Q Mr. President, I know you’re going to hate this, but I’m hoping that we may twist your arm and talk about baseball for just a moment. (Laughter.) Mr. President, you’re a Major League Baseball team owner again. Everyone is a free agent. You have a Yankees-like wallet. Who is your first position player? Who’s your pitcher?
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a great question. I like Ottley from the Philadelphia Phillies. He’s a middle infielder, which is always—you know, they say you have strength up the middle—there’s nothing better than having a good person up the middle that can hit. And Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jays is a great pitcher. He’s a steady guy, he burns up innings. And I’m sure I’m leaving some other good ones out, but those—
Q We thought you were going to go A-Rod, Josh Beckett.
THE PRESIDENT: Josh Beckett is good, yes, he’s real good, too. I mean, look, that’s a tough question to answer on the fly like this, Michael.
Q Now, Mr. President, I wonder if you think that Major League Baseball is doing enough to combat steroids use, and specifically, would you favor a blood test to check for human growth hormone. As you know the players union says it’s an unwarranted—
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, look, I think what they need to do is to come to an agreement and to assure fans like me that the sport is clean. I mean, I—
Q But what would that take?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I haven’t studied all the particulars and all the testing. But I do know they need to get this era behind them quickly. Baseball is a fabulous sport. I used to say it’s a sport played by normal-sized people. It turns out some of these normal-sized people are obviously very strong and very quick, but nevertheless, normal-size—you don’t have to be a huge guy to play baseball. And it’s a great family sport, and it needs to be cleaned up.
Q And there haven’t been enough normal-sized people.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there’s—yes, there are a lot of normal-sized people. I mean, there’s a lot of little dudes who can play the game and play it well.
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1. Bob Dernier Cri1) Utley is a hell of a ballplayer
2) "Ottley" is some transcriptionist's misspelling, not his. (And even if it were, who is more like unto an embryo Mel Ott these days than Chase Utley?)
Clearly, said transcriptionist is a comics fan & was thinking of Ryan Ottley, who draws Image's Invincible.
Shut up, you depraved degenerate.
I thought since he gave up playing golf because of Iraq he wouldn't give any fun interviews anymore either.
Too bad. I want Ottley on my allstar team, hitting in front of Manny Ortez.
Too bad. I want Ottley on my allstar team, hitting in front of Manny Ortez.
Not Sammy Soser?
"Now watch this drive!"
constantly try to embetter yourself
Sure sounds like it.
I would think the interviewer would have had the class to not interrupt him twice.
Aw, that was more of the two guys b.s.'ing part of the thing. And possibly Bush just trailed off and wasn't necessarily interrupted.
Fixed.
I think it's safe to say that Bush wouldn't give this much thought to late-game exit strategies.
I can't remember who it was, but some former aide of Bush's recently said in frustration that he tried to have serious in-depth conversations with Bush on intricate matters of foreign policy, only for Bush to start talking baseball with him.
Yes, because Saddam was much better at killing thousands Iraqis (and Iranians, too).
Ask the Iraqis what they would prefer. Go ahead, I can wait.
If you're going to do something, you might as well be good at it.
Accent on freakin', unfortunately.
Besides, y'know, if one views respect as something one earns, rather than has conveyed on oneself by the whims of Three-Finger Tony Scalia & his vile toadies ...
I was sidelined by a case of shingles (no doubt caused by "President" Bush), I'm sorry to report, & at 4,000 or however-many posts, that thread looks way too dauntingly long to try to edge my way into ...
And, of course, you do know that we were on his side when he was killing Iranians, right?
I still have no idea why we were there in the first place.
Hundreds of posts of "Libertarianism roolz! No, libertarianism sux!" were interesting when I was an undergrad. Now, not so much. I can't believe I'm even posting in this thread.
Why.
"Libertarianism was interesting when I was an undergrad. Now, not so much."
Fixed.
The saddest thing of all, outside of if a loved one died as a result of this conflict, is that there is a lot of unfinished business in Afghanistan, for which there WERE compelling reasons for engaging in a war. bin Laden is still at large, there exists an organization called the "Taliban", and the Taliban even controls pieces of geography.
The Bush/Rummy/Cheney "braintrust" couldn't have devised a winning plan for the Invasion of Grenada, much less murky areas like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ask the Iraqis what they would prefer. Go ahead, I can wait.
Option J?
No argument there. I've said on several occasions that W would probably make a damn fine Commissioner. I cannot stand Bush as the President, but I'd happily support him as commissioner of baseball.
Hey!
I like to think I contributed a few bloop singles that kept the rally going...
Right, which is why Iran is the ultimate winner of the Iraq war.
btw, The U.S. supported Saddam when he was killing his own people and waging war with Iran. Just sayin'.
Press Corps Dinners where you crack jokes about not being able to find WMDs == good
Ok, got it, thanks.
thought Otler was good.
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