RUSH: Yesterday I laid out the truth on the first pitch of Obama at Busch Stadium. Oh, speaking of that, there is a column in the Post-Dispatch today by Bernie Miklasz — I’m not sure how he pronounces his name — and this story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch with 224 comments. The City of St. Louis is apparently livid that Stan Musial was dissed. The people in St. Louis think that Musial’s greatness is overlooked and not commented on enough ’cause he’s from the middle of the country. You get people from the East Coast, the Yankees and the Dodgers and this sort of stuff. But Musial was great. So here’s the All-Star Game in St. Louis, and they were expecting wonderful cites and wonderful focus on the career of Stan Musial. And Bernie makes a point that they drive Musial out on a golf cart-type device, and they park him on the grass between home plate and the first base dugout, which is National League dugout, and he’s getting applause from the fans as they drive him out there.
Miklasz makes the point that not one player on either team came out of the dugout to stand up, try to shake his hand as he was driven by. There was no acknowledgment on the part of the baseball people there of Stan Musial. And then when it came time for the first pitch, Obama overshadows everything, including Musial, and they make the point in the piece that Musial was just left there on the golf cart in all the pregame like a dud. It was a whole dud, and they were expecting so much attention to be focused on Musial — which, they’re right, it should have been. He is one of baseball’s all-time greats and certainly one of the Cardinals all-time greats. But I notice a lot of media people talking about Cardinal all-time greats all weekend going in the All-Star Game, and every damn one of them left out Dizzy Dean. They had Enos Slaughter in there and they had the Gas House Gang guys, but they left out Dizzy Dean.
There’s so many funny Dizzy Dean stories. Here’s just one. There was one guy that Dizzy Dean could never get out, a guy named Bill Terry for the Giants. And Terry comes to bat the first time, lines a double off the left field wall, and next time a double off the right field wall. The third time up he hits a home run. The fourth time, a line drive single right back to the mound — right through Dizzy Dean’s legs! Dizzy Dean called time-out, and catcher goes, ‘Diz’, what’s the matter?’
He says, ‘I’m just not playing him deep enough. I can’t play left field. I can’t play right.’
There are so many funny Dizzy Dean stories, and he wasn’t mentioned. Regardless of that, Obama comes out and he does what he does, and after that they just left Musial sitting on the golf cart. And it was a dud. It was a disappointment to the people of St. Louis on the part of Major League Baseball. They think baseball could have done a better job. So the only guy on either team when Musial was being rolled out that came out of the dugout and applauded was Joe Torre, the manager of the Dodgers. He said, ‘Nobody even followed him out to applaud,’ and I do remember. I remember when the New York Yankees went into Baltimore during that incredible season of Cal Ripken Jr. where he finished the consecutive game streak. The Yankees, led by Derek Jeter, all came out of their dugout and applauded as Ripken reached another milestone on that field.
I don’t know if it was the actual game where he went ahead of Gehrig but the Yankees came out and applauded. This did not happen for Stan Musial. You had to figure some of these guys never heard of him. Who knows? I’m sorry for the diversion there, but we got the story right on the first pitch and what an abomination it was — a girlie toss and all that, after the media (the night before and the morning before the show started) were trying to portray Obama as the Second Coming of Michael Jordan. He’s not an athlete and they want to try portray him as an athlete. He’s an athletic supporter and you gotta give him credit for that, but he’s not an athlete. So CNN on Campbell Brown last night, she’s talking to one of their reporters, Mike Galanos, Campbell Brown said, ‘Obama’s pitching arm needs real work. Exhibit A: last night’s All-Star Game. Back with me now to break it all down is Mike…’ Now, this is after someone (i.e., me) had the temerity to describe this and how it happened, why Pujols was catching, why he wore a White Sox jacket at ‘Cominskey’ Park, confusing it with Saul Alinsky. All these things were designed to explain why he got booed. So here’s how that went on CNN last night.
GALANOS: You and I watched it together last night. You asked me, ‘How do you think he did?’ Well, I gave him a tepid thumbs up. I think I’m retracting that. We had a bad angle. As we watch it again, we get the better angle. It’s a pretty weak throw. He’s even taking a little beating for the jeans. Rush Limbaugh didn’t waste any time, either, going after the president and the media. Let’s give that a listen.
RUSH ARCHIVE: [T]he president throws like a girl! He golfs like a girl, admittedly. He throws like a girl. George W. Bush is a man. George W. Bush fired a strike first pitch Yankees Stadium after 9/11. They made fun of Bush. Gerald Ford was an All-American college football player; they called him Mr. Potato Head. Obama is a big athletic klutz, and the Drive-Bys are trying to portray him as the Second Coming of Michael Jordan.
BREWER: I don’t even care that he throws like a girl. The mom jeans do bother me a little. Come on.
RUSH: Mom jeans? Oh, crease down the front. Let me ask you a question. Are they doctoring that audio of me? It sounds awfully raspy. Oh, they probably got it off the web. Okay. And then over on PMSNBC they weren’t having any of it. They had to stick with the illusion. They had to defend Obama’s pitch. And of course they got the most qualified jock over there to do it: Contessa Brewer.
BREWER: A lot of people, Rush Limbaugh included, seem to think that the president ‘throws like a girl.’ This is the big topic of conversation: Does the lefty throw like a girl? Look, I’m no expert on what pitches look like, but I thought it looked pretty good — and, by the way, what are you saying about the way girls throw? Have you seen a girl throw, Rush Limbaugh?
RUSH: (laughing) Of course I’ve seen a girl throw! The last one was Obama the other night. That’s the whole point.