As Go the Greenville Drive, So Goes the Nation

by JA, The Feed

South Carolina might not have any teams in Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL or NHL but that doesn't mean that the teams they do have get ignored. Far from it. South Carolina, you see, hosts one of the earliest Presidential primaries and that makes it a regular stomping ground for candidates of both parties.

Rudy Giuliani threw out the first pitch on Opening Day of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He throws righty, which pleases the Republican base, but the Pelicans are an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. That's got to be troubling to anyone who remembers the endless shots of Giuliani at Yankee postseason games during his tenure as Mayor of New York City, including two World Series victories against those Braves. Sure, questions about his qualifications start long before his two-faced baseball allegiance but this is a man who took umbrage with Hillary Clinton's late in life jump from the Cubs bandwagon.

"Funny, I haven't seen her at a Yankee game. I've been at Yankee Stadium maybe 1,000 times and I haven't seen Mrs. Clinton."

At any rate, Giuliani's attempt to corner the Carolina League vote isn't being ignored by other Republican hopefuls. John McCain's reeling campaign will try to regain some ground in the South Atlantic League when they make a stop in Greenville this Friday for an appearance at the Drive's game with the Charleston RiverDogs.

"The Greenville Drive has put together an impressive organization," McCain noted. "They have a top-notch facility, an extremely supportive fan base, and a winning team. I am honored to be their guest on Friday night."

It's recently been revealed that McCain's campaign is hemmoraging cash and laying off workers left and right so it's not much of a surprise that he can't identify a good organization. The Drive are currently 15-18 and five games out of first place in the Sally League's Southern Division. They are also a Red Sox affiliate and Taxachusetts has only voted Republican twice in the last half-century. Given that history it's a pretty good bet that Saturday's "We Hate the Yankees" night will be a more successful promotion for the Drive.

In actuality it's not just South Carolina's minor league clubs that are getting a boost from the early start to campaigning for next November's election. The Iowa Cubs have been visited by five candidates thus far this season, for example, and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats will play a game as the "Primaries" next month to celebrate the state's, um, primary position in choosing candidates. You can explain the connection between minor league games and politics as a way to get out and meet "real people" doing "real people" things with their leisure time. Or you could say that it's an inexpensive way for campaigns to get their message across to thousands of people at a time. Either way, there's just something about our political process and minor leagues that go hand in hand.