European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                This red sox fan a turncoat Yankee a revolting though by Timothy Cahill new York Bureau for weeks i debated it trying to decide if what i was about to do was a sin. I mean we weren to married were we even if we had been together for years. Id never made any promises. And Here i was in a new City a new part of the country on my own. And try As i might to Stop it the refrain of that old �?T70s song kept popping into my head. If you can to be with the one you love Honey love the one you re with. You Only live once i told myself. Go for it. So i did. I became a Yankees fan. Almost. Hey this is hard for me. All my life in be Root Root rooted for the Boston red sox. Those of you who grew up doing this too know what in a going through. If you did no to think of it this Way. Imagine its the �?T50s, height of the cold War. Imagine that after 34 years As a faithful Flag waving american you decide to move to Moscow and become a party member. That a about one tenth As bad As what id decided to do. In Massachusetts where in a from Normal people done to follow the new York Yankees. They dislike the Yankees. Their dislike for the Yankees is surpassed Only by their distaste for the new York mets. 1986. Need i say More you think new York has a bad reputation in Kansas or Wyoming in Massachusetts new York is a four letter word. This prejudice is planted deep in my psyche. In a not proud of it. Like any mindless hatred it eats away at my heart defies my reason. To Cope i had turned my vice into a virtue. I Wasny to prejudiced. I was Loyal or was i look i Pep talked myself you live in new York now. You could even be called a new yorker. The newspapers done to carry a word about the red sox. You can to get them on the radio. You can Only see them on television when they play the Yankees. What kind of a fan is that baseball is passing you by. To make matters worse i have a Friend Here who grew up in Rhode Island nearer Fenway Park even than me. And head reached the same conclusion. He was defecting too. We can go to Yankee stadium any night we want we reasoned to ourselves take advantage of living in a major league City. Talk about the team Over Beers. Trade obscure meaningless statistics. Claim the babe whom the red sox traded As our own. So this past tuesday i took the plunge. Opening Day against whom the red sox. I was revved up to throw myself into this new affair. When i got to the bar the game was about a half hour old and the place was Stone silent. Everybody was staring at the screen with a look of discouraged disillusionment. Phil Plantier the red sox a right fielder had just belted a Solo Homer in the second inning to tie the score. The television was showing the replay. Beautiful i thought. The kid has an almost perfect swing. Hey Gimme a break it was a reflex action. I had no sooner ordered a draft when the gloom grew deeper. To Vaughn hit another Solo blast that put the red sox up 2-1.1 forgot Why i was there. Yessis i said. Very softly so As not to provoke a discussion. I watched in silent splendor through five innings. Roger Clemens was mowing Down Yankees faster than Jeny Brown can say 1-800. In the sixth everything fell apart. The rocket was tagged for four hits. The yanks scored three. The bar cheered. I Felt empty. I Felt a it shocked me to realize it a like a traitor. I wanted to cheer too. But i . Not this Day. This Day i had chosen to remain a red sox fan. The yanks won 4-3. That night i called my Friend to Analyse the game. He was psyched. Head rooted for new York. He tried to cheer me up. This is a Good year to be a red sox fan he told me. They re going to win the world series this year. Who can be Krueler than your friends no really he said. This is the year they take it. They always win the series the year after a russian revolution. So now what do i do could somebody please teach me that Bronx cheer Bush is. Clinton where did All the options go Andy Rooney most of us Are so dissatisfied with our government right now that we ought to consider the possibility that there a something wrong with the whole system. If there Isnit something wrong with it then there must be something wrong with the Way we choose the people who run the system. For one thing they Arentt running it. They consistently fail to make Good decisions in the National interest because they re scared we wont like them and they wont be re elected. No one would suggest that there a anything wrong with the democratic idea of one Man one vote but there sure seems to be something wrong with the candidates we re presented with to vote for. Their chief interest once in office is not making Good decisions for the country but re election. They fail to do what they should because they done to dare offend any voters. They re preoccupied with re election from the Day they re elected. A longer term of office would help with this problem. There Are things about the political system i just done to understand. Why is the Choice of the candidates already out of our hands what happened Here Are we satisfied that Bill Clinton and George Bush Are the two Best presidential candidates in the whole United states Pardon me but i done to think so. There a something plenty wrong with the system when a genuine and Bright person like Paul Tsongas is forced to drop out and we re left with a candidate of questionable virtue like Clinton. Not that i think Paul Tsongas is necessarily the answer to our prayer for the great president we need so badly. The democrats have dug themselves a Hole  never climb out of this election year. If Clinton runs against Bush the result will be the greatest landslide in the history of presidential elections and Bush will be the Winner. Its no contest. The polls Are showing the presidents popularity is at an All time Low but that a compared to Bush not to Clinton. The Only Issue is Bush. You re for him or you re against him. When people talk about How they re going to vote they Arentt choosing Between Clinton and Bush. They re choosing to vote for Bush or against Bush. What happened to those presidential hopefuls of four years ago How come people like Albert Gore Bruce Babbitt Richard Gephardt Jack Kemp Bob Dole Pete Dupont or Paul Simon the Paul Tsongas of 1988, did no to try again this year maybe government jobs like the presidency or Congress done to have enough to offer to attract great people to them. The pay is fairly Good but not great. Wed get better people if we paid them like baseball players. A politicians Job is hard if its done right. People Are always after politicians to do something for them. They do too Many errands for noisy constituents but the influential people in Washington Are the people who get most of the politicians attention. They have the Money to help the politicians get reelected. For All the greatness of the democratic system parts of it done to work. Money is More important to a candidate than a political philosophy. He does no to even have to have a philosophy if he has Money. When a candidate emerges As a front runner As Clinton and Bush have the Money pours in. Everyone who wants to get in Good with a potential Winner gives to that candidates Campaign. The cynical influence paddlers even bet on both horses in the race so they can to lose. Nothing is More clearly wrong with our system than the huge sums of Money candidates get from people or organizations that  be in a position to help if elected. Its unethical and immoral and it should be illegal. Eliminating that would be one place to Start changing our faulty system. Tribune Media services april 12, 1992 sunday a Page 9