First in War, First in Peace
Truth Matters
The punch line of “First in war, first in peace” is “and last in the American League.” That description, however, is no longer appropriate. To begin with, the Washington Nationals of today are in the National League. What’s more, they were the first team to have a magic number of zero this year and thus be assured of winning their division (even if the second place team won all its remaining games and the Nats lost all of theirs. They have good pitching (four first rate starters and a fifth starter who has been vulnerable of late. Their closer, Sean Doolittle (known as “The Doctor”) has overpowering speed and good control. Their middle relief specialist, Matt Albers, is really impressive. Starters Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Roark and Geo Gonzalez are among the best in baseball. Their regular players include one who is in contention to be the league’s most valuable player (Daniel Murphy) and a second (Bryce Harper) who would be in contention if he hadn’t been injured part of the year. Anthony Rendon is having the best year of his life, Trea Turner is running the bases like a madman, and Adam Lind is one of the four best pinch betters in baseball. Ryan Zimmerman is hitting in the clutch and with power. Michael A. Taylor is a speedster who recently had the first inside the park grand slam home run that I’ve ever seen. Jason Werth has come off the injured list and is beginning to hit home runs again.
There is, however, more to the story. Two former Washington Senator teams are in contention for a wild card berth in the post season. The Texas Rangers, as I write this, are only a couple of games back. That team, in fact, was responsible for my interest in collecting signed baseball memorabilia. As a congressional candidate I attended a meeting of fellow candidates in one of the right field luxury suites leased by a memorabilia dealer who cleverly directed one of his workers to stay in the suite that evening to sell game used bats and autographed pictures. I bought some and became a collector. I had long been a fan.
The Minnesota Twins are another team that was formerly the original Senators and left for greener pastures just before becoming a first division team. The Twins are also only a couple of games out of winning the wild card slot for the post season. It is possible, therefore, that the Nats (one of the names of all three of the Washington teams) will populate a large chunk of post season play.
As someone who grew up in the suburbs of DC agonizing for the old Senators, that is very gratifying for me. I have fond memories of Roy Sievers going out to catch a fly ball in the left field of old Griffith Stadium, jumping at the fence, catching the ball, hitting the fence, falling through the unlatched gate, and dropping the ball (for a home run). I also have memories later of future Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew swatting home runs and Bob Allison ripping singles and doubles. I said to myself “Wait ‘til next year.” Sure enough, when next year came the club was really good (but had moved to Minnesota). I also remember bus line owner Bob Short buying the expansion Senators on credit, being unable to pay off his loans when they came due, selling off the few good players, and slinking out of town in the dead of night with the team heading for Arlington, Texas.
Of course when I moved to Texas myself at the beginning of the 1970s I had to root for a Texas team. Since what the expansion Senators had recently done remained painful, I decided to root for the Astros and the Killer Bees (Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, Sean Berry, and Derek Bell). Then rebuilding time came and the team started selling off all the good players. About that same time local and cable television stopped televising Astros games in our area. I began watching Rangers games and enjoying them.
Now the Astros have switched to the American League and have secured the championship of the West Division by a wide margin. Of all fans I have to be the most blessed because everywhere I look I see teams winning that I have followed down through the years.
The Astros have in Altuve the best hitter in the league. In Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander they have two of the best starting pitchers in baseball. Charlie Morton and Brad Peacock are also excellent starters. Alex Bregman is an outstanding infielder and superb clutch hitter. Carlos Correa, J. D. Davis, Yuli Gurriel, and Tyler White also pack a punch in the infield. George Springer, Josh Reddick, and Marwin Gonzalez in the outfield are also remarkable players with plenty of power. Then, of course, there is the former Killer Bee, Carlos Beltran who serves as the designated hitter. The Astros are a pleasure to watch, and with recent acquisitions they added a top of the line base stealer as well as Verlander as a starter. If they have any weakness it is relief pitching which is adequate. One of those relief pitchers is Tyler Clippard who used to be on the Washington Nationals.
This is one of the more interesting seasons. The Dodgers were running away with the best record in baseball until they went into a recent swoon. The Cleveland Indians, on the other hand were neck and neck with others in their division before going on a 22 game win streak, the longest in the history of the American League. They lost a game then but came back to win the next two and will be looking toward creating another streak. The Cubs, who won the last World Series, have a narrow lead in their division and will therefore not ease up in the last days of the regular season. Boston is leading the Yankees in the American League East, but the Yankees will probably enter the post season as a wild card. New York Mayor Giuliani signed the Yankee cap I have in my collection when he came to McAllen while running for president. I will, nevertheless, root against the Yankees on general principles. After all, they killed the Senators every time they came to town while I was growing up. I’m rooting for the Astros or Rangers to play the Nationals or possibly Boston in this year’s World Series. Let’s hope the Nationals don’t fall apart in the post season like they have done in the past two years.
We live in a dangerous world with both major parties fighting tooth and nail. I enjoyed taking a day off from the political wars to discuss our national pastime. I hope you have found the change of pace interesting.
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Haughey is Senior Advisor of the Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association.