November 26, 2005 6:43 AM

Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener

Richardson Backs Off Baseball Claim

DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener #322: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson

When are politicians and other public figures going to learn? In this day and age of instantly available information and journalists looking to make a name for themselves, how anyone in public life thinks that they can get away with inflating their curriculum vitae is beyond me. There are more examples than I can think of in which someone has tried to inflate their resume, whether it be with degrees earned, military experience, offices held, or now with baseball teams played for. Jeez, people, catch a clue here, willya??

I have no beef with Bill Richardson…outside of the fact that he’s a DUMB@$$. He’s a Democratic stalwart and a dedicated public servant. Lord knows this country could use more public servants like Bill Richardson. Why he would feel the need to claim that he was drafted by the Kansas City (now Oakland) Athletics in 1966 is something I find difficult to understand.

As if anyone really cares about whether or not he ever could have played professional baseball….

ALBUQUERQUE, Nov. 24 — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is coming clean on his draft record — the baseball draft, that is — acknowledging that his claim to have been a pick of the Kansas City Athletics in 1966 is untrue.

For nearly four decades, Richardson, often mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate, has maintained he was drafted by the team.

The claim was included in a brief biography released when Richardson was elected to Congress in 1982. A White House news release in 1997 mentioned it when he was about to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. And several news organizations, including the Associated Press, have reported it as fact over the years.

But an investigation by the Albuquerque Journal found no record of Richardson being drafted by the A’s, who have since moved to Oakland, Calif., or any other team.

He acknowledged the error in an article in Thursday’s editions.

“After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter…I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A’s,” he said.

Uh, WTF? You’re just now coming to that conclusion? Memo to Gov. DUMB@$$ Richardson: I realize that 1966 was a long time ago, but don’t you think that someone as intelligent and accomplished as yourself would remember being drafted by a professional baseball team? That would be a dream come true for most American males, and you have to resort to “researching the matter” before concluding that you were not, in fact, drafted by the A’s? What kind of fool are you? Or are you just a lousy liar?

I don’t necessarily mind being lied to. In my line of work, it’s a fact of life. What I hate is having my intelligence insulted. If you’re going to lie, at least put some effort, thought, and creativity into it. Be artful about it. Don’t just come up with something patently stupid off the cuff and except me to swallow it without feeling insulted.

Richardson, a right-handed pitcher who played at Tufts University, said he was scouted by several teams in the 1960s.

He said his name appeared on “a draft list of some kind” created by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates. He named team scouts, who he said told him that he “would or could” be drafted. The scouts have since died.

Richardson later developed arm trouble, eliminating any possible pro career.

In the summer of 1967, he played for the amateur Cape Cod League’s Cotuit (Mass.) Kettleers. The words “Drafted by K.C.” appear next to his name on a faded team program, the Journal reported.

“When I saw that program in 1967, I was convinced I was drafted,” Richardson said. “And it stayed with me all these years.”

Then-general manager Arnold Mycock said the biographical information was supplied by players or their college coaches.

On a biographical sheet Richardson completed for Tufts in his junior year, he wrote, “Drafted by Kansas City (1966), LA (1968).” He said he wrote those words because he believed they were true.

OK, fine; I can almost buy that, but if Kansas City did draft Richardson, youd’ think that Richardson would have some recollection of contract negotiations. Or that somewhere there would be a record of Richardson actually being drafted. To think that Richardson recalls being drafted but was never contacted by the A’s regarding signing a contract with the team defies credibility. Believing this argument would mean that Richardson was awfully cavalier about his potential future in baseball. I’m sorry, but if a player is drafted by a professional baseball team, that team is going to want to negotiate a contract of some sort with that player. Why would a team draft a player otherwise? And a player is almost certainly going to want to sign a contract.

Bill Richardson may be a committed and dedicated public servant, but he’s a complete DUMB@$$ and worse, a lousy liar. No thinking person with even a shred of native intelligence is going to buy his lame attempt to explain this embarrassing mess away. Yes, I realize that it’s not as if he was caught in flagrante delicto with his neighbor’s goat or 12-year-old daughter, but if you’re willing to lie about seemingly inconsequential things, it’s not much of a step to engaging in much more serious prevarications. A glance at the current occupant of the White House should serve as proof of that theory.

Richardson’s prevaricating hardly rises to the level of lying about WMDs in Iraq or fudging intelligence to gain approval for a war in Iraq and being responsible for 2000+ dead Americans, but it does raise serious questions about Richardson’s ethics and integrity. That’s too bad, because Richardson has, by all indications, been an excellent governor and has had a distinguished career in public service. When historians and journalists look back on Richardson’s long and distinguished career, they’re unfortunately not going to focus on anything he accomplished during his political career. No, what they’ll see before and above anything else is that he lied about being drafted by a professional baseball team in the mid-60s…and that’s a crying shame. Then again, that’s why Richardson so richly deserves his DUMB@$$ AWARD.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 26, 2005 6:43 AM.

And you thought the Super Bowl was big was the previous entry in this blog.

And your lips are surgically affixed to his @$$ is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12