Tony La Russa, the newly retired manager of the St. Louis Cardinals ball team, has a bone to pick with President Obama. La Russa says that when they won the World Series Obama never called to offer them his congratulations.
La Russa notes that White House staffers did call to make sure they had the right number to make a call later, but “We never did get a call,” La Russa said.
It is a tradition, no matter how insipid, that a president call some sports team or another that won some title or another and Obama has done it before, to be sure. But this time the Cards get a bye, I guess.
Still, this is not something I will give Obama guff for. Instead, let me give guff to every other president who indulged this idiotic tradition.
It is a waste of a president’s time to be involving himself in so-called “professional” sports teams and their silly little games. Who the heck cares if a president wants to congratulate a “World” Series winner? It isn’t like the “World” Series is any kind of “World” anything. In fact, it isn’t even a national anything. It is just those that care about baseball to the thrill of one city of one state in the union!
Super Bowl, schmooper bowl. Stanley Cup? Let Stanley keep it. College Bowl games? Why is a president involving himself in any of this stuff?
Now, I can see a president involving himself in congratulating winners of the various American competitors in the Olympics. After all, those athletes are actually representing the whole of the United States when they compete.
I see no reason at all why a president should have bothered calling the St. Louis Cardinals for their “big win.” Nor do I think it is an appropriate use of a president’s time to do so.
Congratulations, Cards fans. Drink yourself stupid over “your” victory. But don’t waste the president’s time with your childish games.
… and don’t even get me started about grown adults that wear sports Jerseys, that say “we” won when the teams they like win a game, that know more about sports stats than they do American history, that waste many thousands of their income on this foolishness, and similarly waste their weekends in front of the TV watching some stupid kid’s game. That is a whole ‘nuther article.
(Before you haters waste your breath in the comments, I played plenty of sports as a kid — when it was appropriate to be doing so — and was on several teams that won the “championships” in my area.)
November 5th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Andy Rooney leave you his curmudgeon gene Warner?
Baseball is part of Americana. You know, like hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. It’s part of our culture.
The irony here is that Tony La Russa’s first managerial job was with Billy Ray’s beloved Chicago White Sox. You know, the team that when questioned who his favorite player was Billy Ray couldn’t name a stinking one.
November 5th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
I’ve got no problem with either sports or baseball. I just have no use for the so-called “professional” sports.
November 5th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Would of ruined my day if he called.
Would mean nothing to me coming from a schmuck who knows nothing but losing… and cant throw a ball
November 5th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Please get your facts straight. Tony LaRussa didn’t raise the issue, a reporter did. LaRussa hadn’t even noticed the oversight and acted totally unconcerned. In fact, nobody in the Cardinals organization has made a big deal about it. If you’re going to have a blog and discuss an issue, make sure you are knowledgeable about that issue before writing. I hope someone brings your post to LaRussa’s attention, because he MAY have a bone to pick with you for making up this crap.
November 5th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
hey patti, are we supposed to take your word for it as well ?
just saying
November 5th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
FOX
Cardinals Manager Says Team Never Got White House Call After Series Win
Published November 05, 2011 | FoxNews.com
“The retired manager of the St. Louis Cardinals told a local radio station that his team never got the traditional phone call from the White House after their 6-2 Series win over the Texas Rangers last week.
Tony La Russa told CBS affiliate KMOX that amid the celebration last week, “We never did get a call.”
He recalled that the White House had called earlier to make sure they had the “correct number” for his office before the World Series began.
But amid the European debt crisis and a sustained push at home over job creation, President Obama apparently never picked up the phone.
Obama is hardly averse to calling and hosting sports teams from time to time. He hosted the San Francisco Giants, last year’s World Series winners, over the summer. In September, he even invited the Chicago Bears team that won the Super Bowl more than 25 years ago — he was making up for a missed visit, since the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger got in the way of any White House recognition for the Bears at the time. The Bears are also Obama’s home team.”
That was easy
November 5th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Baseball sucks anyway.
Its a helluva lot more fun to play than watch.
“Americas favorite pastime”
Thats not very flattering when you think about it.
Sittin on our fat asses boozin it up eating the lips n ass holes of some reject pig and then go tear my neighborhood apart whether we lose or win.
And that big wad o tobacci that we (not me) suck on and spit huge brown globs of sht on the ground everywhere.
Who ever thought up that nasty freekin habit ?
November 6th, 2011 at 5:03 am
No doubt, Micky. According to Calypso Louie Farrahkan, the Ancient Egyptians invented baseball.
November 6th, 2011 at 8:29 am
You might have been a good running back, Warner. You know, one of those little ones with a low center of gravity that sort of roll along the ground like a bowling ball, and are hard to knock down.
November 6th, 2011 at 8:32 am
LOL @ Klo.
November 6th, 2011 at 9:26 am
You mean you’re not mad at me?
Aw shucks.
Archie Griffin, remember him? He was the BEST. He won the Heisman not once, but TWICE.