Quite a night at the ballpark for President Bush: Snubs Lo Duca, calls for players to 'fix it' on steroids, and throws out the first pitch in Nats new palace

President George Bush, once the owner of the steroid-riddled Texas Rangers, snubbed Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca last night when he threw out the first ball at the Nats new stadium.  Perhaps Bush became concerned that Lo Duca -- apparently a lifelong juicer -- would chuck that ball back at his head, or throw a Clemens-esque bat his way.

The VIllage Voice says thus:

Oh, they're so happy over on ESPN because of the Washington Nationals' new baseball stadium, which opened last night when George W. Bush threw up the first pitch.

The doofus POTUS was wild with his throw to Nats' manager Manny Acta. Strange, isn't it, that Bush's battery mate was Acta instead of the Nats' catcher, Paul Lo Duca. But the ex-Met is ensnared in the steroids scandal, so his PR quotient is below the Mendoza Line.

When asked by the ESPN team about the steroid scandals, Bush fumbled his way through the issue, and responded to the Mitchell Report (which we bet he didn't read) in an oblique way:

Funnier still was during the game itself, when Bush showed up in the broadcast booth to say of the steroids scandal, "I hope the players fix it." He didn't say "the commissioner" or "the owners." Only "the players."

We would agree about the hilarity here.  Why hold the leadership responsible for events going on?  Didn't the troops send themselves over to Iraq?  Doesn't he know about baseball's power structure?  According to the Voice, Bush wasn't a real owner:

The broadcast crew noted that Bush is a former baseball owner. But that's only technically true. Before he was even Texas governor, Bush was trotted out before the public as the "owner" of the Texas Rangers. But Tom Hicks was the real owner; Bush put up a minuscule amount of money but was only the front man for Hicks and the rest of the real ownership group so they could get a stadium and other parts of a sweet deal with Arlington, the home of the team. When the Rangers were later sold, Bush cashed in for a lot of dough.

Years later, Bush became Dick Cheney's front man, where he's been even more dangerous.

And, about last night..that new stadium in the midst of DC poverty:

Too bad D.C. isn't making out as well as Bush. The new stadium was a point of contention when D.C. didn't even have a team and its luxury boxes were only a dream in the minds of politicians and lobbyists...

Since 2000, the gap between rich and poor has widened throughout the country. But D.C. was in terrible shape even during the Clinton years.

So there we have it.  Nice new baseball park in the midst of poverty and infrastructure meltdowns.  However, everyone thinks it is important to feel good when watching the national pastime...escape to a nice space in the city, even though the players like Lo Duca could be shooting juice in the johns...

Comments

[sal m]

the fact that loduca and other baseball players who got caught purchasing PEDs haven't been suspended is a joke. we're not talking about a court of law, so there's no reason that he and gagne and gary matthews jr and others should be playing.

the NFL has there own problems, and guaranteed more guys are using hgh/igf-1/insulin and other PEDS than are baseball players. however, when rodney harrison got caught red handed purchasing HGH and shawne merriman failed his drug test they got suspended for a quarter of the regular season.

selig is a joke and will never solve the problem either. he won't even punish guys. until guys like loduca, pettitte, matthews and others get suspended for 40 games baseball and selig will continue to be a joke.

football's day in the sun of scandal will come, but there's no doubt that they'll handle it better than baseball.

[GRG]

As I read about the Tammy Thomas BALCO-perjury trial I have 2 thoughts:

1. Why does only track eliminate steroid-tainted records?
2. Shouldn't every record with the THG-taint (the clear) be expunged from baseball, football, etc. Perhaps even those championships won with THG-tainted players.