In baseball and in business, there are starting pitchers and there are relievers.

We’ve all seen the superstar performer who is great in a crisis and then sticks around for a year or so. But his or her heart really isn’t in it for the grinding away that it takes to succeed for the long haul.

In watching Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s performance on television before a House of Representatives panel on April 26 we began to think that he’s looking less and less like a person who is mentally equipped to pitch a complete game.

He was handed the ball in a moment of crisis and he apparently tried to operate to the fullest extent of his capabilities. But his ongoing battle with Congress over who did what to whom and at what price in September 2008 is no way to run the U.S. Treasury at a time when the longer-term issues of budget deficits and the plunging value of the dollar loom much larger on the horizon.

Time for President Obama to call the bullpen and get another pitcher in there. Preferably, somebody who can go the distance — and pitch a winning game.

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