Dennis Kucinich: Unlikely Hero of Red Sox Nation

Many Red Sox legends have taken on the Yankees. Carlton Fisk fought Thurman Munson and Lou Piniella. Jason Varitek infamously shoved his glove in the face of Alex Rodriguez. Pedro Martinez dropped Don Zimmer.

Today, we celebrate a hero who has never donned a Boston uniform. A man who makes Dustin Pedroia look like Andre the Giant. Ladies and gentlemen of Red Sox Nation, we give you Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich, who is now leading the charge against the Evil Empire’s new stadium.

Now we understand what his super-hot wife sees in him.

“In the case of the new Yankee Stadium, not only have we found waste and abuse of public dollars subsidizing a project that is for the exclusive benefit of a private entity, the Yankees, but also we have discovered serious questions about the accuracy of certain representations made by the City of New York to the federal government,” Kucinich said.

Those “certain representations” include using land values in Manhattan instead of the Bronx to get an IRS tax exemption, and seeking $366 million in additional funding to finance a video screen.

Unlike some previous Congressional inquiries into sports-related matters, this one makes sense to us. A critic of the Yankee Stadium project testified that between $550 million to $850 million in taxpayer money has been spent on the Bronx behemoth. That’s a significant chunk of change to drop on a stadium that will be home to the third-place Yankees (just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?).

Some might say that Kucinich’s attention should be elsewhere, like say, on the huge government bailout that’s on its way (or on the hot wife). But we say keep on fighting the good fight, oh brave defender of the public interest and perennial Presidential also-ran, and if the Red Sox are reading this, we hope you’ll consider letting the congressman toss out the first pitch at an upcoming game.

Photo from Dennis Kucinich’s Facebook page