Baseball Quiz: 1) Who holds the major league single season
record for home runs by a catcher? 2) Who holds the M.L. single
season HR record for a 3rd baseman? 3) M.L. single season HR
record for a second baseman? [There are two.] 4) M.L. record
for grand slams in a single season? Answers below.
Missouri
So right now I’m in Branson, Missouri, home for washed up
country music stars and other celebrities like Yakov Smirnov and
Andy Williams. It’s everything I expected it to be, one giant
strip of Americana. And after being here less than 24 hours, I
kind of like it. Maybe the fact I found a cool Mexican place last
night and treated myself to a tasty margarita and some ice cold
Coronas had something to do with it. Anyway, I see my first
show tonight…Jim Stafford! [You younger folks wouldn’t
remember his 70s variety show.] And tomorrow, Charley Pride
and Roy Clark…but wait, what’s this? No Roy Clark?! I just
checked my tickets…I thought I was seeing him, instead it’s
Doug Gabriel. Oh well, I’ll discuss this next chat.
I arrived in Kansas City late Saturday morning and made a
beeline for the Truman Library. What a terrific museum. Every
American schoolchild, and adult, should be required to go here.
The only bad part for you is I’m going to force feed some
witticisms from Harry S. the next few chats. Like the following:
After giving a speech about honesty to a group of Colgate
University students, President Truman presented each one with a
pen inscribed –
“I swiped this from Harry S. Truman.”
In his remarks to new Congressmen in 1949, Truman told this
story –
“There was an old country judge who was with me on the county
court in Jackson County (MO)…and he gave me some advice
before I left Independence to come to Washington.
“He said, ‘Harry, don’t you go to the Senate with an inferiority
complex. You sit there about six months, and you wonder how
you got there. But after that, you wonder how the rest of them
got there.’”
Reminiscing about Stalin –
“I invited Stalin to come to Washington, and he said, ‘God
willing, I will come.’ Well, I haven’t met anybody yet who
believes me, but that is what he said to me.”
Truman was a prolific letter writer and he kept a personal
journal. Some of the entries are terrific.
On July 19, 1948, debate was raging in his administration as to
what to do with the Soviet Union, which had initiated a blockade
of Berlin. Truman wrote in his journal that day:
“ ‘Stay in Berlin,’ I don’t pass the buck, nor do I alibi out of any
decision I make.”
Then the very next line reads:
“Went to (General) Pershing’s funeral in the marble
amphitheater in Arlington. The hottest damn place this side of
hell and Bolivar, MO.”
Later he complained he had prepared for Pershing’s funeral five
different times. The old guy just wouldn’t die.
There’s far more stuff, some serious, that I’ll save for “Week in
Review” and other chats.
On Sunday, I drove down to Branson from Kansas City (after
devouring an absolutely delicious steak in K.C. the night
before…which is part of why you come here, right?). Since I
took a little detour, the ride was a good five hours, but I was able
to listen to “America’s Top 40” with Casey Kasem. You know,
I’ve only ever put this on when I’m in the car, but I thought
yesterday, good, this will be give me a chance to catch up on
what’s hot these days…what all you younger folk are buying. [If
you’re new to the site, your editor is 45.]
Well for crying out loud, just as I wrote last week in a
comparison between any year in the 60s versus VH-1’s top songs
of the last 25 years, today’s music is total garbage. These rap
tunes that are making the list are pitiful and it’s safe to say not
one of them will be remembered in 10 years, let alone 20.
[Michelle Branch and Pink did have some cool stuff on the list,
I’ll admit.]
And here you have Casey Kasem* who is 80 years old, or something
like that. He must be screaming during the taping each week,
“Geezuz, this stuff blows!” And then you have those long distance
dedications. Here was one from Mindy in Illinois.
She had a baby with this guy, who then left her. Then she got
married to another loser and hubby left after 8 months. Mindy
moves home to live with Mom. But Mindy thinks she’s found
true love in a freakin’ chat room. The two of them meet. Mindy
says this is finally the one. But guy #3 gets cold feet. Mindy’s
mother tries to explain to her daughter that she still has a shot.
Mindy dedicates the tune “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne, from
one loser to another. Meanwhile, I’m driving down the highway
looking for a gun shop, because I just want to shoot myself.
*I initially spelled Kasem”s name wrong. Then I was in a mall
and saw his name all over the record store. Doh!!!
The detour I took, however, was of a far more serious nature. I
told my readers in “Week in Review” about a month ago that I
would go to Pierce City, scene of the horrific tornado in early
May, once the television cameras left. Forgive me if I save my
comments for WIR this coming weekend, but it was a moment
I’ll never forget. I also didn’t realize Sunday was a particularly
sad day there until I was watching the local news in Branson last
night. The downtown area is being demolished starting today.
Well, more trip tales on Thursday, along with some George
Orwell. In the meantime, your exclusive…..
Stuff
–Not for nothing, but the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols could easily
win the Triple Crown. This will be a terrific story come
September. [No one has accomplished this feat since 1967 and
Carl Yastrzemski.]
–I saw a mock NBA draft over the weekend and Wake Forest’s
Josh Howard is projected as the 24th pick. This will be the steal
of the draft, especially if he goes to the Lakers, but we’re getting
ahead of ourselves.
–I can’t believe how many fireworks places there are in
Missouri.
–Part of Interstate 44 from Joplin to Springfield, MO is labeled
the “Payne Stewart Highway.”
–I keep telling you, Annika Sorenstam is not the women’s golf
story these days, it’s 13-year-old Michelle Wie, who this
weekend won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links
Championship, the youngest winner ever of a USGA adult event.
Wie beat a former NCAA champ.
–In the Truman Library they have a wall of magazine covers
from his years in the White House. One was from Look
magazine, 8/3/48, with a story titled “Could the Reds Seize
Detroit?” Oh, those were different times.
–Asa Baber died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. He wrote the “Men”
column for Playboy for many years.
–Aussies are snapping up crocodile warning signs designed for
tourists in the far north saltwater estuaries. They then place them
in their own pool areas. Well, it was only last year that a
German tourist was killed by a 14-foot croc in one of the canals.
So, yes, this is incredibly irresponsible behavior on the part of
my Aussie friends. [Keep it up….we need more stories.]
–Goodness, gracious. I watched the Lennox Lewis – Vladimir
Klitschko fight and there was that one point between rounds (I
think the 3rd and 4th) where I had to look away. I mean didn’t
some of you think you were about to see Klitschko’s eye pop
out? I can’t believe they didn’t stop the fight then.
–You know, it’s sad the Chicago Bulls’ Jay Williams was
seriously injured in a motorcycle accident, but part of me can’t
help but say, “Dope!” The team has to be furious.
–Tom Verducci has an article in the current Sports Illustrated on
the great Rickey Henderson you simply have to get a hold of.
Rickey, 45, is playing with Newark in the Independent League,
trying to impress a major league team for one last fling in the big
show. He’s hitting .350, but many general managers simply feel
that Rickey has too much excess baggage. He’s also a one-man
laugh riot. Like this gem.
Once in the 1980s when Rickey was with the Yankees, he was
sent a 6-figure bonus check. After months had passed, the team
realized he had never cashed it so then assistant Brian Cashman
called him. Was there a problem, Rickey?
“No problem. I’m just waiting for the money-market rates to go
up.”
–Hey Wake Forest fans. Larry Harrison died. He was only 45
and had a rare neuro-muscular disease, Machado-Joseph.
Harrison was our center from 1975-79. He wasn’t that good, but
talent has been so diluted these days in the NBA that he might
have found a home with someone.
–And this is the first time I’ve had a chance to note the passing
of Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Doby, the first black to play in
the American League. Doby followed Jackie Robinson by about
11 weeks when Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck called Doby
up to the big leagues in July 1947. Doby went on to have 5, 100-
RBI seasons, hitting 253 home runs while driving in 970. He
also played on 7 All-Star teams.
But the introduction he received in Cleveland was all but rosy.
10 of his teammates refused to shake his hand, for example.
Doby once talked to Star-Ledger (N.J.) sportswriter Jerry
Izenberg about the isolation for a black player in those days, such
as the meal situation after a game.
Doby would sit on the bus, “while his teammates ate in
restaurants and when Joe Gordon would say – as he always did –
‘I’m so sorry about his. Can I bring you a sandwich or
something, L.D.?’
“ ‘I’d be sitting on the bus hungry as a son of a bitch,’ Doby said.
‘But I’d tell him to forget it. I wasn’t going to spend one damned
penny with those sons of bitches.’”
Doby, though, did have a lifelong friend in owner Veeck, so
much so that Doby chose Veeck to be the godfather for Larry’s
first child. As Doby said, baseball was always blessed that
Veeck and Branch Rickey (who brought Jackie Robinson up) had
the courage and faith to break the color barrier.
Top 3 songs for the week of 6/27/64: #1 “A World Without
Love” (Peter & Gordon) #2 “I Get Around” (The Beach Boys)
#3 “Chapel Of Love” (The Dixie Cups)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Todd Hundley holds the Major
League single season mark for homers by a catcher, 41, 1996
with the Mets. [Johnny Bench had 45 in ‘70, but 7 (I think, I
forgot to bring my record book…and forgot to write this down
on my scrap paper!) were as an OF/1B/3B. Roy Campanella and
Mike Piazza (twice) have hit 40.] 2) Mike Schmidt holds the
mark for 3rd basemen with 48 in 1980. 3) Davey Johnson
(Atlanta, 1973) and Rogers Hornsby (St. Louis, 1922), share the
mark for 2nd basemen with 42. [Johnson had 43 overall that
season.] 4) Don Mattingly hit 6 grand slams in 1987.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. Does the editor have happy hour at
Gilley’s, McGuffey’s, or some Mexican joint? You’ll just have
to tune in now, won’t you?
