Mount Virtus

Before the Wings-Avs series, I said I wouldn’t write anymore about it until the series was over. Well, it’s over… and how. Simply put, the Red Wings dominated. And this blogger smiled.

My condolences to Constructively Reasonable. Your consolation will be having lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion.

Obscure question: What special connection does the name Katie Casey have to baseball aficionados today? Well, it was 100 years ago today (May 2, 1908) that America’s universal musical standard Take Me Out to the Ball Game was published. Jack Norworth penned the words; Albert von Tilzer the unforgettable melody.

To clear up the connection, Norworth’s and Van Tilzer’s Tin Pan Alley creation was written to be sung by a young female character:

Only a handful of fans realize that the two verses of the song are about Katie Casey (later changed to Nelly Kelly), a girl who was mad with baseball fever as she asked her young beau to take her to a ballgame rather than a show. This faint whiff of romance added to the song’s success on vaudeville, where singers (including Norworth’s wife and star, Nora Bayes), actors, even acrobats, incorporated the hit into their acts. Also adding to its immense popularity, the song was featured during intermissions at the early twentieth-century nickelodeons where it was accompanied by “lantern slides,” photos touched up with paint that provided the audience with a visual component to the song as the lyrics scrolled across the bottom of the screen. This way, when Katie Casey made the pitch to her date, everyone in the audience could respond in song: “Take me out to the ball game…”

Next time you’re enjoying America’s pastime at one of her beautiful ballparks, and you rise for that 7th inning stretch, think of Katie Casey and an enduring classic that has lived for a full century.

Of course, the question remains: Would Norworth’s and Von Tilzer’s character recognize the sport, and would she want to be taken out to the ball game today?

I don’t want to talk about the Detroit Tigers … or the Colorado Rockies.

Saturday was a bad day at the bowling alley in Altoona, Pa., for Barack Obama, who rolled an improbably bad 37:

“My economic plan is better than my bowling,” Obama told fellow bowlers Saturday.

“It has to be,” a man called out.

Obama let everyone know he hadn’t bowled since Jimmy Carter was president — and finished with a score of 37….

Somewhere in all that, I think Obama or the reporter got the facts mixed up. I think his economic plan is reminiscent of Jimmy Carter.

I’m not even sure where the bowling fits in exactly. But as one who spent two years of my life in central Pennsylvania - I even attended a minor league Altoona Curve baseball game once - I can tell you that such abject failure at the lanes is not liable to win you respect in that part of the country.

Byron York over at The Corner agrees. And fellow Samsphere attendee Fred Dooley highlights Barack Obama’s attire, which only underscores the lousy 37 to blue-collar Pennsylvanians: “Dude, take off the tie.”

Apparently, it got even worse for the former parishioner of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as the seemingly friendly media terrain of MSNBC reports that Pennsylvanians are finding his “charm offensive.” Look, there’s no easy way to charm your way out of bowling a 37 in Altoona. I don’t care if your name is Barack Obama.

And to think, 37 used to be my lucky number.

The waiting is over. Weather permitting, baseball season arrives in its full glory today for both of my favorite teams. The revamped Detroit Tigers break spring training camp with high expectations and a potent lineup, but questions about the pitching staff exacerbated by untimely injuries. Rain may delay their afternoon showdown at Comerica Park with the lowly Kansas City Royals.

As for the local Colorado Rockies, 2007 National League champions, the season gets underway in St. Louis. Possible rain showers also are in the forecast there.

Having waited this long, though, what would be another day? Too long. Let’s play ball!

When it comes to March Madness, the truth is I never learn. No matter whether I follow the season closely or guess at random, my picks are always mediocre at best. Yet each year I come back to the NCAA Tournament Brackets like a sheep to the slaughter.

This year is no different. I filled out two different brackets on ESPN, made picks on Facebook’s CBS and Sports Illustrated applications, and even decided to accept the McCain Basketball Brackets challenge.

We’re only a couple hours away from the first game tipping off. How long before my brackets implode in failure? It’s just one more piece of the fun and entertainment of March Madness.

Jim Geraghty looks at the Rasmussen poll data (showing McCain and Obama tied at 46, but McCain clobbering Hillary 52-38) and muses:

We’ve seen Obama running ahead of Hillary in some states, but an 11 or 12 point difference? What’s got him so popular there, and her so unpopular? Does Obama come across as a mountain state kind of guy? Is he related to John Elway or something?

I don’t have a good answer to that question, but many hypotheses abound. Coloradans don’t like the old-style Eastern politics that Hillary Clinton represents. Colorado swing voters are more open to vapid liberal platitudes than cynical ones. Frankly, it beats me. Hillary polls terribly unpopular here and would have virtually no chance to win the Centennial State in a matchup against the Republican nominee. Barack Obama would at least make the race competitive, which might help Mark Udall in a close Senate race more than anything.

Right now, I’m just glad to see how different Colorado is from Ohio:

A new PPP poll in Ohio shows Clinton up 1 point over McCain, while Obama trails the Republican nominee by 8 points.

McCain 45 - Clinton 46
McCain 49 - Obama 41

McCain leads Obama by 0.7 points and Clinton by 0.2 points in the RCP Averages for Ohio

Yes, I’m just a little bit bitter that the Buckeyes snagged prep football phenom Terrelle Pryor, at the Wolverines’ expense. I’ll get over it, though.

If the rest of the nation’s well-being weren’t at stake in a Presidential race with key electoral votes in the upper Midwest, I’d say Hillary and Ohio can have each other. Pryor may cause more occasional heartburn (and heartache) come the next few Novembers. But the November heartburn that Hillary could create would last for (at least) four years straight.

Meanwhile, I’ll stick with Colorado. Thank you very much.

The Detroit Free Press has the scoop in today’s sports section: “Tribe, Tigers rivalry already intense.”

Sure, Hugh will do a lot of blustering between now and September that his Cleveland Indians will repeat their American League Central crown. But faced with the harsh specter of reality, he may well find himself hoping and praying for his team to stay competitive with the offensive juggernaut coming out of Motown.

Jim Leyland’s Detroit Tigers are hungry for payback, with a bolstered lineup that can deliver … and then some.

Featured on the United States Masters Swimming website:

Three 90-year-old swimmers — Kay Schimpf (left), with 1,525 yards, Frances Cichanski (center), with 1,700 yards, and Brud Cleaveland (right), with 1,700 yards, of the Florida Mavericks, completed the popular January postal event. They then joined teammates June Reynolds, 86, Cliff Eastwood, 86, and Charles Edwards, 88, to form a men’s, a women’s, and a mixed relay - all in the 85+ age group! Margie Hutinger of the Mavericks reports, “They are a special group of swimmers, as they showed a lot of spunk to do their swims, in spite of the adversities they had to overcome. They are cool role models for Masters swimming.” [emphasis mine]

That’s my great aunt Frankie, my grandpa’s “baby’ sister. There is longevity in the DeGrow genes - my grandpa & most of his siblings reached 90. And the last one remaining with us continues to stay very active in swimming. Though I have only met her in person once, I have to agree that Aunt Frankie is a “cool role model.”

If I should somehow live to be 90, I’d be pleasantly surprised and praising God to be doing the kind of activity she does. But today, since my parents brought this web feature to my attention, I thought it fitting to give Aunt Frankie a little modest blog appreciation.

Baseball is right around the corner. This morning, spring training begins for Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers. In all my life, I’ve never looked forward to a season with such anticipation. After a couple spectacular offseason maneuvers, the Tigers sport an absolutely fearsome lineup and a starting rotation that will be the envy of most of Major League Baseball.

Don’t believe me? How about ESPN’s Jayson Stark?

Beware of Tigers: How many runs will the 2008 Tigers score, anyway? A thousand? Two thousand? More than the rest of their division combined? That will be one question we’ll explore this spring, now that Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria have pulled into Motown. But there’s just enough uncertainty about issues like (A) Joel Zumaya’s future and (B) the dependability of the rotation that it isn’t safe to pencil in this team for 110 wins. Yet.

The 2008 season can’t start soon enough. Now if I can keep from driving the lovely Mrs. Virtus nuts with my sure-to-come summer of baseball obsession, it should be a great year!

For what it’s worth, here’s the official prediction of Mount Virtus concerning tomorrow’s big game:

Super Bowl XLII (Feb 3, 2008 - Glendale, AZ):
New England Patriots (19-0) 31
New York Giants (13-7) 17

MVP: Tom Brady

But what do I know?

A lot of space has been taken up in the Michigan (land of my upbringing) media detailing the University of Michigan’s search for a head football coach after Lloyd Carr retired. Today we learn that all the rumors come to an end as West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has agreed to take the helm in Ann Arbor.

One might be forgiven if he came to the conclusion that the Mountaineers’ program was the Wolverines’ coaching farm system. After all, Michigan hired John Beilein directly from West Virginia this past April to coach their men’s basketball program. Now the football team. A direct line from Morgantown to Ann Arbor? Perhaps.

Regardless, let me assure you that fans of the illustrious University of Michigan football program - which has gone nearly four decades without a serious search for a head coach - are resting easy tonight. Rodriguez may not have been the first choice of many, but I don’t think the Wolverines could have done much better.

This is off topic from what I usually write about here. But after tonight’s 1-2 knockout of Missouri & West Virginia, I think college football fans of all political stripes can agree that the time for a playoff system is now! No matter who ends up being selected for the BCS Championship Game at the end of this wackiest of all seasons, unending controversy will ensue. If it leads us to a playoff system next year, it will be well worth the result.

Ouch. That hurt. Last night’s 2-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the World Series was painful, but not fatal. (Regrettably, I missed most of the game, fulfilling a commitment at a Republican event that featured keynote speaker Bob Schaffer.)

Nevertheless, I’m here to tell Rockies fans not to panic. The naivete many had coming into the Series is gone, but the most loyal fans know it’s a one-game-at-a-time approach now. Let’s be realistic: even getting the series back to Boston is an uphill goal at this point, but here’s hoping that Baseball with Altitude is a lot friendlier to the home team than to the visitors.

And how about a little bulletin board material (albeit from cynical sportswriters) to get the Rox fired up? See you all at Game 3!