Baseball Quiz: 1) Who are the last three in the National League to win the triple crown in pitching (ERA, wins and strikeouts)? 2) Roger Clemens won the A.L. pitching triple crown 1997-98. Who was the last to do it before him? [Hint: About 50 years earlier, and it’s not Bob Feller.] Answers below.
Peggy Noonan had a bit in her Wall Street Journal op-ed on some Medal of Honor recipients, including Audie Murphy. So it reminded me of one of my trips to Arlington National Cemetery, about six months after 9/11, where I discussed Murphy and some other items that apply to Memorial Day.
There are about 260,000 servicemen and family members now buried at Arlington. It all started with the Civil War, as the Union appropriated the home of Robert E. Lee in 1864 (Lee having left in the spring of 1861 to fight for the Confederacy). By the end of the conflict, 16,000 graves filled spaces close to what is now called Arlington House (a nice museum in its own right).
There are actually two “Tomb of the Unknowns” at the cemetery, the one you are probably familiar with and another containing remains of 2,111 soldiers from the Civil War.
Near Bull Run, the bones of hundreds were routinely uncovered and transported to Arlington for burial. The National Intelligencer described the scene back in September 1866 when a vault was placed in the Lee rose garden.
“A more terrible spectacle can hardly be conceived than is to be seen within a dozen rods of the Arlington mansion. A circular pit, twenty feet deep and the same in diameter, has been sunk by the side of the flower garden, cemented and divided into compartments, and down into this gloomy receptacle are cast the bones of such soldiers as perished on the field and either were not buried at all or were so covered up as to have their bones mingle indiscriminately together. At the time we looked into this gloomy cavern, a literal Golgotha, there were piled together skulls in one division, legs in another, arms in another, and ribs in another, what were estimated as the bones of two thousand human beings. They were dropping fragmentary skeletons into this receptacle almost daily.”
When the vault was sealed, a granite monument was placed atop it with the following inscription:
“Beneath this stone repose the bones of two thousand one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers, gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock. Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace.”
[Robert E. Lee died in 1870 without ever returning to Arlington.]
On Memorial Day 1984, President Ronald Reagan had the following words for the entombment of the Vietnam Unknown Serviceman at the formal Tomb of the Unknowns. [It wasn’t until 1984 that the military had one body that was certified unidentifiable.]
“The unknown soldier who has returned to us today and who we lay to rest is symbolic of all our missing sons. About him, we may well wonder as others have: As a child, did he play on some street in a great American city? Did he work beside his father on a farm in America’s heartland? Did he marry? Did he have children? Did he look expectantly to return to a bride? We will never know the answers to those questions about his life. We do know, though, why he died. He saw the horrors of war but bravely faced them, certain his own cause and country’s cause was a noble one, that he was fighting for human dignity, for free men everywhere. Today, we pause, to embrace him and all who served us so well in a war whose end offered no parades, no flags, and so little thanks. A grateful nation opens her heart today in gratitude for their sacrifice, for their courage and their noble service. Let us, if we must, debate the lessons learned at some other time. Today we simply say with pride: Thank you, dear son, and may God cradle you in His loving arms.”
[Thanks to modern science, in 1998 the remains of the Vietnam soldier were identified as Captain Michael Blassie, shot down in May 1972.]
The soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington have a Sentinel’s Creed that reads in part:
I will walk my tour in humble reverence
To the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect
His bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day
Alone in the thoughtful peace of night
This soldier will in honored Glory rest
Under my eternal vigilance.
And then there is Audie Murphy, whose simple headstone is easy to miss. Murphy was the boy from Farmville, Texas, who lied about his age to enlist in the United States Army and then proceeded to become the most decorated soldier of World War II. Audie fought in Sicily, Italy and Germany, rising rapidly to the rank of Second Lieutenant, while receiving 24 decorations, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. The citation for this nation’s highest award details his bravery while in Germany:
“With (6) enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lieutenant Murphy climbed on (a) burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50-caliber machine gun. His deadly fire killed dozens of Germans. (Murphy) received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until ammunition was exhausted. 2d Lieutenant Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective.”
Audie Murphy went on to star in 40 movies, but died tragically in 1971 when his private plane crashed in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Murphy received full military honors at Arlington, with United Nations Ambassador George Bush reading President Nixon’s official proclamation:
“(Audie Murphy) came to epitomize the gallantry in action of America’s fighting men. When challenged to defend their freedom, Americans have always stood ready to defend it with courage and daring, and each war in which the nation has been engaged has produced its own special heroes. As America’s most decorated hero of World War II, Audie Murphy not only won the admiration of millions for his own brave exploits, he also came to epitomize the gallantry in action of American fighting men. The nation stands in his debt and mourns at his death.”
Then there’s Joe Louis. Joe Barrow, the “Brown Bomber.” Louis won the heavyweight boxing title in 1937 and held it until 1949. At the outset of World War II, Louis volunteered for service in the U.S. Army, serving in both North Africa and Europe where he fought exhibition bouts before Allied troops. It is estimated he appeared before 2 million soldiers. Just imagine what a thrill, and needed release, it was for our fighting men at that time.
But when Louis died on April 12, 1981, despite his admirable service, he remained ineligible for interment at Arlington because of the stringent burial regulations. President Reagan quickly intervened and waived the requirements.
On April 21, funeral services were conducted at Arlington, with those in attendance including Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Reagan was still recuperating from the assassination attempt on his life, but he sent a letter to be read at the services.
“(I) was privileged and grateful to have had Joe Louis as my friend. Out of the ring, he was a considerate and soft spoken man. Inside the ring, his courage, strength, and confident skill wrote a unique and unforgettable chapter in sports history. But Joe Louis was more than a sports legend. His career was an indictment of racial bigotry, and a source of pride and inspiration to millions of white and black people around the world.”
The champ’s son, Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., eulogized his father:
“It’s wonderful that we’re here at the National Cemetery, where you will finally rest, because you were a patriot, you served the country well, you provided it with the guidance and the faith it needed at a time when the country was down and the people needed a lift. You looked at me (during the Vietnam War) and you said ‘This is a beautiful country, son, and it’s most important that we stand by it. It may make mistakes. It may not be exactly right, but we have to stand by it.’ We are going to miss you an awful lot because you were the greatest, truly the greatest.”
[Source: “In Honored Glory,” Philip Bigler]
Finally, the wind was howling while I walked around Arlington, and, having recently read the lyrics to Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Old Flag,” I couldn’t help but think of him, too, as the wind had all of the flags at the cemetery standing straight out. No, they weren’t ragged, you can be sure, but I think this tune, written during the tumultuous days of 1974, can resonate (and already has in some parts) in the troubled times of today as well.
Ragged Old Flag / Johnny Cash
I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, “Your old courthouse is kinda run down.”
He said, “Have a seat,” and I sat down.
“Is this the first time you’ve been to our little town?”
I said, “I think it is.” He said, “I don’t like to brag,
But we’re kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag.
“You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when
Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
sat watching it writing Say Can You See.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans,
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin’ at its seems.
“And it almost fell at the Alamo
beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.
“On Flanders Field in World War I,
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II.
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She was sent where she was by her Uncle Sam.
“She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they’ve about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land here she’s been abused –
She’s been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused.
“And the government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout the land.
And she’s getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she’s in good shape for the shape she’s in.
‘Cause she’s been through the fire before
and I believe she can take a whole lot more.
“So we raise her up every morning, take her
down every night.
We don’t let her touch the ground and we fold
her up right.
On second thought, I do like to brag,
‘Cause I’m mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag.”
–What a dramatic win at the Indy 500 for Helio Castroneves, his third 500 triumph, after he was just acquitted on serious tax-evasion charges. From facing major jail time, Castroneves redeemed himself. And hats off to car owner Roger Penske, who not only won his record 15th 500, but also never abandoned his star driver throughout the whole ordeal.
Meanwhile, Danica Patrick came through with a third-place finish, behind runner-up Dan Wheldon. You go, girl!
–The new Yankee Stadium is rapidly becoming a joke. 87 home runs have been hit there in the first 23 games, an all-time record for a new park, while in all of last year at the old Stadium, 160 were hit.
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“Ballplayers looking to hit home runs in bunches apparently don’t need to use steroids anymore. They just have to pay a visit to the new Yankee Stadium, which suddenly looks like the performance-enhancing capital of the world.
“It’s why the Yankees have to jump on this thing right now, balls flying out of the place like they’ve spent $1.5 billion recreating the dimensions of the park where they play the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
“The Yankees generally think they can sell anything, well, other than big-ticket seats close to the field at the new Stadium. Now they’ve got to build an ad campaign around what has a chance to be the greatest home run season in baseball history, the one where more home runs might be hit in the new Stadium than have ever been hit anywhere in the whole history of baseball, at any altitude.”
The record is 303 home runs hit at Coors Field in 1999. Lupica suggests the Yankees promote the record and celebrate the 100th, 200th, and so on. OK, he’s being facetious.
“For now the Yankees are just in a damage control mode, perhaps rattled by living in a wind tunnel. Lonn Trost, the COO of the team, was saying not long ago that of all the wind patterns they studied – you get the idea that the studies involved him and Randy Levine, the president of the team, wetting the tips of their index fingers and holding them up in the air – the prevailing patterns they’ve gotten so far this season are the ones they’ve least expected….
“At a place where they sell legends with both hands, this is really a dream scenario, at least once you get past the snickering. They’ve turned the new place into an instant legend!
“And if the boys in charge think this is as embarrassing as all the empty blue seats, they’re going to have to go in the other direction. Start freezing the baseballs the way they did at Coors Field.”
–The Mets had a dramatic victory over the Red Sox, Saturday night, and part of the story was Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, who in his last turn on the mound got the yips, literally. He couldn’t pitch out of the stretch and committed three balks (more, unofficially). So Pelfrey went to see a sports psychologist. No one who played the game at the MLB level could recall this happening before. But sure enough, the yips resurfaced on Saturday, albeit briefly, and he did limit Boston to two runs in seven innings.
–The Mets’ Johan Santana is 6-2 with a 1.50 ERA, having allowed just 10 earned runs in 60 innings. But 17 runs have actually scored, owing to a staggering 12 errors behind him in his nine starts. Ergo, Santana should be 9-0.
–Phil W. reminded me of a piece I forgot to include the other day.
“Woman loses tooth, gets stuck in Mets toilet”
“A hapless Mets fan tried to make a diving catch when her gold tooth fell into a Citi Field toilet – and got her arm stuck in the commode.
“The unidentified woman’s bizarre Flushing adventure happened during last Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, sources said yesterday.
“It’s unclear how long she was trapped screaming in the john, but stadium security guards and emergency medical personnel eventually showed up.
“They called for back-up – dialing up a worker from Cardozo Plumbing, the company that installed all 646 ultra-low-flow toilets at Citi Field….
“The woman did not recover her tooth, but was plenty relieved just to leave the bathroom….
“Last year, a woman in China spent two days with her hand stuck down a toilet when she tried to save a pet turtle that she had accidentally flushed.”
Needless to say, the turtle’s last moments were terrifying. He had done nothing wrong. Our sympathies to his family and Turtle Nation.
–Interesting story by Bob Kimball of USA Today Sports Weekly concerning the move of the Braves from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953. By May 20 of that year, the Braves had surpassed their entire attendance in Boston the year before, a baseball-low 281,278. The Milwaukee version passed it in the 13th home game.
So well were the Braves received in Milwaukee that attendance shot to 1,826,397, in what would be the first of six consecutive seasons leading baseball. [If this seems kind of low by some of today’s standards, for starters remember that the nation’s population was at least 100 million less then than it is today.] Milwaukee hadn’t had a big league team since 1901. More than 12,000 fans greeted the team as they arrived by train, and 60,000 attended a parade in their honor.
But in fact-checking the 1952 Boston Braves on baseballreference.com, boy, they had a ton of games with attendance of less than 2,000. But another thing stands out. Teams in those days had long road trips and home stands. Like the ’52 Braves had a 21-game road trip to New York (Giants), Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Then they were home for 24 of the next 27. Yup, back when men were men, and poker and whiskey on train rides ruled.
–And this other Milwaukee moment…Milwaukee-Pittsburgh moment, to be exact. May 26, 1959. It was the very first day of work at the New York Times for Gerald Eskenazi, a $38-a-week copy boy. Eskenazi had a piece in yesterday’s Sunday Times recalling what turned out to be a special day as he read the Western Union ticker.
“The yellow ribbon unfurled out of the jar. Usually, it gave bare information, a line score. This time, it read, in shorthand, as I recall: ‘Harvey Haddix Pittsburgh Pirates pitching perfect game through eight innings.’….
“The ticker continued clacking: nine innings; 10 innings; 11 innings; 12 innings! No one in the history of baseball had ever had such a performance, and I was there, tethered to the game through Western Union ticker tape….
“The Pirates were retired in the top of the 13th by Lew Burdette – who, like Haddix, had started the game and was still pitching.
“Felix Mantilla, who was to record a lifetime batting average of .261, led off the bottom of the Braves’ 13th. He hit a grounder to Don Hoak at third. Hoak appeared to take his time gripping the ball, got it right, but his throw to first baseman Rocky Nelson was on a bounce. Nelson could not dig it out. Hoak was given an error. The perfect game was over, but not the no-hitter.
“With Mantilla at first, the Braves’ great home run hitter Eddie Mathews was up. He did something he was to do only two more times that season – hit a sacrifice bunt. It was successful and Mantilla moved to second. Now Haddix was facing Hank Aaron, who was leading the major leagues in batting. Of course, Aaron was intentionally walked.
“Then big Joe Adcock was up. He was a home run hitter who once had smacked four in a game against my Dodgers at Ebbets Field. This time, he stroked a low liner that went over the head of right fielder Roman Mejias, toward the fence about 330 feet from home. From Aaron’s vantage point, it did not seem to clear the fence. Aaron took off for second, saw Mantilla racing home, and Aaron thought that was the ballgame. So he touched second, then cut across the infield for the dugout. He believed the ball had landed inside the stadium and that the game was over. But the ball had cleared the fence.
“Adcock continued running, though, and rounded the bases. He touched home and the plate umpire Vinnie Smith declared the game over.”
But instead of a 3-0 win, N.L. president Warren Giles ruled that night it was a 1-0 victory since Adcock had passed Aaron on the bases. Adcock’s hit was ruled a double.
For Haddix, even though the game went more than nine innings, he didn’t receive credit for a no-hitter, or perfect game.
The box score is interesting. Burdette, in going all 13 innings, didn’t walk a batter, but scattered 12 hits and fanned just two. Haddix just had that one walk to Aaron.
For his career, Harvey, who died in 1994 at the age of 68, was 136-113. Burdette, who I’ve written of before in this space, died in 2007. He finished up 203-144, lifetime, and was a spectacular 3-0 in the 1957 World Series against the Yankees. Three complete games. Two runs allowed in 27 innings, and he shut out the Yanks on two days rest in Game Seven.
–Sporting News asked a varied panel of 100, including Brooks Robinson, George Will, Ken Harrelson and Stan Musial, to pick the top players in today’s game.
1. Albert Pujols 2. A-Rod 3. Johan Santana 4. Manny Ramirez 5. Hanley Ramirez 6. Chase Utley 7. Roy Halladay 8. Derek Jeter 9. Mariano Rivera 10. Chipper Jones
[11. Ryan Howard 12. Grady Sizemore 13. David Wright 14. Justin Morneau 15. Jimmy Rollins]
–Two weeks to the Belmont. Supposedly we’ll learn on Monday whether Rachel Alexandra is a definite after her workout.
–How popular was former Oklahoma/NBA/jazz music star Wayman Tisdale, who died the other day? 4,000 turned out for his funeral in Tulsa.
“Pallbearers stepped to the beat of jazz music played on stage by Tisdale’s band. Leading the pallbearers was a man wearing white gloves and holding a basketball above his head as he marched to the stage in step with the music. He placed the ball on a stand, and the casket followed.”
–From the AP: “The son of a New York City assistant principal who died of swine flu pitched a no-hitter while wearing a cap bearing his father’s initials. Jordan Wiener, 18, is the son of Mitchell Wiener, a 55-year-old assistant principal at an intermediate school in Queens. Jordan attends Robert F. Kennedy High in Queens and struck out 14 batters on Thursday. His father was buried Wednesday after dying of the virus on Sunday. The
10-0 victory was over Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights School.” The story failed to mention it was also a state playoff game.
–Ah, sports. LeBron got it done on Friday against Orlando in dramatic fashion. Sunday, he didn’t. Talk about an unimpressive 41 points.
–Fox Sports was just thrilled that the Coca-Cola 600 was rained out…not!
—SHARK! I caught a bit on the Today Show and it turns out I missed a shark attack in the Bahamas, a story that first surfaced there about ten days ago. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
“His blood tinting the water red, Luis Hernandez didn’t know if he’d make it as the 7-foot bull shark tore into his right forearm.
“Hernandez, 48, of Deerfield Beach, had been spearfishing off the Exuma islands in the Bahamas last week when the shark attacked.
“But Hernandez wasn’t alone. Watching from their rented fishing boat, his wife, Marlene Hernandez, 46, lifted the anchor and pulled her husband out of the waters once the shark let go. She then crafted a tourniquet and got the boat back to land, the family said.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, authorities said three people were bitten by sharks off New Smyrna Beach (near Cape Canaveral) last weekend; all relatively minor, though surgery was required on one victim.
–Former Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion and could face up to one year in prison. This is sad, particularly the timing, as the Mets, and Bar Chat, celebrate the 40th anniversary of the team’s crowning moment. Kooz defrauded the government out of as much as $90,000.
–We have a primo “Dirtball/Jerk of the Year” candidate in Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Harrison would have been a Jerk nominee for blowing off a visit to the White House as a member of the world champions, the second time he has done so.
Then on Thursday, the pit bull that Harrison owns bit his 2-year-old son in the thigh, an injury serious enough to require hospitalization. The mother evidently let the dog out of the pen, but for Harrison to have the pit bull around a child is criminal.
[I love these people, like his neighbors, who say ‘it was a good dog.’ But then you read they never saw it…because Harrison had it cooped up the whole time! That’s no way to treat a dog, sports fans.]
–Mike Lupica / New York Daily News…on Michael Vick [just an interesting opinion, speaking of dogs]
“They don’t get to decide whether Vick is really remorseful – as if there’s some way to compute this, using scales – anymore than the National Football League does.
“But if there’s an owner, and general manager, and coach, willing to take a chance on him, he is allowed to go back to work as a football player.
“When Vick was going through the system, all groups dealing with humane treatment for animals had the high moral ground, and were allowed to have high outrage on this.
“But it would be both arrogance and zealotry to suggest that there are higher laws in this country than its actual laws, or that activists get to decide what a person’s sentence should actually be.
“No one will ever defend what Michael Vick did, or condone it, or say that it should never come off his permanent record.
“But if he obeys the laws from now on, if he still has a talent for football at the age of 29, then he has a right to use it without being harassed.
“Vick did his time. Now the people still hating on him have to find a better use of their own time.”
—Jack Bauer, whose stem cell treatment clearly worked, apologized to the fashion designer he head-butted and the two issued a joint statement, with Jack McCollough saying, “I appreciate Mr. Sutherland’s statement and wish him well.”
Mr. Sutherland? Who’s he? Now I’m all confused…very, very confused.
–The Star-Ledger’s Peggy McGlone had a piece on how difficult it was to get Springsteen tickets for the shows in New Jersey this past Thurs. and Sat. nights. They initially went on sale the morning of Feb. 2, so picture how hundreds of thousands were looking for 38,778 seats to the two concerts, but only 6,000 individuals actually succeeded in buying up to the allowable maximum of six. Ticketmaster is being investigated by the state attorney general’s office, a probe which yielded the following info.
“Almost 27% of the tickets, or 10,494 for the two shows, were held back for the artists, their business partners and others….
“Internet users had a big advantage over consumers who used the phone. [68% were sold over the Net for Thursday, 78% for Saturday.]
“Time was short, with the first ticket selling in 58 seconds and most for Saturday’s concert gone 44 minutes later.”
Top 3 songs for the week 5/23/64: #1 “My Guy” (Mary Wells) #2 “Love Me Do” (The Beatles) #3 “Hello, Dolly!” (Louis Armstrong)…and…#4 “Chapel Of Love” (The Dixie Cups) #5 Love Me With All Your Heart” (The Ray Charles Singers…a great era, The Beatles and schmaltz) #6 “Bits And Pieces” (The Dave Clark Five…none better) #7 “(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet” (The Reflections) #8 “Ronnie” (The 4 Seasons) #9 “It’s Over” (Roy Orbison) #10 “A World Without Love” (Peter and Gordon)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Last three to win N.L. pitching triple crown. Dwight Gooden (Mets) 1985 [1.53, 24-4, 268]; Randy Johnson (AZ) 2002 [2.32, 24-5, 334]; Jake Peavy (SD) 2007 [2.54, 19-6, 240]. 2) Detroit’s Hal Newhouser won the A.L. triple crown in 1945. [1.81, 25-9, 212]. This was in the middle of the Hall of Famer’s unworldly three-year stretch, 1944-46; 29-9, 25-9, 26-9. He was A.L. MVP in 1944 and 45. As Ronald Reagan said at the time… “Not bad…not bad at all.”
