Burnt Orange Report

If Bush had his way, the Astros would be at home tomorrow night

By Byron LaMasters

If George W. Bush had things his way, instead of playing Atlanta tomorrow night for the first game of the NLDS, the Houston Astros would be sitting at home watching the playoffs, or heck, maybe the debates.

Boonville Blog explains:

If it was up to George W. Bush the poor Red Sox and Astros would be home and we would not have an extra round of exciting playoff baseball. 27-1. It hurts when Bud Selig (yes, Bud Selig) has history on his side and you don't. George Steinbrenner, Peter Angelos and the rest of the owners were all correct. George W. Bush was wrong. Can you imagine baseball without the wild card. Sigh. This man is clearly unfit to be president. Will the Kerry campaign please take a stand on this!

Yup, Bush was the sole vote against the Wild Card:

Major League Baseball's decision in 1993 to realign its leagues into three divisions and include the team with the next-best record in the playoffs was considered heresy by the purists, particularly because it copied a concept from football, of all things.

The only baseball owner to vote against the change, which took effect in 1994 before the postseason was canceled by labor strife, was from Texas.

"I made my arguments and went down in flames. History will prove me right," said then-Rangers owner George W. Bush, whose foresight led him to bigger and better things.

"This is an exercise in folly."

Hmm... I'm sure that John Kerry would disagree. Go Red Sox!

(I'm an honorary Red Sox fan this October, beacause growing up in Dallas, I grew up a Rangers fan, so its hard to bring myself to be too excited about the Astros. There's no way I'd ever cheer for the Yankees, and well I figure that the Rangers curse won't end until the Red Sox take care of theirs. Plus, it might even bring some good karma to the Kerry campaign).