Racism Is Not a One-Way Street

In light of some Boston Red Sox fans taunting Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones with racial slurs, it's time for a reality slap in the face. First and foremost, there's no excuse for that kind of behavior. None. But there's a side of this type of hate that's going largely ignored.

Racism has been an underlying fixture in societies worldwide since time immemorial but nobody can deny that racism has become so "trendy" in America in recent years mostly due to Barack Obama's not-so-veiled support of Al Sharpton and Black Lives Matter, who's violent actions classify them as a domestic terrorist group. Their entire agenda is based on their own racial hatred and using the very word "racist" as a crutch to be violent, irresponsible and unaccountable (although that method is hardly new).

The media (left and right wing) slants the coverage by using the terms "white police officer" and "unarmed black man" as often as possible while very rarely pointing out the race of cop killers. The ensuing riots get major news coverage while the "protesters" aren't stopped. This is not unprecedented. During the early 1990s New York City mayor David Dinkins fell under the influence of Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan and had the city on the brink of race wars.

Racial abuse is not a one-way street. Bigots aren't born, they're taught and there's action and reaction from both sides. The backlash towards the faction of blacks who follow the lead of Sharpton and think they have the right to violent crime and Welfare due to racism leaves many good, respectable black individuals like Adam Jones caught in the vicious crossfire of racial ignorance. However, the key item that the news outlets almost never mention is that it's the same thing in reverse. And there's the rub. The latter exists just as prominently while the former gets all the publicity - even if the facts don't dictate it.

As evidenced by the standing ovation Jones received the following day at Fenway, the majority of people aren't like that but bigotry still gets the majority of the attention for two reasons: 1. Bad news sells better than good news because anger is the stronger emotion and 2. It's by design.

Red Sox fans cheering Adam Jones

Media-fueled racism is just a slice of the overall problem. As long as everyone's arguing and fighting each other over race, politics, gender, religion, caste, sports, illegal immigration, abortion rights, gun control, gay rights, legalized marijuana, terrorism, the death penalty etc. and the government-controlled media continues to fan the flames of controversy and hatred the American people can never unite and become a respected force against a government packed with criminals who will continue to rip us off under orders from the "owners" (a/k/a the multi-billion dollar corporate interests and the infamous "1%" - of which Donald Trump happens to be a member).

Postscript: Is this article smacking of hypocrisy because of its negative opinion of the media for their negative tone? No, because...
1. News providers like Reuters make beaucoup bucks with their improvised and exaggerated stories and newspapers like the New York Post and the Daily News with their over-the-top sensationalism and obnoxious headlines influence and inflame the passions of the masses.
2. This article is an overview based on this writer's eye-witness observations over the years.

A typical New York Post hostility-inspiring sports headline

A typical Daily News anger-inspiring headline

Dominance Personified

                  Philadelphia 169, New York 147, Wilt Chamberlain 100

On March 2, 1962 the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors were scheduled to play the New York Knicks in a neutral court game at Hershey, Pennsylvania. 25-year old Wilt Chamberlain, the Warriors' 3rd-year, 7'1" 255 lb. center, had led the league in scoring his first two seasons with record-shattering averages of 37.6 and 38.4 points a game. Coming into this game his average was an other-worldly 49.4, so a 50-point game would have been a casual night for him. In fact, just five days earlier Chamberlain torched the Knicks for 67. But never in all of professional team sports history has one player so completely dominated a game the way The Big Dipper would this evening.  

Philadelphia tore out to a 19-3 lead. Chamberlain, who was a poor free throw shooter, nevertheless shot 9-9 from the line and scored 23 points as the Warriors led 42-26 after one. In the second period the Knicks started chipping away and trailed by 11 at the half. But they had absolutely no answer for Chamberlain, who scored 18 in the second quarter for total of 41 points. The 4,124 fans in attendance were buzzing about Chamberlain's first half performance, hoping to see a new scoring record. They would get a hell of a lot more than they bargained for.

During the third quarter the crowd cheered Wilt's every move. New York double and triple-teamed him but Chamberlain was unstoppable. Philadelphia led 125-106 after three and Wilt had amassed 69 points. However, the best was still yet to come.

In the final quarter, Chamberlain unleashed his full offensive power. Scoring practically at will, he broke his own NBA record of 73 points in a regulation-game and with 7:51 remaining, he hit a fade-a-way from the foul line for his 79th point, surpassing the mark he set in a triple-overtime game two months earlier. Fans started ringing the court, chanting, "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!" With the game's outcome no longer in doubt, the Knicks started fouling everyone but Chamberlain in an attempt to keep him from adding to their humiliation. The Warriors retaliated by fouling immediately, getting the ball back and feeding it to Chamberlain as fast as possible.

When he passed 90, fans were shouting for Wilt to score and booed anyone else who took a shot. With 46 seconds remaining, he had 98 points and Philadelphia had the ball. There was nothing the Knicks could do as Chamberlain got the ball underneath the basket and slammed it home for his 99th and 100th points of the game. When the final buzzer sounded the fans mobbed Chamberlain as police wedged a path for him to the locker room while basketball fans everywhere anxiously awaited to see the details of the amazing 169-147 final score.

Afterwards he said, "I wasn't even thinking of hitting 100, but after putting in nine straight free throws, I was thinking about a foul-shooting record. It was my greatest game." He also gave credit to his teammates. "It would have been impossible to score this many if they hadn't kept feeding me."

Chamberlain set just about every scoring record imaginable in this game. Among them (a few since surpassed) were: most field goals (36), shots (63), free throws (28), free throw attempts (32), most points in one quarter (31), one half (59), and, of course, 100 points in a game. One hundred points. Nobody, not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (55), Shaquille O'Neal (61), Michael Jordan (69) or Kobe Bryant (81) came close. 

It looks even more surreal in the newspaper box score.

Comeback or Choke?

Yogi Berra’s (alleged*) line about it not being over til it’s over has been beaten into the ground but it never rang truer on January 3, 1993 at Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, New York when the Buffalo Bills staged the most improbable comeback ever witnessed.

The 11-5 Bills and the 10-6 Houston Oilers were getting ready to square off in the AFC Wild Card playoff game. The previous week in the regular season finale in Houston the Oilers whipped the Bills 27-3 so they entered this game with their confidence sky-high. It paid immediate dividends as Houston quarterback Warren Moon fired four touchdown passes leading the Oilers to a commanding 28-3 halftime lead. In the locker room Buffalo head coach Marv Levy read the riot act to his club, but with two of his star players, quarterback Jim Kelly and linebacker Cornelius Bennett, out with injuries it was clear that would take one hell of an out-and-out miracle for the two-time defending AFC champion Bills to pull this one out.

Bills QB Frank Reich, who started for Kelly, said later, “Gale Gilbert [Buffalo’s third-string quarterback] came over to me at halftime and said, ‘You were part of something like this in college. There’s no reason you can’t be part of it in the pros.’” He was referring to Reich’s performance for Maryland in 1984 when he led the Terrapins back from a 31-0 deficit to a stunning 42-40 win over the University of Miami.

In the second half, however, the Bills came out like a thundering herd of turtles and when Oilers safety Bubba McDowell intercepted a Reich pass for a 58-yard touchdown return giving Houston a seemingly insurmountable 35-3 lead the 71,141 fans in attendance began abandoning ship. Minutes later Kenny Davis scored a TD for the Bills and a successful onside kick recovery led to another score and suddenly it was 35-17. Buffalo’s defense got into the act, forcing Houston to punt for the first time and it resulted in an Andre Reed 26-yard touchdown catch. Now the score was 35-24 and the Bills - as well as the fans - were back in the game with time on their side. 

  On the Oilers next possession Buffalo cornerback Henry Jones picked off a pass and Reich found Reed again for an 18-yard score to pull the Bills to within four heading into the final quarter. With 3:08 left Reed snared yet another touchdown pass that put the Bills ahead 38-35, but with 12 seconds remaining Houston’s Al Del Greco kicked a 26-yard field goal to send this unbelievable game into sudden-death overtime. How could it end any other way?

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  Just over two minutes into the extra period Nate Odomes intercepted a Moon pass at the Oiler 37 and his two-yard return coupled with a 15-yard face-mask penalty against Houston landed Buffalo on the Oilers' 20-yard line. The Bills ran two plays then sent Steve Christie in to attempt a 32-yard, game-winning field goal. You could cut the tension with a chainsaw as the players lined up for the snap and when the ball sailed through the uprights sheer bedlam erupted in Rich Stadium as the Bills won 41-38 and th entire city of Buffalo launched a celebration of the greatest comeback in NFL history that would last far into the night. The momentum of this victory would carry the Bills all the way to their 3rd consecutive Super Bowl.

Defensive Coordinator Walt Corey’s adjustment in the second half is credited with the Bills defense being much more aggressive. Corey also gave credit to Marv Levy’s halftime speech. “After ‘Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address’ at halftime I think they got the message.”  Levy tried to put his side of it into perspective when he told reporters, “Well, there was a lot of time left and there was a glimmer of hope, but it’s about the same chance you have of winning the New York Lottery.” Houston Oilers cornerback Cris Dishman had a different perspective: “It was a big choke by us,” he fumed. “Collapse is too nice a word. You guys can call it what you want, but it was a choke job.”


Comeback? Choke? Luck? Divine intervention? Depends on one's point of view, doesn't it?

*- Yogi Berra never said, "It ain't over til it's over." What he actually said was, "You're never out of it until your out of it."

108 Years of Cubs Baseball

It's incomprehensible. An eerie combination of The Twilight Zone and Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day." How in the world can a team fail to win a championship for  one hundred and eight years? The Chicago Cubs haven't even been to the World Series in 71 years. One wonders how it must feel for Cub fans to root for a team that has no living witnesses to their last World Series win...or at least nobody likely to have a lucid thought. When the Yankees go a couple of years without a title, their fans get the bends, but for whatever reason, Cub fans have endured. Whether it's a jinx, a curse, bad luck, ineptitude or a crude combination of them all, the Cubs' championship drought is not only a part of Americana, but it's become one of the great mysteries of mankind.
  So, in that wondrous vein, here's some of the many things that have happened since 1908, the last time the Cubs were on top of the world. For example, in 1908, Babe Ruth was 13 years old. Since then...

Radio was invented.

TV was invented.

Color TV was created.

We went from records to CDs to downloads.

Aviation went from the Wright Brothers to world-wide jet travel and supersonic stealth machines.

Computers were invented and evolved from million-dollar, one-of-a-kind, room-sized behemoths to millions of wafer-thin notebooks and smartphones for a couple of bills.

The Internet was created.

We went from the plug-in rotary telephone to world-wide wireless communication.

George Burns celebrated his 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th and 100th birthdays.

So did Bob Hope.

Haley's comet passed Earth...twice.

Major League Baseball added 14 teams.

The NFL, NHL and NBA were formed and the Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls have all won multiple championships

Man landed on the moon six times.

Harry Caray was born and died.

18 US presidents have been elected.

There were 12 amendments added to the Constitution.

Popular Music went through Ragtime, Big Band, Rock, Motown, Disco, Punk, Rap, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop; Al Jolson, Glenn Miller, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna. Eminem...

The Titanic was built, set sail, sank, was discovered and became the subject of major motion pictures.

Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Oklahoma and New Mexico were added to the Union.

[Isn't this amazing?]

In 1914 Wrigley Field opened as Weeghman Park and has become the oldest ballpark in the National League (And in spite of it's age and the Cubs' failures, it’s still one of the best places to see a baseball game).

Weeghman Park outfield in 1914

Flag poles were erected on the Wrigley Field roof to hold all of the team's future World Series pennants. They eventually rusted and were taken down.

When Mr. Cub - Ernie Banks - was born the drought was 23-years old.

The Curse at work?

On August 14 1969 the Cubs were 9 1/2 games ahead of the New York Mets, who up to that season were the embodiment of futility. But by the time the Cubs arrived in New York a few weeks later for a two-game head-to-head with the onrushing Mets the lead was down to 2 1/2 games. During one game a black cat suddenly appeared near the Chicago dugout, walked by the Cubs' Ron Santo in the on-deck circle, then ran back under the stands. Many considered that an omen. The Cubs lost both games and the Mets went on to win the World Series in their eighth year of existence while the Cubs' drought reached 61 years.

1980: The Philadelphia Phillies win their first world championship of any kind dating all the way back to 1883 when they were first known as the Philadelphia Quakers. With that drought snapped at 97 years, the Cubs now had the longest in sports at 72.
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1984: The Cubs make it to the postseason for the first time since 1945 and win the first two games of what was then a best-of-five playoff, but proceed to lose the last three games to the San Diego Padres, a team in their 16th year of existence. The drought was now 76 years.

1997: The Florida Marlins win the World Series in their fifth year of existence. The Cubs' drought was now 89 years.

2001: The Arizona Diamondbacks win their first championship in only their fourth year. The Cubs' drought reaches 93.

2003:  Bartman. 'nuf said.

2004: The Red Sox finally break the fabled "Curse of the Bambino" after 86 years. The team the Bosox beat way back in that 1918 World Series? The Chicago Cubs. The spell was now 96-years old.

2005: Probably the most frustrating dagger to Cubs fans was when the cross-town White Sox ended their drought at 88 years. The Cubs' was at 97 and counting.

2008: Disney couldn't have written a potentially happier script. The 100th anniversary, Lou Piniella at the helm, an outstanding team that had the best record in the league all year, the odds-on favorite to finally take the throne again after a full century of misadventures. Everything was in place. The team was confident, hopes were high…until the Cubs were dropped in three straight by the Dodgers in the first round. The Cub fans' pain was temporarily postponed as it swam upstream against the bourbon.

2009: The New York Yankees win the World Series for the 27th time, the first of which came in 1923 when the Cubs' drought was already 15-years old.

2015: The Cubs go 97-65 only to be swept in four straight by the long-hated Mets who go on to their 5th National League championship since 1969.

2016: The Cubs win 103 games, lead virtually wire-to-wire.....

                                 ...To be continued.

The All-Nighter

 Pawtucket 3, Rochester 2 (33 innings) 

 

No, that's not a typo. It's the final score of the longest professional baseball game of all time. It took two months to play.... Well, okay, it was suspended late and resumed two months later, but it probably felt like two months to the players and fans who spent the night at the ballpark. But don't panic, the story of this amazing game is considerably shorter. 



McCoy Stadium

It all started on April 18, 1981 at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Rochester Red Wings were in town to play the Pawtucket Red Sox in an International League game. The Sox were the minor league AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and the Red Wings were the Baltimore Orioles' AAA franchise. Both rosters had familiar names, including future Hall-of-Famers Cal Ripkin of Rochester and Pawtucket’s Wade Boggs, who along with teammates Marty Barrett, Rich Gedman, Bruce Hurst and Bobby Ojeda would play major roles for the Red Sox and the New York Mets in the unforgettable 1986 World Series.

It was very chilly and breezy, more conducive for football. At any rate, the evening began ominously. The game was scheduled to start at 7:05 PM but there was a problem with one of the supports for the stadium lights and the first pitch wasn’t delivered until 8. The pitchers dominated from the start and the game was scoreless through six innings. Rochester broke through in the seventh and took a 1-0 lead but in the bottom of the ninth Pawtucket tied it up and they were off to extra innings.  A whole lotta extra innings.

Each team marched an army of pitchers to the mound, keeping the hitters at bay. After twelve innings it was still deadlocked. Fifteen innings. Eighteen. Twenty. In the top of the 21^st the Red Wings scored to take a 2-1 lead but the Pawsox tied it again. So the bands played on past midnight.

There was a curfew rule in the International League stating that no inning could start after 12:50 AM. Pawtucket informed the home plate umpire Dennis Gregg. He replied that he didn’t know of any such rule and ordered play to continue, so on they went. 23 innings. 25. It was getting ridiculous. After 27 innings the exhausted teams had, in effect, played a tripleheader with no decision – and no breaks. 29 innings. 31. No end in sight. It was well after 3 AM when the umpires finally found out about the 12:50 curfew regulation. It turned out that the league's rule book they recieved at the start of the season didn’t include that information. Everyone shrugged and continued the game anyway. Hey, why stop now?

In the 32^nd inning the league president called and ordered play to be stopped at the end of that inning, regardless. Neither team scored, so after 8 hours, 25 minutes, 32 innings and the score tied 2-2, the ubermarathon was finally halted just a half-hour before dawn. Normally they would have resumed the next day before the scheduled game, but instead they decided to complete it two months later on June 23, Rochester’s next visit to Pawtucket.

The game drew attention around the country and after the Major League players went on strike on June 12, it became a big news event. The media descended on Pawtucket to witness baseball history (provided the game ever ended). However the Red Sox, no longer burdened by having played eight straight hours of baseball, took only 18 minutes to win it when Dave Koza (in his 14th at-bat of the game) drove in Marty Barrett with a single in the bottom of the 33^rd inning, thus completing the longest game, by time and innings, in the history of professional baseball. One wonders how much longer this game would have gone on if the commissioner hadn't intervened because suspending it eliminated the continuous dynamics, particularly physical and emotional fatigue, which is a major part of extra-inning games.

 

Highlights and Lowlights

- Rochester’s Dallas Williams went 0-13, the longest one game O-fer in baseball history.

- Pawtucket's Russ Laribee went 0-11 and struck out seven times.
- Pawtucket’s Jim Umbarger pitched ten innings of shutout ball with nine strikeouts and he didn’t even enter the game until the 23^rd inning.

- Between the teams there was a total of 882 pitches to 246 batters and home plate umpire Dennis Gregg was there for every single one of them.

 

"Baseball. Damndest game I ever saw."

                                                          ~ Keith Hernandez

A wall at McCoy Stadium commemorating the historic game