All's Well That Ends Well

And the Phillies haven't had anyone who ends as well as Billy Wagner for most of the 25 years I've followed the team. (Maybe Tugger in '80, and Bedrosian the year he won the Cy Young, but those fond memories have been buried under so much Mesa and Mitch that I can't really vouch for them without a yearbook handy.) Billy Wags came in after a three-run top of the ninth to break the tie, and saved it for Madson who picked up his first big-league win with four innings of scoreless, one-hit relief.

More important, the Phils are drawing walks again, and even getting the occasional hit with RISP. A win tomorrow would finish the sweep in St. Louis and bring the team back to .500 for the first time since they were at 1-1. The pitching matchup looks favorable in theory, with Kevin Millwood facing Chris Carpenter, one of those bionic-man pitchers who's come back after a few years in the trainer's office.

Excellent Simpsons re-runs tonight: "Homer Loves Mindy" (with the incomparable Werner Klemperer as Col. Klink!) at 7, "Dancin' Homer" at 11:30. The owner of the Isotopes, "Tex," seems to be an early iteration of the "Rich Texan" character who showed up later in the series to own the world's fattest race horse (and attempt to buy the frozen Jasper from Apu's freezer), chop down Springfield's old-growth redwood trees, and hold a position of rank in the Springfield Republican Party...

Speaking of rich Texans and Republican evil, a new NY Times/CBS poll released tonight shows Kerry back in the lead--at least without Nader included--and public support for the Iraq war continuing to plummet. As the daily Rasmussen tracking poll reminds me every day, getting too jazzed or upset at any poll numbers is about as logical and constructive as cheering a sunny day or booing the rain; there's no more rhyme or reason, and one has no more influence over how things break. (Of course, I'm perfectly capable of bearing grudges against weather. So maybe this isn't the best analogy.)

It would be a historical irony worth savoring if Bush faced a presidential demise modeled not on his father's 1992 loss, but on the last "real" Texan in the White House: Lyndon Johnson, who was essentially driven from the race in 1968 when the public abandoned support for Vietnam. No historical parallel completely holds up, but those who dream of symmetry and order in the universe hopefully can be forgiven for wishing that the slow-motion erosion of American public life that began in 1968 could be reversed, or at least halted, by another Texas president hounded from office in the wake of another failed and foolish war.

Hey, the Phils have won four of five. Let me dream a little.