Welp, I Guess I'm a Racist Now!

I haven't written very many blog posts in the last year or so.  The country's been in great shape overall.  Sure, we've elected a handful of terrible people to Congress, and President Trump still says a lot of dumb things on Twitter, but the economy is great, unemployment is low, and the Mueller Report came up as empty as Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  But it's time to speak out on a few things, as the country continues to be split, and this fracture seems likely to grow leading up to the 2020 election.

First of all, I state for the record that I condemn President Trump's recent remarks on Twitter, wherein he stated that certain women in Congress should go back to where they came from.  I will not defend this xenophobic remark, even though Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have both said similar things, with Tlaib actually saying that Trump should be deported.  While Omar is the only Congressperson Trump appeared to be talking about who wasn't actually born in the United States, the biggest issue with the statement is the trope that it taps into, where racist and xenophobic people have historically told people who immigrated to the United States or were otherwise considered not white to go back to where they came from.  Whether or not Trump intended it in that way (the Left says obviously yes, the Right says definitely no), Trump chose his words poorly.  The statement is repugnant, immoral, and xenophobic.  We have an unfortunate history in which black and brown people, as well as Italian, Irish, Jewish, and those from various other ethnic backgrounds, have been told to go back to where they came from.  As President of the United States and leader of the free world, Donald Trump really ought to choose his words much more wisely.

Plenty of folks in the media, and Democrats in the House of Representatives, have been quick to call Trump's comments racist, and a slew of articles have been written saying that if you support Trump, you too are racist!  It doesn't matter that Black and Hispanic unemployment levels have been historically low under this President.  It doesn't matter how many people of color that his administration's policies have benefited, or how many it has employed.  He's racist.  And if you support him, so are you!  You might wonder how supporting him makes you a racist, even if you condemn his remarks.  Let me try to explain...

If you supported President Obama in 2008, who stated that marriage was between a man and a woman, it means that you are homophobic.  Hence, if you supported President Trump in 2016, who held up the gay pride flag at a rally, it means that you are racist.  You see, the gay pride flag does not have black or brown in it.  That's why he held it up on stage.  It was an affront to black and brown people.  It was a dog whistle, just like the racist MLB team owners (itself a racist term since it hearkens back to slavery) who allow their teams to put up three Ks after the home team strikes out three batters, spelling out KKK.  Don't believe me?  I have provided photo evidence with this article, proving the Mets are unequivocally racist.  That means that all Mets fans are also racist.  This display of racism that they allow to take place at nearly every game is almost as egregious as MLB not allowing blacks to play in the league until 1947, which is not excused by the fact that they begrudgingly allowed some wops like Joe DiMaggio to join the league before that.

If that was a poor example that confused you, here's another example.  If you supported President Obama in 2012, who had two Betsy Ross flags prominently displayed at his inauguration, it means that you are a racist.  It doesn't matter that President Obama is black.  Colin Kaepernick has a problem with the Betsy Ross flag, and he's been elected Nike Pope.  Plus a bunch of Leftists have said that the flag is racist, so it's racist now, just like a MAGA hat or a KKK hood.  Just imagine if Trump gets elected again in 2020 and displays two Betsy Ross flags at his inauguration.  That will just show for the thousandth time how racist he truly is.  It will be like giant middle finger to non-white America, telling them all to go back to where they came from.  After all, this isn't a one-off.  He has a history of saying racist things, like calling shithole countries shithole countries.  We all know that Haiti is a bastion of opulence thanks to the efforts of the Clinton Foundation.  Calling it a shithole country is a very racist thing to say.  It may be acceptable to tell Nancy Pelosi to go back to where she came from though, since she's white.  It isn't considered racist to tell her to go back to San Francisco, where people are literally shitting on the streets due to decades of Democrats controlling the city.

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, even she's called BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) anti-Semitic, to the chagrin of Omar (my nominee for worst person in Congress, and that's quite an honor considering all of the well-qualified folks to choose from) and Tlaib, who support the terrible organization.  But while it's fine to call Trump racist, the media is careful to call racism and anti-Semitism on the Left alleged, and the House of Representative even refused to condem Omar's anti-Semitic comments.  Omar, like President Trump, has used tropes that are steeped in a history of bigotry, such as making accusations of dual loyalty and saying that support for Israel is "All about the Benjamins."  She's even suggested that Israel has hypnotized the world, advocated leniency for a Muslim terrorist, and described 9/11 as "some people did something."  I'm not saying this in order to defend what Trump has said, because both Omar and Trump are wrong to have said these things (I'll let you decide which one is more ignorant and which one is worse), but I want to point out the difference in response.  Why is no one saying that anyone who supports Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic?  Is it because it's a claim just as absurd as claiming that support for Trump translates to racism?  Or is it because if anyone says that, it's clearly being said because Omar is Muslim, which then makes it an Islamophobic remark?

No doubt, there are many on the Left who defend what Omar has said and condemn what Trump has said, and there are many on the Right who defend what Trump has said and condemn what Omar has said, but there are also many on both the Left and Right who, rightly, condemn the comments of both Trump and Omar.  I've brought up Omar first since Trump's comments seem directed more at her than at anyone else, due to her birthplace, whereas the other three members of "The Squad" were born in the United States.  Omar, along with Tlaib, Ayana Pressley, and the incredibly stupid Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, make up "The Squad" of four freshmen Congresswomen with terrible Leftist ideas, which is the reason they should be criticized.  No decent person cares that they are all women of color.  It's their ideas that are problematic, and I will treat those bad ideas the same whether they're coming from "The Squad" or from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, or Jeremy Corbyn.

I could write pages on the ridiculous things that have come out of Ocasio-Cortez's pie hole, but plenty of people have already done that, so I'll skip her for now and go right to something that Ayanna Pressley said recently.  Speaking of those interested in running for office, Pressley said, "If you’re not prepared to come to that table and represent that voice, don’t come, because we don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don't want to be a queer voice. If you’re worried about being marginalized and stereotyped, please don't even show up because we need you to represent that voice."  To her, brown voices, black voices, Muslim voices, and queer voices are all voices of the Left.  If you're brown, black, Muslim, or queer, and you hold values that are more Centrist or even Conservative, you don't have a brown, black, Muslim, or queer voice at all, so don't even bother coming to the table.  That means you, Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, Allen West, and Clarence Thomas!  None of you have black voices.  Go away, Dinesh D'Souza and Ravi Zacharias!  You may be brown, but your voices are not.  Let's instead write absurd attack articles tearing down Panamanian-American Mariano Rivera.  Thank you, Daily Beast.  That's the best fucking way to fight racism.  Thanks for upholding the racist values of Ayanna Pressley.

But we can't say Ayanna Pressley is racist, because she's black and she has a black voice.  You can say that Ben Carson is racist though, because he's black, but he doesn't have a black voice.  See the difference?  In the modern day Democratic Plantation, if you're a person of color, if you're queer, or if you're a Muslim, you're only allowed to have a certain set of beliefs, and it's the one that those on the far Left believe that you should have.  This, you see, is the opposite of racism.  If you support the other side, especially if you support President Trump, you're racist.  If you support a candidate who believes in abortion and hangs out with Louis Farrakhan, it doesn't make you a baby murderer or an anti-Semite, but if you support the opposing candidate who has said xenophobic things on Twitter, among other highly questionable remarks, you're a racist.  After all, we knew President Trump was a racist from the moment he said there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville, even though his comments were taken out of context and he's clarified many times that he was not saying that there were any good neo-Nazis.  We know that's what he was really saying though.  It was a dog whistle.  Don't let him fool you.  He may be helping improve the lives of people of color all around the country right now, but it's all part of his racist plan to destroy them.

I hate bigotry.  I hate xenophobia.  I hate racism.  I call it out when I see it.  I've railed against even organizations led by Christians, such as Bob Jones University, for not allowing interracial dating until 2000.  I speak out when I see actions by police officers that appear to be motivated by race, which have occurred even in my own hometown.  Jackie Robinson is my favorite non-Yankee baseball player of all-time.  I grew up idolizing Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, and Emmitt Smith.  But, while I'm not a big fan of his, and I still really, really wish that he would miraculously stop saying dumb shit on Twitter, I'm probably going to vote for President Trump in 2020.  That makes me a racist.  Because if you're called a racist in America these days, it no longer necessarily means that you're racist.  It just means that you're not a Leftist.  And Leftists are generally the real racists.  President Trump isn't the one who wants to institute laws that disproportionately kill people of color before they are even born.  So I'd rather be called a racist than a Leftist.

Give me a damn Betsy Ross flag.

Sandman Enters Unanimously

This year's National Baseball Hall of Fame voting was unveiled yesterday, and Mariano Rivera was voted in, alongside Mike Mussina, Edgar Martinez, and the late Roy Halladay.  Those four legends will be enshrined in Cooperstown on July 21, along with Lee Smith and Harold Baines, but Rivera's legacy stands tallest.  It is undisputed that Mariano is the greatest closer of all-time, and among the greatest pitchers of all-time, and he is now the answer to a trivia question sure to be asked many times in the future.  Who was the first man to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame unanimously?  Named on all 425 ballots, the answer is Mariano Rivera.

Casting a vote that did not include Rivera's name would have been without excuse.  His numbers speak for themselves, but his character sets him apart.  Call me a biased Yankees fan if you'd like, but Mariano is my favorite ballplayer of all-time.  I've met Yankees legends before, and I've really enjoyed those experiences.  I talked to Johnny Damon about stealing two bases at once in the 2009 World Series, and about the drinking habits of Wade Boggs on airplanes.  I conversed with Clete Boyer about manning the hot corner flawlessly and winning World Series with Mantle, Maris, Yogi, and Whitey.  I spoke with Doc Gooden about pitching a no-hitter and which stadium they took his picture in for his 1984 Fleer Update rookie card he had just signed for me.  But if I'm ever fortunate enough to meet Mariano, I might just cry and give him a hug.

And that's how his career ended.  Nearly 44 years old, pitching in his final game, Manager Joe Girardi sent Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte out to the mound to take Mariano Rivera out of the game.  He broke down and wept in the arms of both teammates.  Three legends stood there, who had grown up together in the minor leagues in the early 1990s, Rivera having signed with the Yankees as a fisherman from Panama for a signing bonus of a few thousand dollars.  Jeter had become the Captain and one of the greatest shortstops of all-time, Pettitte a premiere starter who thrived in the playoffs, and Rivera the one you trusted on the mound in the game's most tense moments on its biggest stage.

Rivera finally broke into the big leagues in 1995 at age 25, the same year in which the other three members of the Core Four (Jeter, Pettitte, and Jorge Posada) made their major league debuts.  He was not great.  The Yankees had him come up and start some games, which went poorly, and he was then banished to the bullpen.  Between ten starts and nine appearances out of the bullpen that year, Rivera finished the season with a 5-3 record and an uninspiring 5.51 ERA.  However, his performance out of the bullpen in the playoffs was stellar and the Yankees hung onto him, rather than moving forward with tentative plans to trade him.  Rivera never made another major league start.

The Yankees moved Rivera to the bullpen permanently, and he had a great year as the setup man in 1996, ending with the Yankees winning the World Series.  Closer John Wetteland won the World Series MVP Award after saving all four Yankees wins, but the Yankees chose not to resign him after the season, instead opting to give Rivera a chance at closing out games.  It was a decision they will never regret.  By the time he walked off that mound one final time, tears in his eyes, taking off his hat to salute the crowd, Mariano Rivera had saved a record 652 games during the regular season.  Named to 13 all-star teams, his record stood at 82-60, with a 2.21 ERA and a WHIP of 1.000.  Those are impressive numbers, but his postseason numbers put them to shame, because they don't even make sense.

Rivera somehow got better when the heat was on in the playoffs, against the best hitters in the game.  He was named MVP of one of the five World Series Championships he helped the Yankees win, but he should have been named MVP of the dynasty.  In 141 innings across 96 playoff games, Rivera saved 42 games, with an 8-1 record.  His WHIP was 0.759.  His ERA was 0.70.  No one will ever match what he did in the playoffs.  Most of the damage, to opposing teams and bats, was done with his cutter.

While he had a great year out of the bullpen in 1996, it wasn't until 1997 when his cutter showed up.  Rivera told the story to Michael Kay on CenterStage: He was playing catch with fellow pitcher Ramiro Mendoza before a game, and Mendoza was getting frustrated because the ball kept cutting at the last moment.  Rivera insisted he wasn't doing anything differently than usual, and certainly wasn't doing it on purpose.  He and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre tried to fix it, but they could not, and they soon realized it was not something that ought to be corrected, as batters were largely helpless against the pitch.  Rivera, a devout Christian man, calls it a gift from God.  It sure was.  Batters knew what was coming, but they still couldn't hit it, for nearly two decades.

What a treat it was for a Yankees fan like me to grow up watching Mariano pitch, from the time I was a kid, through much of my 20s.  I remember being in Yankee Stadium countless times when the Yankees went into the ninth inning with a lead.  Inevitably, Metallica's "Enter Sandman" would blare over the loudspeakers, and Mariano Rivera would jog in to finish the job, just as he had during the World Series in 1998, 1999, 2000.  When Jimmy Rollins said the Phillies were going to beat the Yankees in five games during the 2009 World Series, and Rivera was asked to comment, rather than offering his own prediction, he simply stated, "That's not what's going to happen."  The Yankees won in six games, with Rivera once again closing out the Fall Classic.

My favorite piece in my memorabilia collection is a baseball signed by Mariano Rivera.  My dad got it for me when he was working somewhere where Rivera's brother-in-law was also working.  I was in college at the time, and when Dad told me who he was working with, I asked if he could get Rivera to sign a baseball card for me.  A few months later, my dad told me that his friend had apologized to him because he lost my baseball card.  But to make up for it, Dad's friend gave him a baseball signed by Rivera to give to me instead.  Dad passed away in 2011, but some of the memories I have with him are of going to Yankee Stadium, watching Yankees games on the couch at home, and playing catch in the backyard.  I never accidentally developed a cutter.

Rivera is spending a lot of time with his family now, and with his church, and helping out those who are less fortunate.  He always has.  He never asked to be Sandman.  If he chose the music that played when he came into the game, he said he would have chosen a Christian song.  He never asked for the most devastating cutter of all-time, or to create so much scrap lumber on a baseball field.  God gave him a gift.  And, with Mariano Rivera, God gave Yankees fans and baseball fans everywhere a gift.  He embodies all of the great things a baseball player and a compassionate human being should be.

Mo wasn't a perfect ballplayer though.  He was a subpar starter for ten games, and he blew some saves, even in the playoffs, and even in Game Seven of the World Series.  And he's not a perfect human being.  Everyone sins, and everyone makes mistakes.  But Rivera's legacy is incredible because of how many times he did things well and did things right, inside and outside of the diamond.  I was at Yankee Stadium in 2013 on the day the Yankees retired Rivera's number, 42.  Having been retired across the Major Leagues in 1997 to honor Jackie Robinson, Rivera was grandfathered in and became the last man to wear that hallowed number (apart from every April 15 when everyone wears it to honor Jackie).  He was humbled and honored by this, and did Jackie and baseball proud while wearing number 42.  No one could have done it better, and if anyone is deserving of 100 percent of the vote for induction into the Hall of Fame, it is Mariano Rivera.  A unanimous selection is the perfect way for Sandman to enter Cooperstown.


...And for those of you who thought this was going to be a political post about Nick Sandmann, besides the obvious differences in spelling and baseball statistics, Sandman has stared down the Indians and emerged victorious more than once.