"Face the Nation" transcripts, October 7, 2012: David Axelrod

BOB SCHIEFFER: We're going to wind up as either the wild card or a division winner, they-- they-- they want to win now.

JANE LEAVY: Nobody's going to coast, you know, and-- and set the regulars in September with that much advantage to being a division winner. Though I have to say the wild card one and done feels antithetical to baseball. I mean the whole point of baseball is that it's a long season and how you do in the spring rains and how you do in the August heat matters. And for it to come down to one game, I-- I understand the appeal for television, for the casual fan, it doesn't feel right to me. And it certainly doesn't feel right that you-- that you have a system in which the Tigers, for example, winning the Central Division in the American League with, you know, a weak division, seventh best record in the AL, and they're-- they're in to the division, you know, games they didn't have to play anything. But it-- so that it certainly needs tweaking if they're going to use it.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you all this question and we're coming to the end here, so be short in your answers. You know, with the injury situation, what we're learning about concussions and all of that, there is a question in my mind as to whether and, say, ten years we're still going to be playing football. I-- I think we're going to continue to play baseball. But is base-- can football go on, Peter?

PETER GAMMONS: Oh, I think it can because it has so much appeal. I mean, it's-- both college and professional football is so huge and they're huge businesses. But I do think that it's very hard. I know that in-- in the draft the last two years, there have been a number of kids who were thought to be going to college to play football and were very happy to sign in baseball because, you know what the-- the careers projected to be so much longer. And I-- I think it's a great advantage that baseball is going to have against football over the next few years.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, I want to thank all of you for being with us this morning. I think it's just fun every once in a while to take a little break from politics. And I've always thought the great thing about sports is, is that-- that it doesn't really matter. It gives us a chance to think about and worry about something that it doesn't really matter, and it takes our minds off in many ways, the things that do matter. And, Peter Gammons is right, it is entertainment, and as far as I'm concerned, the best is entertainment you can have.

Thanks to all of you for being with us this morning. It's a lot of fun to talk about baseball and we'll be back in a moment with our FACE THE NATION Flashback.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BOB SCHIEFFER: Baseball and Washington go way back but it's been a while since we could put Washington and baseball success in the same sentence. It was in 1933 that Washington Senators last played in the postseason against the New York Giants.

(Begin VT)

BOB SCHIEFFER: And that's our FACE THE NATION Flashback. For a hundred years, starting with William Howard Taft, Presidents have been throwing out the first ball at Washington ball games. But diamond victories have been few and far between. Washington, they used to say was first in peace, first in war, and last in the American League. Franklin Roosevelt threw out the first ball in 1933. The nation was mired in the Great Depression, and Roosevelt used baseball terms to explain how he'd deal with Congress and get the country rolling again.

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average, not only for myself but for the team.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Roosevelt was more successful than Washington's ball club. The last game of that series was exactly seventy-nine years ago today. Washington lost. But that 1933 team had four future hall-of-famers. Heinie Manush--yep, that really was his name--Goose Goslin, Sam Rice, and manager Joe Cronin. The team also had a catcher named Moe Berg. As far as we know, the only Major League ballplayer who became a U.S. spy. And he was a good one during World War II.

Presidents continued to throw out the first ball, but Washington kept losing. Attendance dropped and Washington lost its team in 1971. Baseball didn't return until 2005. And George Bush did the honors--followed by the current White House occupant.

(Crowd cheering)

BOB SCHIEFFER: So forgive us for talking baseball today. It's not often around here. We can find an excuse to do that.

Our FACE THE NATION Flashback.

(End VT)

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BOB SCHIEFFER: That's it for today. We'll see you right here next week on FACE THE NATION.

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[mom41mom]

Obama looked sick. I think he was under the weather. Mitt Romney speaks and he says stupid things. He wants to cut public Tv. really all the government waste and he attacks good programing children's programing, a channel that brings classical music to people and nova specials

[BDZimm]

I couldn't believe I heard one-half hour of 4 cronies talking about baseball and not one of them mentioned the Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Something that momentous that hasn't happened in 45 years and not even a slight nod from those so-called experts. I guess what I've been told is true . . . if it doesn't happen on the east coast or west coast, it just didn't happen! Can you imagine the hype if he was playing for New York? OMG he would be on every nation show around. Or is it because he's Venezuelan? SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!!!!!

[Geemama]

President Obama failed in his debate performance because his record is horrible, the economy is terrible, his major accomplishment is Obamacare which is unpopular and he was not too interested in preparing. Before the debate he complained his handlers were "making him do his homework" and it was "a drag".

Obama wants to be a former president, he wants to be eyecandy.