(And I Lived to Tell About It)
It appears Pat Quinn won with the working class. They essentially split the middle class. And Bill Brady won with those that made six figures. Take a look at this (source).
2009 total family income:
Under $30,000
$30,000 – $49,999
$50,000 – $74,999
$75,000 – $99,999
$100,000 – $199,999
$200,000 or more
As the 2010 season begins to wind down, I thought it was a good time to reminisce. So, I pulled out my “Yo, MTV Raps” greatest hits and put together my own personal Top 10 Rap & Hip Hop Hits: 2010 Cardinals Edition.
So, Party People, here we go …
Stan (Eminem)
As of today, there are two tight races in the National League involving Cincinnati and St. Louis.
The Cardinals are chasing the Reds to be champs of the Central.
And Votto is chasing Pujols for National League MVP.
The Reds have been consistent. The Cardinals have been consistently inconsistent. And, as much as I hate to say it, I think that’s likely going to lead to a division championship for the Reds. The Cardinals best hope may be to eek out a Wild Card win by coming on strong in the coming weeks (and their schedule should allow for it).
Meanwhile, Pujols has been having what many consider to be a “down year”. While Votto is having, well, a career-year.
Check out their stats so far for 2010 (from rototimes.com):
2010 Year-To-Date Comparison
| 2010 Year-To-Date Comparison | ||||||||||||||||
| Player | Team | G | AB | R | H | DBL | TPL | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Albert Pujols | STL | 120 | 453 | 84 | 143 | 27 | 1 | 32 | 89 | 12 | 3 | 75 | 54 | 0.316 | 0.411 | 0.592 |
| Joey Votto | CIN | 115 | 424 | 86 | 137 | 23 | 2 | 29 | 86 | 10 | 4 | 70 | 96 | 0.323 | 0.422 | 0.592 |
Certainly what makes an “MVP” is debatable. And, it seems the arguments change based on players and situations. Some claim an MVP must come from a playoff team. And while it typically ends up being based on offensive production numbers, there are those who would claim it should really be about more than just offensive production.
Based on these numbers so far for 2010, it could easily be a toss-up. Pujols and Votto have nearly identical numbers.
One could certainly argue that Pujols is a better all-around player (I would). His defensive numbers seem to indicate that. And then there are the intangibles …. Pujols gets intentionally walked significantly more, gets far fewer pitches to hit, is a right-handed hitter, and plays in a less-friendly park for hitters than does Votto.
In other words … I think Pujols is better than Votto, and I think he’s more valuable than Votto. But, it would not surprise me in the least to see Votto win the MVP. It wouldn’t be the first time Albert was robbed of the award.
In fact, it will be interesting to see if the “MVP needs to be on a playoff team” argument rises again. If so, the National League MVP could very well go to the player whose team wins the Division.
And that’s looking more and more like it could be Votto and the Reds.
Back during the 2000 Presidential campaign, I’ll admit I fell in love with John McCain. Finally, a candidate that seemed to care more about people and less about partisan politics. I didn’t agree with him on everything, but I did always believe he was about as honest as they come. The “Straight Talk” seemed to really be that.
Over the course of the next several years, I still , for the most part, counted him among the elected officials I respected … and I always enjoyed the way he could laugh at himself during appearances on The Daily Show, for example.
Then came the 2008 Presidential campaign. The John McCain we all witnessed was not the John McCain so many knew. He apparently had allowed himself to be handled by the wrong people. His mistakes seemed to culminate in choosing as a running mate one of the most polarizing individuals American politics has seen in recent times. Apparently her qualification was that she was conservative. At least everyone I talked to who said they liked her seemed to like her for that reason. Which I guess means ones idealogy is more important for some than one’s ideas about making America better for the people.
If you, like me, watched the 2008 Presidential campaign closely, you saw John McCain over and over again referred to as a “Maverick”, often by John McCain himself.
Turns out though, he says he never saw himself that way. Yet, one who has watched him would be surprised to hear that. (video below)
So, was the John McCain of 2008 being dishonest? Or is the John McCain of 2010, fighting for his political life, being dishonest? And will we ever know for sure?
Is the McCain of the 2008 campaign and beyond the latest victim of hyper-partisan politics? Does he believe he can no longer win on a platform of doing the right thing for people and fighting corruption on both sides of the aisle? Has he bought into the idea that it’s all about idealogy and not ideas, all about partisan politics and not people and their problems? Has he forgotten who he works for?
If he has, then we’ve lost another statesmen.
After watching the Dayton Flyers dismantle the North Carolina Tar Heels last night in the Men’s NIT Championship, it became obvious that the Flyers did more than expose the Illinois State Redbirds a couple weeks ago.
Turns out Dayton’s 21-point win over ISU might not have been such a big deal. They followed that victory with impressive and commanding victories over Cincinnati and Illinois. They then won a hard-fought game over Ole’ Miss before fairly easily handling North Carolina to win the NIT Championship. Certainly it was not the same UNC that won the Big Dance last year, but still Roy Williams and North Carolina — a team that beat the likes of Ohio State (on the road), and Michigan State … and battled hard in several ACC conference games.
Randy Kindred wrote following the Dayton victory over Illinois State that “except for a three-minute stretch of the second half, the Redbirds were outmanned and, in every way, out of their league in a first-round National Invitation Tournament game at Dayton’s UD Arena”.
Certainly it’s true that the Redbirds took a beating from Dayton. But, in hindsight, it perhaps said more about the ability of the team from Dayton than it did about the failings of the team from Normal.
I usually really appreciate Kindred’s words, like these following the ISU women’s loss in the Final Four of the Women’s NIT, and certainly it’s not his job to only write glowing stories about local teams or athelets. But, in this case, I think his article was perhaps a bit narrow-minded and short-sighted. Going so far as to essentially mock coach Tim Jankovich when he said the loss showed them a lot of the weaknesses they need to improve and that they’ll be back next year a better team migt have been too much.
Sure, the Redbirds have a lot to work on, and a lot of pieces to replace. But, as Northern Iowa showed the Nation, well-coached teams that work hard, play together, and do the little things well can beat the best at the Big Dance when given the opportunity.
Afterall, Dayton did more than expose the Redbird men in the first round of the NIT. They were simply making a statement … a statement they continued to make against Cincinnati, Illinois, Ole’ Miss and even North Carolina.
What Dayton really did was expose themselves as a better team than anyone, including Randy Kindred, gave them credit for, a team that likely should have been dancing at the Big Dance.
