Curt Schilling for Senate? Um...No

Former major league pitcher Curt Schilling, who helped the Boston Red Sox win its first championship in 86 years, wrote on his blog that he’s considering running for the U.S. Senate to fill the vacant seat in Massachusetts previously held by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Ok....

This is the same Senate seat that was John F. Kennedy's before he left for the Presidency and his brother has sat in it ever since. That's the biggest Democratic family in the history of our country. And Curt Schilling's political allegiance? Well Yahoo! Sports says it best:

Kennedy was a liberal lion and, as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said last night about Schilling, "the big righty is a big Righty." He made appearances for George W. Bush during his re-election campaign and he also tried to help John McCain get elected last fall.

So poor freshly buried Teddy already has an opportunity to turn in his grave already.

The biggest problem for Schilling running as a Republican? Well, he technically can't run as one. He's registered as an Independent and Politico points out that he doesn't have enough time to be eligible to run as a Republican (although NY Magazine points out he's not all that conservative in the end, so maybe Independent would suit him well). Deadspin also thinks he tried to put the moves on Cindy McCain so that wouldn't bode well for his Republican support.

And although his Major League career compares very well to former Major Leaguer and Senator, Jim Bunning, The Boston Globe points out that their educational differences are a bit far apart: "Bunning earned a degree in economics from Xavier and Schilling attended Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz."

Wonkette breaks down his candidacy pretty well:

Curt Schilling, world champion quarterback for Boston’s “Mighty Ducks,” loves George W. Bush and jacking off in bloodstained sock, so he is qualified to be the Republican candidate. Schilling, heir to his family’s spice fortune, joins a crowded Republican field that includes former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and pretty much nobody else.

Schilling’s main credential? He’s pretty fat! Given time, he could become as fat as the late Ted Kennedy, although there’s absolutely zero chance of Schilling becoming smart.

I think, for the first time in a while (maybe since that whole closing experiment), Schilling may be way out of his league. The fact is that he's not even that well-liked in Massachusetts; out of all the members of that 2004 "reverse the curse" team, I think he has to be close to last on the list of "likability" with Doug Mientkiewicz, especially after he basically took a nice sized contract from the team in 2008 and didn't pitch. "Everyone in Mass knows he's a Republican blowhard...and that's just the type of person that people in Mass hate," said one Massachusetts resident I asked about the possibility of Schilling running.

And how do some of his teammates feel about his run (from the Boston Globe article):

• “He would be good at filibustering,’’ wrote Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein
• Asked what he would bring to the Senate, Dustin Pedroia said, “A big appetite.’’
• From a Sox personnel member: “He’d have to lose a few pounds to go on TV, wouldn’t he?’’
• Others had pretty good one-liners like, “Will he wear a Ben Roethlisberger jersey in the Senate chamber when he’s making a speech?’’
• Another player said, “But in the Senate you have to compromise, don’t you?’’
• When asked about it, Kevin Youkilis said, “Are you guys serious?"
• His platform?“Free pizza for every American,’’ kidded one veteran player.

And, oh yeah, he's already had his turn in front of Congress. How did he do according to Joel Sherman: "I don't know about Curt Schilling in the U.S. Senate. After all, in his big shot before Congress in March 2005, Schilling turned uncharacteristically quiet. If that was an audition, consider it failed. But hey if he wants to continue a high-profile career, I do have this idea: A comeback in the National League"

He also has a penchant for flip-floping, like when he railed against McGwire and Bonds for steroids and then thought his buddy Big Papi should get a reprieve. I think that flip-flopping is what allowed his pal George W. Bush to take down John Kerry in 2004.

So let's get this straight: Curt Schilling is running against the biggest Democrat in the Senate as an Independent Republican, has a weak educational background, supported Dubya and McCain, is not even well-liked in Massachusetts, can't even be taken seriously by his own teammates as a political figure, failed in his first audition before congress, and has a reputation for flip-flopping. That's a lot to overcome and no [HGH-injected, red-painted] ankle heroics proves he'll be able to beat those odds.

President's Day Links

A mother of all links post on a day where no President's were born, but we celebrate them anyways...with a day off

-Well I've ready a Michael Lewis book about football and baseball...and now it seems like he's getting ready to write one about basketball as well.

-I still think that the Yankees should use their "Type A advantage" (having signed three Type A's already, all they would have to give up to sign a Type A would be a fourth round draft pick) and do a sign-and-trade with another team. This article seems to think that a sign-and-trade directly with the team who owns the Type A rights directly would be the best course of action, but those people would want to be compensated close to a 1st round pick while the Yankees would be looking to be compensated close to a 4th round pick...just throwing that out there.

-Before I had said that John Smoltz was a lock for the Hall of Fame. I still believe that. Jack Curry of the New York Times agrees with me. Smoltz may actually get hurt by Maddux and Glavine getting in. But he should be a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer.

-I don't know why they're doing this while he's still alive (it looks way too much like a dead man's tribute), but this is a really cool look back at the life of Senator Edward Kennedy. Definitely worth looking through some of the awesome pictures and videos from the Kennedy boys' youth throughout the article. Looks like quite a book.

-Also, they have the front page from the day Kathleen Kennedy was killed in a plane crash. It's also the day Israel declared it's independence. Pretty crazy.

-Speaking of Jews, in the end, Joe Lieberman stepped up for the Dems. It almost seems like a movie where the guy does something wrong, but in the end, comes back and redeems himself.

-Speaking some more about Jews, we have some all-stars going to our Hall of Fame it seems...and some athletes who are still discriminated against

-So that's how baseball players get in shape! (H/T Rob Neyer)

-A list of the worst contracts in the American League and National League. Amazingly the Yankees don't make one of those lists for once. I guess Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth and the like coming off the books would do that...

-A look at the New York Football Giants' Free Agents. No potential big losses besides Derrick Ward now that they've slapped the franchise tag on Brandon Jacobs...and they seem quite content to go with Ahmad Bradshaw as the #2 and Danny Ware as the #3. Sad that Amani Toomer's tenure has to end like this...Another bit in that article linked to this Daily News piece which says (buried within the article): "Amani Toomer is right: The Giants don't want him. His recent whining only solidified the organization's stance. Truth is, the Giants grew tired of him a couple of years ago, when they started questioning his dedication and attitude, according to a person familiar with the team's thinking."

-Freakonomics pointed me to this interesting article about not subsidizing shareholders for insolvent banks. He does make a lot of interesting and thought-provoking points. The article ends with this: "The present practice of subsidizing shareholders and debt holders of large insolvent bank holding companies is unprecedented, improper, and unwise. It is time to take strong capitalist action — and that requires wiping out the existing owners of the insolvent banks and giving the system much needed new equity capital, which, at this time, can come only from the government."

-Deadspin is pretty funny sometimes.

-So is this link about Pokey (H/T Jay)

-So maybe Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will actually come true...scary. I'll start with 8th grade, thank you.

-I have a turtle quite like this. We call her Pam. I would recommend that Tyler Kepner and Pete Abraham wash their hands because they are quite full of salmonella.

-Let her fight!

-I don't even want to talk about the Rangers. When you allow a 3 on 5 shorthanded goal, you don't deserve to win a Stanley Cup.

-Peter Gammons on A-Ro[i]d

-I don't think I've seen a story that can get any more ridiculous than this one in England. When do we find out it's all made up?

-Good thing the Yankees didn't make this trade

-One guy I'm counting on for the Yanks 'pen this year: Mark Melancon (H/T Pete Abraham)

-CC looks [relatively] thin

-Wow...way to ruin your public image, Jim Leyritz

-From journalist to strip club owner.

-In Buster Olney's latest blog entry, he brings up an interesting part of the Torre book that I've heard from a few other people is one of his more objectionable parts:

• Carl Pavano doesn't want to address Joe Torre's book, but many others in the game are appalled by the manager's seeming willingness to cast blame or disparagement in the pages while taking very little responsibility for what went wrong when the Yankees lost.

In the book, Mariano Rivera is blamed, in part, for the postseason defeats in 2001 and 2004. But there is nothing about Torre's handling of the Yankees' bullpen from 2001 to 2007, which consistently resulted in late-season burnout for a parade of set-up men: Steve Karsay, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, Tanyon Sturtze, Ron Villone, Scott Proctor, etc.

Part of the reason Rivera pitched less than his best at the end of the 2004 season was that Quantrill and Gordon were flat-out gassed by mid-September, and Rivera was asked to shoulder a heavier burden than usual. For Torre to write a book about his tenure as Yankee manager and not address the bullpen problems after the departure of Jeff Nelson would be like if George Bush were to write a book about his presidency and not mention the economy.

And remember Torre's version of Dave Roberts' pivotal steal in the 2004 playoffs against Rivera, how he thought Rivera aided Roberts' stolen-base attempt by throwing to first base repeatedly before making his first pitch? Well, in response to this, numerous coaches and executives have asked this question: If Torre was sure Roberts would steal, why didn't he call for a pitch-out?

-Bipartisanship isn't so easy. Wall Street gets some new bonus limits

-The Japanese Madoff and his "Yen From Heaven"

-I liked when Shaq and Kobe were fighting. It's just not fun anymore. This from Shaqtus' (how did you get all those Q's?) Twitter: THE_REAL_SHAQ Kobe is the best, he told me to take the trophy hm for my sons, class act, thanks bro. Though I do love this commercial:

-Lastly, this is amazing:

Pre-LOST Links (and Videos)

Some good links before I sit down to watch LOST

-John Buccigross goes through a Mount Rushmore of every NHL team. I may put Gilbert on there for the Rangers, but I really can't complain.

-Baseball Musings goes over the recent Miguel Tejada guilty plea and wonders if it could lead to deportation

-Ken Rosenthal goes over the lefty reliever market and sees that there are a lot left (as well as second basemen). I wondered at the time if the Yankees should have let Marte go and tried to get a draft pick, but it looks like they woudn't have gotten a pick...but they may have saved some money. Let's hope Marte is a little better than he showed last year.

-The election is done, but Ben Smith shows that Moveon.org is not done bashing Republicans, especially when they make really selfish, stupid and hypocrtical decisions. Awesome!

-First Read shows that you may not want to be the person who responds to the State of the Union...

-Freakonomics asks who would be stupid enough to answer yes to these questions (and why I love questions like this)

-Blogging the Bombers has some info on Jesus Montero and some other of the younger Yankees

-According to this report, teenagers spend 31 hours a week online and 2 hours looking at porn...oh to be a teenager again!

-Roberto Alomar's life gets worse...hopefully those weren't steroids needles

-Doc Jensen on "Lost" time travel anxiety

-Rangers vs. Ovechkin going on right now (4-4)

-Ann Coulter under investigation

-Rihanna and Chris Brown saga gets even crazier

-Sounds like my regular Sunday drive

-Surprised that Madoff got his wife's money out?

-The website for Ted's love interest on "Scrubs"

-More "sexting" (damn...to be young again), this time in Falmouth.

-Former Caterpillar employees may come back if the stimulus passes.

-Someone else agrees that Abreu has "hit the wall" defensively (such a good pun)

-Daily Show to the White House. Love John Oliver and excited for this.

-And I love when Jon Stewart rips Bill O'Reilly:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Bill O'Reilly's Right to Privacy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Can't Fall Asleep So Why Not Some Links

I have a lot of these and I figured that sleepless time was when to post them...

-Release all the inmates!
-I'm excited to get totally LOST again tonight!
-I didn't want to gauge my eyes out so I didn't watch the A-rod/Gammons interview, but it seems Gammons was no Katie Couric (nice job there by Shysterball) according to The Big Lead. More here from Baseball Musings and Doug Glanville in the New York Times. Also ESPN on whether those other 103 names will be released.
-With the New York Rangers free falling or freefallin' (however you want to say it), and have assigned Sean Avery to Hartford of the AHL. This whole situation is very, very odd. The reason he is on the Rangers AHL affiliate is not because he's been traded to or claimed by the Rangers. Rather, the Stars have no AHL affiliate and they need to get him in game shape to get rid of him so he's being assigned to the Hartford team...but because he's not property of the Rangers, none of the Rangers executives can comment about him so we don't know if they'll every actually get him in the end. So confusing!
-Big Ben's legend continues to grow: he played the Super Bowl with broken ribs
-It seems like we can say good-bye to John Carney. My dad and I knew for about 8 weeks that Carney was going to fail once playoff time came. Glad to see he enjoyed his Pro Bowl time, but maybe he could have actually made some kicks against Philly.
-Lane Kiffin!
-Some people have WAYYYYY too much time on their hands. Fack Youk I would put on that list. Though the faces of A-rod (not be confused with The Three Faces Of Eve) are pretty funny.
-So Simmons doesn't hate Kobe? We couldn't have cleared that up in a podcast? We need to waste an article on it? Torre, Phelps, A-rod, and everything else going on...and his feelings about Kobe is what we talk about?
-If this projection is right, the Yanks finish one game out of first but make the Wild Card. I could live with that (H/T Rob Neyer). Glad to see the Yanks give up the least amount of runs in baseball. I would love to see more, but you need a subscription. I may need to spring for the $40 a month this year. Thoughts?
-I think that Cashman made a good decision in not offering Abreu arbitration. Looks like he's goint to sign with the Angels for WAY less.
-Not good news for business schools
-Well at least Obama is trying to sell his ideas instead of Dubya who just went ahead and implemented them. I know there's a different level of approval needed, but still...
-Pete Abraham has some good stuff...as always
-Want free shit at Fridays? Here you go. (H/T Slickdeals). Though you probably already knew that one if you read my primer on deal finding.

Oh...an update because I just found this link about the idiot cop who arrested 8 people in relation to the Michael Phelps "marijuana incident". Think he's going to try to get them to talk and turn on Phelps? Oy.

Sunday Links: Bestchester Edition

Home in the Bestchester with some great Sunday links:

-First, a great NBA doubleheader on ABC. I usually shy away from watching regular season NBA but today was a real treat

-Joel Sherman agrees with me on the Jeter situation

-The Terrible Towlie

-Anna Rawson is really hot and doesn't seem to like lesbians in women's golf...and women's golf does not seem to like Anna Rawson. Catfight!

-So Brad Pitt is playing Billy Beane in Moneyball. So a book I've never particularly cared for about a way to build a team which hasn't produced any pennants (never mind World Series wins) is going to be starring Brad Pitt and directed by Steven Soderbergh...and it's about baseball. So I have a real tough time figuring out if I'm going to want to pay to see this movie. Solution: illegal download. Thank you, interwebs.

-Hip Hop saved Lupe Fiasco's life and Starbucks saved this guy's life. Now Tom Hanks will play him in a movie. Seriously

-Scary times in the inferno going on Down Under

-Peter Gammons wrote his first article in a few weeks and seems to back up my idea of Brett Gardner in CF with the first part of the article...

-I found out on his Twitter that Rainn Wilson is a Baha'i and he posted this article about an apology they received from Iranian professionals.

-This kid will have what Michael Phelps is having. Wow. (H/T to Sarah and Jay)

-Speaking of Mr. Phelps, he has a backer: Ashton Kutcher...and he won't be hanging out with Jared anytime soon

-Another person agrees with me, the New York Rangers need Sean Avery and vice versa (original report from Larry Brooks)

-More A-rod piling on from Howard Bryant of ESPN, Rob Neyer of ESPN, and Sam Borden of LoHud (on defining this generation)

-A sad story about a 90-year-old Madoff victim that had to return to work

-What news anchors do during commercial breaks...amazing

-For Ari: how consultants are like prostitutes

-Some LOST spoilers/analysis from our buddy, Doc Jensen

-So maybe Santonio Holmes didn't get both feet down...

-Remember that November election when John McCain left the campaign for the stimulus vote? Well John McCain is having a senior moment because he's back there again and Troopergate redux.

-Speaking of elections, the Israelis are voting soon: on Netanyahu's big lead and the rise of Avigdor Lieberman

-Fred Hof is joining the Mitchell Commission and is not a fan of Hezbollah (H/T Politico)...could be good news for Israel.

-The Battle for Your Social Status

-The growth of green jobs

-I'm really not sure what's so bad about this article except that maybe England has weird Greek life...

-Remember Adam Morrison? He got a little emotional during March Madness and now has been traded to the Lakers for VladRad. Think Charlotte would like to have done that again? They missed out on Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay, Rajon Rondo, etc. for a guy who looked like he should have been in 70s porn.

-The New Yorker tries to figure out the next Supreme Court Justice

-An article about life insurance (my industry) facing impending accounting and regulatory changes

-The Washingon Post declares the worst draft pick in baseball history...which is saying a lot

-And, lastly, HR and the art of clichés management (H/T Wendy)

Dennis Ross and a Ceasefire in Gaza

Politics is something I'll try to get into as little as possible. But sometimes it's unavoidable. One topic I feel very strongly about is Israel's right to exist unthreatened in the Middle East. I have no doubt that if Mexico was lobbing rockets into Texas (or Spain to France), the US would respond with a (justified) brute force. That being said, any talk of a Ceasefire, as this Politico article says, is always a welcome change. I'm all for peace.

The part of this article that intrigues me the most is the link to Barack Obama's foreign policy team member, Dennis Ross. Dennis Ross became a Brandeis professor right after I decided that I had no interest in pursuing a politics degree at Brandeis. I took a class with Robert Reich and it's cool to see him in pictures like the one below (so easy to point out, too at 4" 10 1/2!) or on Conan (see that video if you haven't) or on The Daily Show. Thomas Friedman led a small group discussion I was in, but I was abroad for his class at Brandeis. Ben Brandzel was the president of the student government and years later I tuned into to see him on CSPAN one day introducing a speaker for MoveOn.org or saw him write an article for the Huffington Post. I just think it's cool when people I was around at Brandeis end up in the news...