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Monday
Despite rightwing accusations that the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team (USNWT) lost in the World Cup’s round of 16 because they were too “woke,” yesterday’s final between the stalwart English and the incandescent Spanish made clear what really happened: the rest of the world has caught up. I don’t think anyone could have beaten La Roja this year, given its sublime passing and its ability to turn from defense to offense in a microsecond. But why let the improbability of an aging U.S. squad pulling off a three-peat get in the way of your political rage?
As basketball-great-turned Blogger Kareem Abdul-Jabbar puts it, it’s as though the American right was rooting for Casey to strike out:
The classic American poem “Casey at the Bat,” chronicling the hometown disappointment when their team hero strikes out, failing to win the big game, has been subverted by right-wing commentators and politicians giddy at the U.S. women’s soccer team losing in the World Cup round of 16. Shockingly, there finally is joy in Mudville—not because the mighty Casey got a hit, but because he struck out. The hometown fans wanted their team to lose. Crazy, I know.
Foremost among those rooting against the U.S. was, of course, Donald Trump, who took the occasion to taunt Megan Rapinoe—winner of both the Golden Boot and the Golden Goal in 2019—for missing a penalty shot in the shootout:
The ‘shocking and totally unexpected’ loss by the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to the our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden. Many of our players were openly hostile to America – No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA.
Others followed:
“I’m thrilled they lost,” said former Fox News host Megyn Kelly. “You don’t support America, I don’t support you.”
So being critical of Trump is apparently not supporting America.
But let’s look at Jabbar’s “Casey” allusion. Although the U.S. team had a certain swagger, that’s just the way it is with great teams. If anyone really behaves like Casey, however, it’s Trump himself. Following the law is as beneath him as strikes are to Casey:
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—
“That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one!” the umpire said.
Actually, come to think of it, Casey’s crowds are not unlike Trump’s, with one critical difference:
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
“Kill him! Kill the umpire!” shouted someone on the stand;
And it’s likely they’d have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
The difference, of course, is that Trump would have riled up this crowd, not calmed it down. “If you see somebody with a tomato, knock the crap out of them,” he once told a crowd. What better way to avoid accountability than have the umpire removed?
“Casey at the Bat” is a classic case of hubris, of pride going before the fall. But in sports, losing eventually happens to everyone. And unlike Casey and the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, Trump doesn’t have a record of accomplishment to justify his swagger.
To defend Casey further, even the greatest batters fail more often than they succeed. If, in the major leagues, you register an out no more than seven out of every 10 times, you can wind up as the batting champion. As for the USNWT, it’s those who mock a team that has won four of the nine world championships that come across looking small.
For “American carnage” Trump, it fits his narrative that America is turning into Mudville. You can bet that, on his watch, he’ll make sure that there are no bands playing somewhere, or men laughing or children shouting. And definitely no light hearts.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.
Trump is where joy goes to die.