BALTIMORE, Maryland May 19, 2014 - Here we go. Rather than trying to do many smaller posts on the different topics I want to cover, I am going to do one pose covering many topics. You are on notice. I'll boldface the the subjects to allow you to skim over what you are not interested in. Generally, though, these are the points I will cover:
1. Every Democrat that has any kind of name recognition seems like they want to be on TV discussing, with as much earnestness as they can muster, the expected Presidential run of Hilary Clinton. Husband Bill is also barging himself onto the news at every turn; it is an easy task for him because he loves himself dearly, thinks everybody loves him so very much, is mostly correct on that point, and the mainstream bootlickers on virtually every TV channel in the known universe can't ever get enough of him. Sunday, it seemed every network talk show was goofy with Hilary Clinton apologists. She is so wonderful, one wag said, and she has handled the Benghazi entanglement with such grace and candor, and, did I say she is so wonderful, well, if I did forget, she is so wonderful. Which important Washington Insider said that? What difference does it make? They all said it in one way or another.
2. Is it possible that Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin wants to take a break from his incessant campaign to destabilize Ukraine? Putin, you must know by now, believes it best to destabilize Ukraine, especially Eastern Ukraine (although he has branched out of late to southwestern Ukraine, having staged a bloody riot in Odessa,) as a necessary step - in his estimation - in his planned 'recapture' of all of Ukraine.
During the Cold War there were three different varieties of statehood behind the Iron Curtain. There was the Soviet Union itself: purely Russian, all Russian, no need to think about anything but Russian, because the Soviet Union was Russia through and through. Then there were the S.S.R. countries. This second category of states behind the Iron Curtain appeared as nominally independent countries on a map, but in reality they were anything but independent. The S.S.R. as part of a nation's official name was indication that the country was completely communized, completely locked into the Soviet Communist way of doing things, and completely subserviant to Moscow. Men from the S.S.R. countries could and did hold high positions in the Soviet Union. Eduard Shevardnadze, for instance, was the Soviet Union's Minister of Foreign Affairs during the years that Mikhail Gorbachev ran Russia and enchanted the American mainstream media. Shevardnadze was from Georgia and after the break-up of the Soviet Union he became president of Georgia. Anyone purporting to be a 'head of state' of an S.S.R. country during the Cold War was only filling a chair; all of the real power in the S.S.R. countries resided in Moscow. The third kind of country behind the Iron Curtain had no Russian or Communist designation in its official name. There was a bit of substance to their claim of independent status. Whereas the nation we call 'Estonia' today was known during the Cold War as the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, the nation we know today as Hungary was also called Hungary during the Cold War. These European nations in the third category were permitted varying degrees of independence and what constituted their "permissible portion of independence" was an ongoing issue for both the country and for Moscow. Some of the countries in this third catagory pushed so hard for independence or for manifestations of independence during the Cold War that Moscow had to intervene militarily to cement them back into the Soviet orbit. The two most well known Russian military interventions during the Cold War occurred in 1956 in Hungary and 1968 in Czeckolslavakia. The Hungarian action is known as the Hungarian Revolution and was quite bloody. The Russian intervention in 1968 is known today as the Prague Spring, and what it lacked in blood it made up for in thoroughness and brutality. The man who was the catalyst for the Prague Spring, Alexander Dubcek, disappeared off of the national and international stage so suddenly one wondered whether his name would literally be erased from all places it had been printed or written prior to the moment Soviet Tanks rumbled into Prague. Another nation in the third category of states behind the Iron Curain that was known for its hard push for real independence was Poland. Poland was a very special problem for Russia for many reasons. First and foremost Religion. Religion was strongly, even forcefully frowned upon by Communist leaders. Even the Russian Orthodoz Church was hammered so hard by the government that services in most church's were either non-existant or virtually so. It was the same in other communist states. But not in Poland. Poland was, is, and probably (I pray) always will be Roman Catholic. Russia tolerated the Catholic Church in Poland because it believed it had no choice. To challenge the Roman Catholic Church in Poland was a presciption for non-stop and never-ending civil unrest. When the Iron Curtain fell, three persons were credited: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Saint John Paul, who was then Pope John Paul. His visits to Poland as Pope so galvanized the People against the communist government that even the most hardened Communist knew the end was near for the Communist Government.
Ukraine was a category two nation. It was known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the Cold War. The borders between Russia and Ukraine were so blurred duirng the Cold War that Moscow didn't give a second thought to just giving Crimea to Ukraine, even though it had been a part of Russia since the time of Catherine the Great. While the Ukrainian peoples are a distinguishable nationality, and there was a push for independence for Ukraine after the second world war, its nationalistic fervor was weak enough that it was easily handled by the Bolsheviks under Stalin. Ukraine was so melded into Russia during the Cold War that most people honestly believed Kiev to be a Russian City. Whereas nations in the third category regularly tested the limits of Russian patience, the S.S.R. countries, for the most part, posed no such problems. Even when the independence movement in Poland during the Solidarity years was at its pinnacle, it did not spill across the border into Ukraine. Whereas Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Romania fielded their own national teams in the Olympics, the World Cup and other festivals of sport, the citizens of S.S.R. countries like Ukraine either played for the Soviet Russian team or they didn't play at all.
It has been obvious, in watching Putin making his imperial moves on the world chess board that he believes that the S.S.R. countries are all but a part of Russia, and should never have been permitted to think of themselves as independent, even when the Soviet Union was sliding down the road to dissolution. The two nations that Putin has invaded during his reign, Georgia and Ukraine, are both former S.S.R. nations. They are the two S.S.R. nations that have made the boldest moves toward real independence during the Putin reign. Putin wants those fires of independence put out for good. He has boiled inside when the citizens of these two nations demonstrated in the streets of Kiev and Tbilisi like free people do. He went ballistic when Georgia pushed hard for membership in NATO and even the EU. But he boiled even more when Georgia's small but incredibly brave and tenacious army, schooled in part by American commanders while fighting in Iraq, fought the Russian army of 100% conscripts to a virtual standstill in the 2008 invasion. It is the Russian military that has been in Putin's crosshairs ever since. The May Day demonstration, held four weeks after the Crimean invasion, was a crowning moment for Putin. The Euromaidan movement gave him an ulcer, figuratively speaking. He is mulling his options. If he is pulling back on the Ukraine border, it doesn't mean he has given up on anything in Ukraine. It merely means he sees some advantage to dialing back the heat at the moment. You can bet your bottom dollar that Ukraine will continue to deal with Putin, up close and personal, until and if it capitulates and gives him a huge say in Ukraine's future. One thing that will absolutely not happen: Ukraine walking peacefully to membership in NATO and the EU. There is no connection whatsoever to what the Russian Strong Man does with his 40,000 well armed troops at this moment in time and what happens to Ukraine over the next five years.
3. In sports, the University of Maryland Baseball Team has earned the sixth seed in the ten-team Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament starting tomorrow in Greensboro, North Carolina. The tournament has a new format this year, and while it sounds complicated, it really isn't. The thing that I like is that is assures that each of the top six seeded teams won't be eliminated from competition until they play at least three games. The ten teams that have qualified for the tournament have been divided into two pools of five teams each. The bottom two teams in each group will compete in a 'play-in' game on today. Each of the two winners of the play-in games will join the other three teams in their pool in a round-robin series; i.e., each team will play one game against the other three teams in their pool. The winners of the two pools will then play each other in a single, winner-take-all championship game on Sunday, May 25, the tournament's final day. The entire schedule for the tournament, including the match-up for each game and the starting time for each game, can be found at this web page: http://raycomsports.com/sports_labs_docs/m-basebl/2014_baseball_bracket.pdf?SPSID=716385&SPID=120725&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=29700
The NCAA will name the 64 teams that will participate in the national tournament the following day: Monday, May 26. The winner of the ACC Tournament gets the conference's one automatic bid to the national tournament. The NCAA Selection Committee, will doubtlessly take several other ACC schools as at large teams. Last year six ACC schools played in the national tournament. Unlike the NCAACollege Basketball Tournament, the baseball tournament is played in double elimination format. The tournament opens with 16 four-team regional double-elimination tournaments. The 16 winners then go on to eight so-called 'super regional' series; the 16 teams are paired up to play eight 'best of three' series. The eight winners progress to the College World Series, played annually in Omaha, Nebraska in front of a national television audience. It takes eleven days to play. This season it begins June 14 and ends June 25. The NCAA, incidentally, signed a contract with the non-profit group that puts on the College World Series, and it will keep the series in Omaga through at least 2035.
Maryland's first ACC game is Thursday, May 22, at 11 am against powerful Virginia, a team that has spent many weeks ranked as the number one team in all of America. After that, they play Friday, May 23 at 11 am against Florida State, another team that has been ranked number one this season in the national polls. Finally, on Saturday, May 23, at 3 pm, Maryland will take on the winner of the game between North Carolina and North Carolina State that will be played on Tuesday, May 20. Maryland has more to do at this tournament than merely winning it. They are in contention for a berth in the NCAA tournament, something that have not been awarded since 1971. Folks, that is 43 years. The Terps have qualified for the NCAA Tournament only three times in the history of a tournament that has been played since 1947: 1965, 1970 and 1971, Their all-time record in NCAA Tournament play is 1 win, 6 losses. The lone win came in 1970, in an NCAA Regional Tournament in Gastonia, North Carolina. Four teams played in that 1970 regional tournament, the winner of which moved on to play in the College World Series (played each year in Omaha, Nebraska in June): Maryland, Florida State, East Carolina and Mississippi State. The Terps drew Mississippi State in the first round of the double elimination event. In that first round game, Maryland prevailed, 3-2. Because Florida State - not in the ACC at that time - beat East Carolina in the other first round game, the Terps played Florida State in the winner's bracket title game. The Seminoles prevailed handily, 10-1, dumping Maryland into the loser's bracket. Mississippi State had beaten East Carolina in their loser's bracket game, eliminating East Carolina and sending the Bulldogs through to a return match-up with the Terps. Given this second chance, Mississippi State beat Maryland, 8-4.
Somewhere in College Park, I hope, is a scorebook and box score of that long-ago first round win over Mississippi State. Maybe this year's Maryland team will get a chance to add a win or two (or ten) to that single win 44 years ago. They have the talent to do it. The Terps have beaten a lot of the best teams in the NCAA. It is likely, however, that this year's team, snubbed regularly all season long by the NCAA, the Baseball Writers and Baseball America, still has work to do if it really wants that NCAA bid. More work does not mean Maryland has to win the ACC Tournament. To win the tournament, Maryland will have to win two and quite possibly all three of the pool games, then defeat the winner of the other pool on Sunday. If they win two of their three pool games, they should get an NCAA bid. If they win one pool game, they will be firmly on the fence, and eith the NCSS's record for ignoring them, I would not be at all surprised if they do not get a bid. In fact, I won't be surprised if they win two pool games and don't get a bid. Maryland, I believe, has the pitching to make a mark in the tournament. In Jake Stinnett and Mike Shawaryn, they have two of the best starters in the conference. They did not have to play last weekend and will go in with a thoroughly rested pitching staff. Although the bullpen has had its ups and downs, Szefc has primed three of the relievers - Ben Brewer, Kevin Mooney and Robby Ruse to handle the late inning work. They have all pitched well during the Terps' current nine game winning streak. I'm not sugge pctsting that Maryland Coach John Szefc will follow my advice and predictions, but the way it is shaping up, Maryland will start its no. 1 pitcher, Jake Stinnett, against Virginia on Thursday, and come back with their number two starter, Freshman Mike Shawaryn, against Florida State on Friday. The Terps did not play the Cavaliers this season, but they did play the powerful Seminoles in Tallahassee, and won one of the three games in March. The winning pitcher of the game they won was Shawaryn, and he was magnificent. He has broken the Maryland record for wins in a season by winning nine games.
4. The Orioles have lost two straight games, neither of which should have been losses. Saturday night the Orioles were down, 1-0, in the ninth, but had the tie run at third base with only one out and the very heart of their order coming up. Adam Jones was first and he struck out, swing at two terrible pitches in the process. Christ DAvis walked. I believe he should have tried harder to put the ball in play. He is out RBI guy and when he bats in that situation, he needs to be thinking that his job is to put the ball in play and drive in the tie run. The walk actually loaded the bases and brought Nelson Cruz to the plate. But Cruz, too, struck out to end the game. Sunday, Ubaldo Jimenez was given a 3-1 lead that he could not hold. The Orioles were behind, 8-3, heading to the ninth. Jones then hit a three run home run to close the gap to 8-6, but that is where it ended. Here are the standings up-to-the-minute, which includes the Orioles now in second place. Since they have lost four of the last six, they should be happy that is all the further they have fallen.
American League Eastern Division Standings:
1. New York Yankees: 23 wins, 20 losses, .535 pct
2. Baltimore Orioles: 22 wins, 20 losses, .524 pct, 0.5 game behind
3. Toronto Blue Jays: 23 wins, 22 losses, .511 pct, 1 game behind
4. Boston REd Sox: 20 wins, 23 losses, .465 pct, 3 games behind
5. Tampa Bay Rays: 19 wins, 26 losses, .422 pct, 5 games behind
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