September 16, 2004
PLAYERS LIKING AN OWNER?:
M's own up politically: Most players say they're for Bush in voting booth (DAVID ANDRIESEN, September 16, 2004, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER)
Politically, the Mariners bat from the right.In a completely unscientific poll with a margin of error of 100 percent, we polled Mariners who are U.S. citizens and were handy, and asked who they supported for president. The results: Bush 13, Kerry 2, undecided 2.
"A lot of it is money, taxes, and I think most ballplayers are conservatives," Scott Spiezio said. "I think if I were making $50,000 a year, I'd still be a conservative, though."
Taxes are certainly an issue for major league baseball players, who make an average of about $2.5 million a year. Athletes also tend to come disproportionately from the South, which traditionally votes Republican.
Interestingly, Bobby Madritsch, a left-hander, and Randy Winn, who bats mostly left-handed, were the only left-leaners polled.
"I wouldn't say I'm a hard-core conservative, but I don't like a lot of Democratic views," second baseman Bret Boone said. "I don't like big government. I like small government."
"I think about what happened on 9/11, and I think about what would have happened if Al Gore had been in charge," said reliever J.J. Putz, who hails from the important swing state of Michigan. "This country would be in shambles."
Terry McAuliffe responded that Bush voters are all Putzes and Kerry voters all Winn. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 16, 2004 7:29 PM
Now the GOP has to get the baseball vote out? :-) They already had their hands filled with the religious right, fiscal conservatives, so-cons, paleo-cons, South Park Republicans, crunchy-cons, etc.
Posted by: Steve Martinovich at September 16, 2004 8:39 PMI just hope the GOP doesn't emulate the Mariners' 2004 on field performance.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 16, 2004 8:41 PMMy wife and I used to go to M's games when I was in grad school at the University of Washington, back in 1994. We would sit in cheaps seats in the Kingdome's outfield and watch Junior, Buhner, Randy Johnson, Edgar and all the boys. We now live in Nebraska and although I haven't been to Safeco, I have kept up on team. Even though they have had a terrible year, this is just another reason to like the Seattle Mariners. As an added bonus, this story will piss-off all the smelly and unwashed Seattle leftists (and there are lots of them!).
Posted by: pchuck at September 16, 2004 8:47 PMAh, but if you asked the Mariners which candidate they'd rather bat against, Kerry would beat Bush in a landslide.
Posted by: John at September 16, 2004 10:22 PMWhen Bush visited here in Redmond a few weeks ago, Edgar was invited to meet him at Boeing Field before a game. They swapped signed baseballs, and Bush complimented him on all the grief he gave the Rangers.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 17, 2004 12:32 AMOrrin, bless you for this.
My wife and I are Seattle ex-pats who have been heartbroken over the Ms this year...
Posted by: Anthony Perez-Miller at September 17, 2004 1:17 AMMr. Perez-Miller:
They're not even a year away from being pretty good again. Though it would have been helpful to deal Winn, Ibanez, etc. for some younger guys when they bailed on this season.
Posted by: oj at September 17, 2004 9:08 AMIt just goes to show you that in MLB, it doesn't take long for a great team (116-46 in 2001) to become a terrible team. Another example is the Dbacks.
Posted by: pchuck at September 17, 2004 9:47 AMThe South traditionally votes Republican?
Posted by: mike earl at September 17, 2004 10:10 AMSince 1964.
Posted by: oj at September 17, 2004 10:20 AMOJ:
Well, sure. But in the South, if any living person can recall the reason for it, it doesn't qualify as a tradition.
Posted by: mike earl at September 17, 2004 11:01 AMIn the past forty years they've voted for Republicans or evangelical Christian Democrats--that's got to at least border on tradition.
Posted by: oj at September 17, 2004 11:05 AMJay Buhner, the most beloved former Mariner until Edgar retires this month, has done a lot of campaigning for Dino Rossi.
Posted by: Timothy at September 17, 2004 12:36 PMFair enough; but there are still enough yellow-dog democrats that you actually do see evangalical christian democrats. Or at least until recently...
Posted by: mike earl at September 17, 2004 1:25 PM