A Break in the Recession

Alongside the play-by-play of the ongoing global economic calamity, Friday's Wall Street Journal doles out attention to three former Cubs.

In a sidebar on the evolution of baseball bling, former Cub pitchers Turk Wendell and Jerome Williams are mentioned.

Of Wendell, the Journal says...

This rugged individualist...wore a necklace made of the teeth of things he'd killed while hunting. While he didn't set a trend...he contributed to a gradual evolution away from jewelry-store neckwear.
As for Williams...
The native Hawaiian...resurrected the puka-shell necklace more often seen on hippies and surfers. He helped clear the way for macho ballplayers to wear neckpieces that convey environmental consciousness rather than just a big salary.
(Funny—I always assumed Williams wore the shells because he thought they looked cool.)

Finally, in the paper's coverage of the House of Representatives' deboning of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, there is this:
Rep. John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky, hit Greenspan close to home, calling the avid baseball fan one of "three Bill Buckners." That was a reference to the Boston Red Sox' first baseman whose flubbed handling of a routine grounder cost his team the 1986 World Series. Former Treasury Secretary John Snow and [SEC Chairman Christopher] Cox, who sat alongside Mr. Greenspan, also got tagged with that comparison.
With blame being launched at Greenspan from every direction and the former Chairman admitting his fingerprints were all over the current fiscal mess, the hearing sounds like it was quite dramatic, certainly more so than any of the Cubs' recent playoff defeats to the Dodgers.

Too bad that Buckner's name had to be dragged into the proceedings simply so a politician—a politican, for God's sake!!!—could make himself sound clever.

(Note to Rep. Yarmuth: the Buckner play happened 22 years ago. A Rafael Furcal reference would have been far less cliché and much more topical.)

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