SI.com Blogger Spills About Sports and Politics

So who is the less sincere Yankees fan: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who suddenly became a diehard in 2000, or former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-N.Y.), who this year supported the Red Sox in the World Series? As long as presidents are throwing pitches to kick-off baseball games, the worlds of sports and politics will overlap, cross and sometimes even clash.

Scoop08 spoke with Pete McEntegart, writer of The 10 Spot, a daily blog on sportsillustrated.com, about the intersections between sports and politics, and their implications for the 2008 presidential election.

Scoop08: What qualities do presidential candidates need to win over the respect and support of American sports fans?

Pete McEntegart: I don't think there is any united voting bloc of sports fans, despite what we've heard about "soccer moms" and "NASCAR dads." Sports fandom cuts across all parties. The qualities a presidential candidate needs to win the respect and support of the American sports fan would be no different than winning over the American people as a whole, I would think.

Since a lot of voters seem to pick the guy (and it's usually been a guy) that they most want to have a beer with, being reasonably athletic and/or a big sports fan probably does help establish "regular guy" credentials. I do think that helped President Bush in his two campaigns. So they don't need to be big sports fans or reasonably athletic, but it's a nice bonus.

Be careful, though—don't pretend to be a big fan if you can't pull it off. Sports fans will notice immediately if, for instance, John Kerry says he's a big Red Sox fan but claims his favorite player is "Manny Ortez." Then you come off as fake, someone willing to say anything to get elected. That's bad, and Hillary is still living down her sudden declaration that she was a Yankees fan in 2000, while running for the Senate in New York.

S: Do you think there are any candidates in the race that sports fans would, as a result, be expected to generally like the most?

PM: Again, I don't think that sports fans vote with their fanhood or as a group. I would have to say though that Rudy Giuliani has always come across as a legitimately big sports fan. Still, he hurt himself somewhat when he said he would support the Red Sox in the World Series. That wouldn't have hurt another candidate as much, but Rudy is out there as a huge Yankees fan.

S: Do you believe politicians who try to rearrange their team loyalties for political gain stand a chance of actually winning over the hearts of voters in the team's region?

PM: Actually, an approach like this could easily backfire…Sports fans know how to spot someone who is just jumping on the bandwagon. If they feel that a politician is trying to align themselves with a team simply to gain votes, it could really hurt him/her. Additionally, politicians tend to be pretty ham-handed in such maneuvers, routinely misidentifying team names, stadiums, players, etc. Presidential candidates might know much more about the economy than the average sports fan, but the sports fan darn well knows the names of the players on his favorite team. Sports fans will see right through a fraud on this issue.

S: If you were to compare this cycle's presidential race to a sport or sporting event, which one would it be?

PM: The Tour de France. It takes forever and the public suspects that everyone is probably cheating.

S: One candidate, Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), has an explicit connection to the sports world: he took over in 1999 as president of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee and helped it recover from a $379 million deficit, before leading it through a largely successful Olympic Games. Do you think his success with the SLOC is any sort of indicator for his potential as a presidential candidate?

PM: It's certainly an impressive accomplishment and one that he should brag about on the stump. Also, it does speak to his ability as an executive. It's not a direct comparison to running the country — nothing is — but it's a valid “feather in his cap.” But I would have to say it's lower on the totem pole than his stint as Massachusetts governor. Kind of like if [Michael] Bloomberg ran, he would point to being a CEO as an example of his ability to lead, but it would come after his record as New York City mayor.

S: Are there any important similarities between running a sports franchise and presiding over a nation?

PM: Only in the very loosest, most general terms, so I guess that's a no, there are no very important comparisons. (And I've avoided making a Bush crack.)

S: Should we expect to see presidential candidates attempting to interject themselves into the sports world to increase their popularity with voters over the coming months?

PM: Absolutely, sporting events tend to draw immense crowds. Politicians running for office want to meet, or at least put themselves in front of, as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. Thus sporting events are a natural scene for politicians. Plus, sports fans tend to have tremendous loyalty to their teams. Politicians like to try to “glom” on to those teams in the hopes that some of that loyalty will rub off to them. But, as I've mentioned above, they should be very careful in trying to pretend to root for a team that they actually know little about. Being a "fake" is about as serious a political charge as can be levied.