Who is Going to Bat for You?

Well, judging by the turnout at last night’s whiffle ball tournament, candidates Eileen Donoghue, Jamie Eldridge, and Patrick Murphy will do just that. What happens when they swing is a different story–Patrick cleared the first pitch he saw over the high center field wall at Alumni Field.

Eileen, in the “primary” game, where her campaign took on Eldridge’s, pitched against Eldridge himself, and struck him out on three pitches. And while Jamie’s self-given title of Progressive Democrat may be apt, the “Hit Dog” or “Sultan of Swat” would not be.

A sly Eileen also may have thrown a curve at one point. And while she did not bat herself, she had what seemed to be the Lowell Little League all-stars playing for her. Her campaign took the primary game.

In the championship game, Patrick spotted our team to a 1-0 lead on the first pitch thrown. I singled afterwards, and it seemed, with the talent on our staff, we were headed for a rout. But, here come my excuses for a 4-2 loss–we came in cold. Eileen’s campaign was warmed up; I think they began drills at around 5pm for an 8pm start. Accusations of weighting the bat were also made. There were a lot of four and five footers running around jacking home runs out of the park. For decorum, I didn’t have them pee in a cup. But I have my doubts.

We were slightly redeemed in the consolation game, when we took on the Progessive Democrats. While they were dreaming about trade policy, we capitalized on their careless fielding and reigned in more runs than we could count.

All in all, we had a great night under the lights, on the fresh-cut grass, under a near full moon. We owe a lot of gratitude to the City of Lowell and Commissioner Tom Bellegarde for making this happen on relatively short notice. I also want to thank Eileen, Jamie, and their staffs for participating, and to some of Niki’s staff who showed up as well. It goes back to what Patrick said in his two minute remarks at the Phillips Academy debate:

Competition is a fact of life on this planet: from something as small as a political campaign to the wider realm of international relations and wider still, to the very survival of all species. But it is often misunderstood. There are those that believe our success must be gained through another’s loss, that competition must mean seeking the defeat of one’s competitors. Yet if we learned our etymological lessons, we would know that the word “competition” comes from the Latin “com-petere”, to strive with, to strive together. In other words, competition is more about cooperation in order to bring out the best in each other–not mutual destruction, not simply survival of the fittest, but mutual survival through striving to become fitter, and by learning how we may all-all people and all species-again fit and live in this world together.

Out of competition, many winners may be bourne. We certainly had a fun, stressless night.

This entry was posted on August 30, 2007 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Race for Congress. 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.

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