By THE NEW MEXICAN

Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:35 pm

The old ball game

Is Gov. Bill Richardson trying to wiggle out of one of the most controversial statements he’s made on the campaign trail — that he’s a fan of both the Boston Red Sox and the New Yoprk Yankees?

That’s how it looks in a Boston Globe column published Friday.

The Globe’s deputy national political editor Foon Rhee writes about Ricahrdson presidential rival Sen. Chris Dodd challenging the governor to a bet over the Yankees/Red Sox series this weekend.

“Nothing is more exciting than a Red Sox-Yankees series in September," Red Sox fan Dodd wrote in a statement. “The governor and I both dreamed about playing center field for our respective teams as children, and although that didn't happen, I know we will be both be watching this series closely, so why not have a little fun with it? I'm willing to wager some authentic New England clam chowder against an equitable wager from Gov. Richardson, if he's confident enough in his team to accept my challenge.”

Richardson wrote in his autobiography that as a child, he wanted to be Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle.

But apparently he won’t put up any green chile against Dodd’s chowder.

However the Globe quotes Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley saying, "Gov. Richardson is a devoted Red Sox fan, and has been since his days playing ball in Massachusetts in high school, college, and in the Cape Cod League.”

But as the Dodd campaign pointed out in The Globe, when Richardson appeared on Meet the Press in May, he told Tim Russert, "I'm a Red Sox fan ... I'm also a Yankee fan. ... I mean, this is the thing about me, Tim. I can bring people together. I can unify people.”

There’s no evidence that this has any bearing whatsoever on Richardson’s baseball stance, but people in New Hampshire — home of the nation’s first presidential primary — overwhelmingly are Red Sox fans.



Spy boys

Speaking of Boston sports teams, the same Globe column noted the clever response Richardson had over the New England Patriots spying scandal.

"The President has been allowed to spy on Americans without a warrant, and our U.S. Senate is letting it continue,” Richardson said in a news release. “You know something is wrong when the New England Patriots face stiffer penalties for spying on innocent Americans than Dick Cheney and George Bush.”

After a Patriots staff member was discovered videotaping signals by Jets coaches this week, the National Football League fined coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,00. Furthermore, the team will forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it makes the playoffs and second and third round draft picks if it makes the playoffs.

The Berkshire Eagle, a Massaschusetts publication noted Friday, “Richardson is careful not to offend Patriots fans. He doesn't rebuke the team directly, and jokingly downplays its transgressions by comparing it to a much larger controversy.

“Here's why: Richardson, a long-shot at winning his party's nomination, dares not anger northern voters in Patriots country — New Hampshire.”



Hearts and minds

Nevada columnist Mark Smith of the Pahrump Valley Times offers some constructive criticism of Richardson’s speaking skills in a column headlined, “Governor engages brain, needs to reach the heart.”

“... there was a pleasant, classical American air to his rally last Saturday, with a distinct whiff of the old-style ‘come to the speakin' ’ about it,” Smith writes in a column published Friday.

“Richardson, in any case, has a gentle, good-natured sense of humor that went over well with the five or six dozen voters on hand ...

“But there was no overall rhythm to Richardson's talk, no slow biblical building to a climax that lifts the humid voter out of his torpor and makes it seem that the gates of hell might be successfully stormed behind this candidate. ...

“Richardson needs to move men and women in a visceral sense, not play the quiet, calm, professional diplomat,” Smith wrote.

“People go to political rallies to either express their support for a hopeful or learn more about one. But it's the candidate who grabs their hearts and hikes their pulses that will come out on top.”