tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-287326262024-02-07T20:08:08.212-05:00The Governor's SoxA collection of e-mails, events, et cetera pertaining to New England Baseball.Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-41382894090601947952012-04-16T14:02:00.001-04:002012-06-26T08:49:53.373-04:00Jackie Robinson's Fenway Tryout<br />
On this day, April 16, 1945, the Red Sox held a work out for three Negro League players at Fenway Park. Of the three players, only Jackie Robinson achieved great success in baseball. The irony of this day is if none of the players had been Jackie Robinson, there might be more known about the event itself. That is, a more accurate depiction of the day would be available if the details were not confused by politics.<br />
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Instead, because of Robinson's involvement and his subsequent role in integrating Major League Baseball, that day has been used by many to illustrate the prejudice that existed at that time. Long ignored has been the work of the many forward thinking men that made that tryout happen.<br />
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I'll write their stories here in the near future including the efforts of Councilman Isadore Muchnick and his misunderstood role in forcing this tryout.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For now, enjoy John Thorn's three part series "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/04/15/jackie-robinsons-signing-the-real-story/">Jackie Robinson’s Signing: The Real Story</a>".</span></span>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-77697824977652300072011-08-22T20:42:00.000-04:002012-06-26T16:10:09.693-04:00George Kimball on the Jackie Robinson Tryout with the Red Sox<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">[If you don’t care too much about
the details of the Fenway Park tryout of three Negro Leaguers on April 16, 1945,
please skip my rambling preamble and go right to George Kimball’s email response far
below.]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.georgekimball.com/images/Georges-BDay2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.georgekimball.com/images/Georges-BDay2.jpg" width="279" /></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">To be frank I was unfamiliar
with <a href="http://www.georgekimball.com/">George Kimball's work</a> when
I read a column he wrote for the <i>Irish Times </i>entitled "<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0326/1224243451368.html">Boston
cursed by their own racist policy</a>". [It’s available at the link by
subscription only. If you don't have a subscription or proquest access, email
me and I'll send you the story.] Later, when I read a little bit about him, I
recognized him as a Boston writer I vaguely knew; I probably even read him
before. But I'm terrible at reading and worse at remembering whom I've read.
So I judged the story for what it was, yet another take on the tryout of three
Negro League players by the Red Sox on April 16, 1945, and how it related to
the reputation for racial tension the city of Boston harbored for lo these many
years. That I was very familiar with.
I’d even written <a href="http://professorthoms.blogspot.com/2011/03/otey-and-jackie-unlikely-rivalry-i-was.html">a
bit about it myself</a> and planned on writing a lot more.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Unfortunately, Kimball's story was
no better than 90% of the stories on the subject. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">First of all, it was too short. It
felt like he knew more about what happened, but chose not to go into it. Instead he wrote one sentence paragraphs - like
bullet points in the outline of a draft - drawing a bland description of a much less than bland event. Also, when it came to
details, he repeated some of the same tired assumptions and mistakes many past
writers on the tryout have. Other than a few wrinkles he added, which were so
new I thought he had to have just made them up, Kimball basically wrote a
piece that couldn't stand out from any amateur blogger's take on the tryout.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The new wrinkles though were enough
to compel me to reach out to him just on the off chance there was some truth to
them.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">For one, he was sure Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was in fact at the tryout. There weren't any sources other than
Kimball's, as far as I knew, which could confirm Yawkey's presence there that
day. Most had assumed he was there, because it was his team and his
ballpark, and why wouldn't he have been there? But Kimball said, "</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Thomas A
Yawkey, the millionaire sportsman who owned the ball club, arrived later."
That was more than just an assumption; he was there, according to Kimball. That
implied to me that he had direct evidence to the fact. I asked him what it was.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Next, Kimball mentioned that Sam
Jethroe, one of the three players to tryout out, confirmed to him that the
mysterious shout from the grandstand shadows, "Get those niggers off the
field", actually happened. That was news to me too. I had read
everything I could find written on the subject, and I had never found
anything where Jethroe said it had happened. The truth was, there was not
one confirmed witness to the tryout who ever claimed to have heard it. Jackie
Robinson never said it happened. And the other player, Marvin Williams, said he
never heard it. The third man, Sam Jethroe, suddenly spoke up from his grave.
I had to know where this interview happened.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Lastly, Kimball wrote that the
former <i>Boston Globe</i> reporter, Clif Keane, the only man ever to
have claimed to have heard the slur said in person, pinned the tale on Yawkey,
General Manager Eddie Collins or Manager Joe Cronin. I've read two accounts
from Keane on that day. In the first one, in an interview he did with Larry
Whiteside of the <i>Boston Globe</i> in 1979, he said he didn't know
who said it. The second account came in Dan Shaughnessey’s book, "The
Curse of the Bambino", where Keane said, "It wasn't Yawkey. Yawkey
wouldn't do that." I assumed Kimball was just being sloppy here by
remembering that Keane claimed to have heard it, but not bothering to research
the text of the claim. Then again, I thought Kimball likely knew Keane
and could have spoken about it with him himself.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I wrote Kimball an email with
those three questions and received back a column of my own via email, much
better and more complete than the <i>Irish Times</i> piece. In it,
Kimball backed off of all of the claims slightly. He even told me he researched
the subject before writing me. Well, I researched Kimball in the meantime, and
was flattered such an accomplished writer admired by so many of his peers, took
the time to write me the fascinating account below.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Kimball not only offered some new
information about the tryout, but a terrific treatment about the subject in
general from a man who was at times both a Boston insider and an outcast.<u1:p></u1:p> His perspective was genuine and he even wrapped
his narrative around a Bill “The Spaceman” Lee story. (He had me at Bill Lee.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the email, he doubted himself
and doubted the stories he'd heard. He retraced his steps and retold the tale.
He drew on his experience as a writer and friend of sports to uncork the spirit
of the tryout, its legacy and effect on how we write about it. It was
perfect.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The truth was that Kimball
discussed the tryout all of about three minutes with Sam Jethroe in a New York
City bar in 1980. It wasn't an interview. It was a coincidence. Jethroe
happened to walk into the bar, he said, and the tryout came up over drinks.
At that time, the tryout wasn't thought of as important in any way. It wasn't
until later, when writers tied the Red Sox's missed opportunity to sign Jackie
Robinson with a long, poor record on race relations by the team. Then, the
tryout became the origin story of a super villain who would not die. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">His account of that day was
terrific. It was graceful and personal. It was even plausible, yet I was
disappointed, because Kimball's story in the <i>Irish Times,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>by comparison<i>, </i>seemed
ghost-written. It had no guts. It made false claims. It had easy facts wrong,
like the year of Jackie Robinson’s debut. He even gave complete
credibility to Clif Keane’s account in it, yet told me later that he had never
spoken with him about the tryout and completely hated him, and then went so far
as to blame Keane himself for uttering the slur! </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">He explained that Jethroe never
explicitly said he heard the slur shouted. And he really had no proof Yawkey
was at the ball park other than remembering Jethroe saying it.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<u1:p></u1:p>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">So why the change in tenor?<br />
<br />
<u1:p></u1:p>The problem with his<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Irish<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i><i>Times</i> piece became obvious at its end. Despite his insistence
to me that it was a column and therefore somehow entitled to opinion, it was
actually a sort of advertisement for his friend’s book on the subject of the
Red Sox and race, “It Was Never About the Babe: The Red Sox, Racism,
Mismanagement, and the Curse of the Bambino” by Jerry M. Gutlon. Near the end
of the story, he made an awkward segue from the World Baseball Classic to a
pitch for the baseball book. Just before disclosing that he’d known Gutlon
for decades, he called the book “a comprehensive accumulation of anecdotal
evidence delivered from that perspective”. “Anecdotal evidence” is not exactly
the stuff of source material. And Kimball had referred to it before
writing me back.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<u1:p></u1:p>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">To be sure “It Was Never About the
Babe” was heavy on anecdotes and light on evidence. In it, facts were replaced
with urban legends and the most repeated myths about the Red Sox. Yet people
bought it and read it and believed it and, sometimes, reprinted its contents.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">By all accounts, Kimball was a
great story teller, and I’m sure he appreciated Gutlon’s anecdotal approach to
history. But it was obvious to me from
Kimball’s response that he cared and understood quite a bit about the facts
surrounding the Robinson tryout, and maybe even regretted not delving into it
more himself. It’s too bad he never did interview Jethroe formally, or
give up his grudge with Keane long enough to cross examine him. He could
have written the authoritative piece on the tryout and what it really meant to
the Red Sox.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<u1:p></u1:p>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">George E. Kimball III died on July 6
of esophageal cancer at the age of 67. His email to me was
written while in very poor health, just a few months before his
passing. Of the many writers who praised his work, I think </span><span style="color: #272727; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Charles P.
Pierce, a former colleague at the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Boston Phoenix</i>, remembered him
best in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Boston Globe</i>:
<a href="http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-08/sports/29752674_1_boxing-eliot-lounge-cranks">George
Kimball, 1943-2011</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I'm glad that, as far as I know,
this letter was his last take on the tryout. But I'm sorry it's being reprinted
as a testimonial.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>I’m sharing
it because I thought it should be public record for anyone interested in
Kimball, the Robinson tryout or just good writing.<u1:p></u1:p> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Enjoy.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">chris wertz</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at
10:15 AM, George Kimball, "gek3rd@aol.com" wrote:</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">HI Chris,</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">First of all, The Irish
Times piece was written as a column, not an article, and while I have reason to
believe everything in it to be accurate (with one nagging exception, which I’ll
get to later), there’s no smoking gun here, but I’ll try to provide you with
what I know and what I <i>think</i> I know, but bear in mind that
nearly as much time has elapsed since I met Sam Jethroe as had gone by since he
was part of the Fenway Park tryout then.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I wish I could retrieve
the pretty extensive collection of notes I assembled for Jerry Gutlon a few
years ago, but I can’t even find that. It may have been on one of this
computer’s predecessors. As have you, I’m sure, I’ve also looked back at four
separate accounts – Gutlon’s book, as well as Howard Bryant’s, Glenn Stout’s,
and Mark Armor’s – in an attempt not just to reconstruct the episode, but to
refresh in my mind my own thought processes when I wrote the column. (Obviously
I wouldn’t have relied on Jerry as a source on the subject, since in point of
fact I was one of his.) I know I’ve talked about the Robinson/Jethroe/Williams
“tryout” with Glenn as well, though not recently, and I’ve exchanged emails
with Clark Booth and Leigh Montville.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I can’t pinpoint the
date of the Jethroe encounter, but it should be pretty easy for you to track
down if you’re so disposed. It was in 1980, on the night before Bill Lee was to
have appeared before Bowie Kuhn to hear his appeal after Kuhn fined him for
saying he sprinkled marijuana on his pancakes. A couple of lawyer friends of
Bill’s and mine were representing him <i>pro bono</i>, and had prepared
some pretty extensive briefs challenging the ruling on both first amendment and
procedural grounds that I imagine would have succeeded in pretty much any court
the case got to, if it ever had. Kuhn was a lawyer himself and I
imagine he pretty much knew his legal position was constitutionally hopeless.
In pre-hearing conference that day the commissioner’s office had made it clear
that they didn’t want to make a big deal of this and just wanted it to go away
quietly without them losing face or diminishing the authority of the office. By
the time we got to New York, they’d already brokered a settlement where Bill would
pay a $250 fine, but he could donate it to any charity of his choice, so he
wound up donating it to some cause he’d have contributed to anyway, and that
was the end of it. I vaguely recall that it may have been some Eskimo mission.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">So now we’re in New York
-- me, Lee, a couple of lawyers (Alan Silber, who lives here, and Mary John
Boylan, who’d come down with me from Boston. I knew her through the Ted Kennedy
campaign, and she would not long afterward be appointed Assistant US attorney
for Massachusetts) and a ten-pound stack of briefs that have already been
rendered obsolete and are never going to see the light of day. It was a bit
late to turn around and fly back to Boston, so we stayed the night as planned
at the Gramercy Park Hotel, and that night we all went out to dinner at the
Lions’s Head, which was my longtime saloon in New York.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">We were there all night,
first eating and then drinking at table in the back room. Later in the evening,
either one of the bartenders or Wes Joice, the owner, brought back Sam Jethroe
and introduced us, so he joined the party and we sat there talking for a couple
more hours. I honestly couldn’t tell you how Jethroe came to be there, but
Monte Irvin sometimes hung out at the Lion’s Head and was a friend of Wes’s.
It’s possible that they came in together and Monte had left, or maybe Monte
recommended the place, or maybe Monte had nothing to do with it and Jethroe
just happened in. At least a couple of the bartenders were Boston guys who’d
grown up in his era and would have recognized Sam Jethroe by sight. In any
case, they knew we were there and brought Sam back. They figured we’d all hit
it off and they were right.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">A couple of things here:
One is that I came from an era in which it wasn’t that unusual for
sportswriters to socialize with ballplayers. It almost never happens now
because the relationship has become essentially adversarial, but I hung out and
drank with and chased women with a lot of the Red Sox guys in the 70s, and it
was always clearly understood that what happened in the bar stayed in the bar.
This didn’t mean that if something really newsworthy came up I wouldn’t have
written about it, but under those circumstances I’d have felt obliged to clear
it with the payer first. So I wasn’t taking notes or anything. This was just
baseball banter and reminiscence conducted over many drinks, and in fact the
subject of the Fenway tryout actually consumed a relatively small part of the
night’s conversation. So when you ask if it was on the record or off the
record, that never came up, because neither of us in any sense regarded it as
an “interview.”</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Two, I didn’t realize at
the time, and didn’t for many years, how little Sam had said on the record
about the 1945 tryout. His part in all of my anecdotal knowledge was so widely
known that I assumed he must have addressed it many times. If I’d known then
that this might be some sort of breakthrough revelation or that I was onto some
kind of exclusive, I imagine I’d have at least asked Sam if it was OK if I
wrote about it, or quoted him. I figured at the time he was just saying things
he’d said many times before, and in fact he probably had – just not in the
presence of a newspaperman.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">And three, I can’t be
absolutely certain of this without knowing the date, but I think this occurred
within the stretch of about four months between the time I left the Phoenix and
signed a contract at the Herald when I wasn’t even working for a paper, so it
wasn’t as if I started rubbing my paws together thinking “Wow, this might make
a neat column tomorrow,” because I’d have had no place for it to run anyway.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">At some point the
conversation turned to the tryout. I don’t remember that Sam said he had
actually heard the “get those niggers off the field” line, but there didn’t
seem to be any question in his mind that it had been uttered. (By then it
admittedly was such a thoroughly accepted part of the lore, particularly in the
black community that he would have believed it anyway.) His reasoning was that
Yawkey had arrived at the park late, and when he did, the whole tryout came to
a screeching halt; I think Sam never even got a chance to hit that day, so he’s
saying something like ‘They bring you all this way and don’t even watch you hit
and then they call it a <i>tryout</i>?’ To him it had been a dog and pony
show, a charade, and to be honest, Jethroe seemed more bitter about the waste
of time and the essential dishonesty of the exercise than about the verbal line
and the use of the ‘N’ word. He’d have been used to that. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The official excuse made
for cutting the workout short, by the way, was that the team “had a train to
catch.” Joe Cronin, obviously, had to be on it; I don’t know whether Eddie
Collins was going on the trip or not. The beat writers who were there would also
have been taking the same train. But Fenway isn’t that far from South Station,
and I think the train actually was leaving in a couple of hours.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">So if it was said, who
said it? Cronin had been there throughout the tryout, although by most accounts
he wasn’t exactly attentive. It wouldn’t have made any sense for him to
suddenly blurt out something like that, and besides, a lot of people would have
heard him – even some of the <i>black</i> writers were sitting with
him, or near him, and would have known where it came from. I can’t be sure of
this, but I believe even Muchnick was also near Cronin, and it isn’t
something <i>he </i>would have let gone unnoted. I don’t <i>know</i> that
Collins was in the <i>stands</i> at the time the remark was uttered
but in every account I’ve read he was at Fenway Park when the tryout started,
and at Fenway Park when it was over, which is why I placed him there. (On their
way out, Collins told the guys that they would hear from him, or from the Red
Sox, but of course they never did.) But for whatever reason, the whole exercise
was cut short and everybody was suddenly running around picking up equipment
and hurrying Jethroe, Robinson, and Williams off the field, so it obviously
hadn’t a wisecrack from a groundskeeper, which is another story you hear. If you
accept that somebody said it – and Jethroe, as I said, didn’t seem to doubt
that it was said – then it stood to reason it had to have been Yawkey.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Bill Lee loved Yawkey,
and that night he argued that it would have been very out of character for the
man he knew to say something like that. Sam said something like – and I may
paraphrasing here -- “Well, if it wasn’t him, who was it? Because when he said
‘Get those niggers off the field,’ they chased us niggers right off the field.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">In looking through what
I have available, my basis was for saying in the story that Clif Keane believed
it was “either Cronin, Collins, or Yawkey” appears to have been Mark Armour’s
biography of Joe Cronin. In every account other I could find, Keane either says
it was Yawkey, or that he thought it was Yawkey.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">And in answer to your
other question, Keane never told <i>me </i>anything. I quit speaking
to the asshole at least 35 years ago and never regretted it.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Which brings me back to
the one troubling aspect of the whole story. I didn’t know Tom Yawkey well, but
Lee is right in that “Get those niggers off the field” doesn’t have the ring of
something Yawkey would have said, at least aloud, even if it was what he was
thinking. On the other hand, it sounds <i>exactly</i> like
something Clif Keane would have said, trying to get a laugh, and was easily
within the man’s capabilities to have said it himself and then tried to put the
words in somebody else’s mouth.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I’d be prepared to
entertain that possibility but for one thing, which is that it resulted in a
precipitate and unscheduled conclusion to the events. So unless you believe
“Get those niggers off the field” to have been some fanciful urban legend – and
there are those who claim that it was – Jethroe’s version of the experience
seems to me the most persuasive.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I don’t think there’s
any question that the tryout was a sham to get Muchnick off the team’s back and
that the Red Sox would never considered signing any of the players no matter
what they’d shown at Fenway that day, but this reflected an institutional bias,
not some pervasive anti-black sentiment in the city of Boston. Yawkey might
have been the most conspicuous anti-integrationist among team owners of his
era, but there were a lot of other owners who shared his view, and the racial
discontent that would later characterize Boston was still decades away. (Look
where Jethroe played when he finally did get to the majors.) Cronin was right
about one thing when he later pointed out that the Sox would have had no place
to send him even if they had signed Jackie Robinson. The major league season
had already started, and their triple-A team was in Louisville. If Jackie had a
rough ride in Montreal, imagine what <i>that</i> experience would
have been like!</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hope this helps,</span><br />
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">George Kimball</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;">[In the interest of
full disclosure, I have to say that I interviewed Alan Silber, Mary John Boylan
and Bill Lee in the last couple of days, and, although they all remembered drinking together at the fabled Lion's Head on that night in 1980, none remembered Sam Jethroe being there.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;">In fact, two of them, Lee and Silber, were sure he </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">wasn't</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"> there. But they all said that they missed George Kimball very much.]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-37000032033120114162011-08-19T11:33:00.003-04:002011-08-19T11:42:11.491-04:00The Spaceman Film is Taking Off!Hello Bill Lee Backers,<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.quotationsofwisdom.com/portraits/Bill_Lee_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.quotationsofwisdom.com/portraits/Bill_Lee_002.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The word from the makers of the new Spaceman film is good, very good. They've reached their initial goal and then some, and are moving full speed ahead. See the update below and click through to the Kickstarter page. Kudos to all of you who helped. Why not join Bill for a drink in Boston on Monday?<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Dear Backers - Thanks to you, we did it ... and we're still going! Nearly 30,000 projects have launched (or attempted to launch) by way of KickStarter since 2009, and HAVE GLOVE, WILL TRAVEL is earning its stripes amongst the best of them. So far we have raised over $40k, exceeding our minimum goal of $37k in 37 days. Currently we are working on the details for SPACE CAMP, and making a final push to end the campaign with a BANG. There are just a few spots left for Bill's Inaugural event. We are hosting a special dinner event with Bill at Anchovies Restaurant in Boston's South End (433 Columbus Ave between Braddock Park &amp; Holyoke St) this coming Monday, starting at 6pm. The Spaceman will be there giving a play-by-play of the Red Sox game, we'll be holding a silent auction, and ringing a not so silent gong. If you're in the Boston area, drop by for what promises to be a great night of baseball, food, and drinks. ONE WEEK TO GO then it's on to phase two - let the games begin. In sincere gratitude, Brett</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1967598918/have-glove-will-travel-the-bill-spaceman-lee-movie" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank">http://www.kickstarter.com/<wbr></wbr>projects/1967598918/have-<wbr></wbr>glove-will-travel-the-bill-<wbr></wbr>spaceman-lee-movie</a></span></blockquote>
Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-32009259232342815522011-07-25T16:51:00.002-04:002012-04-16T14:05:33.114-04:00The Integration of Fenway Park<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>n July 21, the day was marked, as it is most years, with stories describing the anniversary of the 1959 debut of the Red Sox first black player, Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green. That event is remembered yearly because it happened an astounding twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in April, 1947. Many writers took this opportunity to vilify the ghosts of Red Sox past for being at the lead of discrimination in a racist institution. Others allowed the shame to be passed on to the citizens of Boston at the time for not demanding a rapid change. Regardless of where the blame belongs, the sad truth is that instead of Green’s place in history being celebrated as an accomplishment, his belated promotion in 1959 marks the end of the segregation era for Major League Baseball, and leaves the Red Sox with the appalling distinction of being the last team to field a black player. That fact should not be seen as an indictment of Sox fans or the city in general. Many Bostonians were eager to see equality finally come to baseball, and were actively campaigning to achieve it. When the first black Major Leaguer came to the plate at Fenway Park on this day in 1947, he was greeted as no visiting player was before. He was applauded every inning.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibx1vBhnA3fp2VMUThGyBtqtOn6q6Eoae0rG4Lew3GaqODXfsERYirCRYxFiEeesE_8TdK7vJLfAn62hVTxEIt7fWE9iqAGLdnqsjaBjZNt9Yj1_cMTJd5cBIOBefoJgZipX20/s1600/Willard+Brown+Browns2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibx1vBhnA3fp2VMUThGyBtqtOn6q6Eoae0rG4Lew3GaqODXfsERYirCRYxFiEeesE_8TdK7vJLfAn62hVTxEIt7fWE9iqAGLdnqsjaBjZNt9Yj1_cMTJd5cBIOBefoJgZipX20/s200/Willard+Brown+Browns2.jpg" width="161" /></a>Hall of Famer, Willard “Home Run” Brown was 32-years-old and had a reputation as a slugging outfielder for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League, when he was chosen to be one of four black players signed by the St. Louis Browns in 1947. St. Louis was desperate for homeruns and home fans, and they thought that Brown could help them with both. He made his Major League debut against the Red Sox in St. Louis, on July 19, but it wasn’t until July 25 that he integrated Fenway Park by being the first black Major Leaguer to play there. When he came to bat in the second inning, 34,059 fans stood to applaud him. Brown responded with a line-drive double off of the center field wall. When he trotted out to right field at the end of the inning, they applauded again. And again, when he batted for the second time, they applauded. Brown smashed his second double of the night (the second of his career). With each plate appearance, and each time he took his position in right field, the Fenway faithful greeted Willard Brown with cheers which grew as the game progressed. </div>
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According to Jack Barry of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Evening Globe</i>, "[Brown] received a fine ovation from the crowd as he trotted to his right field position at the close of each round." </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsP7AlRPpj2QeW02ENSUJYCjV52lo__X0bVoXCImpFKZxODFXXO-CseFuZNAXpaROhIY8NOIzB0nRsqX4I5Afheqv21N4pW1XQ_RzzGBvHCD3d0miFAjkslQOb14AM7NouNwdS/s1600/Willard-Brown-Photo-Scoring.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsP7AlRPpj2QeW02ENSUJYCjV52lo__X0bVoXCImpFKZxODFXXO-CseFuZNAXpaROhIY8NOIzB0nRsqX4I5Afheqv21N4pW1XQ_RzzGBvHCD3d0miFAjkslQOb14AM7NouNwdS/s200/Willard-Brown-Photo-Scoring.gif" width="179" /></a>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i> reported, "Willard Brown, the cat-walking Negro rightfielder of the Browns, who runs like a hurried panther, last night earned some of the loudest cheering <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city> has given to a visiting ball player here in years." </div>
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Jack Malaney of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Post</i> was equally impressed: "The crowd received him almost as they would Doerr or DiMaggio so far as applause was concerned, and credit for something done." </div>
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The overwhelming turnout and warm welcome given to Willard Brown at Fenway could have been interpreted by Red Sox ownership as a clear sign that integrating the home team would not result in low attendance. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQv7g4mGgdHAa3cknK9NIgH7R_mKyCr814VhfaJNUbh1XNa3sbjgXnOhsPrPSWcOO2YqdrSiwRJWUvUbMrBN8Ko4jJgEaCcIcK2rLINySDefy70ZMvEE4MggZqRRDPkpv5Kkz2/s1600/Willard-Brown-Cartoon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQv7g4mGgdHAa3cknK9NIgH7R_mKyCr814VhfaJNUbh1XNa3sbjgXnOhsPrPSWcOO2YqdrSiwRJWUvUbMrBN8Ko4jJgEaCcIcK2rLINySDefy70ZMvEE4MggZqRRDPkpv5Kkz2/s200/Willard-Brown-Cartoon.gif" width="194" /></a>In fact, Dave Egan, the firebrand of Boston sportswriters, writing in the July 28 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Record</i>, seized on the fanfare and prodded the baseball owners of the town to integrate the sport locally. He dared them to not allow Boston to be “traitors to our heritage.” He even noticed how perfect a fit Brown’s right-handed swing would have been for Fenway’s wall, and wondered if Sox owner Tom Yawkey heard the applause. Perhaps, he hadn’t.</div>
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Although the Boston Braves were among the first teams to integrate, the Red Sox languished nearly twelve years after Willard Brown’s historic debut at Fenway. When Pumpsie Green made his own debut in Boston on August 4, 1959, the fans were true to form that day, receiving him as they had Willard “Home Run” Brown, with loud applause and appreciation. He too answered the standing ovation with a base hit.</div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-46443073220675916572011-05-18T13:27:00.001-04:002011-05-18T13:27:52.624-04:00Adrian Gonzalez-san<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJl8O654VDcHzra37ciNFfSJwTzpAbhZTj-SOYQ5wfbXqlLzRZidJcSbvOUuWzo2Gu2pq7hg0435YsEtbkhjAp9-NZwjzS0T1SYdwiPwzOQ8gnCtQdTQ-FZJeii3hrzQQwU80/s1600/30velav.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJl8O654VDcHzra37ciNFfSJwTzpAbhZTj-SOYQ5wfbXqlLzRZidJcSbvOUuWzo2Gu2pq7hg0435YsEtbkhjAp9-NZwjzS0T1SYdwiPwzOQ8gnCtQdTQ-FZJeii3hrzQQwU80/s400/30velav.gif" width="400" /></a></div>Kampai! Gonzalez,conjured his inner Ichiro in belting this three-run homer.<br />
<a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/10804/ichiro-gonzalez-believe-it">Read here</a>.Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-23397870802627039392011-05-17T17:12:00.001-04:002011-05-18T13:17:58.499-04:00Radioactive Item Found in BostonUpdate: This turned out to be a link from some old surveying equipment. <br />
<br />
This is the only news I've seen of it so far:<br />
<br />
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<div class="stream-item" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgba(0, 153, 185, 0.0976563); background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 153, 185, 0.148438); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgba(0, 153, 185, 0.148438); border-right-color: rgba(0, 153, 185, 0.148438); border-top-color: rgba(0, 153, 185, 0.148438); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; color: #444444; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -1px; min-height: 60px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="stream-item-content tweet stream-tweet simple-tweet " data-item-id="70594935283392513" data-screen-name="AlertNewEngland" data-tweet-id="70594935283392513" data-user-id="90203692" style="font-size: 15px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative; zoom: 1;"><div class="tweet-image simple-tweet-image" style="float: left; height: 48px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 3px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 40px;"><img alt="Steve" class="user-profile-link" data-user-id="90203692" height="32" src="http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/1082190609/2312136181_cd8c1a6718_b_normal.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: rgb(0, 153, 185) !important; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="32" /></div><div class="tweet-content simple-tweet-content" style="font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 48px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="tweet-row" style="display: block; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="tweet-user-name" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="90203692" href="http://twitter.com/#!/AlertNewEngland" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 185) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Steve">AlertNewEngland</a> <span class="tweet-full-name" style="color: #999999; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Steve</span> </span><br />
<div class="tweet-corner" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="tweet-meta" style="color: #999999; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="icons" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span><br />
<div class="extra-icons" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 0px;"><span class="icons" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="reply-icon icon" style="background-image: url(http://a2.twimg.com/a/1305324702/phoenix/img/sprite-icons.png); background-position: -32px -96px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: medium; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: -9999px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 14px;">@</span> <span class="inlinemedia-icons" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span></span></div></div></div></div><div class="tweet-row" style="display: block; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="tweet-text pretty-link" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><a class=" twitter-atreply" data-screen-name="tplants" href="http://twitter.com/tplants" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099b9; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="at" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 0.5; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">@</span><span class="at-text" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">tplants</span></a> From the BFD radios.</div></div><div class="tweet-row" style="display: block; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><a class="tweet-timestamp" href="http://twitter.com/#!/AlertNewEngland/status/70594935283392513" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 185) !important; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="5:01 PM May 17th"><span class="_timestamp" data-long-form="true" data-time="1305666118000" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">9 minutes ago</span></a> <span class="tweet-actions" data-tweet-id="70594935283392513" style="font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; visibility: visible;"><a class="favorite-action" href="http://twitter.com/#" style="color: #0099b9; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Favorite"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a2.twimg.com/a/1305324702/phoenix/img/sprite-icons.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: -32px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 15px; margin-bottom: -3px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-indent: -99999px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></i><b style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Favorite</b></span></a> <a class="retweet-action" href="http://twitter.com/#" style="color: #0099b9; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Retweet"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a2.twimg.com/a/1305324702/phoenix/img/sprite-icons.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: -176px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 15px; margin-bottom: -3px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-indent: -99999px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></i><b style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Retweet</b></span></a> <a class="reply-action" data-screen-name="AlertNewEngland" href="http://twitter.com/#" style="color: #0099b9; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Reply"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a2.twimg.com/a/1305324702/phoenix/img/sprite-icons.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 15px; margin-bottom: -3px; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-indent: -99999px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></i><b style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Reply</b></span></a></span></div><div class="tweet-row" style="display: block; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"></div></div></div></div><div class="stream-item" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 60px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="stream-item-content tweet stream-tweet simple-tweet tweet-retweeted" data-item-id="70593908467433472" data-my-retweet-id="70596847848263680" data-screen-name="AlertNewEngland" data-tweet-id="70593908467433472" data-user-id="90203692" style="font-size: 15px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative; zoom: 1;"><div class="tweet-dogear tweet-dogear-rt" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://a2.twimg.com/a/1305324702/phoenix/img/tweet-dogear.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px -50px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; height: 25px; left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 24px;"></div><div class="tweet-image simple-tweet-image" style="float: left; height: 48px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 3px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 40px;"><img alt="Steve" class="user-profile-link" data-user-id="90203692" height="32" src="http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/1082190609/2312136181_cd8c1a6718_b_normal.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="32" /></div><div class="tweet-content simple-tweet-content" style="font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 48px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="tweet-row" style="display: block; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="tweet-user-name" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="90203692" href="http://twitter.com/#!/AlertNewEngland" style="color: #0099b9; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Steve">AlertNewEngland</a> <span class="tweet-full-name" style="color: #999999; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Steve</span> </span><br />
<div class="tweet-corner" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="tweet-meta" style="color: #999999; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="icons" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span><br />
<div class="extra-icons" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 0px;"><span class="icons" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="inlinemedia-icons" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span></span></div></div></div></div><div class="tweet-row" style="display: block; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="tweet-text pretty-link" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">Boston, MA: u/d Radioactive item is isolated at 10 Causeway St (Federal Building), command requesting response be upgraded to a Level 3.</div></div></div></div></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-67962357475954344652011-04-28T10:04:00.000-04:002011-04-28T10:04:26.980-04:00$9 Flights to Boston?Johnny Went to Boston.<br />
Johnny Went to Town.<br />
Watch out Johnny-wait a minute. Johnny paid 9 bucks? Ok, you can't fly to Boston for $9, because you have to buy a return trip ticket to Newark. Hell, blow off the flight back if you want and it's $18 for one-way.<br />
<br />
Today only this deal is available here (<a href="http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/cheap-flights/newark-new-jersey-ewr-to-boston-massachusetts-bos/?fare_id=242672&r=&h=4174401079de9711a801d403b57a0dc6&n=7591207&u=FE5A6E5D01&argschk=1&source=nl_awd-route_primary-fare&ns=1">Wicked Good Flying Deal</a>). Fly from Newark, NJ to Boston, and back for less than $20. Have fun!<br />
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If you buy this, let me know. I still don't believe it.Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-23697302987458091982011-04-20T13:49:00.000-04:002011-04-20T13:49:00.560-04:00RED SOX ANNOUNCE PREPARATIONS FOR 2012 CELEBRATION OF FENWAY PARK’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For Immediate Release</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">April 20, 2011</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;">RED SOX ANNOUNCE PREPARATIONS FOR 2012 CELEBRATION OF</span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;">FENWAY</span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;"> PARK</span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;">’S 100<sup>TH</sup> ANNIVERSARY</span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Club Invites Fans and Community to Join Planning Effort</span></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;">BOSTON</span></span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">, MA—</span></b>The Red Sox today provided fans with a preview of preparations for the celebration of Fenway Park’s 100<sup>th</sup> Anniversary in 2012. As preparations begin, the Club invited all Red Sox fans to join the planning process by sharing their ideas, suggestions, stories and memorabilia. The announcement was made 99 years to the date of the first Major League baseball game played at Fenway Park, on April 20, 1912.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2012 will mark the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of <i><span style="font-style: italic;">America’s Most Beloved Ballpark</span></i>, the oldest operating Major League facility in the United States. The celebration will highlight Red Sox history over the past hundred years and will also commemorate the wide range of other sports, music, civic, philanthropic, and community events that Fenway Park has hosted during its first century. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Fenway Park’s 100<sup>th</sup> Anniversary will be an unprecedented and historic celebration,” said Red Sox Principal Owner John W. Henry. “From Day One, the preservation of this ballpark has been an issue of paramount importance to our ownership group. Without a doubt, Fenway Park is renowned for its architectural and aesthetic charm. But the character of this ballpark has always been a reflection of the fans who call it home, and we encourage citizens of Red Sox Nation to share their stories and thoughts about what an appropriate celebration should entail.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“From the moment we assumed stewardship of this franchise and ballpark, our ownership group made a sacred commitment to preserve all that’s good about Fenway Park,” Chairman Tom Werner said. “Now that our decade-long series of major, annual Fenway improvements has concluded, it’s only appropriate that we formally kick off our preparations for this historic anniversary. With a celebration built around the sentiments and ideas of our fans, we plan to honor this iconic ballpark’s connection to New England and a Nation.”<b><i><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Fenway Park’s scope of sports and civic history is virtually unparalleled,” said President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “Through jubilation and heartbreak, victories and near-misses, this jewel of a ballpark has not only endured but thrived. Now, after more than $285 million in total investment over the last decade, we stand on the eve of a momentous occasion and celebration. We are deeply grateful for the help of Mayor Thomas M. Menino and our friends in the Fenway neighborhood who have worked collaboratively over the last 10 years to preserve and protect this ballpark for generations to come. As we commemorate this living museum’s past, we look forward to a celebration of <i><span style="font-style: italic;">America’s Most Beloved Ballpark</span></i> that both citizens of Red Sox Nation and baseball fans will find fitting.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As part of the first phase of preparations, the Club today unveiled four major elements of the 2012 celebration:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Official Fenway Park 2012 logo</span></b>: The Fenway Park 2012 logo was officially unveiled at today’s announcement. It is a look that is timeless, contemporary and with a simplified direction that takes into consideration all the various elements inherent to Fenway Park. The keystone from the original 1912 façade that sits above Gate A acts as the primary backplate, and serves as a metaphor to speak to the relationship between Fenway Park and the Red Sox. The “FENWAY PARK” font and location are taken from the façade, and other fonts in the logo are taken from various signage around the park. The “100 YEARS” is housed in a backplate inspired by the Green Monster scoreboard. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The logo was designed by Michael Mikulec, an independent creative director and graphic designer, and a lifelong Red Sox fan. Michael’s career began at ESPN television, and his previous work has included developing brand identities for ABC, MTV, the CW and the NFL Network and, perhaps most notably, Michael's logo was selected as the official mark for NBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He recently worked with the Red Sox production team to help develop their strategy for the new HD videoboards at Fenway Park. </span></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.75in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Official Fenway Park 2012 website</span></b>: The official Fenway Park 2012 website (<a href="http://www.fenwaypark100.com/" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: windowtext;">www.fenwaypark100.com</span></span></a>), designed in conjunction with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), features information and images on Fenway Park’s history, including the ballpark’s architecture and changes over time, information about current and former Club owners, managers and players, and video clips about special features that make Fenway Park unique. The site, which is the first of its kind for a Major League ballpark in terms of depth and breadth of information, already includes more than 450 unique pages, 90,000+ words of text, over 160 photos and 36 videos, and it will continue to expand over the next two years to include more historical and current content generated by the Club and our fans.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fenway</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Park 100<sup>th</sup> Anniversary Brick Program and Seat Sale</span></b>: The Boston Red Sox today announced a special opportunity for fans to literally put their mark on the historic ballpark. Fans will have the chance to have a brick with a personalized message placed in the Fenway Park concourse area inside Gate B and Gate C. Bricks will be available in two sizes – 4”x8” and 8”x8” – and each purchase will also include a replica brick and display case. The bricks will be sold for $250 and $475, respectively, plus applicable taxes and fees. The sale of the bricks begins on Thursday, April 28, 2011, and more information is available online at <a href="http://www.fenwaypark100.com/" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: windowtext;">www.fenwaypark100.com</span></span></a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The team also announced the final opportunity for fans to <strong><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bring home a pair of authentic seats from Fenway Park.</span></span></b> </strong>Since 2002, the Red Sox have made annual offseason improvements to Fenway Park. One major component of the 2010-<a href="http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/history/improvements_intro.jsp" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank"><strong><b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">2011</span></span></b></strong><strong><b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></b></strong><strong><b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">offseason improvements</span></span></b></strong></a> was the replacement of the seats in the lower Right Field seating bowl. From these seats, fans have watched the 2004 and 2007 World Series games and witnessed other historic events such as Dave Roberts’ 2004 legendary steal of second base, Carlton Fisk wave the ball fair in 1975, several no-hitters, as well as the 2010 NHL Winter Classic, Frozen Fenway College Hockey Doubleheader, Football at Fenway, and many memorable concerts. Seats are from the Right Field Box, Loge Box, Field Box and Dugout Box locations, and are red plastic with either blue or red metal frames. Quantities are limited. More information can be found online at <a href="http://www.redsox.com/seats" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: windowtext;">www.redsox.com/seats</span></span></a> and by calling <a href="tel:617-226-6800" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank" value="+16172266800">617-226-6800</a>.</span></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.75in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Open invitation to fans to join in the Fenway 2012 celebration planning</span></b>:<b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></b>The Red Sox are encouraging fans to get involved in the anniversary preparation by submitting celebration ideas,<b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></b>sharing personal memories and stories, as well as their memorabilia of historic value. Fans can provide their input and ideas on the 2012 website (<a href="http://www.fenwaypark100.com/" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: windowtext;">www.fenwaypark100.com</span></span></a>), by sending an e-mail to <a href="mailto:fenwaypark100@redsox.com" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: windowtext;">fenwaypark100@redsox.com</span></span></a> or sending a letter to Fenway 100, 4 Yawkey Way, Boston, MA 02215. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Throughout the 2011 season, the Club will continue preparations for the anniversary celebration, which will include a variety of baseball and other events in 2012, as well as the production of various collectible items to commemorate Fenway Park’s rich history. The anniversary celebrations are expected to highlight a range of historical objects and images, multimedia presentations, and exhibits at Fenway Park and other locations. Along with fans and the general public, the Club’s owners, corporate sponsors, neighborhood organizations, government and civic leaders, current and former players, and Major League Baseball staff are expected to participate in the planning. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Additional information about Fenway Park’s 100<sup>th</sup> Anniversary celebration plans will be released over the course of this year, along with recognition of additional dates that have historical significance.</span></span></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-14872808906318761122011-04-15T12:27:00.000-04:002011-04-15T12:27:28.306-04:00Happy Jackie Robinson Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLTnMpNRFCRugUhV1-i1IfVN_70QtUbyz4tKGpP0-mpCEiEYWyYj4-ufjbKoqC7xc-m_SmVInV8LW4aVv5Tq6a6tFK7JTlC5AjZ1QwiSioe5a6VP7nf3U47R4ENolwMyLWF0M/s1600/DSCF3523.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLTnMpNRFCRugUhV1-i1IfVN_70QtUbyz4tKGpP0-mpCEiEYWyYj4-ufjbKoqC7xc-m_SmVInV8LW4aVv5Tq6a6tFK7JTlC5AjZ1QwiSioe5a6VP7nf3U47R4ENolwMyLWF0M/s320/DSCF3523.JPG" width="231" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B04150BRO1947.htm">On this day</a>, in 1947, Jack Roosevelt Robinson made his <a href="http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B04150BRO1947.htm">Major League debut</a>, playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, at Ebbetts Field <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">in front of 26,623 fans</span>, against the Boston Braves, breaking the color barrier in baseball.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Shortstop Dick Culler led off for the Braves by hitting a ground ball to third baseman Spider Jorgensen, who fielded it, and tossed it to Robinson at first base for an easy out. The crowd was enthusiastic, but tentative </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">in its open support. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was the first out of an historic season that would end in a National League pennant for <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place>, and with Robinson winning baseball’s Rookie of the Year award.</span></span></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-75452609776840785972011-04-04T13:33:00.004-04:002012-06-26T08:42:21.524-04:00Goodbye Professor Thom's<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtH8Gxig3YYtDjrgMaYWTLxL7YHuDr_O80CoMDIqpYazhiEbKScQViyFulP8fI8p_fGrHwULY3wuGsXmelJaIQ9nnCqPWS3CQ1miFpqqQf9T2__zT_KKx01BnLjj-kimggG_Gh/s1600/PEZ2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtH8Gxig3YYtDjrgMaYWTLxL7YHuDr_O80CoMDIqpYazhiEbKScQViyFulP8fI8p_fGrHwULY3wuGsXmelJaIQ9nnCqPWS3CQ1miFpqqQf9T2__zT_KKx01BnLjj-kimggG_Gh/s200/PEZ2.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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“The Party’s Over”, “End of the Road”, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jbtwQgqH5U">Is This The End</a>” (yeah, I have to have New Edition) --- Oh, sorry. You caught me in the middle of making a mix tape for my latest breakup…</div>
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No, my marriage is fine, better than ever, in fact. The breakup I’m referring to is between me and that tempestuous girlfriend of mine named Professor Thom’s. She kept me up many a boozy night, even carried on with anyone that came in the door, and I kept coming back. But no more. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV5ynRFzrIM">The party’s over</a>, Doris Day.</div>
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As of last Friday, April 1, <a href="http://vimeo.com/21733925">I have left Professor Thom’s</a>. I sold my ownership and moved on. Some of you, I’m sure, are shocked. Some of you are thinking, “Who the hell is this guy?” Well you’re both right. <br />
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I was the guy behind the bar who forced you on to this email list. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-spacing: 2px;"> (To be clear, I am not pictured above. That is Pez.)</span> I am the guy who cannot buy garden shears from a garage sale in New Jersey because they think I keep saying “garden chairs” and want to sell me two beat-up blue folding chairs for 10 bucks. “Oh, you mean the SHE-AIRRRSS.” I painfully digress.</div>
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Truthfully, I stayed a year longer than I should have. The only thing that was keeping me there was the terrific staff and customers new and old in the bar every night. I learned more about being a New Englander in the five years since I opened Professor Thom’s than in the 20 years I spent growing up in Boston. </div>
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I found across the bar in most of you a mild recalcitrance in common, some dogged unwillingness to completely open up until it was safe to do so. And the bar sure was safe. I learned from you that my guilt-obsessed, overly reserved, insecure, mistrustful personality was not just an awkward vestige of my Calvinist forbearers, but a true, not so subtle mark of being a New Englander. We’re guarded and then some. And we’ll be damned if we let on how we feel. </div>
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When you ask a New Englander, “How are you?” Generally, “OK” means fine, “Fine” means “great”. And “Great” means “terrible but I don’t want to burden you with my problems.” That is, until you become close to the person. At that point the answer is always “terrible”.</div>
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Furthermore, and most important, I now know where some of the Massachusetts suburbs are in relation to Boston. Whitman is south and South Hadley is west. </div>
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I know that Everyone from Brookline lives in New York City. Most of Newton too.</div>
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People from New Hampshire will never tell you which town they’re from because they assume you’ve never heard of it, even though we have all driven through almost the entirety of New Hampshire.</div>
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Rhode Island is small. People from there do all know each other. They just need five minutes (and three beers) sitting at the bar to work out how.</div>
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Mainers are nuts.</div>
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People who say they are from Lowell are from Haverhill, unless they say they’re from Haverhill. In that case, they’re from Dracut.</div>
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If you tell someone in New York you’re from Boston, you will be asked if you are from Southie. [Editors note: Since the release of “The Town” and its subsequent popularity, some have replaced the assumption of Southie with Charlestown. Same thing.] However, until the Afflecks do a movie about Brighton (where Old Benny boy shot “Zoom” as a tot) no one will understand that Brighton is part of Boston.</div>
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Those are but a few of the takeaways for me.</div>
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This isn’t meant to be negative. I already miss every single detail listed above.</div>
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I understand that not everyone that came into Thom’s was from New England, and, gasp, not everyone was a Sox fan. That’s what made Thom’s work. No matter where you were from, you could feel at home.</div>
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Also, I take with me terrific memories of Sox games and Celts and Pats games which are immortalized on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpRHTOFZ3Ck">YouTube</a> and on <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/prossox-20/detail/B0015XL7SU">DVD</a>. Among other highlights were Clamapaloozas, a kick-off for Narragansett 3 years before they came to New York and dozens of Harpoon events. How about Bill Lee’s birthday party and Luis Tiant’s film premiere party? How about Freddy Lynn just hanging out at the bar drinking?</div>
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Although, I am not at Thom’s I still retain the honor of being Governor of Red Sox Nation for the state of New York. As such, I will host watch parties all season and a World Series Trophy party as season’s end.</div>
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Follow this occasional newsletter or my blog for updates on Sox parties and some of the writing I’m doing about baseball. Hell, <a href="http://twitter.com/GovChrisWertz">follow me on Twitter</a>.</div>
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If you have questions or comments about any of this, feel free to email me or post it on <a href="http://professorthoms.blogspot.com/">the blog</a> or on Twitter.<br />
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Thank you sincerely for the past 5 years.</div>
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Chris</div>
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<b>-<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-spacing: 0px; color: #5b5b5b; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> Jonzun, Michael; Starr, Maurice</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-24367092685093829372011-04-01T12:16:00.000-04:002012-06-26T23:06:23.498-04:00RIP Lou Gorman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/April11sports/gorman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/April11sports/gorman.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2011/04/former_red_sox_1.html">Boston.com is reporting</a> that former Red Sox GM Lou Gorman passed away this morning. Best wishes to his family.<br />
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I'll try to dig up some interviews I did with him a few years back.Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-752080009994556252011-03-03T12:06:00.002-05:002011-03-03T12:10:01.342-05:00Red Sox vs. Yankees: This Time It's Impersonal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://a.espncdn.com/travel/090424/travel_a_soxyanks09_576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://a.espncdn.com/travel/090424/travel_a_soxyanks09_576.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">big</span>. Really <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">big</span>. Like <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/12/15/review-push-delete-tron-legacy/">Tron big</a></span>. Yeah, that's it, Tron big. It's a lot of bling and build-up and TV special effects, which ultimately will give way to a hackneyed storyline. No, it's not Senior Tiger Blood's Charlie Sheen Circus. I'm talking about <b>Red Sox versus Yankees</b> in a game I like to call "Spring Training". And you can see it all tomorrow night at Thom's.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Think of all of the money you saved by not schlepping down to boring, sunny Florida for this otherwise meaningless game. So, come to Thom's tomorrow and spend some or all of that money! Yeah! Meaningless? Who said meaningless? This is a blood feud. Come to Thom's and get your drink on and get angry. 'Member what they did to us that time? Me too! It is on! Oh man, it is on. It may not be the first game of the year, but it's the first one that matters. See you there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Who wrote the book of love? <a href="http://harveyfrommersports.com/">Harvey Frommer</a> did. Didn't you know? Oh yeah. A few days ago the long awaited release of "<a href="http://astore.amazon.com/prossox-20/detail/1584798521">Remembering Fenway Park</a>" finally happened. Now you can own a book brave enough to feature both me and Triviamaster John Quinn among its interviewees. All Tron aside, this book is great and dang purty. The pre-sale price is still good <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/prossox-20/detail/1584798521">on Amazon</a>, so snatch it up while you have a chance. Harvey will be at the bar in a couple months to sign your copy and talk about the book.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Need more Sox scribbling? <a href="http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/the_governors_sox/">Read this little "once upon a time"</a> about your favorite team. It's a doozy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Triva answered: When did the Red Sox first wear Red Socks? <a href="http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=3631#more-3631">Here's the answer and then some</a>.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Tell me, tell me, tell me</span></i></div><i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Oh, who wrote the Book Of Love</span></i></span></i></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"></span></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">I've got to know the answer</span></i></span></span></i></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Was it someone from above</span></i></span></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">(Oh, I wonder, wonder who, mmbadoo-ooh, who)</span></i></span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">(Who wrote the Book Of Love)</span></i></span></div></span></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>-Warren Davis, George Malone and Charles Patrick</b></span></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-19366080658612923932011-03-01T12:58:00.005-05:002012-06-26T16:15:09.447-04:00“Otey and Jackie: An Unlikely Rivalry”<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkfDrYISFgtyODPfSRVg5eYrDujKrahmzujMlctAvZPXbgLwzTdzgVdWddB5ncbQXqdYkofmYo-WaHj1mfBgMywYZwvfszpi2E_kivSsDZlCC_B6SmscEBDfdaLE0DVYE3OyWpNw/s1600/oteyclark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkfDrYISFgtyODPfSRVg5eYrDujKrahmzujMlctAvZPXbgLwzTdzgVdWddB5ncbQXqdYkofmYo-WaHj1mfBgMywYZwvfszpi2E_kivSsDZlCC_B6SmscEBDfdaLE0DVYE3OyWpNw/s200/oteyclark.jpg" width="135" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I was really curious if you remember anything about the tryout at Fenway for Jackie Robinson?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yes, I know about that.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Do you remember it happening?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yes, Cronin chose me - because I had good control - to throw batting practice to Robinson.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, is that right?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first time I heard of </span><a href="http://jwtm1945.blogspot.com/2010/04/tryout-with-boston-red-sox.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jackie Robinson’s 1945 tryout for the Red Sox</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I was surprised that it had taken me so long to learn about it. I was a Sox fan. I had read plenty about my team and its history. On top of that, I had read loads about baseball history; somehow I had just missed this episode. I wasn’t alone, though. I asked around and was surprised to find that there were plenty of heavy-duty baseball fans who didn’t know about it either. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I learned some more about the Boston tryout and I found myself a tad proud. Sure I would have been prouder if the Sox had signed Robinson. But they didn’t. Neither did they sign the other two Negro Leaguers who tried out with him: Sam Jethroe and Marvin Williams. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.dorchesteratheneum.org/page.php?id=955">Isadore Muchnick</a>,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> an official representing the city of Boston, my home town, made the tryout happen,</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> though</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">. I liked that. I didn't get caught up in the guilt of the Red Sox not signing Robinson on the basis of his race. To me, that was long in the past, a product of the time. Sure my team missed a historical opportunity and the chance to pick up a Hall of Fame player. But so did every other team in the league, and every team in the other league, too - except the Dodgers.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What interested me most was an obscure baseball story about a long-ago era in American history. I saw in Muchnick an ambitious, right-thinking man who acted without regard for his image or reputation, who became an integral link in the chain of events that led to baseball’s integration.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The coincidence that Jackie Robinson, the man who almost exactly two years later broke the color barrier in baseball, was one of the players there for a tryout has long since elevated this story from mere historical footnote to a significant, if not too widely known parable. However it has been repeated, the moral has always been the same: the Red Sox were racists. They could have had Jackie Robinson, but they didn’t want him because he was black.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the front bookend on a long shelf of evidence of the hiring bias of the Boston Red Sox. I thought such a cut and dried view of the tryout was too easy. That was another thing that always got me. It was a story that seemed to have been told wrongly for a long time. I decided I needed to find out more about what happened at that tryout.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The date and place I knew: Fenway Park, April 16, 1945. Why it happened and who was there was another matter.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The short of it was that some Boston politicians had pressured the local clubs on the issue of the color line. They rallied behind a City Councilman named Isadore Muchnick to compel the local Major League baseball teams (the Braves and the Red Sox) to audition black players while the color barrier still existed in baseball. The hope was that it would be a first step in breaking down that barrier. The Red Sox begrudgingly agreed, and the tryout happened. None of the three players were signed by the Red Sox. At its essence, that much of the story was mostly agreed upon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some versions Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was there, in some he wasn’t. Those that had general manager Eddie Collins there usually had him indifferent to the whole affair. Most of the accounts included manager Joe Cronin, but only to say he had his back to the field. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were supposedly white players trying out that day too. And, depending on whose account you read, they numbered as many as fifty.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was fascinated by the mystery of it all. No one could agree on everything that happened. How could such an important event become so poorly understood? The official record of the tryout was so sparse that later accounts understandably offered conflicting and wildly differing descriptions. Even the Negro Leaguers themselves remembered few facts from that day or the week they spent in Boston leading up to the tryout. I quickly assumed that since there were so many different versions of what had happened that none of them could be true. I set out to find out what really happened.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read every contemporary newspaper and magazine account of the tryout and came to the conclusion that only one of the writers was actually there. Wendell Smith of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pittsburgh Courier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was instrumental in organizing the tryout, and likely wrote the only firsthand account of the day. To me his version was likeliest to get the facts right. Other versions of the story, many of which contradicted Smith’s account, were based on second-hand retellings and probably not as accurate.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next, I read what baseball writers had written about it more recently, and found that nearly nobody had found a witness to the event. This omission seemed strange to me. After all, people - lots of them - were there. Of course the principals were long dead, but there had to be someone alive who remembered being at Fenway Park the day it happened. Or at least someone was alive who remembered talking to people who were there when it happened. Thus, I began my search for witnesses.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I asked just about anybody I could find associated with the Red Sox or baseball in general in 1945 and had learned nothing.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Do you remember the tryout for Jackie Robinson at Fenway on April 16,1945?” I asked </span><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/ferrida01.shtml"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dave “Boo” Ferriss</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the 1945 rookie sensation, who won 21 games on the mound for the Red Sox that year, what he knew about it. He never heard of it. He wasn’t called up until April 29, two weeks after the tryout. So he wasn’t around and he swore no one ever mentioned it to him.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I asked teammates Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky what they had heard of the tryout. Nothing again. They weren’t back from the war yet at that time. And if they had known anything about it, they had long since forgotten.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I asked former Fenway office boy, Monsignor Thomas Daly. He knew the ins and outs of everyone and everything that went on at Fenway Park in the mid-forties. He could still recite the address of almost every employee of the ball club in 1945 (including Lefty Grove’s in Lonaconing, Maryland). Daly had attended the Negro League exhibitions at Fenway in the mid-forties, but he had never heard of Jackie Robinson auditioning for the team.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I even asked former Yankee General Manager, Lee MacPhail, now 93-years-old, who started working for the Yankees in 1945 when his father Larry became a co-owner of the team. All I received back was a curt, non-memory of the event. “No. I never heard of that.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I finally dialed the number of the oldest living Red Sox player, and one of only two players from the 1945 Red Sox roster still living, I wasn’t expecting much.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My modest expectations were completely blown away with what I found. Here was a 95-year-old, cup of coffee, war call-up named </span><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clarkot01.shtml"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William Otis “Otey” Clark</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Boscobel, Wisconsin, not just telling me that he had heard of the tryout, but describing important details of the day he threw to the Kansas City Monarchs shortstop and future trailblazer, Jack Roosevelt Robinson. He said, “Joe Cronin would say ‘take a little off’ and all of that.”</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recoiled. I actually pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at the receiver, wondering if I had heard him right. I wanted to believe Otey, but I had spoken to too many elderly former players, who remembered their careers frozen in great moments, and then filled in the missing details in no predictable order. I have heard players say they saw plays while playing for teams they never played on. I’m not being mean or even cynical. They weren’t lying. They were aging. And age plays a funny trick on memory.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over the years, there were minutiae of their days in the bigs they never even imagined someone else would care about. Why should they have remembered it all? So some obsessed fan, who called himself a writer, could call them up and ask them for instant recall, decades after these trivial things passed? Selfishly my answer was “yes”. I needed to know very obscure things about their playing days. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To their credit, the men I spoke with always did the best they could, and very few said no. But verifiable facts from them could be difficult to gain.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Truthfully, to be fair, just a few years ago, many of their stories could have easily entered the lore of baseball history - an old trunk full of </span><a href="http://haulsofshame.com/Final%20SABR%20Article%20-%20as%20published_6744.pdf"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dusty myths</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we love to hear and tell. In fact, lore was just what many of the stories of the Robinson tryout were based upon. Their most important details were misfitted hand-me-downs, reprinted on faith alone.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But with the recent advent of the internet, research has blown the dust off that trunk forever. When I did these interviews last year, any story from a 1945 issue of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pittsburgh Courier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> could have been </span><a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/pittsburghcourier/advancedsearch.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">read</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from my home</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Hell, I could have read it on my phone! Facts were checkable, and many of the great old stories were now, sadly, being shown to have been inaccurate. The myths were being busted. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was, at essence, why I began studying the tryout. The mythology surrounding it had been taken as fact for so long, that the facts had been long ignored. And here was a fact on the other end of the line: Otey Clark pitched at the tryout for Jackie Robinson at Fenway Park in 1945.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My doubts about Otey faded; he seemed so sure. He described why he was there and at what time he came to the ball park. He remembered talking with a black reporter and how Jackie hit. He was right. He was there! Otey got only one year in the majors, the highlight of which was beating Bob Feller at Fenway Park. A neat happenstance, though, gave him another very notable performance. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Otey told me that his manager, Joe Cronin, called him up the day before and asked him to be at the ballpark at 10 am. He explained, “Cronin chose me because I had good control.” When he got there, he dressed and went out to the bullpen to warm up. According to Otey, Robinson hit well, but didn’t have a strong enough arm to play shortstop. He said, “I didn't think he could throw from the hole behind third.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What was Otey doing there? Later accounts of that day mostly had high school players and other amateurs on the field with Robinson, Williams and Jethroe. Robinson even said later that he took it as a slight that he was made to try out with kids. But Robinson didn’t even recognize the “old man” giving him tips in the batting cage, Hall of Famer Hugh Duffy. It’s very possible he would not have known who some of the current Sox players were. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wendell Smith’s story said that the Negro Leaguers shared the field with seven white aspirants, not high school kids. Could some of them have been Red Sox players? If so, it was unlikely that Smith would have recognized the Red Sox wartime call-ups either, since many of them had never played a major league game. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Otey was the pitcher Smith described </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">in his story </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">as “an impressive, ambitious recruit”. He may have been trying to exaggerate the hitters’ performances by elevating the pitcher’s ability. But at a month shy of thirty-years-old, Otey was still very ambitious to be a major leaguer, and he had some great games ahead of him. Officially, he wasn’t a major leaguer, yet. He wouldn’t be one until the next day, when he took the mound for the Sox in the seventh inning of the season opener at Yankee Stadium. There he pitched one-and-two-thirds no-hit innings with a strike out. His long aspirations were finally fulfilled.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As for being impressive, Otey impressed the Red Sox coaches well enough the previous fall. While pitching for the Red Sox AAA affiliate in Louisville, he threw thirteen innings with a dislocated kneecap he had suffered after being hit by a line drive from the first Baltimore Orioles batter he faced that day. “I’ve had worse than this playing football,” he said to his manager, Harry Leibold.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1945, he showed the Red Sox a flash of that toughness, when </span><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS194509051.shtml"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he beat Bob Feller 2-1 at Fenway Park on September 6</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, then shut out the A’s, also at home, on September 19. Both wins were complete games. In his next appearance, he gave up no earned runs in six and one-third innings of relief against the Yankees. Otey finished the 1945 season with four wins to four losses and a respectable 3.07 ERA.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1946, Otey found himself back in the minors, pitching with Louisville. Louisville had won the American Association title, which meant they played the champions of the International League in the </span><a href="http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/news/tributes/jackierobinson.jsp"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Junior World Series</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As fate would have it, in 1946 the International League champions were the Montreal Royals, whose star second baseman, Jackie Robinson, was just a year from being called up by the Dodgers. I asked Otey if he exchanged any words with Robinson when they met again. “Just hello,” he said.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Otey continued to play baseball for </span><a href="http://lesueurnews-herald.com/local-church-struck-by-lightning-cms-2693"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the next ten years</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or so, but never made it back to the majors. At the age of ninety-five, he had very few memories of his only season with the Red Sox, aside from pitching to Jackie Robinson and beating Bob Feller.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was thrilled to find Otey and called him several times. Usually, he didn’t notice when I tested his memory by repeating the same questions. He just gave me the same answers every time.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not only was Otey the oldest living Red Sox player, he was also the oldest living major leaguer born in Wisconsin. So, I contacted the Brewers in the hope of getting Otey a day of recognition at Miller Park. It didn’t happen. Otey politely declined to have anyone come to his home.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I last interviewed Otey on June 23. On October 20, </span><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=60541374"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he passed away</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at his home in Boscobel, Wisconsin. When I heard of his passing I felt terrible that I had never told anyone Otey’s story. For some stupid reason, I thought I had time.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please leave questions or comments, or let me know if you’d like a copy of Wendell Smith’s article about the tryout emailed to you. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This isn’t meant to be the story of what happened at the tryout; that will come later. I only wrote this to introduce Otey to baseball fans who might not yet know him.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m writing a book about integrated baseball in Boston, for which I will give periodic updates here. Please follow the blog or check in occasionally. I happily welcome all feedback and new information.</span></div>
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</div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-19747233287301567682011-01-03T09:15:00.001-05:002011-01-03T12:13:21.297-05:00Get Yourself Some Vintage Sox Uniforms<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://haulsofshame.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Boston-Globe-April-19191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://haulsofshame.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Boston-Globe-April-19191.jpg" width="148" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is a very cool story on <a href="http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=3376&cpage=1#comment-15995">"Hauls of Shame" today</a> about replica Sox uniforms being available to the public as early as 1919. Oddly, Babe Ruth is pictured in the ad for the store. Why is that odd? Because this also just happens to be the<a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/January_3"> 91st anniversary of his sale to the Yankees</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Links:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=3376&cpage=1#comment-15995">http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=3376&cpage=1#comment-15995</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/January_3">http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/January_3</a></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-84862314860182001072010-12-22T15:31:00.000-05:002010-12-22T15:31:59.079-05:002011 Red Sox Nation Packages<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: black; font: small 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> T</span>he 2011 Red Sox Nation packages are now available by going to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.redsoxnation.com/" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank">redsoxnation.com</a>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<strong>Fan Pack – $14.95</strong><br />
<br />
2011 Commemorative Citizenship Card<br />
<br />
2011 Red Sox Nation decal<br />
<br />
2011 MLB.com® Gameday Audio for your PC<br />
<br />
Personalized jersey picture with season schedule<br />
<br />
Special early entry and access to Green Monster for batting practice (with valid game ticket)*<br />
<br />
Eligibility for seat upgrades and prizes (with valid game ticket)*<br />
<br />
10% discount at the Red Sox Team Store*<br />
<br />
10% discount at the redsox.com® Online Shop*<br />
<br />
Special redsox.com Shop offers throughout the season<br />
<br />
Exclusive access to citizens-only section on redsox.com<br />
<br />
Eligibility to enter RSN-only ticket opportunities*<br />
<br />
Opportunity to receive a 30-day trial to the MLB Insiders Club*<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Souvenir Pack – $29.95</strong><br />
<br />
Exclusive RSN t-shirt<br />
<br />
Plus all Fan Pack benefits<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Pre-Sale Pack – $60 – Limited time only</strong><br />
<br />
Exclusive opportunity to purchase up to four (4) tickets before the General Public Ticket On-sale<br />
<br />
Fenway Park tour for two<br />
<br />
Exclusive RSN t-shirt<br />
<br />
Plus all Fan Pack benefits<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Monster Pack – $299 – Limited quantity</strong><br />
<br />
Guaranteed Opportunity to purchase up to two (2) Green Monster tickets to a select 2011 Red Sox game<br />
<br />
Exclusive opportunity to purchase up to four (4) tickets before the General Public Ticket On-sale<br />
<br />
Fenway Park tour for four<br />
<br />
Exclusive RSN t-shirt<br />
<br />
Plus all Fan Pack benefitsChris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-78895602142789148482010-12-16T14:38:00.000-05:002010-12-16T14:38:58.519-05:00Aaron Rodgers Out vs. Pats?According to what they're saying in Milwaukee, Rodgers is unlikely to play for the Packers Sunday. And if he does play, it will be without the benefit of any film study. Win-win for the Pats. Story below:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/111973654.html">Flynn likely to start at QB after Rodgers' concussion</a><br />
<br />
By Gary D’Amato of the Journal Sentinel<br />
Green Bay — Matt Flynn is used to dealing with a lot of reporters on Wednesday afternoons. <br />
It was a bit different this week because he was actually talking to them.<br />
<br />
Flynn's cubicle is next to Aaron Rodgers' in the Green Bay Packers' locker room and Rodgers typically addresses the media on Wednesdays. Sometimes Flynn, rendered all but invisible, has to wait for the interview to break up in order to get to his locker.<br />
<br />
He had to wade through a knot of reporters again Wednesday, but this time they were waiting to talk to him.<br />
<br />
"Typical Wednesday," Flynn joked. "A few more people."<br />
<br />
All eyes are on Flynn, the third-year quarterback from Louisiana State who could get his first NFL start Sunday night against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass<a href="http://.../">...</a>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-30083523743975570492010-12-16T11:00:00.000-05:002010-12-16T11:00:29.948-05:00Sox StoriesThe more things change...<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.dotnews.com/columns/2010/47-tom-yawkey-wrote-script-gonzalez-crawford-story">In ’47, Tom Yawkey wrote the script for Gonzalez-Crawford story</a>"<br />
By Clark Booth<br />
<br />
<br />
"Fast forward 63 years to Orlando, Florida, alongside Disneyland, where organized baseball’s annual winter meetings, which gleefully celebrate the modern game’s wretched excess, have lately been held in a spectacular setting rich with bombast, illusion, and desperate yearning. And there is this question, worth considering: In 63 years, how much has really changed?" <br />
<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2010/12/15/go/8548449.txt">Arroyo set for start in Foxboro</a>" <br />
BY MEREDITH TIBBETTS <br />
<br />
"Ex-Red Sox hurler performs acoustic concert Friday at Showcase <br />
<br />
<br />
FOXBORO - Former Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo is back in the area this weekend. He brought fans to their feet at Fenway years ago, and hopes to do the same Friday night at Showcase Live at Patriot Place. But this time he will have his guitar in hand, not a baseball."Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-67914382890977488582010-12-14T11:23:00.000-05:002010-12-14T11:23:04.319-05:00Todays Headlines: Cliff Lee to Phil-Lees<a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/lee_gets_philched_from_yanks_1RlesnSDHkm1viIOUBYjnL">"Lee picks Phillies over Yankees"</a><br />
<br />
By GEORGE A. KING III<br />
<br />
"...Before midnight they were told by Lee's agent, Darek Braunecker, that Lee "was headed in a different direction." Minutes later, Texas was informed Lee was going to Philadelphia..."<br />
<br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Pats</strong><br />
<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2010/12/14/numbers_dont_lie_when_talk_turns_to_the_patriots/">"The numbers don’t lie"</a></strong><br />
<br />
By Dan Shaughnessy <br />
<br />
"...The Patriots have not committed a turnover in their last five games. They have only nine turnovers all season. The NFL record for fewest turnovers is 13..." <br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Celts</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4678793/cs-hold-steady-in-power-rankings">"C's hold steady in power rankings"</a><br />
<span>By Chris Forsberg</span><br />
<div class="post-author"><span></span> </div><div class="post-author"><span>"...No team in history before these Celts had ever started 16-4 in four seasons running..."</span></div><br />
<br />
<strong>Sox</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/12/14/red_sox_still_have_one_big_hole_in_their_bullpen/">"Sox still have one big hole"</a><br />
<br />
Guerrier is coveted as GM Epstein tries to fix bullpen<br />
By Peter Abraham <br />
"...The bullpen remains, if not a mess, at least a work in progress..." <br />
<br />
<strong>Bruins</strong> <br />
<br />
It is now illegal to injure Bruins. <a href="http://www.crashthecrease.com/2010/11/19/video-colin-campbell-talks-responds-to-critcism/">I wonder what changed</a>? <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/extras/bruins_blog/2010/12/shelley_suspend.html">"Shelley suspended for two games"</a> <br />
by <span style="color: #464646;">Fluto Shinzawa</span>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-21284659660199124652010-12-09T12:54:00.000-05:002010-12-09T12:54:38.420-05:00A Recipe out of Left-FieldShiver me splinters, the "New York Times" ran this splendid recipe for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/dining/08bookrex4.html">Ted Williams’s Fenway Chowder</a> in their Dining Section on Wednesday. Next week look for Wrecks Ryan's recipe for humble pie.<br />
<br />
Adapted from “One Big Table” by Molly O’Neill (Simon & Schuster) <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://sos.ri.gov/virtualarchives/archive/files/ted-williams-9-12-1961_69a18e7e02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="http://sos.ri.gov/virtualarchives/archive/files/ted-williams-9-12-1961_69a18e7e02.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>Time: 30 minutes <br />
<br />
3 tablespoons bacon fat, lard or vegetable oil <br />
1 small onion, minced <br />
1 large shallot, minced <br />
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper <br />
1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper <br />
2 teaspoons Lawry’s Seasoned Salt <br />
2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning <br />
2 teaspoons dried thyme <br />
1 1/2 teaspoons dried garlic flakes <br />
8 ounces skinless fillets of grouper, red snapper or a combination, cut into bite-size pieces <br />
1 pint chopped shucked clams (or use half clams and half bay scallops), drained, juices reserved <br />
4 cups whole milk <br />
2 cups half-and-half <br />
1/4 cup dry sherry <br />
1 pound mussels in the shell, scrubbed and debearded <br />
1 dozen (about 8 ounces) chopped shucked oysters, with their juice <br />
2 small white potatoes, peeled and diced small <br />
1/2 cup fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels <br />
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice <br />
1/2 cup heavy cream <br />
Kosher salt and black pepper. <br />
<br />
1. In a large heavy pot, heat fat over medium heat. Add onion, shallot and bell peppers, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add seasoned salt, Old Bay, thyme and garlic flakes and cook about 1 minute, until aromatic. Add fish and clams and cook, stirring, 3 minutes, until fish is just opaque. <br />
<br />
2. Add milk, half-and-half, sherry and reserved clam juices and bring to a simmer. Add mussels, oysters with their juices, potatoes and corn, and simmer very gently until mussels open and potatoes are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. If desired, remove mussels from shell and return to the soup. <br />
<br />
3. Stir in lemon juice and cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve. <br />
<br />
Yield: 10 to 12 servings.Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-56616903892019544692010-12-09T00:38:00.000-05:002010-12-09T00:38:00.920-05:00Sox sign Carl CrawfordIn an absolutely surprising move, the Boston Red Sox <a href="http://www.nesn.com/2010/12/report-carl-crawford-agrees-to-seven-year-deal-with-red-sox.html">apparently signed former Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford</a> for a deal worth $142 million over 7 years.<br />
<br />
Are the Sox done yet?Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-60929408329040595472010-11-27T10:44:00.002-05:002010-11-27T10:44:57.723-05:00On This Day - Blech!1941 - Joe DiMaggio is named American League Most Valuable Player. His 56-game hitting streak edges out Ted Williams and his .406 batting average for the award (291 points for DiMaggio and 254 for Williams). <br />
<br />
<br />
1947 - Triple Crown winner Ted Williams (.343, 32 HR,162 RBI) is edged out by Joe DiMaggio (.315, 20, 97) for the American League MVP Award by one point. One BBWAA member fails to include Williams anywhere on his ballot.Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-3402355617633775272010-09-21T13:50:00.006-04:002010-09-21T14:52:28.049-04:00Onward to The Playoffs<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;" xmlns=""></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mercifulcrap.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/red_sox_unravel_macgregor1.jpg?w=226&h=146" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="http://mercifulcrap.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/red_sox_unravel_macgregor1.jpg?w=226&h=146" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is it, your very last chance to see the Sox begin their climb atop the American League East on their way to post-season glory. Ahhhh. In this issue of "You Have to Believe" there is a paid lunch, free beer and a great book. Details below.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This Friday the Red Sox invade New York with a few surprises, guys the Yankees have never even seen. What will the Yankees do with </span><a href="http://www.larzanderson.org/Topics/Topic.cfm?TopicName=Home&CFID=9212458&CFTOKEN=71482362"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Lars Anderson</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/09/17/navarro_dirt_poor_talent_rich/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-decoration: underline;">Yamaico Navarro</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">? Huh? Nothing. These guys are unknowns. The Sox should be able to score dozens of runs this weekend while enjoying one clutch performance after another from their pitching. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, you will need to be in the right frame of mind to celebrate this amazing comeback. Right? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Friday morning join the </span><a href="http://www.blohards.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">BLOHARDS</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and their merry show at the Princeton Club. This biennial brunch is the most talked about meal of the day twice a-year and features former Red Sox, current Red Sox, TV personalities and a load of Sox fan fun. Tickets are still available. Contact: </span><a href="mailto:jbpkillian@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">jbpkillianATgmail.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. Free drinks to the first ten people who mention the name "Win Remmerswaal" and his lifetime ERA.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Friday night there is a lollapalooza waiting for you at Thom's.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Gabriel Schechter will be present selling copies of his bestselling book </span><a href="http://charlesapril.com/2008/03/this-bad-day-in-yankees-history_05.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">"This BAD Day in Yankee History"</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. There will be Red Sox trivia too. You must have this book. You must give this book to people you love. The winners will get copies of Gabe's book and - get this - beer! </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">We moved <strong>Harpoon's Third Thursday</strong> event to Friday. That means lots of <strong>free beer</strong> for you! Drink Harpoon and you'll get a raffle ticket to win <strong>free beer</strong>. Answer some Sox trivia questions: <strong>free beer</strong>. <strong>Free beer</strong>! So good, so good…</span></div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-47250698947319278322010-07-22T21:53:00.002-04:002012-06-25T15:12:01.850-04:00A Yankee Stadium First: Browns' Thomspon Integrates the Bronx<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2065/2117696963_0252558685.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" hw="true" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2065/2117696963_0252558685.jpg" width="143" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B07220NYA1947.htm">On this day</a>, 63 years ago, in a packed ballpark on a Tuesday night in the Bronx, <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/thompha02.shtml">Hank Thompson</a> became the first black major leaguer to bat at Yankee Stadium in a regular season game when he led off for the visiting St. Louis Browns. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More than 50,000 Yankee fans-nearly double the attendance of <a href="http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B04150BRO1947.htm">Jackie Robinson’s momentous first game</a> at Ebbet’s Field with the Dodgers three months before-came out to see the last-place Browns on July 22, 1947, whose roster was the first to include two black players, Hank Thompson and <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=11462">Willard Brown</a>. <br />
<br />
The two Negro League All-Stars were signed by the Browns from the Kansas City Monarchs one week earlier in attempt by St. Louis owner Dick Muckerman to boost ticket sales for his struggling franchise which had recently seen fewer than 500 tickets sold for a home game against the Senators. After five weeks, with no improvement in home attendance, the Browns declared “the trial” a failure and cut both players. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.baseballforum.com/attachments/baseball-history-teams-yester-year/112d1151731123-new-york-giants-1951-irvin-mays-h-thompson-photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" hw="true" src="http://www.baseballforum.com/attachments/baseball-history-teams-yester-year/112d1151731123-new-york-giants-1951-irvin-mays-h-thompson-photo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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New York fans may not remember Hank Thompson’s place in Yankees history, but they may recall that he<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_496474197"></span><span id="goog_496474198"></span> was later a standout at the Polo Grounds for two pennant winning Giants teams. After returning to the Monarchs briefly, Thompson was signed by the New York Giants in 1949 and began a new round of firsts for a black player in the in the National League. He was the first black player to play in both leagues and the first player to break the color barrier for two teams. In a game against the Dodgers, he was the first black player to face a black pitcher (Don Newcombe). Then, in 1951, together with Willie Mays and Monte Irvin, Thompson became a member of the first all black outfield in major league history.</div>
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The Giants won the pennant in 1951 (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMa5eZE5ilE&feature=related">You might have heard!</a>) and lost in the World Series to the Yankees, which brought Thompson back to the Stadium to face New York’s only remaining all-white team. In 1954, Thompson hit .364 in the post-season for the Giants who defeated the Indians in the World Series.</div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-56749182917041753392010-07-02T16:07:00.001-04:002010-07-02T17:06:18.135-04:00R.I.P. Cappy Harada, A Forgotten Baseball Great<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/imgs/jokun03_2009fa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" rw="true" src="http://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/imgs/jokun03_2009fa.jpg" width="158" /></a></div>I got an email yesterday from a friend of mine in Japan that works for Japanese TV. The subject was "Sad News". I saw the header on my phone and thought instantly what it must have meant: "Cappy died." Then I looked at the link and saw it was to something that said "Asahi". Maybe the email was about Japanese beer. So, I exhaled and saved the email to read after I got some dinner.<br />
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I didn't remember Asahi was a newspaper too until I finally clicked the link and saw the dreaded headline "Cappy Harada, who shaped Japan-U.S. baseball, dies at 88".<br />
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I found out about Tsuneo "Cappy" Harada when doing some research about the Brooklyn Dodgers visiting Japan for a project my friend Pete was working on. Every time I read something about major leaguers going to Japan after World War II Cappy's name came up as an aside, almost in the margins. He was just there. He would be the fourth guy in a picture with Lefty O'Doul and other U.S. stars. He would be shown alongside MacArthur and an Asian dignitaries. He was always there, and I thought, "Who the hell is this guy?" <br />
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We interviewed Cappy in his home in Palm Desert, California where grapefruit trees lined his street and roadrunners ran in the yard. He thrilled us with tales of pre-WWII baseball in California and the battle in the Pacific. He spoke intimately about MacArthur, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. He enjoyed every second of recounting his long, fascinating life. I could hardly believe that this man's story was relatively unknown. <br />
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Below is a short biography I wrote about Cappy when I was organizing my thoughts for the project. It's far from complete, but gives you some idea of who he was. (Actually, I'm not sure I even wrote it. It just isn't very good, so I assumed it was by me.)<br />
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I'll try to write a more complete elegy this week.<br />
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<blockquote>Tsuneo “Cappy” Harada was born in Santa Maria, California in 1921 to immigrant Japanese parents. The consummate athlete, he earned the name Cappy by being captain of his high school basketball, baseball, and football teams. </blockquote><blockquote>In 1935 the first Japanese professional baseball team, which later became the Tokyo Giants, toured the U.S. playing exhibitions against amateur and professional teams. Cappy acted as second baseman and translator for a local 9 made up of merchants who scrimmaged against the Giants. At but 14 years old he had begun what would become a lifelong relationship with professional Japanese baseball. </blockquote><blockquote>While being scouted by the St. Louis Cardinals Cappy chose to enlist in the U.S. Army following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was assigned to work with MacArthur as a Japanese interpreter and code breaker during the War and later joined MacArthur’s inner circle in running occupied Japan. As MacArthur grew frustrated at the progress of rebuilding Japan Cappy became instrumental in encouraging the return of baseball to the Japanese people who had seen their most beloved sport banned by their own government towards the end of the War. Cappy oversaw the revival of college baseball first, then professional, then the famed Koshien high school baseball tournament. In bringing about the return of professional baseball he invited American pros to tour Japan on good will tours beginning in 1949.</blockquote><blockquote>Cappy returned to American and became a scout for the San Francisco Giants introducing the first Japanese player, Masanori Murakami, to America in 1964. Cappy went on to become general manager of the Lodi Crushers.</blockquote>Here are some more stories about Cappy:<br />
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<a href="http://www.niseibaseball.com/html%20articles/Nisei%20Legends/harada.htm">Short bio</a><br />
<a href="http://noboruaota.blogspot.com/2010/06/cappy-harada-dies-at-88.html">A short obit</a><br />
<a href="http://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/e_web/e_news_30.htm">A Bio from the Japanese Consulate General in LA</a><br />
<a href="http://baseballguru.com/jholway/analysisjholway32.html">A John Holway story reprinted by The Baseball Guru</a>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28732626.post-71454682840979754222010-05-18T12:46:00.001-04:002010-05-18T13:01:55.980-04:00A Two-Fer at Thom's Tonight<div style="text-align: justify;">It turns out I could have gone to <strong>Harvard</strong> after all. All I had to do was apply myself and be a little more creative like <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/05/18/ex_harvard_student_accused_of_living_a_lie/?page=1">this guy</a>, the Al Stump of undergrads. My problem was always telling the truth and doing my own work and getting turned down by colleges. Who knew?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Who cares about a phony-baloney intellectual? We got a real <em>bona fide</em> philosopher at Thom’s tonight. Who is this Nietzsche of the local Nine? The Descartes of the Diamond? The Santayana of the Sox? Glad you asked. It’s none other than a Thommy, Michael Macomber, author of “<a href="http://astore.amazon.com/prossox-20/detail/0812696778">The Red Sox and Philosophy</a>”. This heady tome even has <strong>a chapter about Professor Thom’s</strong>! Meet the author tonight at Thom’s. He’ll be doing a reading around 6 pm and selling the books all night long. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Tonight is a Two-fer. </strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">First at 7 pm, <strong>the Sox take on the Yankees</strong> in a, ahm, oh I can’t even talk about it. Someone just please get <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdql1ZAJ4NkBrIFsY3uXh75Zupyo6I1jAPoWXE2y22fxhy87NpkL4SeFS4dQaXXajQaZ4DcRR5kxUoGsNJxmocoisUt87FpFHvV9NW6TMNPuvDHkQxdodH2c3ogkiy5xzalM8/s1600/tim-wakefield-red-sox.jpg">Tim Wakefield</a> a win. I thought when he went to the bullpen that it was the best way for him to get wins, since the Sox blow so many leads. But last night...He needs just 18 wins to be the Sox all-time winningest pitcher and 5 home wins to have the most ever at Fenway Park. Somebody help the man out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At 8:30 <strong>The Celtics</strong> show off their own version of Run Prevention when they attempt to once again shut down <a href="http://images.travelpod.com/users/babieemelly/orlando807.1187301000.mikexs-pancake-breakfast.jpg">Orlando’s fast break</a> (Oops. That was Orlando's break fast). Game One was typical Celts: Three quarters of blow-out basketball, then came Act IV and the Celts began a tragic performance nearly blowing a mighty lead. In the end it was a road win to start the series and shift the home court advantage to the good guys. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In <strong>Game Two</strong> we should see the same game plan. Rondo will defend the point well enough to make early entry passes to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jez250zsqmA">Howard difficult</a>. And the offense will go through Ray Allen, the forgotten man on the wing. If Ray can hit, forget it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>More Thommies in the News:</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Going to be in Boston tomorrow? Stop by the team store on 19 Yawkey Way to meet <strong>Bill Lee</strong> at the reading and signing for “<a href="http://astore.amazon.com/prossox-20/detail/1934734160">Cardboard Gods</a>”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Need a good gift for the Sox fan in your life? Check out the nifty hand made products at <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/reddsthreads">Redd's Threads</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>On This Day:</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1912 - Historic Fenway Park in Boston is officially dedicated, as the Red Sox host the Chicago White Sox . Playing in front of an overflow crowd, the Red Sox lose the game, 5 - 2.</div>Chris Wertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025026479721615580noreply@blogger.com1