Why Conservatives Should Love the Red Sox

As the baseball season starts, we asked two FrumForum contributors to give us reasons why conservatives should support their team. Here, John Gardner makes the case for his Boston Red Sox.

As baseball season starts, we asked two FrumForum contributors to give us reasons why conservatives should support their team.  John Gardner makes the case for his Boston Red Sox and Jeb Golinkin argues for the New York Yankees.

There are so many – and far more baseball reasons, of course – but here are ten:

1.) Two words:  Curt Schilling.  Seriously, read his blog.  Besides the Sox stuff, there are wonderful, clear explanations on conservative positions on everything from healthcare to entrepreneurship.

2.) Sports fans in the news:  Red Sox:  Scott Brown.  Yankees:  Sonia Sotomayor, David Paterson.

3.) No, Martha Coakley, Curt Schilling is not “another Yankees fan”:  Dissing the Sox, Schilling, and Fenway Park helped elect Senator Scott Brown.

4.) For parents:  Who would you rather have teach your children about relationships, A-Rod (who used to date Madonna) or Papi (who supports an orphanage)?

5.) Who would you rather have negotiate with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:  some striped-pants type or Terry Francona?

6.) No, John Kerry, the name of the All-Star DH is not “Manny Ortiz”.

7.) The Sox are raising $3.5 million for wounded veterans next month.

8.) In stadium financing, the Yankees put the “TARP” in “infield tarpulin”:

The Yankees have received a total of $1.2 billion in tax-exempt bonds and $136 million in taxable bonds . .  . [t]he city's Independent Budget Office, a publicly funded agency that provides non-partisan information about financial issues, estimated the Yankees deal will cost the city $362 million, the Mets' agreement [for the new Citi Field]  $138 million. Savings to the teams: $787 million over 40 years for the Yankees, $513 million for the Mets.

Other estimates vary, as figures in the complex deals are interpreted differently.

New York State Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, D-Westchester, the most vocal critic of the deals, says the taxpayers' tab for Yankee Stadium eventually will total $4 billion. (He includes potential property tax revenue over 40 years given up in the deal, although stadium advocates argue the teams weren't paying property tax at their old stadiums.)

"I don't know what you think about bank bailouts, but the public is spending $4 billion to build Yankee Stadium, at a time we can't fund the (subway system) and schools," he says, adding the deals are a misuse of a financing tool called PILOTS (payment in lieu of taxes).

"It's like you built a new house, and the local town tax collector came in and said, 'You owe $10,000 a year in property taxes,' and you say, 'I'll pay you but only on the condition you send it to my bank to cover my mortgage.' That's happened," he says.

Call it “the house that Lehman built”?

9.) Ted Williams’ last television interview was in January 2000, where he endorsed George W. Bush in New Hampshire.  And he may have rescued the Bush campaign in New Hampshire in 1988:

10.) When at Fenway, visit a sports bar on Lansdowne Street.  Inform your fellow drinkers that the Taliban are Yankees fans who favor an increased British presence in the Six Counties.  The war will be over in two weeks.

For conservatives, the choice is clear:  Let’s Go Red Sox!