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.
Hot Stove #61 — The World Series – Two Brief Histories [Also a Bob Motley Statue Update]
This post interrupts my trilogy of reports on the World Series of 50, 75 and 100 years ago. You have seen the post on 1917, but my 1942 post will need more setup because it is about TWO World Series in the same year. So a little history may help before we get to the games played in 1942.
MLB World Series – A Brief History: The National League was founded in 1876. Other leagues followed, but no other “major” league endured until the American League transitioned to that status in 1901. The American League was able to upgrade by poaching stars from the National League which had a maximum player salary. The two leagues made peace after the 1902 season with an agreement not to raid each other for players. This set the stage for other interleague cooperation.
Hot Stove #60 — The 1917 World Series – 100 Years Ago
Now that the 2017 World Series is over, I am returning to baseball nostalgia for three posts on the World Series of 50, 75 and 100 years ago. This first post features the 1917 Series. The others will be (i) 1942, when the World Series of the Negro Leagues and MLB each featured seven Hall of Famers, and (ii) 1967, when Bob Gibson ruled the World Series.
Hot Stove #59 – World Series 2017 – Houston Strong(er) Than Los Angeles
This past Saturday night, Rita and I joined about a thousand others at Unity Temple on the Plaza for an event sponsored by the Truman Library Institute. The subject was presidential leadership, and the speakers were author Doris Kearns Goodwin and Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle. David got the evening off to a good start by asking Doris who she had rooted for in the World Series. Doris grew up a passionate Brooklyn Dodger fan and then famously disowned the team when owner Walter O’Malley moved it to Los Angeles in 1958 (recounted in her book, Wait Till Next Year).