Baseball Quiz: [Put together from information I saw in the New
York Times the other day.] Name the top five in home runs
allowed, career. [OK…you get the initials…R.R., F.J., P.N.,
D.S., F.T.] Answer below.
I’m traveling in Tennessee for a spell, doing a little work at
Shiloh Battlefield. Due to time constraints (it’s not easy getting
here), you’ll have to forgive me for re-running a story from just
over two years ago that I did on General Lew Wallace. It’s also
a way of reminding myself of some of the particulars before I
tour the place.
[Feb. 2004]
Ben-Hur
As some of us go to see “The Passion…,” back in 1880 the book
“Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” became the biggest seller in the
fiction category for the entire century and was the most requested
book in America’s libraries as readers were fascinated by the
author’s descriptions of the Holy Land and “message of divine
salvation through faith.” [Historian Victor Davis Hanson] By
1883 it was selling 750 copies a month, 4,500 by 1886, and its
aggregate sales were not surpassed until “Gone with the Wind”
in the late 1930s. The last recorded sales figure was in the 1940s
and was somewhere in the 3 million range (including one million
copies ordered by Sears, Roebuck in 1912, which it then sold for
39 cents each), though the actual number is undoubtedly far
higher. Of course as you tune into the Academy Awards on
Sunday evening, most of you know that there is an Oscar tie-in
as well. The 1959 film version of ‘Ben-Hur’ was nominated for
11 awards, winning 7 including for Best Picture and Best Actor,
Charlton Heston.
So who wrote it? Lew Wallace, one of the more fascinating
figures in American history, aside from being the most
successful novelist of his time.
But Wallace may never have written ‘Ben-Hur’ were it not for
taking a wrong turn during the Civil War Battle of Shiloh
(Pittsburg Landing to some).
Wallace was an up and comer in the Union Army; a political
appointee, not a West Point graduate, who had nonetheless
acquitted himself well at Harpers Ferry and Bull Run before he
found himself elevated to Major General at the age of 35, the
youngest of such rank on the Union side.
In February 1862, General U.S. Grant led his Union Army of the
Tennessee to victory at the Battle of Fort Donelson but by early
April, Grant found himself pinned up against the Tennessee
River where he was surprised on the morning of April 6 by
Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston’s troops at Shiloh
Church (Hardin County, Tennessee).
[Note to Civil War buffs. Understand that for reasons of time I
need to gloss over some events in this narrative.]
Early that morning, Grant had warned Lew Wallace, whose
7,000 troops were a few miles upriver from Grant’s main force,
that he might be calling for his assistance later that day. But
when Grant returned his men were getting demolished by the
Confederates. Grant sent word back to Wallace around 11:30
AM that he was needed immediately and that he should march
the six miles south to join him. But as Victor Davis Hanson
writes in an essay for the book “What Ifs? of American History,”
Grant’s orders were oral, not written, and Wallace had trouble
figuring out what to do. You see, there were two roads to Shiloh.
Grant thought Wallace should have reinforced him by 2:00 PM
and when there was no sign of Wallace by then, Grant sent two
messengers to find out why. When they finally got back to Grant
late in the day, Ulysses learned of one of the big mistakes in
American military history. Grant was close to losing the battle,
and his own future place in history, because Wallace was running
around in circles.
[Luckily for the Union, Confederate General A.S. Johnston was
mortally wounded the afternoon of the 6th (the poor fellow bled
to death when a bullet hit a key artery in his leg) and the
Confederates were suddenly leaderless. For the Union, another
general, Don Carlos Buell, had his 20,000-man Army of the Ohio
on the other side of the Tennessee River, but they wouldn’t
arrive in time to save Grant either, or so Ulysses thought.]
As Wallace struggled with the unsigned verbal orders around
noon on April 6, he not only questioned whether Grant knew
there were two roads to Shiloh, but he had also been told by
Grant’s aide that the Union was “repulsing the enemy” when in
truth they were being routed. The course along the Tennessee
was swampy and under water in spots, thus nearly impassable for
his wagons. The other route, the Shunpike, was two miles
shorter to William Tecumseh Sherman’s men, where Wallace
suspected he was to be, along with being a far better road.
Wallace had reconnoitered it earlier for this very purpose. The
decision to take the Shunpike was one that changed Wallace’s
life forever.
Victor Davis Hanson: “Had Grant’s orders been written, signed,
and precise – or had Wallace on his own chosen to take the river
route that Grant preferred – Wallace would either have been
lauded as a heroic deliverer or relatively ignored as a dutiful
subordinate who did what he was told; but either way, he would
never have emerged as Shiloh’s scapegoat.”
Wallace did end up making great time on the Shunpike, only to
find that instead of meeting up with Sherman, he was in the rear
of the Confederate army. In essence he was no closer to Grant
and Sherman than he was before. So Wallace took his men all
the way back (8-10 miles, round trip) to the original camp before
advancing south along the river. Grant’s messengers were in a
state of distress, as you can imagine, with thousands of Union
troops dead and wounded at this stage, and they returned with
wild tales of incompetence.
Finally, long after dark, Wallace arrived at Pittsburg Landing.
His men had marched 14 or so miles in a circle to arrive at a
place less than 6 miles away from their original camp.
Thankfully for the Union, the next morning Wallace was able to
throw his 7,000 men in with General Buell’s 20,000 and the
Union forces beat back the equally tired and decimated
Confederates. Grant was victorious but the Union was in no
shape to chase after what were now General Beauregard’s forces
in full retreat. The casualties were staggering…some 24,000
killed, wounded, or missing on both sides. [By most accounts up
to 3,500 dead.]
When the media got hold of the full story, however, Lew
Wallace was at the center of the storm. For starters, General
Henry Halleck took over for Grant amidst rumors, ill-founded,
that Grant had been drunk on the battlefield. [President Abraham
Lincoln later dismissed Halleck and put Grant back in charge as
Halleck proved to be a lousy leader, saying of Grant, “I can’t
spare this man, he fights.”]
But as the press cut up Grant amidst a reexamination of Shiloh
that was unprecedented, Grant turned his wrath on Wallace. If
the latter’s 7,000 had shown up by 2:00 PM as expected, the
Confederate onslaught would have been stopped and thousands
would have been spared.
For his part, Wallace would still go on to distinguish himself in
the war, particularly in helping to defend Washington from Jubal
Early’s raid in July 1864, and he not only served on the
commission examining Lincoln’s assassination, Wallace was
also responsible for the decision to hang Major Witz, the
notorious commander of Andersonville prison. Even later
Wallace had more than a few run-ins with outlaw Billy the Kid
while governor of New Mexico territory.
But for the rest of his life, until his death in 1905, Lew Wallace
sought to clear his name for the mistake at Shiloh. He visited the
battlefield every year and when it was being commemorated and
memorialized, he sought to make sure the official tourist
literature had his version of events.
Wallace turned to writing in his spare time and after some earlier
efforts came up with the novel ‘Ben-Hur.’ Victor Davis Hanson
notes that there was a tie between Shiloh and the leper colony in
the book, taken from Wallace’s own experience in running a
detention center as well as the inquiry into the horrible
conditions at Andersonville. But mostly, Hanson writes, “Ben-
Hur is…the saga of a young, brilliant Jewish hero whose entire
life is devoted to seeking revenge for an injustice done him and
his family – by a friend who knew better and would benefit from
this duplicity.”
[Judah Ben-Hur, for example, while watching from his veranda a
triumphal procession below, accidentally loosens a roof tile that
nearly kills Gratus – the ancient Grant? – the Roman procurator
of Judea, surmises Hanson.]
At one low point, Ben-Hur philosophizes, “Death was preferable
to shame; and believe me, I pray, it is so yet.” There are
countless other examples, though once-published Wallace used
his connections, including with veteran generals such as
Garfield, Grant and Sherman, to ensure that they treated him
fairly in their own memoirs when it came to the topic of Shiloh.
Garfield, in his few months as president in 1881, was particularly
useful in Wallace’s attempts to promote the book.
But as Hanson notes, it all comes down to the issue of Grant’s
original orders. If they had been in writing and unambiguous,
“Wallace would have led a happier but little-known life – and we
would all be the poorer for it.”
[Additional sources: “The Growth of the American Republic,”
Morison, Commmager, Leuchtenburg; “A History of the
American People,” Paul Johnson; “A Great Civil War,” Russell
F. Weigley]
Stuff
–Interesting story in the Wall Street Journal by Allen St. John
concerning the Kentucky Derby and breeding.
The Journal examined the bloodlines of every Kentucky Derby
winner from 1940 through last year. “Surprisingly, for all the
sport’s dependence on breeding, there’s really little direct
correlation between a horse that wins on the track and one that
produces champion progeny. Since 1938, only a dozen
Kentucky Derby winners were sired by a horse that won a Triple
Crown race. This 17.7% success rate is especially surprising,
given that successful (and expensive) sires are bred only to the
most promising mares.”
The last second generation winner at the Derby was 1999’s
Charismatic, sired by 1990 Preakness winner Summer Squall.
So don’t look for 2004 Derby and Preakness winner, Smarty
Jones, to sire a lot of winners; even though he is now mating
with 110 mares annually at $100,000 a clip. Smarty has sued his
owners for a bigger share of any earnings, incidentally; though
it’s doubtful a court would rule in his favor, quite frankly.
By the way, as an aside, Allen St. John writes that Secretariat,
who had little success in siring future champs, had a heart
weighing 22 pounds when he died…three times the size of an
average thoroughbred’s.
–Barry Bonds has had a change of heart, re: Babe Ruth.
“Babe Ruth started all of this,” he said on Sunday after clouting
#713. “He was in a league of his own. He brought the game on
a different level. He brought people to the stadium. He’s a big
part of why the game is what it is today.”
Of course it was just a few years ago, with Bonds at 643 homers,
that he said the following, when asked to comment on passing
Willie Mays’s 660.
“And if it does happen, the only number I care about is Babe
Ruth’s. Because, as a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That’s
it. And, in the baseball world, Babe Ruth’s everything, right? I
got his slugging percentage and I’ll take his homers, and that’s it.
Don’t talk about him no more.”
Bonds then took it to a racial level and he basically cemented his
reputation as a primo dirtball at that moment.
–Holy cow! Albert Pujols now has 18 home runs in his first 35
games!
–Here’s some real trivia for you, courtesy of Richard Goldstein
and the New York Times. Jim Delsing was the man who ran for
3’7” Eddie Gaedel after Gaedel’s walk in the 1951 stunt pulled
off by St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck. Delsing, who hit
.255 over a 10-year major league career, passed away the other
day at the age of 80.
–Sorry…if you are a woman in Iran and purchased tickets to
some soccer games following the announcement by President
Ahmadinejad that women could attend them for the first time
since the 1979 Islamic revolution, you can’t sit in the stands after
all. Ahmadinejad’s decree was overruled by supreme leader
Ayatollah Khamenei. No word on whether refunds will be
issued, but I wouldn’t count on it, girls.
–The truth is out….dolphins are big film buffs, especially of
Lauren Bacall.
From Deborah Zabarenko of Reuters:
“Bottlenose dolphins can call each other by name when they
whistle, making them the only animals besides humans known to
recognize such identity information,” scientists reported on
Monday.
Of course it was Ms. Bacall who first said in a 1940s flick “You
know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together
and blow.”
Dolphins were watching this on SeaWorld’s big screen television
back then and word spread quickly. It thus became an easier way
of identifying each other. Bet you didn’t know that.
–Goodness gracious. A baseball signed by Joe DiMaggio and
Marilyn Monroe from 1961 sold at auction for $191,200, the
highest price ever paid for an autographed ball.
–On Sunday, the New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 13-
3. But as Dan Graziano of the Star-Ledger reported, there was
this disturbing little tidbit.
To set it up, Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca was thrown out of the
game for disputing a call at home plate as plate umpire Angel
Hernandez said Lo Duca had failed to tag a runner that scored.
The Mets have had all kinds of problems with Hernandez in the
past.
Lo Duca relates what pitcher Jose Lima later told him:
“Jose said (Hernandez) told him, ‘Don’t be staring in here. I’m
going to give you some corners here and there, but I’m not going
to give you three, four inches off the plate, because you’re not
John Smoltz.’ [The Braves pitcher facing the Mets that day.]
When an umpire says that to my pitcher, I have a problem with
that.”
Dan Graziano:
“The home plate umpire telling one of the game’s starting
pitchers that he’s not going to get as generous a strike zone as the
other one is? Lots of people should have a problem with that.
The commissioner’s office, really, should have a problem with
that.”
Major league umpiring has generally been awful, most fans
would agree, and the umps are developing a little more of an
attitude than is warranted….like they are as important to the
game as the players. Ergo, time to set things straight……where
is Buford Pusser when you need him?
–Every now and then you glance at the high school sports
section and see something that catches your eye. Case in point,
Livingston, N.J., senior outfielder Brett Garlick. The kid, who is
being recruited by some big time programs, is hitting a cool .739
this spring…34-for-46 with 21 steals in 21 attempts.
You know, Willie Wilson never hit better than like .440 in high
school…if that high…as I tax my memory.
–Note to Chi Chi Rodriguez. I see you shot 88-80-89 in the
latest Champions Tour event….a mere 58 shots behind the
winner Brad Bryant…68-67-64. It might be time to bid the sport
adieu.
Remember Rick Rhoden, the former pitcher? In this same
tourney he finished 5-under….68-72-71. I also got a kick out of
seeing Don Pooley and Dan Pohl both shooting 7-under. Always
listed next to each other, each also won twice on the PGA Tour
and it was easy to confuse the two.
–Headline in the Star-Ledger the other day:
“One golfer strikes another in attack on Newark course”
As reported by Suleman Din (no relation to Gunga), “A Sunday
morning game among four friends at Weequahic Golf Course in
Newark turned violent when one allegedly attacked another from
behind with a pair of clubs.”
One man was hurt, another charged with assault.
“Witnesses said the argument took place on the course’s 12th
hole, a par 4 (dogleg)…At the bend, there are a series of white
stakes marking the out-of-bounds area.
“The dispute began over which side of the stakes a ball was
resting, said Essex County Sheriff Deputy Dawg.” [Sorry, just
wanted to keep the sheriff’s real name out of it.]
Another witness who was behind the group said “They were
trash-talking…and (one) kept saying, ‘Don’t disrespect me, don’t
disrespect me.’”
Womp!
–From the ELLE magazine/MSNBC.com sex survey.
“Because I’m older now and not embarrassed to talk about sex,
try new things, or ask for what I want, these have been the hottest
two years of my life,” said a 37-year-old woman. Well good for
her.
By the way, guys. “Turning off the TV, talking dirty, and an ‘I
love you’ or two are turn-ons. But mix in some mirth and
suddenly cavorting couples become nearly 60-minute men and
women, the survey found.” [Corky Siemaszko / New York Daily
News]
–I didn’t know this…Bon Jovi is the first rock band to have a #1
on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with “Who Says You
Can’t Go Home,” a duet with Jennifer Nettles.
Top 3 songs for the week of 5/14/77: #1 “When I Need You”
(Leo Sayer…ughh) #2 “Sir Duke” (Stevie Wonder) #3 “Hotel
California” (Eagles)…and…#5 “Couldn’t Get It Right” (Climax
Blues Band) #7 “So Into You” (Atlanta Rhythm Section…these
guys had some great tunes) #8 “I’m Your Boogie Man” (KC &
The Sunshine Band….I’m in-to…whatever I can….be it early
morn…late afternoon……..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
………..sorry, I’m taking naps late afternoons these days)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Home runs allowed –
Robin Roberts, 505 (4,688 innings)
Ferguson Jenkins, 484 (4,500)
Phil Niekro, 482 (5,404)
Don Sutton, 472 (5,282…I’m more accepting of this guy’s career
as the years go by…him being in the Hall of Fame and all)
Frank Tanana, 448 (4,188…of course this whole quiz was to see
if you could get him)
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday….by the way, that little reference above
to Buford Pusser has something to do with our next chat.
