5 times President Obama was talking about baseball during the State of the Union Address
Once a year, our Commander in Chief gives a speech to a joint session of Congress to update its members and the American electorate on the state of the union. That speech is aptly called the State of the Union Address, and this year it might have actually been about baseball?
Sure, President Obama spoke of peace and prosperity and unifying as a people on Tuesday, but he also probably meant to call attention to the spike in Bryce Harper's walk rate. Don't believe us?
See for yourself ...
"I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa."
Yeah. I mean, they've got baseball-playing ghosts and magic cornfields. I think we're all pretty jazzed about the chance to go back to Iowa. Road trip, anyone?
"I don't want to talk just about the next year. I want to focus on the next five years, 10 years, and beyond."
There's no way this isn't a Theo Epstein quote from time he turned half a season of Jason Hammel and 1 1/2 seasons of Jeff Samardzija into the shortstop of the future in Addison Russell and the flexibility to trade Starlin Castro for Adam Warren and Brendan Ryan. It wasn't about 2015, it was about 2015 ... and 2020 ... and 2025.
"Fortunately, there's a smarter approach, a patient and disciplined strategy that uses every element of our national power."
Is there any way he wasn't talking about Bryce Harper's MVP season, here? "A patient and disciplined strategy?" He was second in MLB with 124 walks while increasing his walk rate by a whopping 9.4 percent. "... uses every element of our national power?" He must have meant "National" power because that's exactly what Harper put on display all of last season.
"We just might surprise the cynics again."
Just a one-hit wonder, they said. Not a sustainable model for success, they said. Prime candidate for regression, they said. Turns out they were wrong because the Royals followed up that incredible run to the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 of the 2014 World Series with a parade of their own. And when April rolls around and the pundits are picking the Dodgers or the Giants or the Nationals or the Red Sox to win it all, you'll probably be able to hold a seashell up to your ear to hear faint whispers, "We just might surprise the cynics again" coming from the Royals clubhouse.
"Americans understand that at some point in their careers, they may have to retool and retrain."
No one knows the process of retooling and retraining more than man of the people, national hero and American patriot Jeff Francoeur, who was a veteran outfielder-turned-Minor League relief pitcher-turned-veteran outfielder who, last season, hit his first walk-off home run since 2008.
