NHL Quiz: Yes, that”s right, hockey!!! Who are the only 5
players to score 700 or more goals in their career? Answer
below.
[In light of the week”s events, for those of you who missed it,
checkout the archives for the 11/3 edition of Bar Chat. I was
prescient enough to put up a sterling piece on the 1960 election,
long before it was popular to discuss it.]
Veterans Day / The Sullivan Brothers
On December 7, 1941, 4 of the 5 Sullivan Brothers were seated
around the family table in Waterloo, Iowa when word of the
disaster at Pearl Harbor reached them. The immediate concern
was for their best friend Bill Ball who was stationed on the USS
Arizona. It would be weeks before they learned his fate. But as
the fifth brother, who lived nearby, came running in, asking them
if they had heard the news, it was time for the family to reach a
decision. The five Sullivan brothers were going to war, together.
Eldest brother George, 28, said, “Well, I guess our minds are
made up, aren”t they, fellows? And when we go in, we want to
go in together. And if worse comes to worst, we”ll all go down
together.”
George and his brother Frank, 26, had recently finished 4-year
stints in the U.S. Navy. The other three were “Red,” 23, Matt,
22, and Albert, 20. Albert was married with a baby.
The boys” mother, Alleta, knew she couldn”t interfere with her
sons” choice. They were so close to each other. And she knew
they”d have to serve anyway.
But the Navy had a policy of splitting families in wartime so that
if a ship went down, no more than one family member could be a
casualty. Well, the Sullivan brothers would have none of that
and so they marched down to the recruiting station and made
their demand.
Never before in the history of the Navy had five brothers served
on the same warship but the Sullivans rushed a letter off to the
Navy Department in Washington and shortly received a reply.
The Navy agreed to waive its rule on family enlistments and let
the 4 single brothers stay together. Albert, being married, was
exempt from military service because he was a family man and
would not be accepted.
Albert was miffed so more letters were written to Washington,
and then the Navy broke another rule. Recognizing the need for
as many men as possible, they saw in the Sullivans a recruiting
coup. Five brothers aboard the same ship would make real
headlines.
Later, the Sullivans found out that Bill Ball had indeed died on
the Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. That gave them a
new motivation. They weren”t only fighting as a family for their
country…they were seeking revenge.
And so the Sullivans eventually found their way to the light
cruiser Juneau. It was to become part of a task group that would
see action in the fall of 1942 near Guadalcanal.
The Juneau”s captain was Lyman Swenson. The captain was
none too pleased about the thought of having the five Sullivan
brothers (as well as the four Rogers brothers) on board.
Swenson”s reasoning was that if the ship went down it would
bear the stigma of having lost multiple family members – fame
he hadn”t sought. The Navy told Swenson to cool it. The PR
was invaluable. Swenson became enraged. The last thing he
needed was to be worrying about Mrs. Sullivan losing all her
sons in one attack. Monday, Part II. [I would list the source, but
the title tells too much. I”ll reveal it later.]
Talkin” Baseball
On Tuesday Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of
baseball operations in the commissioner”s office, said he wants
to see a return of the strike zone as defined in the rule book.
“It”s been the view of people for a long time that the strike
zone.is being interpreted by individual umpires in a variety of
different ways. We”re looking to bring uniformity back,
eliminate a lot of the interpretation and go back to the rule book.”
The rule book states that a pitch should be called a strike if it
crosses any part of the plate and is also between the knee and the
midpoint between the belt buckle and shoulders. But the past
few years, nothing above the belt has been called a strike.
The Beatles
Daniel Wattenberg wrote a review of “The Beatles Anthology”
in a recent issue of The Weekly Standard. Following are some
brief excerpts.
“As artists, the Beatles are remembered chiefly for two things:
for Lennon and McCartney”s seemingly inexhaustible flow of
beautiful melodies, and for exploiting the resources of the
recording studio more fully than anyone before them.
“The Beatles became polished rock ”n” roll musicians and
performers before they became stars.(and) the core of the
Beatles (John, Paul, and George) had been playing together for
more than five years when their first single ”Love Me Do” hit the
British charts in late 1962.they formed their musical sensibility
collectively.”
[And what of their legacy?]
“When one thinks of the long period of vapid and infantile,
pureed pop that saturated the teen market in the late 1950s and
early 1960s before the rise of the Beatles, one realizes how badly
music needed John Lennon”s honesty and emotional heat. And
when one thinks of the tuneless propaganda of today”s rap and
the static drone of club music, one misses Paul McCartney”s
gentle melodies and dedicated craftmanship. In fact, when one
thinks about it, one may conclude that in the combination of their
complementary talents, John Lennon and Paul McCartney raised
popular music to a peak of balanced artistry we are unlikely to
see again soon.”
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/11/72: #1 “I Can See Clearly
Now” (Johnny Nash) #2 “Nights In White Satin” (The Moody
Blues) #3 “I”d Love You To Want Me” (Lobo).
Quiz Answer: Top 5 goal scorers of all time. #1 Wayne
Gretzky, 894 #2 Gordie Howe, 801 #3 Marcel Dionne, 731
#4 Phil Esposito, 717 #5 Mike Gartner, 708.
NFL Films
Steve Sabol”s operation processes 800 miles of film into 2,000
hours of original programming a year. Sabol, who”s father
started the company, has 250 employees at their New Jersey
operation. He sounds like a great boss. Great mistakes are
rewarded with a $1,000 bonus because, he says, “you wouldn”t
make that mistake unless you were trying hard to do something
interesting.” [Source: Robert Strauss / New York Times]
Veterans Day Remembrance
U.S. War Dead
World War I – 116,500
World War II – 406,000
Korea – 33,500
Vietnam – 59,000
Gulf War – 148
After the acrimony of this past week, all of them must be spinning
in their graves.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
