Miscellaneous Tuesday Musings (NRC)

1.) The Roger Clemens Report. Primarily stat geeks will appreciate the numbers in the report produced by his agents, the Hendricks Brothers of, ugh!, Spring. Here's wishing Clemens, his agents and Rusty Hardin would all just go away. Andy Pettitte's faith - and a need to resolve things before he went to church in Deer Park that Sunday (where he teaches Sunday School) after the Mitchell Report came out - directed what he felt like what the right thing to do was.

2.) Obama has landed in Pasadena. Not him personally, of course; but, rather, his campaign. They've opened up an office on Union Avenue within a two-block radius of the office that I work in. Quite honestly, I'm surprised I have seen a candidate's office opened sooner here. I guess this just means that California is now coming into focus.

2a.) Not another Texan! ... is the response I gave to Ron Paul's people when they approached at the corner of Central Park this fall in October when I was in New York City. I haven't got close enough to their campaign people since.

3.) Mike Huckabee should qualify to run Boston. I know three people - including one of my TIR teammates - who have run Boston without qualifying. One ran it as part of a charity (the Dana Farber for breast cancer, which she had contracted herself), another ran it from receiving an entry in a lottery that the event gave to its sponsor (and that she wouldn't have another chance to use the same option for another five years), and finally, a third ran it given to them by a running specialty store through a shoe company. The final individual is/was 70 when he ran it. I have no problem with that either.

I met Huckabee two years ago at the Little Rock Marathon Expo. I like him. I think he's a great guy. I think that McCain/Huckabee would make a good Republican ticket, though. I bought Huckabee's book, "Character", and I think he should exercise more of it in his decision to run Boston. To me, he's lumping himself in with Katie Holmes. Katie Holmes is a celebrity and Huckabee is lowering himself to her standards, which I'm disappointed.

This position isn't an easy one, obviously, because some would say that Huckabee is doing it under a great charity, Team Hoyt. I agree that it is. But is he really raising money for the charity, especially when his campaign is pinching pennies to make it to another state?

For the record, I wrote the campaign and every available e-mail address I had. Needless to say, I didn't have a response. Maybe Vincent Attanucci can speak some sense into Mike when he runs Boston for yet another year.