Opinion: Democratic governor hits to the wrong field
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Being a pretty good left-handed collegiate pitcher may not be a prime qualification for the presidency, although it would help on Opening Day first pitches. But baseball has been a theme through the campaign--and life--of Bill Richardson.
Campaigning in Iowa, the New Mexico governor seeking the Democratic nomination fulfilled a long-held dream by stepping to the plate on the actual field where the 1989 movie ‘Field of Dreams’ was filmed in Dyersville. Richardson still has a good eye. He promptly drilled a line drive into right field and beaned an inattentive photographer. ‘He should have gotten out of the way,’ said Richardson, who played for Tufts University before his arm gave out.
‘I feel good about the response we’re getting in Iowa,’ Richardson told a crowd outside his Cedar Rapids office at the end of a two-day swing.
But the subject of baseball has not always been bery bery good for Bill.
It seems Richardson’s resume once claimed that he was drafted into pro baseball, but that wasn’t quite right. Richardson told Tim Russert in May that he had ‘assumed’ he was drafted because a Houston scout offered him a $25,000 contract.
On the same ‘Meet the Press’ program, which was not the best showing for the Democratic governor, Russert also tried to clarify conflicting statements by Richardson that he was both a Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees fan. Russert maintains that is impossible.
Richardson explained that he replied to a press question about what he’d like to do if he wasn’t running for president and he said he’d like to be No. 7, Mickey Mantle, playing center field for the Yankees. But, he added, ‘my favorite team has always been the Red Sox.’
Wasn’t it Hillary Clinton who got in some trouble a while back claiming to have been both a Cubs and Yankees fan? The Cubs are understandable, even the Red Sox if you’re running in next-door New Hampshire. But the Yankees? C’mon!
--Andrew Malcolm