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Bar Chat

07/03/2013

Gettysburg

Posted early Wednesay: Wanted to clear the table on a few items. Back to normal next time. 

Ball Bits

--Cincinnati’s Homer Bailey fired his second career no-hitter, Tuesday, as the Reds beat the Giants, 3-0. Bailey walked just one and struck out nine.  It was his second no-no in ten months.

--He keeps on giving...Alex Rodriguez...and on Tuesday he began a rehab assignment with Single-A Charleston, S.C. It is supposed to be for 20 days, including stops in Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. But the possibility Major League Baseball suspends him over the Biogenesis deal is also still real.

Concerning Biogenesis, former employee Porter Fischer apparently spoke with MLB investigators, Porter being the one who leaked documents that link A-Rod, Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun and others to the now-defunct South Florida clinic. He was to share records he swiped from Biogenesis offices after he had a falling out with owner Anthony Bosch over money. For his cooperation, Fischer will receive a “consulting fee” from MLB.

[A-Rod went 0-for-2 at the plate, Tuesday, and looked awful.]

--I didn’t have a chance last time to wrap up Dodger phenom Yasiel Puig’s June, which ended up being arguably the best first month in the big leagues of all time. Puig had 44 hits – second only to Joe DiMaggio’s 48 in his first month, May 1936 – but Puig also had 7 home runs, 16 RBI, four steals and 19 runs. His average was .436.

[Puig then went 3-for-5 in his first game in July, including home run No. 8.]

NBA Bytes

--So the New York Knicks’ response to cross-town rival Brooklyn’s blockbuster Pierce-Garnett trade was to go after Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani. All Knicks fans are going, “Say what?!”

Bargnani was the No. 1 overall pick in 2006 and except for a year or two, he’s basically been a stiff and, at age 27, has also been injury-riddled the last two seasons.

For his 7-year career, the 7-footer has averaged 15.2 ppg and just 4.8 rebounds in 30 minutes. The latter figure is pathetic. Plus, Bargnani was known for his 3-point game, but the last three seasons his shooting percentage from downtown has dropped considerably.

For Bargnani, the Knicks are giving up Steve Novak, Marcus Camby and Quentin Richardson (in a sign-and-trade deal), plus they are surrendering a first-round pick in 2016 and second-round picks in 2014 and 2017.

No one likes this deal. Heck, instead of taking Tim Hardaway Jr. in the draft, even at No. 24, there were a number of solid big men remaining they could have gone for instead and then went after a shooter in free agency, especially if they can’t sign J.R. Smith.

Oh well...Bargnani is just 27, it’s just his best days already seem to be behind him.

--If you were like me and wondered why Nerlens Noel dropped from No. 1 to No. 6 in the first round, turns out Noel surrounds himself with shady characters. Sounds like they are a bunch of thugs. That scared off a lot of teams. Noel turns out to be a jerk.

--Chris Paul is going to re-sign with the Clippers, who have offered him the maximum five-year deal worth $107.3 million. He is an unrestricted free agent and can’t sign his contract until July 10 when the NBA’s moratorium is lifted. Once Doc Rivers was in the fold, however, there was never any doubt Paul would return.

--Update: I said the Brooklyn Nets needed to re-sign Andray Blatche and they did, Monday night, to a one-year, $1.4 million deal. [He is also still owed over $16 million the next two seasons by the Wizards.] Blatche is thus taking less money from the Nets because they helped resuscitate his career.

--For those of you not from the New York area who don’t understand the Carmelo Anthony-Kevin Garnett feud and what Honey Nut Cheerios has to do with it, it started last year when Garnett told Melo his wife, La La Anthony, “tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios” as the two were squaring off on court.

La La has her own VH1 reality show and will be addressing the topic soon, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.

No. 23 seed Sabine Lisicki defeated No. 1 Serena Williams, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. And what a tournament it’s been. [As in death for ratings, among other things.]

Naila-Jean Meyers summed it up in the New York Times.

“It might not have made much sense, but then again, hardly anything about the 2013 version of Wimbledon has. For a sport so dominated by a handful of players in recent years, it is as if everyone agreed it was time for others to take the spotlight.

“Rafael Nadal lost in the first round, Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova in the second, all to players ranked outside the top 100....

“Before the tournament began, Williams was an overwhelming favorite to win, and when No. 2 Victoria Azarenka and No. 3 Sharapova exited, Williams became even more heavily favored....

“Maybe we should not be shocked any more by what is happening at Wimbledon. During its first week, the tournament had achieved some unusual milestones: fewest top-10 men and women in the third round (10); most retirements and withdrawals (13); most players over 30 in the fourth round (9); no American men in the third round for the first time since 1912.”

The Women’s semis are:

Lisicki (23) vs. Radwanska (4) and Bartoli (15) vs. Flipkens (20)...exciting...not...

At least as I go to post there is the possibility of a Djokovic-Murray final.

--I didn’t have a chance to comment extensively on Bill Haas’ winning performance at Congressional on Sunday, but he was so emotional at the end because he beat back some demons.

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post summed it up best...some insight into why the guy is so likable.

“Few appreciate how hard golf is on the mind and emotions. Even the smoothest victory by an elite player can contain a sea of doubt. Our conscious thoughts, as well as our memories, failures and hopes, lie in wait, ready to attach themselves to any misadventure.

“Bill Haas, steeped in golf from birth, grasps that difficulty intensely and talks about it openly, even using his hour of victory to talk about how ‘many times I’ve choked.’ And, because of it, how glorious victory feels.

“ ‘This was an unbelievable, special day,’ he said after winning the AT&T National on Sunday. ‘I wish I could explain it.’ He actually comes close.

“You’d think that Haas might be the most pressure-proofed player that golf could breed. His family is second-tier golf royalty. His great uncle, Bob Goalby, won the Masters. His father Jay Haas won nine PGA Tour events then scorched the Champions Tour with 16 wins and $14 million; he even shot a 60 a few months ago at age 58. His uncle Jerry was his coach at Wake Forest. His older brother Jay Jr., a golf pro, was his caddie on Sunday.

“You can’t have more knowledge, wisdom and strategy in your genes than Haas. This week, his dad offered suggestions when they played in the pro-am Monday and Tuesday. Jay Jr., had a key swing-thought tweak the morning before the final round at Congressional Country Club.

“But golf is the loneliest, only-est game. That’s the harsh power of the thing. In no other game do you choke so visibly and undeniably, then face that reality again the next week. Or, as Haas put it, this was the fifth PGA Tour victory of his career ‘in 229 starts.’ He never forgets the other 224....

“Week after week, golf winners say they’ve had some breakthrough in technique or sports-shrink lingo. Their future – oh, how grand it suddenly looks. Haas thinks that’s bunk. You’ll be the same unique gaggle of nerves in your next event. You may win. You may gag. You don’t know. Face it.

“ ‘Sports psychologists – ‘be positive,’ ‘ he says, skeptically. ‘I’m more of a realist...Some of the answers that are given [by Tour winners] are pretty boring. They’re by the book. I’m honest about how I’m feeling... That’s terrible to say I choke and throw up on myself...but how do you get better? Don’t do it again. Just don’t do that again. Today I didn’t.’....

“For the rest of this decade, watch Haas in the majors as his realism goes head-to-head with his ‘too hard on myself’ temperament. Haas hopes being a new father helps smooth that friction. ‘A couple of times I said, ‘You get to go home and see William this week. This drive is not that big a deal.’

“ ‘I have not had much success in the majors,’ he said. ‘I would like to be a part of that...and if the next level comes, then I welcome it.’”

Long-time readers know of my little connection to Bill Haas. This is a very good guy, from a truly terrific family. And Bill and father Jay are awesome representatives of Wake Forest.

--The PGA Tour announced it would apply the anchored-stroke ban announced last month by the USGA and the Royal and Ancient. The ban takes effect Jan. 1, 2016. Both the tour and the PGA of America recommended the USGA consider extending the time period in which amateurs would be permitted to use anchored strokes.

--For the archives, the Cirque de Soleil acrobat who plunged 50 feet to her death at the Ka  show in Vegas was still wearing her safety harness when she hit the ground, according to reports. It’s amazing to think this is the first death in the troupe’s 30-year history.

So with Sarah “Sassoon” Guyard-Guillot being in her harness, the investigation turns to the safety wire. One audience member said the wire snapped. Performances of Ka were cancelled indefinitely.

--Hey, we had a little tornado in my area on Monday...really...it’s official. And boy, from my windows it sure looked like something. One street, about four blocks from me, suffered heavy damage.

--So I have long loved horse racing, but boy am I scared to ride one. I’d rather drive around in Hizbullah territory in Lebanon than get on a horse.

So I was reading a piece by Reed Tucker in the New York Post on Johnny Depp’s near-death experience while filming “The Lone Ranger.” Depp says it wasn’t as scary as one might think, but, hell, the actor fell off a galloping horse and was dragged through the desert and nearly trampled.

“It all just sort of happened, and I saw everything very clearly, which was the horse’s very muscular front legs moving at a very dangerous speed. And I was still holding on to the mane like an idiot, trying to get back up. And at a certain point you have to make a decision: Do I go down and hit the deck on my own? Or do I wait for the hoof to split my face in two?” the actor says. “So I decided to go down on my own and then, incredibly, the horse lifted its front legs, and he missed me, and he could have crushed me in seconds. I was very lucky.”

[The reviews for “The Lone Ranger” are less than stellar.]

-- “A 72-year-old man was killed by three tigers in a closed-down zoo in northern Italy after he entered the animals’ cage to feed them, according to media reports.”

I hope the schoolchildren today truly appreciate the importance and scope of Gettysburg. I myself have collected tons of various stories and essays leading up to the 150th anniversary and plan on using them when I finally make another pilgrimage.

“It took no more than a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg for the men who had fought there to realize how important it had been. ‘The Battle of Gettysburg, like Waterloo, must stand conspicuous in the history of all ages,’ wrote a staff officer, Frank Aretas Haskell, who himself would die less than a year later in a much less conspicuous battle at a place called Cold Harbor. And even by the most remote measure, Haskell was right.

“For over a year before, the Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his homespun Army of Northern Virginia had defied every expectation, and routinely humiliated every thrust its opposite number, the Army of the Potomac, had made at the Confederacy’s vitals in Virginia. Union generals – George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joe Hooker – had been installed, and just as readily removed, until by 1863, a soldier in the 16th North Carolina could boast that they were merely waiting for the Yankees ‘to put up another General for us to whip.’ When instead it was the Confederates who were defeated at Gettysburg, the surprise was almost unbearable. ‘The campaign is a failure,’ wrote one rebel officer to his sister on July 17, ‘and the worst failure that the South has ever made...and no blow since the fall of New Orleans has been so telling against us.’

“And that was entirely apart from the actual blood bill Gettysburg demanded. Lee reported 2,592 Confederates killed, 12,700 wounded and 4,150 ‘captured or missing’ – 20,451 casualties in all, out of the approximately 80,000 he had brought into Pennsylvania. Other estimates pegged the rebel losses at closer to 28,000....

“Certainly the Union forces paid as steep a price at Gettysburg as their enemies: the Army’s commander, the grizzly tempered George Gordon Meade, reported 3,155 killed, 14,529 wounded and 5,365 ‘captured or missing.’ But in 1900, Thomas Livermore painstakingly recalculated unit reports and put the reckoning at 3,903 dead, 18,735 wounded and 5,425 ‘missing,’ so that the total casualty list edged up to 28,063.”

Casualty figures in the Civil War are all over the place, but it’s pretty commonly thought Gettysburg resulted in 56,000 casualties, evenly split between the two.

“One hundred and fifty years ago tomorrow morning, two great armies slammed into each other outside a crossroads town in Pennsylvania. Neither army’s commander intended to fight at Gettysburg, but the battle took on a life of its own as reinforcements rushed to the sound of the guns. Soldiers in blue and gray would fight for three days, leaving almost 7,000 Americans dead and 30,000 wounded.

“At the close of the battle on July 3, 1863, the Army of the Potomac, led by Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade – the most underrated soldier in our history – had won the Union’s first indisputable victory in the east. With Gettysburg’s strategic effect compounded by news of Grant’s capture of Vicksburg, Miss., on July 4, the Confederacy was left with no realistic chance of winning the war militarily (although the South’s valiant, stubborn troops would fight on for two more years). The secessionist government in Richmond could only hope to conjure a political settlement.

“Revisionist historians question Gettysburg’s decisiveness, given that the war continued. They fail to note the consequences, had General Robert E. Lee and his boys in gray won: In less than a week, Lee’s ferocious ragamuffins would have marched down Broad Street in Philadelphia; the North would have been pressured to sue for peace; and England and France would have found the excuse their social elites longed for to intervene on the South’s behalf.

“Gen. Meade and his soldiers in blue saved our Union on those blood-soaked fields.”

And as Ralph Peters adds in his excellent piece, Meade, after a great victory, was widely criticized for not following up and finishing off Lee, but Meade “organized a pursuit of Lee as quickly as he could, slowed by his own severe losses, the tens of thousands of wounded left on the field, and troops who were out of food and ammunition. He had just done the impossible and was damned for not doing the impossible twice in a row....

“But the man ordered to take command of a defeated army three days before the war’s decisive battle had done his country an immeasurable service – outfighting the South’s greatest soldier when it counted most. As a soldier myself, I’m amazed at Meade’s performance. But the truly amazing thing is that, on this 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, this great American is slighted when not forgotten.”

James M. McPherson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for “Battle Cry of Freedom,” the best single volume tale of the Civil War, now a Princeton professor, spoke with the Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran about Gettysburg. Some excerpts:

Q: Some historians say that Gen. Robert E. Lee’s mistakes at Gettysburg were the price the Confederacy paid for his brilliance in other battles. Do you buy that?

A. I think that’s true. Lee’s mistakes at Gettysburg were the result of overconfidence. He said his army was invincible, and could do anything if properly led. That overconfidence was based on his previous success, especially in Chancellorsville just two months earlier. So it’s quite true that Lee’s mistakes at Gettysburg were the price the Confederacy paid for his successes.

[McPherson, by the way, disagrees with Ralph Peters and thinks Meade had a chance to pursue Lee more quickly and finish him off.]

Q: How close did the Confederates come to winning the battle, and how might that have changed American history?

A. Not very close. They did manage to win on the first day, July 1, by driving Union troops away from the lines north and west of Gettysburg. But the Union’s defensive positions established that night and the next morning on Cemetery Hill, Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Ridge – anchored on Little Round Top – were very strong. And while (Gen. Daniel) Sickles potentially threw away part of that advantage by advancing to the Peach Orchard and exposing Little Round Top, Union forces got there in time to stop the Confederates.

“What happened on Day 3 at Culp’s Hill in the morning – the East Cavalry Field in the afternoon and then the famous Pickett’s Charge on Cemetery Ridge – was a desperate lashing of the tail of the Confederate Army without any real chance of achieving a breakthrough.

“On July 1 and 2, Lee thought he had a real chance of winning, and he hoped the attack on July 3 would be the coup de grace. But he was overly optimistic, and poorly informed about the Union positions. And he overestimated the capacity of his own troops.

“If the Confederates had managed to win the Battle of Gettysburg, it might have had a powerful demoralizing effect. That’s what Lee was counting on. The Copperhead movement, the peace Democrats in the North who were pressing for peace negotiations, would have been in an even stronger position.”

A few Gettysburg tidbits...courtesy of Military/Army times

If you were a private in the Confederate Army, you received $11 a month pay, or $208 in 2012 dollars. A Union private received $13 / month.

A Confederate major general picked up $301 ($5680 in 2012 dollars)...a Union major general, $457 ($8,620)...plus you got beef jerky.

Maj. Gen. George Meade, commander

Born 1815 in Spain, the son of a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who went broke and died when Meade was a young boy. Graduated from West Point in 1835 and tried to pursue a civilian career as an engineer, but struggled to find steady employment and returned to the Army in 1842. Served in the Mexican-American War, then was assigned to do coastal surveys and lighthouse and breakwater construction. Promoted to brigadier general after the outbreak of hostilities with the South and assigned command of a brigade. Just days before the Battle of Gettysburg, Meade was given command of the Army of the Potomac following the abrupt resignation of Maj. Gen. John Hooker. Known as a competent commander, but has a short, violent temper – particularly toward the press.

Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander

Born 1807 in Westmoreland County, Va. Graduated second in his class from West Point in 1829, trained as an engineer. Served in the Mexican-American War and as superintendent of West Point (1852-55), then transferred to the cavalry. Led capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Named one of the Confederacy’s first five full generals at outbreak of Civil War. Criticized early in the war for timidity as a commander, but changed that perception with aggressiveness in the Seven Days Battles (June/July 1862), the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 1862) and the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1863). Revered by his men, but generally considered a better tactician than strategist. With his forces running desperately short of supplies, decided to invade the North, leading to the epic clash at Gettysburg.

Maj. Gen. George Pickett, division commander, First Corps

Born 1825 in Richmond, Va., the oldest son of a prominent Virginia family. Graduated at the bottom of his West Point class in 1846. Gained notoriety as a junior officer in the Mexican-American War’s Battle of Chapultepec, when he was the first to unfurl the American flag from a palace rooftop to announce the enemy’s surrender. Later commanded a company that squared off with British forces in the “Pig War,” a commercial dispute in the Pacific Northwest in 1859. Known to be a colorful character, typically wearing well-tailored uniforms with stylish accessories such as gold buttons and gold spurs. Commanded a brigade in southeastern Virginia in 1862, where he was shot in the shoulder while leading an assault on horseback and was out of action for three months.

On June 29, 1863, rumors among the men of the 18th North Carolina Regiment camped near Chambersburg, Pa., were told of an impending bold march northward where they would take the fight to the enemy and shred a drive toward Washington that would win the day for the Confederacy.

Word at the evening meal was that an element of the division was to advance soon along the Chambersburg Road to Gettysburg – not to fight but to look for shoes, a mission many wearing ragged foot covering were most eager to see succeed.

Anyway, a Sgt. Hatteras from Wilmington, N.C., anxious to supplement the usual gruel, used his resourcefulness to lay out some traps the previous night and he captured two large rabbits and five muskrats along a series of small ponds linked by a stream.

Rations on the march were sparse, mostly hardtack, salt pork and dried beef (or perhaps horse flesh) and brown-black water that passed for coffee.

Needless to say, the men of the 18th were fired up to be dining like royalty as Sgt. Hatteras cooked up his skillet-fried muskrat.

“Parboil the muskrat sections in water. Save the water to use later for cooking any greens or other vegetables as may be procured. Heat the salt pork or fatback in skillet over medium fire. Add muskrat quarters and chopped onions, with a vigorous dash of salt and pepper. Cook on both sides until nice and browned.”

“Unlike the muskrats, freshly killed rabbits do not need to be parboiled....Cook on both sides for about 10 minutes until nice and browned.”

President Abraham Lincoln...Nov. 19, 1863

All Are Created Equal

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

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