Small Ball: Obama as Clint Hurdle

There is talk that the Democrat convention this year will not include heroic Greek columns. The space shuttle Discovery is being stuffed and mounted. Apparently our vision needs pulled back, scaled down, brought under hand. We will no longer seize the future of debt and entitlements, health care and employment. We will do local shootings, three man solar panel shops and labeling french fries. Such tiny things used to be insincere symbols of a larger vision to be pointed out self-consciously at State of the Union speeches; now they are all we have. Ah, the little things in life. Soon we will stop and smell the roses....and stay.

This is the default position of managers who are outgunned by either their opponents or by life. One would think that an administration with three years of control, two super-majority, would sit on their achievements, the culmination of their electoral promises. But such is not the case. Their achievements are few--they have not passed a budget in three years--and those that are concrete are only whispered of. Obamacare, presented as crucial to our lives, is now discussed as a vague, academic, amorphous thing that is visiting us like the flu. The stimulus plan was done so badly that the administration does not know how to explain it at all, let alone positively. Their toga'd spokesmen are sounding petty or, worse, foolish.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a similar problem. Their defensive lineup is adequate, if unspectacular, and there's some pitching. Their offense is lacking. They have a real lead-off hitter, one legitimate second hitter, no third, fourth or fifth hitter but six number six and seven hitters. So they play their lead-off hitter at number three, their number two hitter at lead-off and their others scattered though the lineup hoping for the best. They bunt at every position. They hit and run with every position. They steal. It is called "small ball," the effort to score runs with minimal talent. The problem is that their opponents do not have these deficits, do not play with these disadvantages. Their opponents have created a lineup with the intent of taking full advantage of the nature of the game by using talent.The Pirates try to take full advantage of the game despite their talent.

Pittsburgh citizens have grown accustomed to this. The people of an international economic and military power should expect better.