Sarah and Manny

As a huge fan of baseball and politics, I was thrilled to read on the Freakonomics blog of Nate Silver, a guy who makes a living following both! It's nice to know I'm not alone. So as I watch tonight's VP debate and prepare to catch the Dodgers face off with the Cubbies, I can't help but think of the two marquis names in tonight's matchups--Sarah Palin and Manny Ramirez--and their respective paths to October under the national spotlight.

As a Yankee fan, I was thrilled when the Red Sox had enough of Manny's antics and traded him. He was a Yankee killer, with 55 lifetime dingers against the pinstripes. While Jason Bay--the player the Chowderheads received in return for Manny--is a nice ballplayer, he's a step down from Ramirez and even the most devoted Sawx fan would admit that.

And this is where I'm curious about the extreme left's hysteria regarding Sarah Palin.

I can't get over how devoted partisans like Maureen Dowd and Slate's Emily Bazelon are so adamantly opposed to McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate. Dowd (Pulitzer winner) and Bazelon (two-time Yale grad)--for the sake of this argument, we'll compare them to fans of the Yanks--are both brilliant enough and should be thrilled at the gaffes and missteps of Palin that have put John McCain in a ten-point national hole. I mean, when your enemy's diging a hole, don't stand there and critique the process--hand him a shovel.

I consider myself a moderate libertarian, but I can't get over this nasty vitriol from the media on this issue. Dowd compares Sarah Palin's rise to national prominence to a chick flick that offends her and Bazelon writes of the shame she experiences in watching Palin interview. There's criticism and then there's anger. These opinions venture awfully close to anger, and that's just not healthy.

When Jason Bay arrived in Boston, if I were to follow the Dowd-Bazelon tact, I'd go on and on about how ridiculous it was that this imposter was now roaming the sacred field of Williams, Yaz, Greenwell (who should have been the 1988 MVP) and Manny. But as a partisan Yankee fan, it would take a reincarnation of Ted Williams replacing Manny to send me into these hysterics. (I know Ted Williams, Ted Williams is a friend of mine, and Sarah Palin is no Ted Williams.)

In conclusion, I'll stick with the Yanks-Sox rivalry. I'll never forget the Yankees-Sawx game I attended July 1, 2004 (the Jeter dive game) where the Yanks mounted an incredible comeback to beat their hated enemies in 13 innings at the Stadium.

As the Yanks mounted their comeback, I'll always remember the look on the faces of the Boston fans in attendance that night. It's like they expected to lose. (Note: This was before Red Sox nation captured their first World Series in 86 years, and this is probably the last time New England experienced this emotion.)

And maybe that's why it's not a stretch to compare those that are nervous about Sarah Palin to those pre-world championship Red Sox followers. Maybe it would take an Obama-Biden victory to wipe this defeatist attitude from their collective mindset. And you know what, if this vitriol would cease because of it, that might not be the worst thing (although knowing the media and seeing were it's headed, this unfortunately is highly unlikely). And if the Red Sox can win two world titles in four years, I guess anything's possible.