Joe Buck: And now, Ken Griffey Jr. steps up to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 of the World Series. This could be the final at-bat of his incredible Major League Baseball career. The New York Mets lead the Seattle Mariners, 6 to 3, and a home run would win the game and the Series here, but I have a feeling that Cordero may walk him here.
Tim McCarver: The home crowd wouldn't like that, wouldn't want to see Ken Griffey Jr.'s career end with a walk, but that would probably be the safest thing to do is just to let that run score and make it a 6-4 game.
Buck: The pitch, and it's a fastball right down the middle, and Griffey doesn't even swing at it, strike one! It looks like Cordero's going to take his chances and pitch to him.
McCarver: Francisco Cordero has been the best closer in baseball this year, he's a big reason why the Mets won the pennant this year and why they're now two strikes away from a World Series championship.
Buck: Make that one strike, Griffey swings and misses and now the Mets are just one strike away!
McCarver: And there was a time when Griffey probably would have hit that ball, but age has caught up even to the mighty Ken Griffey, I would think, his swing is slower than it used to be during that incredible run in the 90s.
Buck: But he is still dangerous, he hit 26 home runs during the regular season and had that clutch home run in Game 6 of the ALCS to give the Mariners the lead against the Yankees in that back and forth game. Now here's the next pitch, and it's high and outside, Griffey doesn't swing and that's ball one.
McCarver: This crowd is on its feet.
Buck: There is not a single person sitting down here in Seattle. They're hoping that this team can pull off the miracle, down 6 games to 0 in the bottom of the 8th, and somehow, some way, they fought their way back with three big runs in the eighth, but Cordero has struck out two in this inning despite letting three runners on.
McCarver: Griffey, you can see, he wants to see one right down the middle, but Cordero won't make it easy for him.
Buck: The Mets have had the best pitching in the National League this year, they won 90 games and they've been the underdogs all October long, but right now just one strike away from their first World Series win since 1986.
McCarver: Cordero taking some time to think this through, he knows just how big of a moment this is right now.
Buck: Here's the pitch... Griffey hits it, and it's headed for left field! It's got the distance, but will it stay fair?
McCarver: Oh, my goodness!
Buck: It's at the warning track... it's a home run! Ken Griffey Jr., in the last at bat of his career... it's pandemonium here in Seattle! A grand slam home run to win the World Series, I don't believe it!
McCarver: That was the greatest home run in baseball history, can you believe it?
*Ken Griffey Jr. is practically skipping around the bases, taking his time as his team and the crowd goes crazy while Cordero collapses at the plate and puts his head in his cap. As soon as Griffey gets to home plate, he jumps on it and is mobbed by his entire team, all of them jumping up and down in exhilaration as Griffey kneels on the ground, sobbing. Despite the intense security, a few diehard Mariners fans trickle out of the stands onto the field, and this starts a chain reaction that security is helpless to stop. Thousands of Mariners fans pour onto the field and start celebrating with the team.*
Buck: The fans... the fans have invaded the field!
McCarver: Oh, my god, can you believe it?
Buck: All of Seattle must be celebrating right now!
*Despite the potentially chaotic situation, the fans pouring out onto the field are careful and well-behaved, and soon Griffey and the Mariners are surrounded in a mob of fans, all of them jumping up and down and screaming in joy.*
(...)
*Some 45 minutes later, after the fans have been cleared off the field and the celebration has become more subdued, Griffey and his team are presented with the world championship trophy. Griffey's dad is at his side, and Griffey is still emotional as he talks into the microphone.*
Ken Griffey Jr: I don't.... I don't even know what to say. I... I just love these guys so much. I love these fans so much. I wouldn't be here... if it wasn't for all these fans supporting me. And my dad. Oh... oh man. *hugs his dad tightly with one arm and the trophy with the other* I... if I had to retire... this... I couldn't even imagine it would be like this.
*The roar of the crowd is still extremely loud, Griffey can barely be heard over it.*
Griffey: I... I don't even... oh... oh man. *laughing, but also crying*
-from FOX's broadcast of Game 7 of the 2009 World Series on November 5, 2009
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As the Jon Huntsman administration neared the end of its first full year, Huntsman's focus was on entitlement reform and a continued effort to fix the ongoing recession. Huntsman knew that the holiday shopping season was growing near, and despite his desire for shrinking the size of the government and focusing on austerity, he knew that doing so at this time would likely cause consumers to tighten their belts, leading to a lean Christmas shopping season, lower retail profits, and an overall weaker economy. He instead decided to put entitlement reform on the backburner, addressing it in his 2010 State of the Union address and instead focusing on other issues such as federal judgeship appointments. Huntsman's approval ratings were still high, and with Republican majorities in both chambers, he made it his focus to leave a lasting judicial legacy by filling as many vacancies as he could. For the most part, he picked judges who were fiscally conservative and socially moderate, though he did pick a couple of social conservative judges to please his base, appointing them to courts that had previously seated socially conservative judges. Huntsman's judicial appointments all sailed through easily, with little meaningful opposition from Democrats. Huntsman used some of these appointments to mend fences with Nevada senator Penn Jillette, and the relationship between the two seemed to warm as Huntsman's nominees were confirmed. He also issued numerous executive orders that eliminated certain business regulations, most of them pertaining to small businesses. These executive orders drew sharp criticism from Congressional Democrats, who claimed that Huntsman was overstepping his bounds in order to reward his rich donors, but Huntsman claimed that these executive orders were meant to reduce the burden on small businesses, and even pointed to one of them as a proposal that Democrats supported during the Paul Wellstone campaign, a freeze on property foreclosures, though the freeze only applied to certain businesses under a narrow set of circumstances, and didn't give any relief to homeowners who were continuing to face foreclosure at a record pace. Huntsman also signed into law a bill that would expand the Pell Grant program for science students, though it simultaneously shrunk the number of student loans being given out by tightening financial requirements. Calling the bill the 21st Century Technology Education Grant Program, Huntsman said that the bill would help up to a million students get money for education if they went into certain STEM fields, and said that it was a trillion dollar investment in America's future. Some Republicans disliked the bill, saying that it was too big of an expense and that the already bloated federal budget couldn't handle it, but enough Democrats joined with the Republicans who did vote for the bill to offset the defectors. Huntsman also signed a pair of bills into law that would cut military spending over the next several years. It wasn't the across-the-board cut to military spending that Huntsman wanted, but it was a step toward Huntsman's promise to streamline the military while keeping it strong to face the next decade of foreign threats.
While much of the last few months of 2009 went smoothly for President Huntsman, there were some issues that arose to challenge him in the latter part of the year. Huntsman felt pressure from his socially conservative base on a number of issues surrounding LGBT relationships and religious recognition. Numerous states voted to allow gay marriage or civil unions on Election Day, bringing the total number of states where gay marriage was legal to 15 and the number of states allowing civil unions to seven. Huntsman affirmed his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman only, but also explicitly refused to support any kind of constitutional measure banning gay marriage, saying that it was an issue left up to the states. He did say he would be open to some kind of measure requiring gay marriage to be supported by voters in the states rather than being declared legal by courts, but stopped short of saying whether or not he would support such a measure or whether that would even be legal to do on a federal level. He also drew ire from social conservatives when he criticized a movement that had arisen during the holiday season to advocate the use of "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" by retailers, saying that he respected the other celebrations such as Hanukkah or Kwanzaa occurring during that time and stated that while he personally was preparing to celebrate Christmas at the White House, he wished his fellow Americans a happy holiday season whatever they chose to celebrate. Huntsman also had to deal with a number of tragedies, including a shooting at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in which an attacker snuck a gun past security and shot at a float where pop star Rihanna was performing. Rihanna was merely grazed on the arm, but two others on the float, as well as two paradegoers, were killed, and 12 people were injured, including two NYPD officers who assisted in taking down and killing the gunman. A note written by the shooter before the attack stated that the shooter intended to have his crimes broadcast to millions on television, but NBC's cameras went off the float just five seconds before the shooting started, preventing millions of viewers from seeing the carnage live. The shooting ignited a minor debate about gun control, but Huntsman, a staunch opponent of gun control, claimed that the shooting was merely an isolated and sad tragedy, and media coverage of the event faded fairly quickly. Another tragedy occurred in mid-December, as a massive blizzard stuck Colorado, claiming a total of 34 lives, including fourteen skiiers in an avalanche caused by record snowfall. Denver recorded its lowest temperature ever during the height of the blizzard, thirty degrees below zero. The storm moved into the Plains states and the Midwest, causing harsh snowfall and low temperatures there as well during the weekend before Christmas. It was a fairly quiet time for foreign affairs as well: Pakistan continued to be somewhat chaotic, and turmoil grew in Indonesia, but apart from the usual hotspots, there were no major terrorist attacks or crises during this time. In Europe, the recession that dominated the first half of the year seemed to subside somewhat, as EU leaders rejected austerity measures and instead approved stimulus packages designed to get consumers spending and employees back to work. French president Ségolène Royal led the charge, declaring that "we won't let the people who got us into this mess decide how we're going to get out of it", and despite sharp criticism from the American press, Royal was extremely popular in most of Europe, and France saw the fastest recovery of any European country. She would become Time's Person Of The Year for 2009, and though Jon Huntsman would be one of her sharpest critics, the two of them would maintain a cordial relationship as the 2000s ended.
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Katie Couric: Steve Jobs has been one of the most influential businessmen of the decade, introducing the world to a series of groundbreaking products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes, and as our correspondent Lindsay Zara shows us tonight, Jobs' reach extends all the way around the globe, including the country of Japan, where he's planning one of the biggest Apple business expansions to date. With more on that story, here's Lindsay Zara.
*Tokyo is shown at night, its buildings lit up as cars and people move down the busy streets.*
Lindsay Zara: *narrating* Tokyo, Japan. The largest city in the world, home to hundreds of the world's most important businesses.
*Citizens of Tokyo are shown with their iPhones and iPods, listening to music, talking to friends, or playing video games.*
Zara: Apple has a major presence here, thanks to products like the iPhone and the iTwin, which lead the worldwide smartphone and video game markets respectively. You can't go anywhere in Tokyo without seeing the ubiquitous Apple logo, and soon, Apple may have a physical presence in Tokyo as well. Steve Jobs has visited the country numerous times this year, both to promote Apple's latest products, and also to negotiate a key business deal that may soon see a new Apple headquarters located in Japan, tasked with pushing Apple products all across Asia. Jobs is currently in talks with Japanese leaders about a deal that will bring Apple's international corporate headquarters here. Though Apple's primary operations would remain in America, the Tokyo facility would handle business and manufacturing for many of the foreign countries Apple does business with. It's a measure that would prevent shortages like the one in 2007 and early 2008 that prevented Japanese consumers from acquiring products like the iPhone and iTwin, which were readily available across North America and Europe.
*Jobs is shown with two Japanese teenagers, letting them take their picture with him on their new iPhone.*
Zara: Steve Jobs himself is extremely popular in Japan, to the point where a pseudo-cult of personality has developed around him.
*A video on a Japanese website of an anime-esque Steve Jobs dancing to a cute song is briefly shown, along with footage of an anime show where Jobs appears to bestow an iPhone on the protagonist.*
Zara: This can be heavily attributed to the popularity of the iTwin, the first major console by a non-Japanese company to be successful in the country. The iTwin has sold even more units here than the Nintendo Sapphire, a joint production between Nintendo and Sony, two titans of Japanese industry. The iPod and iPhone, both of which can also play their own lineup of video games, are also majorly successful in Japan, with most young people owning either one or both of the devices. This has made it somewhat easier for Japanese political and business leaders to be accepting of Jobs, though he still has strong opposition from some Japanese leaders, who see Apple as a threat to domestic electronics companies such as Sony. There was similar opposition six years ago to Apple's acquisition of a major portion of Japanese video game company Sega, an acquisition that had to overcome numerous regulatory hurdles. However, if you ask the average person on the street here in Tokyo what they think of Apple, the answers are much more enthusiastic.
Girl: I love my iPhone! *holding it up excitedly* I love Apple!
*A group of teenage boys in Shinjuku all hold up their iPhones and iPod Plays.*
Boy: The iPhone, it can do pretty much anything.
Boy #2: Steve Jobs is awesome!
Boy #3: I love playing Sonic the Hedgehog on my iPhone, I would love to see Apple come here and make more games. I want to see the next model of the iPhone launch here in Japan first.
Zara: And while it's doubtful that Japan will ever see a majority of Apple's business, its success here is an encouraging sign for the continued success of the company, and one of the major reasons why Apple has performed extremely well during the recent economic recession. Its stock price has increased by 157% during 2009, going from 28.09 at the start of the year up to 72.19, while rival Microsoft saw stock prices drop by 7%.
-from the December 10, 2009 episode of the NBC Nightly News
