The View from Right Field

The Cubs Go to the Postseason – In a Pandemic

First, a general thought:  Because of the pandemic and because Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred figures it is all about the money, sixteen teams are going to the postseason instead of ten.  (It’s amazing.  A few years ago, ten teams going to the postseason seemed too many.  Now it seems like the good old days.)  Because so many teams are going to the postseason, there are two teams with a record below .500 to the playoffs.  That should not be happening.  Teams with more losses then wins should be going home, not to the postseason. The teams playing them should just get a bye.  There has to be some standards – other than TV revenue.

To the Cubs.  The Cubs have the worst record of any division winner.  We started 13-3 and finished 21-23.  It helped that we are in the worst division in baseball.  This is especially important for the first round since Kyle Hendricks gets to pitch at home, and he is so much better at Wrigley Field than on the road. 

Donald Trump’s Federal Income Taxes

Media reports are that Donald Trump, in spite of supposedly having a net worth in the billions, paid no federal income taxes in ten of the last fifteen years and paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and the same amount in 2017.  Two comments:

First, if President Trump has followed the tax laws and has not engaged in any scams or lies in order to reduce his federal income taxes,¹ then I have no problem with what he paid.  In that case, the problem is with the Internal Revenue Code, not President Trump’s individual returns.  Democrats who are appalled that President Trump paid no taxes should be telling us how the tax code should be changed.  And I am not talking about some campaign press release or position paper.  I’m talking about detailed legislation.  They should propose a bill.  They should vote on the bill and pass it.  They should tell us what they want to do by actually doing it.  The House of Representatives would be a great place to do this.

What’s Next for Covid-19?

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the FDA and a really smart guy,¹ is worried about a surge in the virus this fall.  If it happens, the question is what do we do?  Do we have big shutdowns, little shutdowns, or what?  I don’t know what our governments will do, but I do know part of the solution: what we do personally.

What governments do is important but governments don’t always know what is right.  President Trump has gotten things wrong.  Governors (both Democratic and Republican) have gotten things wrong.  So what really matters, at least for me, is what I do.  I don’t need government to tell me to cut back.  I can cut back on my own.  I can not go to restaurants or movie theaters or whatever else.  As an example, apparently in Michigan, it is okay for our condo association to keep its hot tub open.  The hot tub is six or seven feet in diameter.  And there are often four people (two couples) in it.  Without masks, of course.  Actually, I don’t know how that fits with Michigan’s rules, but it doesn’t matter.  Because, even if Michigan says it is okay, I can’t figure out how it is okay for me.  So I’m making my own decision, and I’m not going in it.

Just When You Thought the 2020 Political Campaign Couldn’t Get Worse

The passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sad.  Obviously, I didn’t know her, but people who did have spoken so highly of her.  It is impressive.

While I hope it is not inappropriate to say, while Justice Ginsburg’s passing is sad, her passing right now is horrendous.  Could anything have happened that would have made the 2020 political campaign worse? 

When Is This Pandemic Going to End?

I think one of the biggest things about this pandemic, especially for those who are cutting back and staying in to try to stay safe, is: When is it going to end?  When is a vaccine going to be available?  How effective will it be?  Do other people have to take the vaccine for it to be really effective?  What can we safely do until we get a vaccine or the pandemic ends?  Etc.

The fact is we don’t know the answers to those questions, and it may be a while, perhaps quite a while, before we do.  Which drives us crazy.  We want to know, and we want to know now.  This is the age of instant everything.  Amazon delivers tomorrow.  Streaming delivers immediately.  We’re not used to waiting.  We’re used to getting what we want now.  But Covid-19 isn’t that way.  It makes us wait, and we don’t like it.  But I wonder whether this is unique or whether it’s just putting us back to the way things used to be.

.246, .220, .211, .205, .194

Those are the batting averages, through Wednesday night’s game, of Willson Contreras, Anthony Rizzo, Javy Baez, Kris Bryant, and Kyle Schwarber, respectively.

I realize the Cubs are 30-20 so far and are apparently going to make the postseason (see here).  But once the playoffs start, these numbers need to change or we won’t be there long.

Vote By Mail Is Easy. Just Do It Early.

According to Democrats and some of the media, Donald Trump is going to use the Postal Service to mess up vote-by-mail this year.  In fact, last month the House Democrats tried to give the Postal Service $25 billion to make sure they had enough money for the election.  Of course, that was pretty much political optics, as opposed to really trying to help, and fix, the Postal Service.  But throwing money at the bureaucracy (or at least phony attempts to do so) is one way to make yourself feel good – and maybe look good.

But, in any case, if President Trump is trying to get the Postal Service to mess up voting by mail this year, it looks like he is about as good on that as he has been at lots of other things he does – or doesn’t do.  Just this past weekend I received this notice from the Postal Service giving me suggestions on getting my vote-by-mail ballot back in on time (and including a link to find out what the rules are in my state):

ALEC MILLS: NO-HITTER!

Alec Mills threw the sixteenth no-hitter in Cubs’ history today – and the second at Miller Park, though only the first against the Milwaukee Brewers.  You can read all about the no-hitter elsewhere.  Let me just show you Alec’s autograph that I got at the Cubs Convention in January (Alec is on November 30, his birthday; the autograph on November 7 is Glendon Rusch, his birthday):

Donald Trump Bans Evictions. Huh?

While I was getting ready for more important things last week (the Cubs-Cardinals series over the weekend at Wrigley Field¹), the Trump administration issued a nationwide ban on evictions, through the end of the year, of tenants who are unable to pay their rent because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  I’m not going to go into whether a ban on evictions is a good idea or not, assuming it is done by the proper level of government.  I want to talk about the legal basis the Trump Administration is using to justify its action.  Well, I will talk about it as long as I can keep from laughing about it.

In issuing the order, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

When Your Party Leaves You and You Have No Place to Go

Ronald Reagan famously said that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party, it left him.  With what is happening in the Republican Party these days, I think I am beginning to know how he felt.  The only difference is that, when the Democratic Party left President Reagan, he had some place else to go.  I don’t.  

During the GOP’s virtual convention, The Wall Street Journal¹ wrote about Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party:

“President Trump is accepting the nomination for a second term before a party that has largely united behind him, embracing his America-first foreign and economic policies and unorthodox, sometimes chaotic style.