Republican Obstructionism Against A Republican? Sox Weekend Sweep. Baseball Trivia.

Not So Fast Mr. Bolton...

In an AP story I found on Yahoo, it appears that UN Ambassador hopeful John Bolton (R-My Way or the Highway) is having difficulty convincing a key Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he should be confirmed for the position. Apparently Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Diebold) of Nebraska has reservations about confirming this arrogant shit to such an important post. Some of Hagel's reasons can be found in the following excerpt:

WASHINGTON - A top Senate Republican raised the possibility Sunday that he might vote against President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations if more accusations surface about John Bolton's alleged harassment of analysts who disagreed with his views. With a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote expected Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was asked whether he would endorse Bolton.

"At this point, I will ... but I have been troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," said Hagel, the committee's No. 2 Republican. "We need a uniter," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "We need a builder. We need someone who will reach out to our friends and our allies at the United Nations."

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050417/ap_on_go_co/un_ambassador
Why the hell is it that this kind of resistance isn't coming from the Senate Democrats? But, dig the irony of the phrase "we need a uniter". If the Dems were awake and on the job they could have beaten Hagel to the punch on this. But maybe it's better this way. It's got to be a major bite in the ass for the White House to have one of Campaign 2000's slickest sound bites used against it's nominee to undermine the UN. Dubya, Cheney, Rove and the rest of the gargoyles have got to be extremely unhappy about this, and right now that's good enough for me.


Red Sox Sweep Devil Rays

The Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 3-1 this afternoon behind the solid pitching of starter Tim Wakefield, a home run by Edgar Renteria, and a two-run single by Jay Payton. The win gave the Sox a three game sweep over the Devil Rays, and their fourth straight win overall on the young season.

The Devil Rays didn't show much offense in this series, having lost the first two games by 10-0 and 6-2 scores. This team does have some promising young players. Aubrey Huff is a .300, 30 home run bat wherever he plays (he came up as a third baseman, has played first base, left field and right field). Left fielder Carl Crawford has the American League in stolen bases each of the last two seasons. Injured center fielder Rocco Baldelli has star written all over him. They have a solid, but not spectacular shortstop in Julio Lugo. Travis Lee is a decent first baseman. Second baseman Jorge Cantu looks like he can be a good major league player, and knocking on the door is minor-league shortstop B.J. Upton, so there is some talent here.

But pitching is the key to a good team, and the starting pitching in this series was terrible, featuring lots of walks, which had to have been driving manager Lou Piniella crazy. Veteran Hideo Nomo was awful on Friday. Promising youngster Dewon Brazelton wasn't any better last night, and equally promising youngster Scott Kazmir was lucky the Sox only managed three runs off of him today. But Piniella should take some encouragement from the performances of his long releivers. In each of the three games, the second man to the mound was able to keep the Sox bats silent. Friday night it was former Sox lefty Casey Fossum. Saturday night it was Lance Carter. This afternoon it was Doug Waechter. I wonder if Lou is thinking of shuffling his starting rotation around?

Tomorrow morning, Patriots Day, otherwise known as Marathon Monday, features the earliest starting time in the major leagues as the Red Sox take on the Toronto Blue Jays for an 11:00 AM start. Curt Schilling takes the mound for the Red Sox.


Baseball Trivia - Odd Combination Edition

Welcome to baseball trivia - odd combination edition. In what I hope I can make a recurring feature here, I'll start off with three odd combo questions.

1. Name the only major league player to lead his league in stolen bases and number of times having grounded into a double play in the same season.

2. Name the only player to lead his league in batting average and strikeouts in the same season.

3. Name the player with the most strikeouts in a season in which he lead his league in batting average (NOT the same as number 2).