Double Play Combo: McCain to Biden to Leyland

I didn't plan on it, but Tuesday night turned into more than just sports viewing escapism.

After watching the introductions of the players at the MLB All-Star Game on Fox, I decided to cruise the dial during what I knew would be another 4 1/2 minute pre-game commercial break. Little did I know...

I stopped on C-SPAN...and I hardly EVER stop on C-SPAN. Perhaps it was something about the "Iraq War" Graphic in the upper left-hand corner that caught my eye. Sen. John McCain was speaking and that also attracted my interest. Usually, when flicking by C-SPAN, it's some junior Senator from Idaho talking about something with much less gravity. But a Presidential candidate defending an unpopular war by citing a past Senator's comments about troop withdrawal from Vietnam? I was sucked in for half an hour.

Sen. Boxer and Sen. Biden both respectfully retorted to Sen. McCain's argument against a time-stamped troop withdrawal and, actually, made some good points. Like many Americans, I'm growing weary of the quagmire that has claimed over 3,600 of our men and women. However, I think a withdrawal at this point will give Islamic extremists a victory and likely lead to genocide in Iraq and increased conflict in the Middle East. It's clear the Bush Administration didn't have a good plan going in, but to leave now would be irresponsible and weaken our security. We must make every effort to get their government up-and-running before making significant troop withdrawals.

Anyway...after 30-minutes of a world too real...I decided it was time to take in the Midsummer Classic. Ichiro with the game's first-ever, inside-the-park job, Carl Crawford giving the Rays their highlight of the year (and maybe decade of existence) with a longball, and a late two-run blast by Victor Martinez seemed to put the A.L. in the safe harbor with a 5-2 lead. Especially with J.J. Putz and K-Rod available in the bully, right? Oops.

Jim Leyland was hoping to have a night off from watching a leaky bullpen. Two outs, nobody on, three-run lead...infield hit, two-run homer, three walks to load the bases...oy yoy yoy. When did Todd Jones get added to the AL roster?!!! The Phils' Aaron Rowand, though, hit a routine fly ball to RF Alex Rios and the AL held on for a win and home field advantage in the World Series. Does that count as the Fightins 10,000th loss?