Atlanta Braves Quiz (1876-2003; including Boston, Milwaukee):
1) How many World Series has the franchise won? 2) How
many division championships in a row have they won? 3) Who
is the only two-time N.L. MVP? 4) Who was 1971 rookie of the
year? 5) Who went 24-11 in 1965? 6) What two won batting
titles in the 1970s? 7) Trick Question Alert: Name the two 300-
game winners in a Braves uniform? Answers below.
***Alert…the story of the killer whale attacking his trainer at
Sea World in Texas on Tuesday is a big one. If Orca is
communicating with the seals there, then I fear the worst…seals
being able to pick locks and such***
July 1916
The International Shark Attack File notes that there have been 5
fatalities in New Jersey since 1670, more than all but three other
states; Hawaii, Florida, and California. But four of them took
place in one 12-day period in 1916.
Three years ago, Peter Genovese of the Star-Ledger reviewed
two books that had come out then, one titled “Twelve Days of
Terror” by Richard Fernicola, the other “Close to Shore” by
Michael Capuzzo. I saved the story but kept forgetting to use
it…until now. It certainly makes for a good, if gory tale as many
of you head to the beach.
For those of you who travel the Garden State Parkway, at
milepost 119.4, about six miles from the Raritan toll plaza, you’ll
notice a non-descript body of water that is an authentic historic
site. It was here that two victims met their fate in Matawan
Creek on July 12, 1916 and the New York and Philadelphia
papers ran headlines such as “HUNDREDS SEEK TO SLAY
SHARK…THINK MONSTER TRAPPED IN CREEK…
SKIPPERS SAY SEA ALIVE WITH SHARKS…”
As it turned out, this was near the end of the story, one that
started on July 1. Charles Vansant, a 23-year-old vacationer
from Philadelphia, was staying at the Engleside Hotel in Beach
Haven when he was attacked in three feet of water.
“The first to reach him was Alexander Ott, who later became a
swimming showman with Johnny Weismuller. Ott hoisted
Vansant under his arms and started pulling him to shore, only to
discover, to his horror, that he was in a tug of war with the shark
over the body.” [Genovese]
A human chain was formed as they dragged the body onto the
beach, but the shark managed to get away and disappeared.
Vansant’s leg was hanging by a thread and he died a half-hour
later. Victim #1.
This initial attack actually didn’t receive much play in the news.
That would begin to change on July 6 when Charles Bruder, age
28 and bell captain at the Sussex & Essex Hotel in Spring Lake
(on the ocean, for those of you not familiar with the area), went
for a swim on his lunch break. He was about 100 yards out when
all hell broke loose.
“The shark tossed him repeatedly in the air – (his) body
pinwheeled above the water – between strikes.”
Bruder screamed. “A shark bit me! Bit my legs off!”
Mortally wounded, Bruder was dragged onto the beach. Women
fainted at the sight of his ravaged body.
An alarm immediately went up and down the Jersey coastline.
Within 30 minutes, communities 30 miles away cleared the
beaches. According to author Capuzzo, “For the first time in
American history, people en masse were afraid to enter the
water.”
While the media had basically ignored the Vansant attack,
Bruder’s finally lit the fire. It didn’t help that Bruder was killed
in front of hundreds of tourists, including the upper crust of
society.
Amazingly, there were some scientists who refused to believe the
two were victims of a shark. An assistant curator of the Museum
of Natural History said it was a killer whale. The director of the
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries said it was a swordfish. Personally, had
I been asked back then, I would have said barracuda, just because
it sounds cool.
We now move to July 11. Renny Carten is splashing about in a
swimming hole in Matawan Creek when he is badly scratched
and scraped by something neither Renny nor his friend could
identify.
The next day, July 12, Lester Stillwell and five buddies decided
to go swimming in the same spot. “One moment, Stillwell was
floating peacefully on the water. The next, he was screaming,
his arm held fast in the mouth of what one of the boys, Charlie
Van Brunt, called ‘the biggest, blackest fish’ he had ever seen.”
[Genovese]
“Young Stillwell ‘was shaken, like a cat shakes a mouse, and
then he went under,’ according to one of the boys. For one
terrifying second, he reappeared, shrieking, then disappeared
under the water for good.”
The police were called and a group of men was rounded up.
They entered the creek repeatedly. But as they were giving up
the search, Stanley Fisher, 24, strong and athletic, gave it one
more try.
“Suddenly, Fisher screamed; he had found Stillwell’s body. The
next moment, the shark, lolling nearby, attacked. Three or four
times, it pulled Fisher under. He finally worked himself free, but
most of the flesh between his hip and right knee had been ripped
off.” [Genovese]
Now this part is stupid. A doctor didn’t believe Fisher would
survive the trip in a car to a hospital in nearby Long Beach, so he
was placed on a stretcher and the group attending him waited for
an hour at Matawan Train Station. When the train arrived, it was
another 2 ½ hours to Monmouth Memorial Hospital. Fisher died
five minutes after getting there.
Well, you can imagine the furor in Matawan after seeing two of
their citizens ripped to shreds. Dynamite was thrown into the
creek. The New York Times wrote of women toting shotguns,
patrolling the banks. The mayor offered a $100 reward for the
shark. What the folks didn’t know, though, is that the shark had
fled.
[And remember, this shark had been in a creek, not even close to
the ocean. I also should have noted that the first attack in Beach
Haven was way down south, then it moved north to Spring Lake,
and then further north into the waters that fed into Matawan
Creek.]
The press was in a frenzy at this point and it was time to kill all
the sharks. Down in Maryland, a State Police schooner reported
“big sea monsters” in Annapolis harbor. A Tampa, FL, boater
said the Gulf of Mexico was thick with sharks. President
Woodrow Wilson even ordered his Treasury Secretary to lead “a
war on sharks.”
Then on July 14, Michael Schleisser and John Murphy, two
fishermen from South Amboy, were out on Raritan Bay when
their boat suddenly slammed to a halt. Something gigantic was
in the net.
“Shark! It rose out of the net and onto the stern, snapping its
jaws. With a broken oar that he had thrown as an afterthought
into the boat, Schleisser, a renowned animal trainer and big game
hunter, clobbered the shark to death. He and Murphy towed it
back to South Amboy.” [Genovese]
The shark was cut open and it was later confirmed there were
human remains in it. The monster was then placed in the front
window of a New York newspaper and 30,000 gathered to look
at it. But a few days later it disappeared. No one seems to know
what happened to the carcass. Perhaps it was relabeled Red
Snapper.
By the way, the 5th New Jersey fatality occurred at Seaside
Heights in August 1926. The decapitated body of Charles Burke,
18, washed ashore. Well, hell, that could have been the work of
a giant squid! [The editor has nightmares that he will one day
meet his untimely demise at the tentacles of such a monster.]
Stuff
–August 2, 1979 will mark 25 years since the untimely death of
Yankee catcher Thurman Munson. A few weeks ago, Wayne
Coffey had a super piece on Munson in the New York Daily
News (worth trying to track down). The 32-year-old seemed
destined for the Hall of Fame when he crashed his private plane
next to Akron Canton Regional Airport.
Munson, a 7-time All-Star, was with two friends he decided to
take up in his recently acquired Cessna Citation. It was an off
day, the Yankees having played the White Sox the day before,
and Thurman spent the day in Canton, his home town.
So Munson decides that he’s going to do some touch-and-go
landings. The first three went fine, but the tower changed his
routine for the fourth as traffic picked up at the airport.
Basically, Munson stalled the plane and it became impossible to
pull up. It’s 4:02 p.m.
“The cockpit is quiet as N15NY keeps going down. Munson
keeps on flying, hoping for lift that doesn’t come. ‘He went too
slow and basically dropped out of the sky,’ George Ackley (the
air-traffic controller) says. The plane rips into treetops and
Munson stays steady, and even as a wing is ripped off he tries to
ease it down. N15NY hits the ground 870 feet from Runway 19
and skids through the low brush of a sloping, uncultivated field.
It careens into a ditch, ripping off the nose gear and through
small trees and then slams into a massive tree stump, spinning
around and kicking forward and coming to rest on Greensburg
Road, a two-lane strip of asphalt just outside the airport fence.
Runway 19 is still 600 feet away, at the top of a 50-foot
embankment.” [Coffey]
The other two passengers looked at each other and couldn’t
believe they had survived. But Munson’s legs were pinned, his
face bleeding from slamming into the panel.
“Are you guys okay?” Thurman asked. Those were his last
words. The friends couldn’t free him and they had to get out
themselves before the plane went up. By now Munson was
unconscious. They escaped, diving through flames. Fire and
rescue trucks arrived in minutes. It was too late for Thurman.
Munson finished his career with 113 HR 701 RBI and a .292
average. More importantly, he was one of the great leaders of
his era, the first Yankee captain since Lou Gehrig, and hit .373 in
16 World Series games.
–Not for nothing, but thanks to the brilliant work of Harry K.,
Bar Chat had the Baltimore hyote / jackelope story six days
before the Drudge Report picked up on it. Thus, we were able to
save countless lives. It’s possible this goes on my tombstone.
“Here lies the editor of Bar Chat. Saved thousands
of lives in 2004, warning citizens of the jackelope threat.
Awarded a year’s supply of premium ale for his efforts.”
–The Yankees’ Jason Giambi continues to have problems with a
parasite ripping through his body. More test results are due out
shortly. We certainly wish Giambi the best, and hope it’s not too
serious, but I’m just concerned that something horrifying, like in
“Alien,” pops out and races around the stands. Think about the
children…they’d never attend another game.
[Uh oh…Fred McGriff is working out with the Yankees. That
means he could be given another shot at 500 homers. Not good.]
–The New York Mets’ John Franco is 43 and pitching pitifully
this season, 2-7 with a 5.73 ERA. Right-handed batters are
hitting about .330 off him. Hey, he’s been a solid performer over
the years, but it’s time to hang it up. So the other day Franco
said, “I’m not going to quit because Joe Schmo says I should.”
Yoh, Johnny, who ya callin’ Schmo?!
–From USA Today…of the seven golfers on the PGA Tour who
have top-10 finishes in half their starts this year, five are foreign.
Ernie Els (7 for 11), Retief Goosen (7 for 13), Vijay Singh (10
for 20), Stephen Ames (9 for 18) and Padraig Harrington (4 for
8). Phil Mickelson (12 for 16) and Tiger Woods (9 for 13) are
the exceptions.
–Phil W. reminded me that C.J. Hunter, the former hubby of
Marion Jones and an admitted steroid user himself, is an assistant
strength and conditioning coach at North Carolina State, which
doesn’t speak too highly of this institution.
–Mark R. riddled me for not mentioning last chat that the sudden
retirement of Miami running back Ricky Williams was a great
thing for Jets fans like me, since we no longer have to face
Williams twice a year. Mark is right……I guess it’s just part of
my upbringing, as both a Mets and Jets fan. We expect so little
of a positive nature, as we plod through life, that we don’t see the
good, even when hitting us in the face.
–Boy, “McEnroe” is dreadful. I’ve seen about 15 minutes of it
and that was more than enough to send me surfing to the WB.
[Pssst….I do secretly harbor the desire to live 24 hours as one of
those WB characters in California.]
–Back to the Mets, reserve outfielder Shane Spencer is not one
of the brighter guys on the planet, witness his 3rd alcohol-related
incident of the year…this time getting caught doing 98 mph on
I-95 in Florida at 3:20 a.m. Spencer told police he had been
pounding a few drinks, this despite the fact he was in Florida
rehabbing his foot after cutting it on some broken glass while
walking barefoot in a New York City bar. And so we bid adieu
to Shane Spencer…mediocre ballplayer.
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/26/69: #1 “In The Year 2525”
(Zager & Evans…dreadful) #2 “Crystal Blue Persuasion”
(Tommy James & The Shondells…consistently top three all-time
on the editor’s personal list) #3 “Spinning Wheel” (Blood,
Sweat & Tears)
Atlanta Braves Quiz Answers: 1) World Series titles: 1914, 1957,
1995. 2) The Braves have won 9 division crowns in a row, 1995-
2003. 3) Dale Murphy won back-to-back MVPs in 1982-83.
Hank Aaron only won it once, 1957. 4) Catcher Earl Williams
was 1971 rookie of the year. 5) Tony Cloninger went 24-11 in
1965. [The following season he hit two grand slams in a game.]
6) N.L. batting champs: Rico Carty, .366, 1970; Ralph Garr,
.353, 1974. 7) 300-game winners: Warren Spahn won 356 in a
Braves uniform. Kid Nichols, 329 [1890-1901…was 361-208
for his career, 1890-1906.]
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
