News Vérité

Dodger pitching legend Sandy Koufax, now 90 and rightfully ensconced in the MLB Hall of Fame, was known for his blazing fastball during his prime in the 1950s and 1960s. When I watched him on TV as a kid — he was my idol — that fastball seemed to clock in at supersonic speeds. After one World Series game against the Yankees, the Bronx Bombers’ catcher, Yogi Bera, opined: “I can see how he won 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”  Musing on the current baseball season today got me thinking of Koufax and wondering how fast his fastball really was and how well it would fare against today’s 100-mph version. Short answer: His fastball clocked in about 93-94 mph, according to best estimates since no radar guns were used back then to measure speeds. Speed-wise, then, Koufax would have an average fastball today. However — a big however — Koufax mastered spin rate, so that his fastball looked to be rising as it reached the plate, and batters couldn’t adjust. Don’t take my word for it: I had my AI pal Gemini research the topic for me, and here are the results and detailed

Marco Rubio, once a fierce Trump debate opponent and now President Trump’s Secretary of State, is building momentum — and credentials — to be the 2028 Republican presidential nominee. To wit: When Rubio hosted a press conference in the White House recently, he shone like none other and kept the audience wrapped up in his hands. When he was in Europe a while back, he assuaged the Trump-phobic leaders assembled to hear a diatribe but instead received reassurances. When he was in China recently, he seemed more honest and confident than our own national chief executive, Donald John Trump. When he speaks of Cuba, as a refugee he sounds the right notes. Frankly, I find Rubio more fit for the nation’s highest office than our Vice President, JD Vance. Vance seems to have morphed his experience as a Marine Corps press spokesperson into a political career. Rubio, although obviously also a politician, seems to have a better first-hand grasp of what’s going on in the world. What’s interesting is that Rubio was banned from China in 2020 because of his outspoken criticism of the People’s Republic’s stance on Hong Kong democracy and on the enslavement of the domestic Muslim Uyghurs.

None dare call it obsequiousness, so I won’t. But it comes close. Did anyone else notice how Donald John Trump, 47th president of the United States, went out of his way to kowtow to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at every opportunity during his recent summit, while speaking tough in interviews with Sean Hannity and with reporters aboard Air Force One on the way home? Look at the photo above. Do you notice how Trump not only shakes Xi’s hand but also repeatedly caresses it with his left hand? Notice also that Xi does not reciprocate the affection. That’s just one example of President TOFU — Trump Often Fawns Unrelentingly — in action around powerful people. In his position as president, of course, the only two really powerful people he would feel a need to kowtow to are Xi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, though he showed some similar traits when meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term. So, I hereby nominate my new nickname — President TOFU — to the Trump Observers’ Hall of Fame, to join the President TACO formulation. Unfortunately, this presidential fawning has led to dire potential results for Taiwan. Word has it that