Baseball Quiz: I was staring at the all-time leaders’ boards at the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday so…here’s one I didn’t do this year. 1) Give me the top five in games played. 2) Name the five Tigers to have their uniform #s retired (not including Jackie Robinson, whose #42 is retired by every team). 3) Who was the first Latin born ballplayer to win the MVP? [This is not a trick question, just hard.] Answers below.
So I had a neat little stretch. Monday I traveled up to West Point for a tour and some museum action. While I’ve been there about six times for football games in the past, I had never actually taken a tour of the campus, nor had I visited the military museum there. It was a gorgeous day for walking around and I stayed overnight at the historic Thayer Hotel (named after West Point grad Sylvanus Thayer, the “Father of the Military Academy”), which has one of the cooler bars in the country, with a gorgeous view of the Hudson River. It’s there I parked myself for the Minnesota-Green Bay game Monday night.
Then Tuesday I headed up to Cooperstown, about 3 ½ hours from West Point, and hit more great weather as I toured the Baseball Hall of Fame before taking a long walk around the village (about my favorite in the country), had a beer at the lake, and then settled in for the Detroit-Minnesota playoff game that evening at the Doubleday Café for a double cheeseburger and beer. [OK, and some cheesecake. Quite tasty.]
Now if you aren’t a Twins fan, but a big time fan of the sport such as yours truly, there really isn’t a better place to watch the game than in Cooperstown. I ended up sitting next to Jay N. from Maryland, who happened to be a Washington Senators clubhouse boy in the early- to mid-Sixties. Now how cool is that? You talk about stories. Jay had some good ones.
First off, most of the players were jerks back then, just as they are today; men like Whitey Ford, who definitely deserves his reputation for being a first-class a-hole. Ford would ask the clubhouse boys to shine his shoes and they were never done well enough for him…his complaints being an excuse not to tip the kids. Most of the time we were watching the Twins-Tigers game, though, we talked about everything we had seen in the museum.
One word on the playoff contest. Yes, that was a classic. I was pumped to watch the game, even without a rooting interest, and it didn’t disappoint. Or as Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News summed it up:
“It’s baseball that keeps reminding us why we watch and why we keep coming back and why we care.”
OK, I jotted down some notes from both West Point and Cooperstown and once again am kind of stretched for time with all the driving I did the past few days…and, of course, authentic Bar Chat conducted in some of our nation’s better watering holes.
West Point…Duty, Honor, Country
It was George Washington who recommended the United States establish a military academy at West Point, Washington having commanded forces at this strategic Hudson River point during the Revolutionary War, and on March 16, 1802, Thomas Jefferson signed legislation authorizing the building of the academy.
Earlier, in 1780, Benedict Arnold, who had been an American hero a few years before at the critical Battle of Saratoga, was discovered with plans to surrender West Point to the British.
For their four years of free education (with a $3,000 up front cost for uniforms and other supplies), each cadet then has a 5-year active duty obligation, emerging with a Bachelor of Science degree and the rank of 2nd-Lieutenant.
Who are the three Heisman Trophy winners who played at Army? Answer below.
Dennis Mahan Michie…was a cadet who led Army to victory over Navy in football back in 1892 (the first contest between the two having been conducted in 1890 with Navy coming out victorious). Michie then was killed at San Juan Hill and for his heroics in war and on the gridiron, in 1924, Michie Stadium was named after him.
Frank Borman (USMA 1950)…commanded Apollo 8, 1968, my own favorite memory of our space program; the first mission to orbit the moon…the Christmas Eve telecast. With our television screens filled with the image of the lunar surface, it was Borman who started reading to the hundreds of millions watching around the world:
He later said he felt compelled to read from Genesis because it seemed appropriate; it felt like creation.
Buzz Aldrin (USMA 1951) and Michael Collins (USMA 1952) of Apollo 11 fame are graduates.
Among the others were Robert E. Lee (USMA 1829), who was also superintendant there, 1852-55. General George Armstrong Custer, General Pershing, General Patton, and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who it’s said still partakes in the choir when he’s there. [I wish Schwarzkopf had kept a higher public profile the past few years, though I recognize he’s had some health issues. We just need him around these days. We need role models and real leaders.]
Ulysses S. Grant (1843) and Dwight Eisenhower (1915) are the only two West Pointers to go on to become president.
Albert Sidney Johnston (USMA 1826) was the highest-ranking general on either side killed in the Civil War, the Confederate Johnston having died at the Battle of Shiloh (1862). While it was early in the war, many, such as Jefferson Davis, believe the South was doomed after losing such a key leader.
George Washington Goethals (USMA 1880) was chief engineer on the Panama Canal Commission.
Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves (USMA 1918) headed up the Manhattan Project. It’s incredible to think that this effort employed 129,000.
In the military museum I’m staring at this sword, disbelievingly, because it is Napoleon’s sword. Why would it be at West Point?
You see, days before his death, Napoleon willed the sword to his son. Later it became a possession of the French Government. Then on June 14, 1945, Charles de Gaulle turned the sword over to Gen. Eisenhower “as testimony to the sentiments of friendship and gratitude that France bears for the American Army.”
The military museum had exhibits on the history of warfare and for you Clausewitz fans, he being the Prussian general and theorist who once fought against Napoleon, his three main elements of military theory are:
Following are some quotes we should have learned as school kids, but didn’t.
“It is well that war is so terrible – we would grow too fond of it.”
–Robert E. Lee
“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.”
–George S. Patton, Jr.
**The three Heisman Trophy winners are Doc Blanchard, Glen Davis and Pete Dawkins.
It’s a good time to take a look at another USMA grad and his farewell speech given at West Point, May, 1962.
“Duty, Honor, Country” / Douglas MacArthur
No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this… But this award is not intended primarily for a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code – a code of conduct and chivalry…
“Duty,” “honor,” “country” – those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you want to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn…
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pendant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them…
But these are some of the things they build. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation’s defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.
They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.
And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory?
Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man at arms…
His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast.
In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people…
I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.
Always for them: duty, honor, country.…
Their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory – always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following your password of duty, honor, country.
You now face a new world, a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles marks a beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind… And through all this welter of change and development your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable. It is to win our wars….
Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be duty, honor, country.
Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men’s minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation’s war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle….
Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government….
These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: duty, honor, country….
From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation’s destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.
The long, gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: duty, honor, country.
This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato…. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished – tone and tints. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll.
In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: duty, honor, country.
Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the corps, and the corps, and the corps.
I bid you farewell.
Abner Doubleday was a West Pointer, and a Civil War hero, before he supposedly founded the game of baseball.
Hilltop Park, the home of the Yankees from 1903-1912, had a capacity of 16,000 and was the last of its kind constructed for less than $100,000
“The day I left Mobile, Alabama to play ball with the Indianapolis Clowns, Mama was so upset she couldn’t come to the train station to see me off. She just made me a couple sandwiches, stuffed $2 in my pocket, and stood in the yard crying as I rode off…[The train ride] was the first time in my life that I had been around white people.”
Looking at all the record lists, I was thinking about Ken Griffey Jr. He finished the season with 1829 RBI and there is major doubt whether he’ll come back another season for Seattle even though his teammates loved having him around this past one (despite his low batting average). The thing is, No. 10 on the career ribby list is Yaz with 1844, but Manny Ramirez and A-Rod will easily pass Griffey in another few years (after which there is a big gap). In other words, you’d think Griffey would kind of like to be in the top ten but he also knows it would be fleeting.
Now c’mon. Clemens is a special situation, but the others are all Hall of Famers, make room for Bert!
Talk about yesterday’s pitchers vs. today’s. In the old days, men were men. Men like Jack Coombs, who was 158-110 in a career that spanned 1906-1920.
Coombs proved himself to be Superman in 1910 when during the World Series for the Philadelphia Athletics, he won Game Two against the Cubs, then pitched on one, and then, two days rest to win Games Three and Five, all three efforts complete games, as the A’s whipped the Cubs, 4-1. Now that’s a man, so we quaff an ale to Jack Coombs.
[Coombs was 31-9 with a 1.30 ERA in 1910 and followed that with a 28-12 campaign. As Ronald Reagan would have said, “Not bad…not bad at all.”]
You know who is an underrated Hall member? Eddie Collins (1906-1930), 3315 hits, .333 average. As Ronald Reagan would have said….[sorry]
Babe Ruth’s last home run, No. 714, traveled 600 feet at Forbes Field. I think this is one of the more underrated great stories in the sport. [The last was one of three he hit in the game.]
“The secret of managing a club is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.”
–Casey Stengel
Hector Espino spent his entire career in the Mexican League (25 years), except for 32 games with Jacksonville in 1964, and hit 763 home runs. For various reasons (think cultural) Espino didn’t want to play in the U.S.
I came across this quote… “(Baseball) is no longer a sport, but a business.” New York Times, 1891. Yup, the more things change, the more they stay the same…except in the case of pitchers and rest.
I’ve always found it bizarre that Hall of Famer Al Kaline’s two best seasons were easily his first, at age 20 and 21.
I had all kinds of requests from Johnny Mac and Ken P. to remove a few undeserving players’ plaques from the Hall of Fame gallery while I was there and for once I remembered to bring my Phillips screwdriver.
Like in the case of Ray Schalk, 1912-1929, who played all but five games of his career with the Chicago White Sox and his big claim to fame is he caught 100 games in a season a number of years in a row (when this was evidently a big deal) but he hit .253, had no power, no nuthin’. As Derrick Coleman would have said, “Whoopty-damn-do.”
So I started unscrewing Schalk’s plaque when security stopped me.
“But I had this Ron Santo plaque made up and I was going to put Santo in his place.”
“Listen, there are a lot of Santo fans who want to see that but I suggest you move along and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
I also wanted to remove Bill Mazeroski but when I started to do it, the same security guy was shaking his head so I didn’t pursue this further, either. Roger Bresnahan’s heirs can also rest easy. Ditto Freddie Lindstrom’s [one of Johnny Mac’s main pet peeves.]
But one guy I have a little more admiration for upon further reflection is Richie Ashburn. While he was a Punch-and-Judy type (zero power), he did win two batting titles, had 2574 hits, and a sterling .396 OBP (on-base percentage). What the hell. [By contrast, Lou Brock’s OBP was a highly mediocre .343.]
The Wall Street Journal’s Allen Barra notes that Alex Rodriguez’ playoff performance is similar to some others with far better postseason records after a similar amount of games. To wit.
The first four went on to better their early marks. Reggie, for example, finished with 18 homers and 48 RBI and a .278 average.
But it’s what A-Rod has done with the Yankees that matters. Everyone knows that. And as Rob Neyer, author of Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends, tells Barra, the difference is that “after having played in about 40 postseason games each, those guys had a total of 21 World Series rings. Their teams had better pitching, and they won.” A-Rod? Zippo so far.
[A-Rod was 0-for-27 with runners in scoring position since Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, stranding 38 runners. Before Wednesday night, that is, as he went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Drat!]
“I’ll be honest with you folks – right now I’d give anything to be hiking in the Appalachian Mountains.”
“I got in the car this morning and the navigation lady wasn’t speaking to me.”
“Don’t kid yourselves, because things are still pretty bad. There is a possibility I will be the first talk show host impeached.”
“It’s fall here in New York City, and I just spent the whole weekend raking my hate mail. It’s chilly outside my house. It’s chilly inside my house.”
On a more serious note, Letterman said of his wife, Regina Lasko:
“She’s been horribly hurt by my behavior. If you hurt a person and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it. At that point, there’s only two things that can happen. Either you make some progress and get it fixed, or you’re going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed.”
–We have another “Jerk of the Year” candidate in the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, who in the midst of last weekend’s critical series against Chicago to avoid a playoff with Minnesota, arrived at his Detroit home at 5 a.m., Saturday, three times over the legal limit for driving (0.26) as later proven by a breathalyzer following police being called to his place after he got into a fight with his wife. The Tigers lost 2 of 3…and then lost to the Twins…as Cabrera went hitless against the White Sox. For this he’s paid like $19 million a year. Detroit fans can be expected to try and run him out of town. He is a total disgrace.
–Florida State’s trustees would like to see 79-year-old Coach Bobby Bowden exit at the end of the season. It’s long overdue. Bye-bye, Bobby.
–The 10th pick in the NFL draft, receiver Michael Crabtree of the 49ers, finally signed for a reported $17 million guarantee…and then some. [It\’s the guarantee you focus on with the NFLers.]
—Rush Limbaugh has announced his intention to buy the St. Louis Rams as part of a group including St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts. The Rams, currently owned by the children of the late Georgia Frontiere, have a 14-game losing streak and are 5-31 since 2007. The franchise is still said to be worth over $900 million, though.
–The Presidents Cup is on this weekend (starting Thursday). Could be worth a look-in come Saturday. International team captain Greg Norman said the recent disclosure he was splitting with Chris Evert will have no bearing on the event or his players’ demeanor. Ha! [That\’s all they\’ll be talking about, behind his back.]
—Colgate, 5-0, is ranked 24th in the latest Football Championship Subdivision [Div. I-AA] poll. [That was a sop to alum Pete M.] Richmond is No. 1, followed by Villanova and Montana.
In Division III, guess who is No. 1? Mount Union (Ohio), of course, the perennial champs. But at No. 25 it’s Dickinson College of Carlisle, Pa., the alma mater of both our own Dr. Bortrum (who did his graduate work at Pitt) and my brother (who, err, had a very good time). The running joke among Bro and I is that combined we managed to make the Dean’s List.
—Simon Cowell has been offered $50 million to remain on “American Idol” for two more seasons and another $50 million to produce “The X Factor,” his hit British series, for stateside viewing. The problem is “X Factor” sounds just like “Idol.” ‘Sup wit dat?
–My Jets acquired partier, and wide receiver, Braylon Edwards from the Cleveland Browns for two players few in the country ever heard of and two draft picks. Just days earlier, Edwards was accused by LeBron James of assaulting one of his buddies at a Cleveland nightclub. Edwards has had other incidents over the years, but in 2007 was a Pro Bowler and the Jets are hoping he regains that form.
–Johnny Mac first alerted me to the story out of Saylorsburg, Pa., near where he lives, of the woman who was mauled to death by a 350-lb. black bear. But before you panic, understand she kept the bear, legally, in a cage and when she went to clean out same, “WHOMP!!!”…the bear attacked her. End of Kelly Ann Walz…a first-class idiot for keeping a bear in a 15 X 15 cage. A neighbor then shot the bruin to death.
But wait…there’s more! Walz also kept a lion, cougar, jaguar, tiger and leopard on the site. Don’t you know they’re all talking today.
Jaguar: “Lay low…at least that’s what I’m going to do.”
–Bob S., Sr. VP and Director of Shark Attacks for North America (I think this is a promotion, Bob. Just understand I still don’t pick up health care, nor do you get any vacation time outside of Christmas and Fourth of July…because the sharks never take a holiday!…but I digress), passed along a story out of Ft. Lauderdale about a 750-pound shark caught off the coast as a group of friends were fishing when they stumbled on the 10-footer “feeding on a swordfish.” [Our sympathies to the swordfish’s family.]
The boy’s, thinking of the little swordfish that had just been orphaned, took it out on the shark. It’s not clear what kind of shark it was but Florida law allowed them to take it in as long as it wasn’t on the endangered list.
–Hey, Johnny…Oct. 25, Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello…the 51st annual Awards Banquet of the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Association!!! We’ve gotta go…it will be crazy!
–Reader, and former co-worker, Dan L., is fired up that Kiss is back with their first studio album since 1998, a 3-disc set plus a DVD of a concert in Buenos Aires, all for just $12, “the price of a sandwich,” according to Gene Simmons. The new songs, 11 of ‘em, have been reviewed favorably.
As for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for which Kiss is up yet again, Simmons told USA TODAY:
“It’s a nice organization, but it’s like the Boss Tweed days in New York, back-room politics where 10 guys from Rolling Stone decide who gets in. Tutti Frutti, I get it. The Eagles, I get it. But Madonna? Show me one iota of rock in that. You’ve got a little headset and the track playing in your ear and dancers on stage. Come on! If you’re not playing guitars and drums, it ain’t rock.”
Well, no one ever said Gene Simmons didn’t speak his mind. Simmons and bandmate Paul Stanley, for all their ego, say they are humbled by the band’s longevity.
“We’re privileged,” Simmons says. “There but for the grace of God, anyone of us would be asking the next person in line, ‘Would you like fries with that?’ What have I got to complain about? I’m filthy rich. I’ve been there, done that and owned the T-shirt with my own face on it.”
–Elvis Presley’s 17-year-old grandson, Ben Presley, has been offered a $5 million deal by Universal Records to do five albums. Ben was born 15 years after the King’s death and says his music will be nothing like Elvis\’. He is Lisa Marie Presley’s son with her first husband, Danny Keough, and he bears a striking resemblance to Elvis.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/8/66: #1 “Cherish” (The Association) #2 “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (Four Tops) #3 “96 Tears” (?(Question Mark) & The Mysterians)…and…#4 “Black Is Black” (Los Bravos) #5 “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” (The Temptations) #6 “Last Train To Clarksville” (The Monkees) #7 “Cherry, Cherry” (Neil Diamond) #8 “You Can’t Hurry Love” (The Supremes) #9 “Psychotic Reaction” (Count Five…great tune by group that was far bigger overseas than here) #10 “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (The 4 Seasons)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Top five games played…Pete Rose, 3562; Carl Yastrzemski, 3308; Hank Aaron, 3298; Rickey Henderson, 3081; Ty Cobb, 3033. [Next…Eddie Murray, 3026; Stan Musial, 3026; Cal Ripken Jr. 3001] Omar Vizquel is first among actives, 2742. 2) Tigers retired uniforms. #2 Charlie Gehringer; #5 Hank Greenberg; #6 Al Kaline; #16 Hal Newhouser; #23 Willie Horton. 3) Minnesota’s Zoilo Versalles was the first Latin (Cuba) to win the MVP in 1965.
Next Bar Chat, Monday. More on the Hall of Fame….and for the two of you who care…I’ll try and wrap up the ’69 Mets as promised.
