Amy Kremer, co-chair of Women Vote Trump, on the news earlier this afternoon, spinning a three-part metaphor to explain why Donald Trump is now on his third campaign manager:
“You have your starting pitcher, your middle reliever, and your closer.”There must be a joke about screwballs in there somewhere.
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Stefan Hagemann (who’s made many an appearance in these pages, most notably here) tore the metaphor apart in a comment on this post:
The second item hints at why this is a poor metaphor: relief pitchers relieve. They don’t fire and replace the previous pitcher. Beyond that, the closer’s role is to maintain the lead, not to recapture it. The closer doesn’t pitch when the team is losing, and since pitchers don’t bat (American League) or hit well, usually (National League), the bullpen is unlikely to help a team come from behind.Thank you, Stefan.
Maybe the screwball joke is that one of the most famous and successful screwball pitchers, Fernando Valenzuela, is Mexican and would not be welcome in Trump’s America.
Related reading
All OCA metaphor posts (Pinboard)
comments: 2
The second item hints at why this is a poor metaphor: relief pitchers relieve. They don't fire and replace the previous pitcher. Beyond that, the closer's role is to maintain the lead, not to recapture it. The closer doesn't pitch when the team is losing, and since pitchers don't bat (American League) or hit well, usually (National League), the bullpen is unlikely to help a team come from behind.
Maybe the screwball joke is that one of the most famous and successful screwball pitchers, Fernando Valenzuela, is Mexican and would not be welcome in Trump's America.
Bravo, Stefan, and bravo some more.
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