NHL Quiz: It only seems fitting that I would select this week to
have some hockey questions. After all, Charles Schulz was a
huge fan and played, himself, in a league until about two years ago.
1) Name the top 3 goaltenders for career shutouts. 2) Who
holds the record for most shutouts in a single season (post-1950)?
Answers below.
Charles Schulz and Tom Landry
There is something mystical about these two highly religious,
unreconstructed Eisenhower Republicans, dying on the same day.
They were of a different century and didn”t belong in the 21st.
If you are a regular reader, you know of my affection for Charles
Schulz. I have written of him frequently and my home is a shrine
to him. [I have about 15 framed “Peanuts” strips adorning my
walls.] For Schulz to die as his last Sunday strip was running off
the presses certainly makes you wonder.
About 6 weeks ago, reporter Sharon Begley wrote the following
for a Schulz retrospective in Newsweek.
“Peanuts embodies a world where first innings last so long the
outfield goes home for lunch, where the ”meaning of life is to go
back to sleep and hope that tomorrow will be a better day,” where
beagles writing the great American novel struggle to get past ”it
was a dark and stormy night.””
As a youth, Charles Schulz fell in love with the red-haired Donna
Johnson but Johnson married another man (Schulz explained her
choice as a result of her mother”s belief that he would never
amount to much). The unrequited love was afterwards The Little
Red Haired Girl.
That little story sort of sums up the melancholy of many of his
strips. Life is one long challenge and it”s awful frustrating at
times.
But Schulz had values and he didn”t give a damn what anyone
else thought of them. He told critics to shove it up their a– when
they didn”t want him to inject religion into his strips. And in the
1960s, when he was the first cartoonist to introduce a black
character, Franklin, an editor objected because it showed Franklin
in an integrated school. Said Schulz, “I just ignored him.”
Boy, I loved Charles Schulz. And if from time to time I discuss
him again I hope you”ll be patient with me.
And then there is Tom Landry. Another man of class and
integrity. Roger Staubach commented, Saturday, that “As a
human being, Coach Landry is right there among the very best.”
Landry was also from the “Greatest Generation.” He flew 30 missions
as a B-17 pilot in WW II. And he carried his love of country and
good old-fashioned work ethic to his career in football. He
coached the Cowboys for 29 years. He actually didn”t have a
winning season until his 7th (today, of course, no coach would
have been given that much time), but then he proceeded to have
20 straight winning ones, including the Super Bowl titles in 1971
and 1977.
Landry was a man of personal incorruptibility. He avoided becoming
close to his players for fear that friendship would interfere with
his personnel decisions. On his legendary stoicism on the
sidelines, he once said, “Leadership is a matter of having people
look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you”re
in control, they”re in control.”
Drew Pearson said of Coach Landry, “There”s nothing phony
about him. Just being around him, I learned so much about
football and life.”
When illegal drugs were beginning to infect football, Landry
called a meeting. Quarterback Danny White recalls, “Coach
Landry told us he didn”t care if we didn”t win a game, but that we
were going to get rid of any drug problems we might have. That
told me how he feels about people. He would rather change a
person”s life for the good than win football games.”
And no, if you didn”t go with his plan, well, you weren”t going to
be part of the organization. Sportswriter Mike Lupica relayed the
following.
“There was a Cowboys placekicker who decided he was worthy
of a substantial raise. Gil Brandt (the player personnel director),
came into Landry”s office.”
“Landry was behind his desk, wearing a white shirt and tie,
reading glasses on the end of his nose, studying the Cowboys”
playbook, as big and thick in those days as ”Moby Dick.” This is
the way I heard the story and believe it.”
“How much?” Landry said.
“Hundred thousand a year,” he was told. Landry still hadn”t
looked up.
“Cut him,” he said. The guy was gone the next day.
No, they don”t make ”em like Tom Landry anymore. [Bill
Parcells was probably the closest.] But unfortunately, what I”ll
also always remember is the unceremonious way that Landry was
dismissed in 1989. Jerry Jones had just bought the Cowboys
franchise. That day Jones fired Landry. Landry was replaced by
Jimmy Johnson. Jones and Johnson. Two gangsters. The real
modern era of football was on. But Tom Landry had too much
class and dignity to blast the new owner. No, guys like Landry
and Schulz were of a different era. They were of a generation
that is too quickly leaving the rest of us behind.
St. Valentine”s Day Massacre
The era of prohibition was from 1920-33. Thanks to the 18th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, alcohol was illegal. Or
more specifically, the prohibition of the “manufacturing, sale, or
transportation” of alcohol. It was the culmination of a long
campaign by church and women”s groups, Populists, temperance
societies and countless others. Of course, Prohibition led to a
spectacular increase in crime as bootlegging took hold and over
200,000 speak-easies sprouted across the nation.
That”s where Al Capone came in. A sixth-grade dropout who
once beat up his teacher, he became the nation”s most notorious
gangster, with an army of maybe 1,000 henchmen. Capone once
boasted: “I own the police!”
Capone”s chief rival was George “Bugs” Moran. Actually,
Capone had eliminated just about all of them except Moran. The
feud between the two was legendary. Moran had once tried to
eliminate Capone by slipping acid into his soup.
Moran”s headquarters were at a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street in
Chicago. It was also his booze-peddling depot, marked S.M.C.
Cartage Co. On the morning of February 14, 1929, six of
Moran”s gang were at the garage, waiting for coffee. A 7th,
tinkering with a van, was also present.
Around 10:30, a blue car pulled up by the garage. Four men got
out, two dressed as cops, two shabbily dressed. The “cops”
carried sub-machine guns, the other two, shotguns. The
gangsters raised their hands over their heads and the four visitors
marched them to the back of the garage where they were lined up
against the wall. As they were being frisked for weapons, one of
them asked what was happening. That”s when the word went out
to “give it to ”em!” 100 bullets were fired. Only 8 reached the
wall behind the victims. One man tried to escape but a bullet shot
at nearly point blank range ripped through his head.
A neighbor reported that she saw two men, who looked like
police officers, walking out of the building with two others in
normal clothing. The two normally-dressed men held their hands
over their heads. When the real police showed up, they counted
six dead with one dying.
Until then, the country had romanticized gangsters. The St.
Valentine”s Day Massacre changed that. It was the worst single
act of violence even for crime-ridden Chicago.
Capone and his gang were suspected of instigating and carrying
out the massacre. President Herbert Hoover wanted Capone
behind bars. It took a few years but the feds finally nailed him –
for tax evasion.
[Source: Angie Cannon, U.S. News & World Report]
—
Comedian Dennis Miller on using a computer. “I can”t. There
hasn”t been anyone as ineffective on the keyboard since Susan
Dey in ”The Partridge Family.””
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/11/67: #1 “I”m A Believer” (The
Monkees) #2 “Georgy Girl” (The Seekers) #3 “Kind Of A
Drag” (The Buckinghams…my friend HK”s favorite
Buckingham”s tune).
Quiz Answers: Top 3 goalies for career shutouts: 1) Terry
Sawchuk, 103, 1949-70; 2) Glenn Hall, 84, 1952-71;
3) Jacques Plante, 82, 1952-73. Single Season: Tony Esposito,
15, Chicago, 1969-70.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday…time to update the crime blotter.
