The Politics of Joy

You will surely hear the phrase more times as journalists try to chronicle the sensational roll-out of the Harris-Walz ticket through the Democratic party convention.  It is accurate, and Walz has presented it to us in his praise of VP Harris' gift of joy in rising to meet her great challenge.  I don't think he's declared the phrase as such, either, so let's get that out of the way. 

We shouldn't take it too far, though:  after all, it is the theme given to the failed candidacy of another VP nominee selected under special circumstances, the "happy warrior" Hubert Horatio Humphrey (HHH).  That itself is a title which both VP Harris and Gov. Walz would gladly assume. 

It's the emotion of the season, and there's plenty of need for it. Wall Street failed to intrude upon it with a sizable single-day drop, Trump and Vance flail ineffectively in the face of it, collapse of the peace initiative in the Mideast cannot break through it, though it may try. 

 We must resolve, in the face of it all, to

 Learn from history and elect Humphrey, not Nixon, this time.

 Do not let the tragedy of '68 become the farce of '24.

There is no better, nor easier, way to express politically this long-awaited euphoria than through the high drama of the summer Olympics we have been able to experience right now. There is almost too much--even if we just limit ourselves to gold medal winners just from Team USA.   There is no reason to limit our excitement just to the winners of gold, nor just those competitors from our country. 

That nationalism--the inevitable need to take our side, to the detriment of the other--is the part of the Olympics I like least, despite my pride and my rooting interest for our team.  At least I can say that they have been so busy on the network they haven't had time to bore us with the national anthem, over and over again. Though I'm glad I have some chance to avoid it,  I have some sympathy for those who have to cover it, anyway.  I would choose to exempt everyone from enduring it until the final day of the meet, in the case of swimming, gymnastics, track and field.   That would be something, hearing all the different national anthems of the various countries of the winners, with all the medal winners present. 

Anyway, Cole Hacker. Katie Ledecky.  LeBron James. Quincy Hall. Leon Marchand. Kenneth Rooks.  Grant Holloway. Noah Lyles. Simone Biles. Mijan Lopez Nunez.  Daniel Roberts. Grant Fisher. Kristen Faulkner. Hampton Morris. Rai Benjamin  Shinnosuke Oka. Matt Anderson. and Roje Stona, of course.  Those were just the ones whose exploits I saw, live (or I thought so:  those network guys are tricky, but nothing in prime time was live). 

To sum up this year's Olympics experience, I would use the words greater depth and breadth.  More sports have more competitive teams or individuals.  Similarly, the USA team broadened the range of events in which they were competitive.  And, of course, Paris.  The Olympics should settle upon a set of 8-10 cities with all the facilities and history of hosting (maybe adding one in Africa, somewhere safe?), and Paris should be one of them. 

What's Missing in this Olympics? 

Well, baseball.  Also softball.  Partly, the problem is that the Olympics event is in the middle of the baseball season, but the Winter Olympics manages it with ice hockey, and  MLB could be induced to allow international players to take a couple weeks off. 

 I watched some of several of the less-celebrated sports:  Archery showed amazing skill, table tennis matches were long but often dramatic, with great audience support. Water polo is a brutal game, like wrestling but underwater, and it is one of the games in which the shooter has the edge over the goalie.  Same is true of team handball, which is a lot like basketball but with a much bigger goal. The other extreme is hockey (also known as field hockey), where the ball hugs the ground and the sticks are great for ball control but not for beating the goalie.Tennis (also known as lawn tennis, though they played on clay in Paris) got a raw deal from the network.  Yes, matches are long, but there were a lot of channels with very little of interest going on.  (The best TV of the Olympics was in these off-channels, where they would use as filler after events some shots from the pool of critical moments in matches, and then with interviews with medal winners, without narration.)

As one who loves the long, lead pass, team handball sometimes has some nice ones, but it seems that mostly it is breaking down defenses in set positions.  Water polo has some nice one-touch cross-pool passes, executed with one hand above the surface, but the long passes just kind of end up sitting on the water.  The sport which would please me most if it were added for the Los Angeles Olympics would be Ultimate Frisbee.  It's a lot like some of the other sports (like soccer) where skllful passing moves the "ball" down the field.  Because of the frisbee's aerodynamic qualities, it lingers in the air longer, allowing some incredible lead passes. Like in football, just as long, but better.

A Little More on Baseball

 About 30% of the regular season remains.  Enough time for a lot to happen, but the scope of possible outcomes is limited by performance year-to-date. 

It's now understood that, in the current expanded playoff format, just making it into the final 12 (six in each league) is the main task.  Any of those teams can make it into the World Series by getting hot and getting some good starting pitching in short playoff series.  The bye and home-field advantage that the top two division winners get don't seem to provide much advantage against a hot wild-card team that has already taken a series. 

Still, it's better to be safely in the playoffs; the teams with their spot booked can experiment with lineup changes and get their pitching rotation exactly as they want.  Not many teams are in that position, though: the Phillies, Brewers and the Dodgers have division leads in the NL which should hold up, while the two  top AL records,  AL East teams the Yankees and Orioles, should have safe berths, though the division title remains a close contest.. That's about it .

Recent weeks have produced some hot teams that may monopolize most of the remaining wild card slots.  In the NL West, the Padres have the team and have emerged as the leading wild-card candidate, with last year's World Series runner-up, the Diamondbacks, close behind.  That would leave one spot, and about seven or eight teams trying to get it.  The Braves should be favored for it, but the Mets could take it.  NL Central also-rans the Cardinals and Pirates are getting attention for rebounding from poor 2023 seasons and playing at least .500 ball (winning half their games), but they will probably need to be 8-10 games above to make it.  In the AL Central, the Royals and Twins are the teams that have emerged as leaders for the second and third wild cards, even challenging the Guardians (nee Indians), who've led the division by a goodly margin most of the season.  In the AL West, surprisingly weak performance means only one team is likely to make it, and that team is surely going to be the Houston Astros, with early leaders the Mariners and last year's World Series champion Rangers left out. 

It's been an exciting season, with two standout slugging performers:  Aaron Judge for the Yanks and Shohei Ohtani for the Dodgers.  Many records are in danger from those two. 

I will close with mention of Billy Bean, a former major leaguer who became a groundbreaking baseball team General Manager.  He helped bring serious statistical approaches to the management of major-league baseball teams.  I will leave the fuller eulogies for Bob Costas, or better, Michael Lewis, who studied his accomplishments more. 

Note:  Some updates added in Comment 8/24....