Trump, fine. (Though considering the shameful amount of taxpayer money the Yankees receive, there is an ample stench of corruption when its top officials cozy up to the candidates who might someday be writing out the checks.) Nope. They're all scumbags, and when it comes to pandering in sports, Trump is just a rich version of Rudy Guiliani with hair.

But the baseball metaphor... Yeesh. These are the people who run the Yankees?

4 comments:

I'm Bill White said...

I'm glad I live in a minor league town.

JM said...

I think you meant, "these are the people who 'run' the Yankees".

Rose City Wobbly said...

And I'm glad I live on the left coast where our teams are owned by non-meddling - free spending capitalists. And none from what I can tell - are in the Trump camp or stupid enough to talk about it. Check it out as it appears from the Sunlight Foundations excellent tracker - not only are the Yankees being run on the cheap by Hal ..... but other than Levine - so is the entire organization's top brass - politically speaking. Scroll down to see the amounts by team and then FEC reporting on club owners/execs. Very interesting.

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/29/politics-mlb-teams-are-heavy-hitters-republicans/

Mother Jones shared this post in 2013 ..... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/matrix-major-league-baseball-owners-asshole

And of course the tried and true bibles on ownership assholes - is the writing of Dave Zirin. http://www.edgeofsports.com/products.html Check out - "Bad Sports" and "Game Over".

Can I suggest that those annual AHOY awards need to be brought back to life?

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