Themes for Hot Stove posts often come quite by accident. This one was sparked by the Winter Olympics, a Ted Williams story and the death last week of David Ogden Stiers. The common denominator: Korea.
Hot Stove #69 – Rooting for Laundry
In 1995, Jerry Seinfeld did a bit that went like this:
“Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. Because the players are always changing, the team can move to another city, you’re actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it. You know what I mean, you are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player but if he goes to another team, they boo him. This is the same human being in another shirt, they ‘hate’ him now. Boo! Different shirt!! Boo.” [click here to see the video]
Hot Stove #68 – The Hair-Raising Tale of Oscar Gamble (RIP)
Royals pitchers and catchers reported to spring training today. Game on.
And as we wait to see how that works out…
Hot Stove #67 – Danny and the Juniors – At Spring Training, At the Oscars and At the Hop
Rita and I head to Phoenix later this week to visit friends of long standing, Diana and Larry Brewer. Sixty years ago this month (that would be January of 1958), the #1 record that Diana and I and our classmates were dancing to at Van Horn Teen Town was “At the Hop” by Danny and the Juniors. Three years later, I fixed Diana up on a blind date with my college fraternity brother Larry Brewer. They are still dating (and long married). Continue reading
Hot Stove #66 – Baseball Integration – A Triumph of Journalism (Martin Luther King Jr. Day – 2018)
This message is a combination of my annual MLK message (since 2002) and the newest Hot Stove post.
The theme for this message started percolating in 2015 when I saw an exhibit at the Kansas City Public Library. The exhibit honored Lucile Bluford as a civil rights activist and for her influential career as a journalist with Kansas City’s premier African American newspaper, the Call. The exhibit chronicled her “separate but equal” litigation with Missouri University when she was denied admission in 1939. Her case and others seeking fairness in education helped lay the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Continue reading
Al Franken – Author and Senator
Rita and I over the years with Al Franken.
2003: Al Franken appeared at the Uptown Theater on a book tour in 2003. The book: Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Continue reading
Hot Stove #65 — Odds and Ends on the Royals, Trivia, Statistics and Lee Judge
As the year ends, I am sending out some odds and ends that have been accumulating in my Hot Stove folder. My editor Rita says it reads like I’m cleaning out my closet. She is very perceptive.
Nerd Alert: For those of you in the “general” audience, feel free to skip the nerd-heavy stats and scroll down to the Statistics-Free Zone – Judging the Royals and Lonnie’s Jukebox.
Hot Stove #64 – The 1967 World Series – 50 Years Ago – Cardinals v. Red Sox
When I decided to feature the World Series from 50, 75 and 100 years ago, I thought it was going to be one general post. It turned into five. Just too many good things that a retired lawyer can find with Google. So now for the finale. The 1967 World Series between the Cardinals and the Red Sox.
Hot Stove #63 — The 1942 Negro League World Series — 75 Years Ago — Monarchs v. Grays
Hot Stove #62 covered the 1942 MLB World Series between the Cardinals and Yankees. Now for the counterpart from the Negro Leagues.
1942 – Kansas City Monarchs v. Washington Homestead Grays: Under the cloud of war, the Negro Leagues entered the 1942 season.
Hot Stove #62 — The 1942 MLB World Series — 75 Years Ago — Yankees v. Cardinals
[Below is the next installment on the World Series of 50, 75 and 100 years ago. On Wednesday, Rita and I head to the Atlantic side of Florida, and so I’ll be switching from writing to reading. Hope to finish the biographies of two great artists, Satchel Paige and Leonardo da Vinci. After that, on to Hot Stove #63 (The 1942 Negro League World Series) and Hot Stove #64 (The 1967 World Series.)]
In 1942, with World War II underway, there was some thought that there would not be a baseball season. President Franklin Roosevelt lifted that cloud with his “Green Light” letter that encouraged baseball to continue as a recreational outlet for fans working on the war effort. This also meant there would be a 1942 World Series. Actually, two of them – one for the Major Leagues and one for the Negro Leagues.