John McCain blames the Arizona Diamondbacks for his strange performance

Could watching baseball have contributed to John McCain’s bizarre line of questioning at the James Comey hearing in Washington?

If, like most Americans, you spent the morning hanging on every second of the blockbuster testimony of former FBI Director James Comey, you were probably left scratching your head after listening to Senator John McCain’s questioning. McCain, who is not even on the Senate intelligence committee that is investigating President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in the 2016 election and his decision to fire Comey in the midst of said investigation. That did not stop him from rambling on for nearly six minutes with questions that left everyone puzzled.

McCain’s strange behavior had Twitter buzzing by the time he finished speaking. Many were speculating that the 80-year-old Senator, war hero, and former Presidential candidate had lost a few miles per hour from his fastball. McCain mixed up names and seemed fixated on talking about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails instead of the business at hand.

Well — the good Senator appears to have a very air-tight excuse for why he was so off his game on Capitol Hill this morning. He simply stayed up too late watching the Arizona Diamondbacks game last night.

Hmmm. Well, that may actually check out. McCain is a noted D-backs fan, and the team was playing a game that started at 9:40 East Coast time last night. With the game running nearly four hours (pace of play, Commissioner!), McCain would not have been in bed until nearly two in the morning if he stayed up to see the Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres 7-4. Speaking from personal experience, as you age, your body loses the ability to sleep in. McCain’s internal clock probably still had him up and ready to go at 4:30 a.m.

The biggest heaping of blame in this whole ordeal should fall on the shoulders of Arizona right-hander Zack Greinke who needed 102 pitches to get through a laborious five innings. Greinke, who was handed a 5-2 lead should have been pitching to contact to keep the game moving and get the Senator in bed before his big day.

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What I’m getting at here is that this is all Major League Baseball’s fault. Rob Manfred has been hard at work attempting to speed the game up, but his efforts have been more ineffective than a congressional session on the eve of a recess. Do better, baseball. An American hero needs to be able to stay up to see his favorite team play without jeopardizing his performance in one of the most important hearings in American political history.