Home Run Derby

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The 2008 Presidential Primary elections are less than a month away. And everybody needs a guide to the candidates.

Before I get started, I want to say that Home Run Derby will not endorse a candidate for President of the United States. We are a shoddy little baseball website and will not pretend to be a political one.

With that in mind, we’re not above giving you the facts about some of the candidates … when it comes to their baseball allegiances.

We profiled the Democrats yesterday, so here come the Republicans.

Rudy Giuliani – New York Yankees

The former Mayor of New York City is a diehard Yankee fan through and through and was often labelled the Bronx Bombers’ “First Fan.”

Even his recent comments about cheering for the Red Sox in the 2007 World Series really don’t even scratch his pinstripes.

Giuliani owns a bunch of Yankees World Series Championship rings. There’s some debate as to whether he should have them at all.

He maintains he paid for them.

John McCain – Arizona Diamondbacks

His boyhood hero might have been Red Sox legend Ted Williams, but now he roots for the snakes.

The Senator from Arizona has been a very visible name in the controversy over performance enhancing drugs in Baseball.

McCain issued an ultimatum back in December 2004 which basically stated that MLB had better enact some tougher standard on steroids or he and the US Government would do it for them via legislation. Lo and behold, the 50 game suspension rules arrived shortly thereafter.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has endorsed Senator McCain for President. Schilling was a World Series MVP with the Diamondbacks in 2001.

Mitt Romney – Boston Red Sox

The former Massachussetts Governor and 2002 US Winter Olympics CEO has declared his fandom for the Red Sox.  But he also says and does some things that are just sacrilege in Red Sox Nation.

He said it was 87 years between Red Sox Championships; it was 86. And he referred to Fenway Park as “Red Sox Stadium.”  And Romney owns stock in YES – The Yankees’ Entertainment and Sports network.  It’s probably a sound investment, but not to Sawx fans.

Mitt, meet Hillary.

Mind you, he did make a nice dig at Rudy Giuliani during the recent YouTube Debate about Rudy’s cheering for the Red Sox in the World Series.

Mike Huckabee – St. Louis Cardinals

It took the former Arkansas Governor a while to declare his baseball colors, but we now know that he bleeds Cardinal red.

He shed tears for his Redbirds at Game 4 of the 2004 World Series, but seemed to understand the magnitude of the Red Sox triumph that season …

“I wanted the Cardinals to win, but if Boston wins, I’m thinking, ‘This is going to be the biggest story in sports history’ “

Nice pandering to Red Sox Nation there, Guv.

Governor Huckabee has been endorsed by Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller. He’s also been endorsed by Chuck Norris.

I’d love to make a joke about that, but Chuck Norris would kick my ass.

Ron Paul – Pittsburgh Pirates

This is a guess. But it’s based upon the fact that the Texas congressman was born outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived there through his graduation from college in 1957.

And as a youth, he delivered milk to Baseball legend Honus Wagner.

In High School, Paul was a four-sport athlete (including baseball) and played regularly on the Republican congressional baseball team in the 70’s and 80’s.  Dig the old stripey Houston Astros jersey on Ron Paul with the FNOB (Full Name on Back). 

Retrospectively, those unmistakeable stripes might imply he’s an Astros fan.

Information on the Baseball-leanings of the Democratic Presidential candidates can be found right here.

SUPER TUESDAY UPDATE – CLICK HERE

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 8:46 am and is filed under Astros, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Politics, Red Sox, Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.