A little insight into your government at work comes from ABC News ,which describes the apology DHS Secretary Napolitano was forced to cough up after the “rightwing extremism” report:
A DHS official tells ABC News that the secretary met personally with Rehbein and issued a mea culpa. The official said Napolitano told Rehbein that “the report was poorly written. It didn’t pass the standards of an internal review and therefore it shouldn’t have gone out the door.”
When pressed about how such an oversight could have occurred, the senior DHS official said that because of the massive size of the department — more than 220,000 employees — “sometimes things slip through the cracks,” and that new internal processes have now been put in place to make sure such a mistake doesn’t happen again.
220,000 employees in one department? That’s twice the size of the IRS and bigger than the Marines. You may recall those who raised concerns about creating a mammoth department thought DHS would become unmanageable and make us less secure. We now have a bureaucracy so big that “things slip through the cracks.” We can hope that what’s slipping through is just sloppy paperwork, but one suspects the problem is not limited to an errant report.
The biggest problem for DHS then may not be that its secretary did not know how the 9-11 terrorists got into the country. It has become what its critics feared: a jumble of agencies too big to manage and too disorganized to effectively do its job.
loved this, thanks for posting it…I’m torn as well (Being A Red Sox Fan) but all & all I’d rather cheer for Jeter than have to deal with Chavez/Castro. so GO USA!
My main problem with the World Baseball Classic is that The Powers That Be at Major League Baseball decided not to let XM broadcast it, even though XM broadcasts every other MLB game. Presumably the idea was to raise funds for their own MLB.TV franchise. The problem is, I can’t see spending $20 just to see games between nations I don’t care much about, such as Italy vs. Venezuela, especially when I already pay for XM (though admittedly, not just for the baseball).
In short, this year’s WBC is suffering from a real bad marketing idea; perhaps if they don’t repeat this error for the next one, support will be higher. Then again, perhaps Eric’s original idea is correct and I am all wet.
The real problem was nailed, by John Cleese I think, in the time of Slick Willy. There are three reasons why England is still superior to America: They still speak English over there, they invite other countries to their world championships and you only have to go down on one kneww before the hrad os state. Oh, those were the days ;but I’m still an American by Choice!
Woops, typo fixed. The real problem was nailed, by John Cleese I think, in the time of Slick Willy. There are three reasons why England is still superior to America: They still speak English over there, they invite other countries to their world championships and you only have to go down on one knee before the hrad os state. Oh, those were the days ;but I’m still an American by Choice!
Woops, too many (good, American) beers already. The real problem was nailed, by John Cleese I think, in the time of Slick Willie. There are three reasons why England is still superior to America: They still speak English over there, they invite other countries to their world championships and you only have to go down on one knee before the head of state. Oh, those were the days ;but I’m still an American by Choice!
American:
Barack Obama: “hrad os state”. Makes sense to me
#6: Hurrah!
Mr. Trager, fortunately, knows more abt politics and American society than he does abt the National Pastime.
#1 is a curious case: admitting infantile delusions in public! Seventy-eight forever.
Eric
I agree with your point, and in any event I find this WBC as interesting as the NFL All Pro Game or whatever it’s called. ZZZZZZZZZ.
And as for crazy dictators getting to go on stage: The world will little note nor long remember this triumph if it comes to their teams.
BTW, is Ozzie Guillen managing Venezuela? Him, I can root against!
With due respect to American by Choice (seriously; it takes real commitment to keep after it until ALL the typos are corrected), one of the great things about American football is that there are really no other countries to invite to our championships. Canada gives it a go, but knows her limits too.
A few things. First MLB is thoroughly international. Every WBC team has players you have seen on your own team or on other MLB teams, so it’s hard to get the us vs. them type of rivalry going. And even if you don’t recognize the opposing players MLB has been international for so long that its no big deal. Second, baseball fans are used to seeing teams fight it out over 160 games to determine who is best, then best of seven series in the playoffs. In the WBC you are throwing players together at the very start of spring training when no one is playing up to form, especially the pitchers, and playing a handful of games. The line between success and failure in baseball is miniscule. Unless you are playing pros against a high school team you need a series of games to get a legitimate sense of the better team. You put every major league team up against their minor league affiliate in a very short series of games and chances are the minor league team wins more than their fair share. Under these circumstances baseball fans are not left with a sense that anything is being conclusively demonstrated.
I am continually perplexed at the propensity of Mets fans to congratulate themselves for their so-called “reflexive sensitivity to underdogs,” as the normally reasonable Mr. Trager puts it. On what planet are the Mets underdogs? They have had the second or third highest payroll in baseball for years, they will be moving into a brand new state-of-the-art stadium this spring, and their team is filled with free agent signings and the salary dumps of less prosperous teams. It is admittedly true that the Mets are junior varsity compared to the Yankees in NYC and the metropolitan area, but the fact is that the Mets are more the bully than the underdog to every other team in baseball. I suppose that the embarrassingly unprecedented Mets collapse of each of the last two seasons drives their fans to find solace in such false and silly ideas, in order to make it just a little easier to root for the second-rate baseball team the Mets are.
What is lovable about Jose Reyes? Is it the dance moves? The slacking down the line? The temper tantrums?
Root for Jimmy Rollins. Now there’s a shortstop!
The reason the WBC has generated little interest is because baseball is horribly boring.
Looking forward to the inaugural World Football Championship.
I view the WBC as an effort to promote baseball internationally, not domestically. I was just telling my son, who had never heard of it and was wondering why there were so many empty seats, that maybe it will mean something to the US in 15 years or so.
Right now, it shouldn’t mean much to Americans (US ones–it means a lot more to the other Americans). But as a big baseball fan, if I see more Europeans appreciate it, see more Chinese get interested in it, then I’m all for it. (Heck, spring training is boring and means even less.) I think it’s great to have a team from South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, and Australia playing their hearts out .
Basketball did that same thing 20 years and look at it now. Kobe is a celebrity in China and Tony Parker is acclaimed sportman of the year in France. In 20 years, I hope some hot shot Italian or Brazilian third baseman is a superstar here in the US and that a future Derek Jeter is mobbed in China.
Yes, it starts with a tournament that doesn’t mean anything to us, but that is how such things always start. It will take time for tradition and history to accumulate. I hope to be watching it with my grandson in 30 years and telling him how it all started.
The Dutch are showing some spunk! I can tell why they are Europe’s best.
#10
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Under these circumstances baseball fans are not left with a sense that anything is being conclusively demonstrated.
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A real baseball aficionado doesn’t need a favorite team to enjoy the game. What counts is seeing the best athletes in the world attempt to accomplish the two most difficult things in sports, throwing a baseball past a person trying to hit it with a bat, and a batter hitting a baseball that a person is trying to throw past him. Everything else about the game is of interest as well. In fact, it’s the most interesting physical activity engaged in by adult males anywhere.
That’s funny–soccer fans the world follow their sport in similar circumstances and are still mad for the World Cup.
Most of the original post and the comments come off as being a bit…provincial, frankly.
Ampontan
Provincial? Gee you really know how to hurt a guy? Did you ever work for The Hon Ginsburg, The Hon Kennedy, or The Hon Breyer? Next you’ll be telling me that I’m provincial if I don’t follow European law in deciding what the Constitution means.
PS I don’t care who wins in the Aussie baseball leagues or for that matter in the American Minor BB leagues or in the College WS or in the Little League. Or in the Central Park Show (softball) League, if that’s still going strong.
Eric,
Elvin has it exactly right. The reason you can’t get excited about it is partly because the WBC is not aimed at you. It is aimed at expanding the game internationally. The argument you make about not caring to root for the US, I understand and feel the same way, but most other countries do not feel that way. They get up for seeing their national team (witness not just the soccer World Cup, but the Rugby World Cup, Crickett, etc). Similarly, about the argument that you see Jose Reyes play for the Mets therefore how could you root against the DR, every other country does it. Have you seen Manchester United’s roster? Its mostly international players.
I’m originally from Puerto Rico and for a long time dreamt of seeing something like this to see how we would do internationally.
And finally, are you sure that your comment about a lack of enthusiasm in the US for the event is based on, you know, actualy facts?
- Round One attendance in 2009 surpassed the attendance from Round One of the 2006 World Baseball Classic by approximately 38%. More than 450,000 fans attended Round One games in 2009 compared with just over 326,000 fans for the inaugural World Baseball Classic.
- The Tokyo Dome recorded three sellouts in the first round, selling out each of the three Japan games on March 5th against China, March 7th against Korea and March 9th against Korea.
- Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico drew a sellout crowd of 19,483 on March 9th for the game between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands, and duplicated the feat with 19,501 fans in attendance for a rematch between the teams in the Pool D championship game on March 11th.
- Saturday’s game between the United States and Canada drew 43,000 fans to the Rogers Centre. Only three games between the Blue Jays and Yankees, and three games between the Jays and Red Sox had a higher attendance at the venue over the last year.
- Toronto’s Rogers Centre set a single-day merchandise sales record for a non-World Series baseball event on March 7th, during the opening day of Pool C which featured the United States taking on Canada and Italy vs. Venezuela.
- The game between the United States and Canada on ESPN on Saturday, March 7th drew a 1.4 rating with 1,850,000 viewers tuning in. It was the third-most watched sports telecast on cable last week.
- Sunday night’s game between the United States and Venezuela posted a 2.0 rating with 2,645,000 viewers tuning in, ranking as the most watched World Baseball Classic game ever, eclipsing the 2006 second round game between Mexico and the U.S. which was seen by 2,458,000 people. In addition, it was the most watched sporting event on basic cable for the week.
- Saturday night’s game between Japan and Korea delivered a 37.8 rating in Japan, topping the 28.2 for the tournament opener on Thursday to rank as the highest-rated sports telecast in that country since the 2006 World Baseball Classic Final between Japan and Cuba (43.4), including the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
- Domestic television ratings for the 2009 World Baseball Classic Round One games broadcast on ESPN averaged a 1.3 rating, up over 40% from 2006. The four games averaged 1,745,000 viewers, up almost 90% compared to 2006 Round One games.
- Five of the 2009 World Baseball Classic Round One games were the highest-rated non-soccer events ever broadcast on ESPN Deportes, including the March 10th contest between Cuba and Australia which posted a 3.3 rating, the station’s highest-rated Round One game.
Source: World Baseball Classic, Inc.
Eric, you’ve proven yourself highly knowledgeable about politics — and now sports.
Don’t tell me you also know a thing or two about music, movies and art, too, for that would surely make you a Renaissance man!
Congratulations on another insightful, timely column!
Inwood: Don’t be silly.
Provincial in the sense of a broader perspective by appreciating the highest skilled players in the world–not the Central Park Softball league. (Another provincial comment and poor attempt at sarcasm. Ditto for the one about European law and the Constitution. Do you get out much?) Impossible to rise temporarily above the Mets, or whoever? The premier soccer teams playing league soccer in their respective countries hire players from all over the globe–it’s much more international than baseball–and somehow their fans all manage to put aside local considerations for a couple of weeks every four years.
Interesting that some Americans can’t.
Let’s go, Mets! …and Yankee, no.
From Inwood — come on. You don’t really care if Ampontan thinks you’re provincial, do you?
And for Matt, while I don’t think baseball is horribly boring (I like it fine), I too prefer football. But I must point out that there IS a World Football Championship. It’s called the Super Bowl.