The Closer

Obama is going to go into the ninth inning of this campaign with a lead built on Bush and Iraq fatigue (pitching), McCain's age (defense), and the economy (timely hitting). But the closer for this election is going to be Hispanic voters. While reading the New York Times this morning, it struck me that in the west and even places like northern Virginia and perhaps even North Carolina and it's going to be Hispanics (many appropriately named Rivera and K-Rod) who get the last three outs for Obama.

World Series Update

I made it to the fourth inning of last night's game 3, but have to say starting a World Series game at 10:00 pm eastern time is a joke and a travesty.  

The ratings for this series will probably be low due to the teams and markets, so what does baseball have to lose by being a bit more fan friendly with starting times and the endless commercial breaks?  All games - but especially weekend games - should start at 7 or 7:30, not 8:20 or 8:30.  And in order to appeal to younger fans, there should be at least one day game in there.  

And baseball needs to do something about how long the games take.  For starters, I'd do at least 3 easy things (of course, the first one is not easy): limit commercial breaks to 2 minutes.  To make up for lost revenue I'd allow for a corporate logo near the ball-strike line score at the top/bottom of the screen but the time between innings needs to be shorter; two, a hitter must keep one foot in the batter's box at all time - you're there to hit not go for a walk. Ditto for the pitcher, who I would put a clock on as they do in the Arizona fall league; and three, no visits to the mound, unless you are changing pitchers, by either coaches or players.  Play stops every half inning - talk in the dugout.

Finally, getting rid of the DH would shorten games too, and restore some balance between hitting and pitching. But with the steroid era over I guess that will never happen.