Remember When

Ever wonder what sports columnists think of politicians who conjure up sports memories to paint their millionaire, ivy league selves as somehow relating to the common man? In an article for ESPN.com legendary sports journalist and Bostonian Peter Gammons weighs in on John Kerry's attempts in the vein:

We have been led to cynically believe that many politicians are disingenuous and generally phony, but few will ever beat Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. This man, who changed his middle initial to be JFK and at an anti-Vietnam rally threw someone else's medals into the water, made a self-promotion appearance with Boston talk-show maven Eddie Andelman and claimed he was a big Red Sox fan from his days growing up in Groton, Mass. And at the promotion he said Eddie Yost was his favorite player.

The problem with that is just the simple fact that Eddie Yost never played for the Red Sox.

On Sunday, Kerry made a ”surprise” stop in Boston to throw out the first pitch at the Red Sox-Yankees game. He continued to affect the air of a Bo Sox fan “''The idea of missing a Yankees-Red Sox series right before a convention week was not acceptable, so we changed the policy.'' Putting aside “the policy” element, who does Kerry think he is fooling? In another piece Gammons shows an alacrity for political punditry commenting that Kerry is “going to get 70 percent of the vote in Massachusetts. He doesn't have to be a Red Sox fan, all he has to do is not be John Ashcroft."
If voters really do vote on the basis of who is a bigger baseball fan, and I think it cynical to believe the electorate so simple, then Kerry is definitely in trouble.

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