Baseball Quiz: Name the only modern day (post 1920) major
league pitcher to win 200 games AND have a career winning
percentage below .500? Answer below.
Black History…New York City Draft Riot of 1863
In many northern cities like Toledo and Detroit, the economic
and social disruption caused by the Civil War led to violence
against free Northern blacks. The NYC riot of 1863 was by far
the most violent.
At the time there was a tremendous amount of labor unrest,
unfair draft laws in an unpopular war, ethnic tensions, and
disruptive street gangs.
Before the 1840s, New York”s blacks held most of the city”s jobs
as longshoremen, brick makers, waiters and domestic servants.
After 1846, many immigrants competed with blacks for these
unskilled jobs and eventually gained control of some of these
occupations.
After Abraham Lincoln”s Emancipation Proclamation,
Democratic politicians used it to their advantage by claiming that
Republicans would transport “freedpeople” to New York to
replace white workers while “lazy blacks lived on relief
services provided by industrious whites.” [Source: “Africana.”
Appiah & Gates. Also Robert Fay.]
The three-day riot began on July 13 as a protest against the
Conscription Act. [This Act allowed a draftee to decline service
for a $300 fee.] After the protesters, many of them Irish laborers,
destroyed draft headquarters, they roamed the streets, at times
razing entire city blocks and causing factories and shops to close.
They assaulted the offices of the New York Tribune, trying to
find the pro-Union editor Horace Greeley.
The mob then split into groups. Some destroyed mansions;
others attacked the mayor”s house in a failed attempt to level it.
Still others targeted New York”s black residents. Homes were
raided and destroyed. Eleven blacks were killed. Union army
regiments – including some men returning from the Battle of
Gettysburg – finally restored order. Three days after the rioting
started it was over.
Ping-Pong Diplomacy
In April of 1971, a team of American table tennis players
received a surprise invitation from China for an all-expense paid
visit to the People”s Republic. The team was already in Japan for
the World Championships and on April 10, they stepped across a
bridge from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, ushering in the
era of “Ping-Pong Diplomacy.” They were the first group of
Americans allowed into China since the Communist takeover in
1949.
Journalists were also invited to cover the visit, ending the
information ban that had been in place since ”49 as well. From
April 11th to the 17th, the American public followed the daily
progress of the visit as the Americans played – and lost – all of
the exhibition matches. They toured the usual attractions and
chatted with Chinese students.
Premier Chou En-lai took advantage of the PR opportunity. He
told them at a banquet in the Great Hall of the People, “You have
opened a new chapter in the relations of the American and
Chinese people. I am confident that this beginning again of our
friendship will certainly meet with majority support of our two
peoples.” The U.S., in turn, announced plans to remove a 20-
year embargo on trade with China. A Chinese table tennis team
reciprocated by visiting the U.S.
Despite the public warming trend, President Nixon and Henry
Kissinger decided to keep their back-channel negotiations with
China to themselves. Finally, on July 15, Kissinger made his
secret mission to Beijing and shortly thereafter, Nixon
announced he would become the first American president to visit
China (Feb. 1972).
Anita Ekberg…opinions
Ekberg was a screen siren from the ”50s and ”60s, best known for
her work in “La Dolce Vita.” So she was recently asked to
comment on a British television documentary on Playboy”s Sex
Stars of the Century survey.
On Marilyn Monroe: “Well, she died young. What would she
look like now?”
On Elizabeth Taylor: “I saw her without makeup. And I must
say she was more beautiful without it.”
On Brigitte Bardot: “Very pretty. Not beautiful. She had a
beautiful body, however.”
Of her European rival”s – Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida –
Ekberg at first refused to even acknowledge their names – but
then she said tartly, “At least on the list I was above
Lollobrigida. And I should have been above Loren, for that
matter!”
Ekberg finally dismissed the Playboy list (which I didn”t see).
“Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth were more than all of them
together!” [Source: Liz Smith]
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/3/68: #1 “Green Tambourine”
(The Lemon Pipers.songwriter.my friend, Shelley Pinz)
#2 “Judy In Disguise” (John Fred & His Playboy Band)
#3 “Chain Of Fools” (Aretha Franklin).
My friend, PC, (which in no way stands for “Politically Correct”)
suggested that a new memorial be erected, Tomb of the
Unknown Dirtball. The first person on the plaque would be the
individual who stole Trent McCleary”s hockey equipment while
he was in the hospital. McCleary is the Montreal Canadien who
was recently hit in the throat by a puck, thereby fracturing his
larynx, a serious injury for which he was in critical condition for
a number of days.
Quiz Answer: My buddy Johnny Mac”s favorite ballplayer,
Bobo Newsom. Newsom played for 9 teams in his career, but
had 17 different stops with them, in compiling a 211-222 record.
In 1952 and 53, at the age of 44 and 45, he had a record of 5-4
with the Philadelphia Athletics. Born in Hartville, SC, 1907,
Newsom died in 1962. [A pitcher I honestly never heard of, and
I guess I should be embarrassed, Jack Powell, went 248-255,
playing between 1897-1912.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday.
Sunday was Ronald Reagan”s 89th birthday. God bless you,
Mr. President.
