E284. Why Biden is Whiffing, and Other Baseball Analysis with Henry Olsen

What do baseball and politics have in common? I have no idea, but Henry Olsen does. Actually, the kinds of data measurements we use in baseball can be applied to politics as well, and few do it better than Henry. So in this “classic format” episode, we talk about why President Biden is just biding his time in office, having squandered his election by mis-reading the public mood, and how this may very well tip the off-year gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey to Republicans, as it did in 1993 and 2009, when, in what has become a recurring pattern, Democrats overreach.

Then we talk about baseball—in particular the decline of starting pitchers and .300 hitters, and the rise of the so-called “bullpen game.” Give me those old 20-game winners like Jim Palmer and .325 hitters like Rod Carew and Pete Rose, please.  But you’d expect this from a reactionary like me.

What do baseball and politics have in common? I have no idea, but Henry Olsen does. Actually, the kinds of data measurements we use in baseball can be applied to politics as well, and few do it better than Henry. So in this “classic format” episode, we talk about why President Biden is just biding his time in office, having squandered his election by mis-reading the public mood, and how this may very well tip the off-year gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey to Republicans, as it did in 1993 and 2009, when, in what has become a recurring pattern, Democrats overreach.

Then we talk about baseball—in particular the decline of starting pitchers and .300 hitters, and the rise of the so-called “bullpen game.” Give me those old 20-game winners like Jim Palmer and .325 hitters like Rod Carew and Pete Rose, please.  But you’d expect this from a reactionary like me.

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