Face Time

With full squads in camp today, real stories from spring training should be starting. What’s been interesting has been the stories that have come out of camp so far. They seemed to focus on a single player each day. Last weekend was Corey Patterson, then Kerry Wood. Todd Walker day was Monday and today is Nomar Garciaparra.

Clearly the first two articles were designed to build up the public image of two players who could easily become scapegoats if the 2005 season does not go as planned. Corey has started to take some heat on the radio lately from multiple sources (welcome to the club, boys). Wood appears to be at a juncture in his career where a sub-fifteen win season would be seen as failure. The Nomar story tells the reader that superstar egos are gone. And Hamm’s beer is still available.

Keep watching the player profile stories as they come out. Let’s see who gets pumped up and who gets simply biographical stories.

Groupthink

A U.S. Senator from Washington State has come up with the latest stupidest idea of all time. He wants to split Washington State in two and create a new state. The reason? The rural western area of the state is overwhelmingly Republican while the eastern side is heavily Democratic.

Sen. Bob Morton said, "It's common sense. People who think alike should be united."

Congrats, Bob. You've just endorsed legislative groupthink.

What the hell is wrong with this country in that we can no longer have honest, intellectual debate? It's now all smear and conquer. Where has the idea gone that people of differing ideas can work together to create a consensus and build something? Out the window, I guess.

One more thing, Bob. Let’s extrapolate your idea out and gerrymander the whole country. How about, starting in 2008, one President for all the Blue states and another for all the red states? I mean, it's common sense. People who think alike should be united.

Oh, and the Blue states’ tax payments will stay in Blue states, right?