Baseball Quiz: I’ll give you the top five all time in shutouts.
Walter Johnson, 110; Grover Alexander, 90; Christy Mathewson,
79; Cy Young, 76; Eddie Plank, 69. Now give me the next five,
all of whom are from the modern era and pitched at least one
season in the 60s or 70s. Answer below.
New York Knickerbocker Basketball It’s Fannnnntastic!!!!!
So on Monday, Trader George, Pete and I had our long-planned
outing to Madison Square Garden to catch Isiah Thomas’ last
home game as coach of the Knicks. None of us had been to an
NBA game in decades and this promised to be a most special
evening .cough cough ..cough .
First, Pete and I met in Hoboken for a beer at Texas & Arizona, a
joint across from the PATH station. [Pete is friends with the
owners, thus the need for a shameless plug.] Then we tubed it to
MSG where we awaited Trader George.
Well, there was some time before the appointed rendezvous so
Pete and I retired to Stout’s (sp?) for another beer. [I stayed with
domestic brew owing to my faltering stock portfolio thus far in
‘08.]
Next it was back to MSG to wait for Trader George. And wait
. and wait .thus giving the two of us time to take note of the
scalpers (yes, some folks did want to see the game). Boy, you
talk about an underclass in America, it’s these folks. But at the
end of about 45 minutes, we were almost on a first name basis
with all 40 of them.
Finally, Trader George arrived from his meeting with energy
honchos and we entered the Garden. Earlier in the day, as the
purchaser of the tickets, I had received this email from the
Knicks.
“We’re excited that you will be in attendance to show your
support when the Knicks take on the Boston Celtics tonight at
7:30 pm on Fan Appreciation Night!
“As part of Fan Appreciation Night, enjoy the following offers:
“Free food and beverages.”!!!!!
It was true .the rumors were true .free food!!!!
[Plus discounts on merchandise, like for “today’s heroes David
Lee and Jamal Crawford”! Yippee!]
Can you say Nirvana? So we all got a free dog, Cracker Jacks
and an $8 beer (this wasn’t part of the deal) as we headed for our
seats, now just 15 minutes before tip-off.
We could feel the electricity in the air. In fact we kept
commenting to each other, “Can you feel the electricity in the
air?” “Yes, can you feel it, Trader George?” “Most definitely,
Editor .this could be one of the highlights of my life.”
Then reality set in. David Waldstein / Star-Ledger:
“When the evening starts with Dominic Chianese, aka Uncle
Junior Soprano, singing the national anthem, you have to
conclude that someone is about to get whacked.
“That someone is Isiah Thomas, who is expected to be relieved
of his head coaching duties soon after the season ends (Wed.)
night in Indianapolis.”
Two minutes into the contest, the three of us concluded this was
the worst sporting event we had ever seen. Those around us,
many of whom one had to assume were season ticket holders and
by this point in the year in a catatonic state, agreed. Phil W. had
warned me earlier that going to an NBA game is like watching a
train wreck. “It’s amazing how the best athletes in the world can
produce the worst team entertainment you can imagine.” At the
same time, Phil, who lives in Charlotte, vowed to attend more
Davidson games next year real basketball for real people.
So, already bored to tears with the score 5-5, Pete, Trader George
and I turned our attention to more pressing matters. How much
more food should we get? We decided on Kobe Beef burgers (or
some facsimile thereof), fries and more beer. None of us were
heading to the restroom due to food poisoning, as yet, which was
a good sign. We just may survive the night.
Meanwhile, down on the court, all ten players appeared
disinterested as there was a low murmur in the audience,
punctuated by a ‘Fire Isiah’ chant or two. [At this point I was
starting them .trying to rally my section before realizing
everyone was asleep and that the murmur I was hearing was
really the air-conditioning unit.]
Thankfully, halftime arrived and a Flying Wallendas’ type act
out of Canada that was really quite good. The crowd perked up,
with many thinking they had slept through and were now
watching the circus, which normally comes to town about this
time of year. The three of us thus had the task of reminding
everyone seated in our section that they were still at a basketball
game, it was merely halftime, and to arrive home safely.
At the start of the third period, Pete, Trader George and I were
plotting our exit. Actually, this started weeks before, but Trader
George wanted to stay until the Celtics ran off 20 in a row. At
about the same time, though, Dove Bars began flying through the
air, as Free Food Night continued. When the assault was over,
vendors had taken out 42 people, with another 600 wounded. I
passed on the Dove Bar, but Trader George proceeded to make
sure I had some of his all over my shoe. Homeland Security then
went row to row, assessing the damage and quizzing patrons on
the vendors’ behavior and whether they had seen any telltale
signs before the attack on us was initiated. All were in
agreement that the vendors were probably not terrorists and that
the action was a result of having had to work at 40 previous
Knicks games.
I heard one vendor explain to DHS Chief Michael Chertoff,
“You just don’t understand what kind of working environment
we have here at MSG. It’s like Guantanamo, having to watch
this team, night in and night out, and then to have to listen to
Isiah Thomas’ post-game comments. You then go home and tell
your wife and kids, ‘Doesn’t Isiah understand? Can he really be
that delusional?’ But family members can’t possibly know what
we (the vendors) are going through.” Chertoff gave the man his
card and said to call him anytime.
Alas, with two minutes to go in the third period, the three of us
bolted, recognizing we would miss the worst of the ‘Fire Isiah’
chants. We just couldn’t take anymore, especially after seeing
all the fans, heads slumped, drooling.
Frank Isola / Daily News
“James Dolan gave out free food to his championship-starved
fans Monday night at Madison Square Garden. Those not
fortunate enough to attend the Knicks’ home finale will have to
settle for Isiah Thomas’ head on a silver platter .
“Asked if he felt he was coaching his final home game against
Boston Monday night, a 99-93 loss, Thomas said: ‘I haven’t
really let my mind go to that place. Whatever Donnie (Walsh,
the new team president) wants of me and whatever he wants me
to do, I’ll do.’ .
“During his pregame interview session, Thomas thanked the fans
for their continued support. As usual, he played with the facts,
saying that when he arrived in December 2003 ‘there weren’t a
lot of people coming.’ He also repeated his rags-to-riches story,
saying that he went from being a kid with no food in the
refrigerator to a refrigerator filled with food.
“Food was a recurring theme last night as the Knicks ended their
home schedule again without a playoff game on their plate.”
Howard Beck / New York Times
“Boos greeted Thomas before tipoff, and they probably would
have been louder if everyone’s mouths were not stuffed with free
eats .
“Some players will surely be gone by fall. Some notable fans
have already left. Over the weekend, Tom Brokaw, the former
NBC News anchor, said he had canceled his season tickets.
“ ‘I was in the front row for a while and then three rows back,
but not next year,’ Brokaw told Jim Gray on an XM Radio
broadcast. ‘I just think that they have failed their obligation to
the city.’”
Ouch.
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“As the final seconds mercifully burned off the clock, as the
Celtics’ JV team put the finishing touches on one last Garden
indignity, one last 99-93 loss for the home team, the folks who’d
spent so much of the night ingesting food on the arm could
barely muster one last round of ‘Fire Isiah’ chants in their
throats.
“Why bother, anyway? One more time, Isiah Thomas stayed
seat-belted to his chair across all 48 minutes, blithely watching
his team commit a few more basketball atrocities on his watch.
If the coach can’t be troubled to earn his money, why should the
people who do the spending care? Especially when there’s free
eats to be scarfed.
“Let this represent the final testimony detailing the worst of
Thomas’ high crimes and misdemeanors in the 4 years he
desecrated his office. He looted this city of its basketball
optimism, robbed it of its boundless basketball energy .
“Given the job of rescuing the Knicks, he authored the darkest
chapters of the franchise’s 62-year history. If there was a
consequence worse than firing, it wouldn’t be enough
punishment. But firing will have to do .
“Nobody ever carried himself so arrogantly while delivering so
little.
“He was at it again yesterday, talking about how Knick fans care
about the team again thanks to him. ‘We went from a team that
was an aging, older team and now it’s a young team with a lot of
future,’ he said. ‘A lot of possibilities here. When we first got
here, there weren’t any.’
“They have a future? Really? They have possibilities? As what,
an expansion team in the D-League? For generations, Knick fans
will have this enjoyable argument to ponder: was Isiah a worse
GM or a worse coach? It’s like trying to figure out if Chevy
Chase was a worse actor or talk-show host. The debate could
rage on into infinity.
“But to speak of his time here and to even intimate that he
injected anything resembling professionalism, on or off the court,
is madness at best and lunacy at worst. He is the one who
humiliated the Garden worse than it’s ever been humiliated by
putting it at risk for a sexual-harassment suit with his frat-house
management style.
“And that’s before we even get to Jerome James, before we
mention that Eddy Curry cost him two lottery picks, that he was
the GM for one 59-loss canker sore of a season and with a loss
Wednesday in Indianapolis will be the head coach for another.
“On his way out the door, he has nothing but poems and
hosannas for Knick fans, which is hysterical when you consider
he spent so much of his time here lecturing them on the
intricacies of winning basketball, which would be like attending
an Eliot Spitzer seminar on abstinence that dragged on for 4
years.
“Now he calls them ‘passionate.’ Now he calls them
‘supportive.’ This after dismissing them as the worst kind of
basketball yokels from the day he showed up.
“ ‘I can’t expect them to understand the game the way I
understand it or see it the way we see it,’ he famously said of
Knicks fans a year and a half ago.
“He was right, of course, just not in the way he intended. He
goes away now. The stench he leaves behind won’t be so quick
to dissipate.”
But then you have the Celtics and their spectacular turnaround.
Coach Doc Rivers opted to have Masters champion Trevor
Immelman, in town doing some promos after his Sunday
triumph, give a halftime pep talk.
“He gave us a halftime speech and it obviously worked,’ Rivers
said. “It was great. Half the guys didn’t know him, but most of
them did. But it was really cool. They gave him a nice standing
ovation, shook his hand. We wanted everyone to touch what a
champion felt like.”
The Celtics had already spent the first half looking at a bunch of
losers, after all. It can be infectious if you’re not careful.
Stuff
–Even when he’s not playing, Tiger Woods makes headlines.
This time it’s due to a second knee operation in five years, which
will refuel talk that maybe Tiger beating Jack Nicklaus’ record of
18 majors isn’t such a lock. If you’re a fan of golf, and Tiger,
you do have to be more than a bit concerned. Even with modern
medicine, this is no small deal. For now, unfortunately Tiger is
going to miss The Players Championship, but should be fine for
the U.S. Open in June.
–Despite my opening comments, the NBA playoffs, which start
this weekend, could provide some of the best action in years,
particularly out west where you have some outstanding match-
ups, particularly New Orleans vs. Dallas, and San Antonio vs.
Phoenix.
And I’ll offer my sleeper pick Washington. Kids, be careful
with this one. Limit your wager to $15,000.
–Kansas State All-American freshman superstar Michael
Beasley declared for the NBA draft as expected. I’m actually
mildly interested this year, just because there are a lot of
intriguing players such as Beasley and the Knicks have a shot at
picking up a good one (though it would be a better story if they
blew another choice, I suppose). Understanding that college
underclassmen who don’t turn 22 this year have until April 27 to
declare themselves eligible for the draft, here are some of those
who announced they are coming out early, as well as those
leaning towards it as of 4/15.
Joe Alexander, West Virginia; Eric Gordon, Indiana; O.J. Mayo,
USC; Darren Collison, UCLA; Kevin Love, UCLA; Chris
Douglas-Roberts, Memphis; Derrick Rose, Memphis.
But many of us are waiting on the decision of UNC’s Tyler
Hansbrough. Most expect him to stay for his senior year, but I’m
not so sure.
One player we do know is staying is Stephen Curry of Davidson.
–Kind of disappointing to see Drake basketball coach Keno
Davis accept the job to coach Providence. Yeah, I know it’s the
Big East and all, but this also isn’t one of the conference’s
glamour jobs. So, like, Coach, you’ve blown it. [Then again,
Mr. Davis would tell me, ‘I’m graduating my stars at Drake this
spring, what did you expect me to do? It’s not like I’d get a
repeat performance out of what’s left for next year.’]
–Holy Toledo! Did you see the cougar that was roaming a
Chicago North Side neighborhood on Monday? That was a big
sucker, and the police did the right thing in shooting it, sad to
say.
Early evidence suggests the cougar was wild, not an escaped
captive, and there is a strong possibility the cougar traveled
1,000 miles, all the way from South Dakota’s Black Hills, where
the population has been growing. Long-time readers know I’ve
been to the Black Hills myself three times in the past six years or
so as it’s my favorite part of the country, but as much as I want
to go hiking deep inside the place, I don’t because I’m scared to
death of mountain lions. You don’t dare walk alone in the more
remote areas there.
Barbara Brotman, writing in the Chicago Tribune, addressed her
California experience, where she and her family lived for a year
in Palo Alto.
“One morning I took my dog out for her constitutional and
noticed an awful lot of animal control vans slowly driving
around.”
They were looking for a 108-pound mountain lion, which was
eventually discovered and shot.
“Living in California had taught us a number of things about
(them). They were beautiful. They were unlucky to be living
where people were encroaching on their habitat. And they were
fearsome predators, capable of a 15-foot vertical leap and a 40-
foot horizontal leap, that had in recent years killed a number of
joggers and cyclists on California’s glorious mountain paths.
“The year we lived there, warning notices went up at the gates of
the mountainous nature preserve where I walked regularly. They
reported that mountain lions had been seen in the preserve, and
gave instructions on how to avoid encountering them or being
injured by one: Make noise as you walk. Don’t walk alone. If
you see a lion, back away slowly to avoid triggering its chase
instinct. Do not crouch over, lest the cougar see you as small
prey.”
Next time I’m in the Black Hills, aside from not walking alone,
I’m keeping a bazooka on the front seat of the car.
–As noted above, Masters champion Trevor Immelman was in
New York and on Monday taped Letterman before attending the
Knicks game.
“Top Ten Ways Trevor Immelman’s Life Has Changed Since
Winning the Masters”
10. “I’ve been elevated from ‘Unknown’ to ‘Obscure’”
9. “Thanks to the prize money, I no longer have to buy generic
root beer”
8. “Suddenly I don’t look so foolish for trademarking
‘Immelmania’”
7. “I’m BFF’s with Lauren and Heidi from ‘The Hills’”
6. “President Bush called to congratulate me on winning
Wimbledon”
5. “When my caddy recommends a club I can say, ‘Excuse me,
how many Masters have you won?’”
4. “Invited to Masters Winners Week on ‘Jeopardy’”
3. “I get a lifetime supply of them little pencils”
2. “Guess who’s playing 36 holes with the Pope this weekend?”
1. “Get to put my arm around Tiger Woods and say, ‘Maybe next
year’”
–The other week, Dale Petroskey, president of the Baseball Hall
of Fame and Museum, suddenly ‘resigned’ after being forced out
by the five-person executive committee, which includes Joe
Morgan and Tim Russert, incidentally, though no one outside the
committee really knows why. They stated: “The resignation is
the result of our finding that Dale Petroskey failed to exercise
proper fiduciary responsibility and it follows other business
judgments that were not in the best interest of the (Hall).” But,
again, what exactly did he do wrong? He wasn’t embezzling
funds or he would have been arrested.
For the last available reporting period, 2006, the Hall did run a
deficit of $1.93 million on revenues of $11.35 million.
Attendance was 352,000 in 2007 – up 40,000 from the previous
year but off a recent high of 383,000, set in 1999, and the all-
time record of 410,000 in 1989. [Mark McGuire / Albany Times
Union]
–The Cleveland Indians reportedly signed a young Dominican
kid, Edward Salcedo, to a $2.9 million deal. But as Ben Badler
reports in Baseball America, the issue has become just how old
Salcedo is. His agent, Scott Boras (which gives you an idea of
the kid’s promise), insists he’s 16. But others believe he is older,
like maybe much older. It could be like Big Slumpi (David
Ortiz), who I maintain is 20 years older than his official bio.
–Adam Rubin of the Daily News sums up the feelings of Mets
fans just 12 games into the season.
“Negativity is swirling in the stands at Shea and on the airwaves.
And even a front office staffer recently noted that there didn’t
seem to be a ton of energy being displayed on the field. The
latter may have a lot to do with Jose Reyes’ absence – first from
the basepaths, and then from the lineup.”
[Until Reyes had a stolen base the other day, he had gone 22
games dating back to last season without one. But he had four
hits on Tuesday as the Mets evened their record at 6-6.]
–Tommy Holmes died. He was 91. Holmes hit .302 over an 11-
year major league career, 1942-52, with 1,507 hits over that time,
all but a few of them with the Boston Braves. Us Mets fans
remember him because he was involved in community relations
with the team and his name became well known to a new
generation of fans as Pete Rose approached Holmes’ then record
National League hitting streak of 37, on the way to his 44
consecutive game streak in 1978.
But baseball aficionados also remember Holmes for something
else. The guy never struck out. In 4,991 at-bats, try just 122
times. I mean think about this. In 1944 he had 631 official ABs
and whiffed just 11 times. In 1945 he had 636 and was fanned
all of nine times. Absolutely amazing. Tommy Holmes never
struck out more than 20 times in a single season.
–Shu passed along a San Francisco Chronicle piece on the 50th
anniversary of the first regular season West Coast major league
game, April 15, 1958, between the newly transplanted Dodgers
and the Giants at San Francisco’s Seals Stadium.
The starting lineups included five future Hall of Famers: Willie
Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and Don
Drysdale.
The Giants played in Seals for two years before Candlestick
opened up and the capacity was only 18,500. The Giants won
8-0, incidentally, defeating Drysdale in the process.
–Only 8.2 percent of major leaguers are black, the lowest level
in at least two decades.
–Track and field’s governing body (I.A.A.F.) is defending
sprinter Maurice Greene against charges he used steroids, per the
story that broke over the weekend that Angel Guillermo Heredia
is about to name a dozen Olympic and World Championship
medal winners who were doping, including four-time Olympic
medalist Greene.
But Greene told The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) that he had bought
unknown materials for others in the past. “I would pay for stuff
and not care what it was.” Sounds like flaxseed oil to me.
–From the New York Post’s Page Six:
“It wasn’t just the audience that hated Heather Mills at the Miss
USA Pageant over the weekend – the show’s producers couldn’t
stand Paul McCartney’s one-legged ex-wife, either.
“Audience members loudly booed and hissed when Mills was
introduced as a judge for the show at the Planet Hollywood
Resort and Casino in Vegas. But the real problem came behind
the scenes, where, for three weeks prior, Mills refused to sign a
contract stating the show could be rebroadcast.
“ ‘She flat out refused because of one line,’ said an insider.
‘They went back and forth rewriting and finally threatened to
pull her from it altogether. She still wouldn’t sign it because she
wants to get paid if they resell her footage. Her ego is enormous,
and it’s getting bigger by the minute.’ .
“ ‘She believed that if the show got high ratings, it would be
because of her,’ said our source. ‘She treated this like she was
starring in a big-budget movie.’
“Mills even hunted down pageant owner Donald Trump at a
dinner at Koi right before the show, hoping to ‘butter him up’
and get his approval to be on air. ‘Heather was flirting with him,
and she was really working it,’ said our source. ‘She was
unprofessional, but he said, ‘Let her [go] on anyway.’’”
–Upon seeing my reference to New Orleans’ Acme Oyster Bar
the other day, Steve G. wrote of his experience right before
Katrina in a half-marathon there.
“The race finished in the Super Dome, but the highlight was at
about the 9-mile mark. At the water stop, they actually handed
out large Dixie cup size portions of Michelob! Might have been
the coldest, tastiest beer I ever had in my life. I actually turned
around and went back to have a second cup. Awesome. At the
finishing area in the Dome they also had a fantastic spread of
food.”
Goodness gracious. Kind of makes one want to race in this one,
doesn’t it? As for Steve G., for his dedicated performance in
going back for a second brew, he wins the home version of “Bar
Chat: The Game,” as soon as we get around to making it.
–After the Masters, the world golf rankings:
1. Tiger, 22.36
2. Phil, 9.75
3. Els, 6.36
4. Stricker, 5.94
5. Ogilvy, 5.82
15. Immelman, 4.61
–Ripped ..from the pages of the New York Post, first daughter
Barbara Bush was spotted “dancing, drinking beers and cheering
on” the New York Rangers Sunday night. The Post’s Page Six
notes that Bush recently became a Rangers’ fan and “befriended
a few of the players.” Let’s Go Ran-gers!!!!!
–This was predictable. Alicia Keys’ handlers got hold of her
and she offered an apology for her remarks from Blender
magazine that I noted last time, specifically that the government
created gangsta rap. She of course said her comments were
taken out of context. We know better and are keeping her name
in our year end file for “Idiot of the Year.”
–I just saw that at Sunday’s Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium,
among the performers will be Jose Feliciano, singing his #3 1968
Billboard hit, “Light My Fire.” …
I was just
informed Feliciano will not be singing this tune and that instead
it will be something more appropriate for the occasion.
Top 3 songs for the week 4/20/74: #1 “TSOP (The Sound of
Philadelphia) (MFSB featuring The Three Degrees) #2 “Bennie
And The Jets” (Elton John) #3 “Hooked On A Feeling” (Blue
Swede) and #4 “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me”
(Gladys Knight & The Pips) #5 “Come And Get Your Love”
(Redbone) #6 “Oh My My” (Ringo Starr) #7 “Sunshine On My
Shoulders” (John Denver) #8 “The Loco-Motion” (Grand Funk)
#9 “The Lord’s Prayer” (Sister Janet Mead) #10 “I’ll Have To
Say I Love You In A Song” (Jim Croce)
Baseball Quiz Answer: #s 6-10 on the all-time shutout list.
6. Warren Spahn, 63 7. Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver, 61 9.
Bert Blyleven, 60 10. Don Sutton, 58.
**I just had to add this historical note, as I enjoy the series “John
Adams” on HBO.
April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was sent for by Dr. Joseph Warren
and instructed to ride to Lexington, Mass., to warn Samuel
Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching
against them. And now
“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
Then he said “Good-night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,–
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,–
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp on his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,–
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,–
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
—
Paul Revere is awarded the Bar Chat Legion of Honor, the first
ever so handed out posthumously.
Next Chat, Monday.
