California’s upcoming gubernatorial election is about as bleak as the state’s financial funk. It’s time we made a change.
This state deserves a governor we can believe in, someone who knows how to convince the public of even the most obvious lies and keep a straight face while delivering them.
Someone like Mike Scioscia.
The manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is the perfect candidate to be California’s next governor. In the first place, it’s not as if he’s got any real competition from the rest of the so-called political candidates out there.
On the right, two miserable shills are locked in a heated battle to convince voters that each is slightly less liberal than the other. One Republican candidate, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, claims she wants to simultaneously cut spending and fix the education system.
Because those ideas aren’t mutually exclusive or anything.
On the left, lone Democratic candidate Jerry Brown has been so invisible in the campaign that the only time his name is mentioned is in Republican attack ads. Pathetic.
Scioscia, on the other hand, has all the earmarks of a successful politician. He is a highly recognizable figure, a man who is in the public eye on a nightly basis and can handle the press with effortless style.
Not to mention, he has the uncanny ability to don a warm smile and deliver a blatant fabrication. Perhaps his greatest political asset.
Take this week, for instance. On Tuesday, Scioscia’s Angels sat a precarious 4 ½ games back of the division-leading Texas Rangers, who just happened to stop by for a highly anticipated three-game series.
To everyone else, both on and off the field, this series looked like kind of a big deal. But not Sosh.
“This season, this division, isn’t won or lost right now,” he said, without so much as a hint of sarcasm. “You have to keep hopefully playing good baseball and moving forward. We know [the Rangers] are a good team, we know what our capabilities are.”
Brilliant. In one swift turn of phrase, Scioscia managed to take a completely irrelevant fact—that the season does not hinge on one series played in June—and make it the centerpiece of his answer.
Of course this series won’t ultimately decide the future of the Angels’ season, or the Rangers’ for that matter. But it could very well be the turning point in the season for these two teams.
The Angels were swept in a brief two-game set in Texas back in May and have taken a few steps backward in the division with the Rangers’ recent surge, despite L.A.’s improved performance. Although that’s not the term Scioscia would use.
“I don’t know, improved seems to me there’s a lot of changes,” Scioscia said. “There haven’t been a lot of changes other than obviously Kendry’s not going to be able to play.
“I think from top to bottom, we are playing at a higher level, and I think that’s more indicative of what we feel the talent-level is on our team than I think when we saw these guys last month.”
It’s true, guys like Kevin Frandsen and Howie Kendrick did a lot to carry the Angels to an 18-9 record in the month of June, with series victories over teams like Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Colorado.
The key now will be to carry over that success into a tough July schedule that includes New York, Boston, and yes, Texas.
If they want to have any confidence whatsoever going forward this month and this season, the Angels need a series victory here at home against their division-leading Rangers.
The series is not going to make or break the year, but it will set the tone for future encounters between the two teams.
Unless you talk to Scioscia, who will tell you this is “no bigger than any other game or series you’re going to have during the season.”
Right. And the plan to fix the education system in California will in no way be hindered by proposed massive spending cuts.
Meg Whitman, you don’t stand a chance.
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