Baseball and the Shift

This week one of my sons alerted me to a sports agent for Bryce Harper, who is having a dismal year at the plate for the Washington Nationals, saying: Bryce’s poor batting record reflects “discriminatory shifts.” In short, he is discriminated against by opposing defensive players employing an effective strategy. 

This brought back memories of my youth when I was about 14 or 15 and listened to the Red Sox games on the radio. There was no television in 1946, or at least we did not have one.  

Today, July 14, is the 72nd anniversary of the Lou Boudreau “Ted Williams Shift." Boudreau was the shortstop and manager for the Cleveland Indians. In the second game of a doubleheader, he was playing the percentages against Williams, an extreme pull hitter.

Boudreau rolled out an infield player shift that packed all four infielders between first and second base. The announcers and Red Sox fans were astonished at this deployment but it worked in that game. Williams went 1-for-2 with a double and a pair of walks. It is estimated that the shift, later also used by other teams, took 15 points off Ted’s lifetime batting average: .344 BA (8th).

Ted was the proudest hitter in baseball and would not modify his swing to hit to left field. (He did not play golf because a golf swing is different from baseball and he felt it might adversely affect his baseball swing.)

Incidentally, in the first game of the July 14, 1946, doubleheader, Ted hit three home runs and drove in eight runs for a Boston 11 to 10 victory.  Ted was in his first season back after military service in World War II.

Young Mr.Harper could not do much better than take a lesson from Ted Williams. 

D-day story touches the heart

Letters to the Editor (As published.) 

The Island Packet - The Beaufort Gazette

June 12, 2016

D-Day story touches the heart

Your story on D-Day about the 82nd Airborne Division soldier, Ralph Ticcioni of New Berlin, Wis., -  shown at the American Cemetery in Normandy, being hosted and celebrated by the people of Ste. Mere-Eglise on the anniversary of D-Day -  touched my heart and called to memory what I did on that day so long ago. 

On that day in 1944, I was a 7th grade student in St. Patrick's Boys School in Lowell, MA. Shortly after school opened, we were marched over to the Church where Pastor Father Meehan led prayers for the men storming the beaches in Normandy, France. After the prayers, he declared a school holiday and we all went home. 

We hung by the radio throughout the day for news of the men of the Allied Forces who were fighting for their lives and gaining a foothold on the continent of Europe. They would not be tossed back into the sea. 

Today, we honor those gallant men, the few still alive and the 9,000 who rest in the American cemetery in Normandy. We will not see their like again. 

In Memory.

Francis X. Archibald

Hilton Head Island

Click for earlier posts.

Send comments to: arch@archibald99.com

D-Day Through French Eyes

There is hardly an American alive today who has not seen “The Longest Day,” Darrell Zanuck’s 1962 epic film of the invasion of France in June 1944. This star-studded, dramatic film and other movies about World War II center on the actions and activities, usually heroic, of Allied forces on the long march to Berlin to end the Nazi reign in Europe. Recall the moment in Patton when the General, standing in his jeep as it sped down the road, replied to a common soldier’s “Where are you going General? “I’m going to Berlin. I'm going to personally shoot that paper-hanging son of a bitch.” 

Lost in all of these tales of derring-do and allied competence is an intimate picture of what D-Day was like for the ordinary French men and women living, some for decades, on the Normandy peninsula. 

Those who lived in the Normandy countryside where the landings and fighting took place were average every day people. They were farmers and villagers. They had cows to milk, bread to bake, crops to harvest, children to educate, babies to be born, old and sick people to be nursed and buried.

 

Ms. Roberts

Mary Louise Roberts', professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, second book,  D-Day through French Eyes - Memoirs of Normandy 1944, brings to life the personal stories of some of the French men and women who were the first Europeans to be touched for good or bad by the greatest sea and air armada in history on the night of June 5- 6, 1944. The Allied plan was to conquer the Normandy peninsula in three weeks. It took three months.

The tales of joy, merriment, love, respect, admiration, sorrow, loss and anger are from diaries kept at the time and recollection put down on paper years later. To make an omelet you have to crack eggs, was certainly on the mind of the Normans. From the moments the paras (Allied paratroopers) began dropping from the sky to the early morning shelling from the ships off-shore that destroyed homes, churches, schools, businesses, and killed people and animals, death and destruction were all around.

Roberts says in her introduction to this easily read book, “I have chosen temoignages (testimony)  that revolve around the rich sensory details of D-Day --- the sound of artillery, the first glimpse of an American, the stench of death, and the taste of chocolate. The result is a vision of both hell at the hands of the occupiers and joy at being liberated.” In most instances testimony is prefaced with an explanation and perspective by Roberts to help the reader become enmeshed as if living in the day.

Perhaps for the first time, D-Day through French Eyes offers readers the opportunity to balance the stirring events of those dramatic, impacting days as portrayed by Hollywood, and what it was like to live in the path of D-Day.

Complete blog here

Comment to: arch@archibald99.com

A Hundred Years Later

This Saturday, June 28, 2014 is a most significant date in world history: the 100th anniversary of an event leading thirty days later to World War I, also called the Great War, the European war, and many other such titles. 

If we look only at books on the history of World War I which we are likely to read because English is our native language, we have 5,962 books published in the United States and another 1,295 in England to choose from.  (Figures courtesy of Amazon.com.)

Think about it. An average of 73 books has been published in the English language each year over the last 100 years dealing with World War I. Talk about a growth industry.

()

It all started on a Saturday in Sarajevo, June 28, 1914, when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, were assassinated by a young Serb, Gavrilo Princip. He was one of five Serbs and one Bosnian Muslim, all under the age of 20, who set about the assassination that day. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassination led directly to the First World War when Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum against Serbia, which was partially rejected. Austria-Hungary then declared war, marking the outbreak of the war on July 28, 1914.

Before long all of Europe was at war with one nation or the other. Sides were chosen based on self-interest, earlier treaties and opportunities perceived. Stalemate eventually set in. It was only when the Unite States threw its hat in the ring and brought its manpower, industrialization, and money to the conflict that the balance shifted and the war to end all wars was ended.

Many historians and scholars hold to the view that World War I led to the Second World War; that issues raised between 1914 and 1918 were never fully put to rest and another war was inevitable.  This debate goes on today and you can pick it up among the 7,257 books available in English on Amazon.com.

(Complete blog here.)

(Comments to: arch@archibald99.com)

   

My visit to Normandy

In 2012, I visited France and Germany. The main purpose in visiting France was to go to Normandy where D-Day had taken place almost 70 years earlier. For many years I wanted to show a sign of respect to the the fighting men who sacrificed everything for us on that fateful day in history. These are some pictures from that visit. The American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War II cemetery and memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, that honors American troops. It is slightly East of what in June 1944 was known as Omaha Beach.

Directional sign, simple and understated.

In the Memorial, one of the remembrances of the men who came and fought.

Carved in stone for generations to remember.

The Pointe Du Hoc. Germans on top fired down on American Rangers.

Final resting place for 9,387Americans.

The most significant date of the 20th Century

Seventy years ago this week I was a 7^th grade student at St. Patrick’s Boys School in the Acre section of Lowell, Massachusetts. Shortly after arriving at school on June 6th, we were all marched over to the adjoining St. Patrick's church by the Xaverian Brothers who taught us, and where we joined the girls and the teaching sisters from the Girl’s School. We were all on our knees in the pews Our aging pastor, Father Meehan, kneeling at the foot of the altar in the lower church, led us in prayer for the success of the invasion of Europe. When the prayers were concluded, Father Meehan declared a school holiday. Naturally we were all thrilled, even if we – middle school students - didn’t really understand the significance of what was happening more than 3000 miles across the ocean.

Today some South Carolina and other veterans of WWII and the invasion are visiting in France where the invasion took place on June 6, 1944. Most of these men are in their 80s and 90s. Sadly, most will not be around in another 10 years. They will be joined on Friday by President Obama, Queen Elizabeth, and Russian President Putin.

For them and for us and for history so no one will forget, Time, Inc. has published a memento volume of pictures and commentary. The pictures are from LIFE magazine, and many were originally printed within days of being taken on the battlefield. These and the accompanying text are stark reminders of how courageous the invasion was. This was a plan that had no alternatives. If the allies were unable to gain a foothold and begin the march on Germany, today’s world would be a much different place. All of this is laid out in “D-Day: 70 Years Later.”

It is impossible to express what we and the world owes those courageous, fighting men and women who invaded Europe in unquestionably the most significant date of the 20^th Century. Just be glad in your heart they succeeded.

(Complete blog here.) 

(E-mail comments: arch@archibald99.com)

The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum

Nothing invokes deep feelings like a visit to a museum honoring the fighting men and women who made up The Mighty Eighth Air Force during World War II. My wife, Joyce, and I visited the museum in Pooler, GA., at Exit 102 off I-95, a few miles north of Savannah. The Mighty Eighth was activated January 28, 1942, at Hunter Field in Savannah, and it would become the greatest air armada in history. It is estimated that more than 350,000 Americans served in the 8th AF during the war in Europe. Five thousand planes were processed through Hunter Field, including the City of Savannah, (on display in the museum) which flew 44 missions against the Germans.
I have been in the museum twice before. They constantly add memorabilia and research capabilities for the benefit of the public. Over "nine thousand books significant to the history of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, as well as original manuscripts, photographs, oral history interviews and personal accounts, artifacts and works of art" can be found here. Planes, clothing and equipment are also on view. The Memorial Gardens and Chapel of the Fallen Eagles, modeled on an English chapel, are a setting to reflect on the sacrifice of so many young American men.
The museum "tells the compelling story of ordinary people whose lives were transformed by extraordinary commitment, sacrifice and patriotism."
We took a few pictures, but it takes a visit to the museum to really appreciate this piece of American history and the courageous young men in their flying machines.

A hiding place in the attic of a French home for downed American air crew.

Celebrating victory in Europe, May 1945.

The City of Savannah, the 5,000 plane to join the 8th Air Force in England.

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention the museum is staffed by volunteers and you can drop a contribution into a box to help keep the place going? You can also schedule a business, social or cultural event in the lobby - including a wedding reception if that is your wish. You may also support the museum and keep these great memories alive by visiting the web site and making a donation. It will make you feel good.

Dreaming

I had a strange – make that weird, dream last night. It started with me looking at a large painting with a three stories high chateau on a hill in the upper left corner. A dirt road extended out to the right and when it reached the edge of the picture it curved back toward the lower left corner. In the lower right corner a small building was surrounded by a manicured lawn. I was standing in a gallery looking at this painting. The picture slowly came to life when a procession started from the chateau, a vehicle in front and hundreds of troops marching in formation behind it. Simultaneously, a jeep moved out from the building in the right corner across the grass until it stopped just a few yards from the road. Then the figures came into view. General George S. Patton, Jr., was in the vehicle at the head of the procession.  He was standing up, bedecked in his dress uniform, battle and other ribbons smartly displayed on his left breast, an ivory-handle pistol at his waist, a riding crop in his left hand and obviously enjoying himself as the center of attention. Behind him marched his beloved 3^rd U.S. Army which he led across France following D-Day in 1944. In the parked jeep sat three American army officers and a man in a German uniform. His face was a scowl. It was obvious he absolutely hated the moment and wished he were elsewhere. When the parade of troops ended the jeep started up, turned and headed back to the small building and carried Adolf Hitler to his fate.

Professional and amateur dream analysts are invited to comment via e-mail to arch@archibald99.com. 

(Complete blog here.)

(To opt out send “Delete” to arch@archibald99.com)

Spirit of a church lives on

One of the more interesting mornings on my trip to Hamburg in September was spent at the St. Nikolai Memorial, “a place of commemoration for the victims of war and persecution 1933-1945.”

This church was founded in 1195 and is one of the oldest churches in Hamburg. It burned and was re-built in 1874.

During air raids conducted by British and America bombers in World War II the church steeple, 483 feet high above the ground, served as a landmark for bomber pilots. The church was destroyed, only the steeple and parts of the walls survive to this day. 

The Lutheran Bishop refused re-building after the war, deciding instead on a memorial for the victims of war. 

 

The morning was clear and a ride in the lift to the top of the steeple gave me a splendid view of the entire city. This is one view.

The Carillon, (visible in the lower half of the pictured steeple) erected in in 1993, played a soft, delightful melody adding to the enjoyment of the moment.

In the crypt of the church (entered via the glass structure in front of the  steeple) there is a permanent exhibition (library, scheduled panel discussions, lectures and educational films) outlining the massive destruction of Hamburg, primarily by English Royal Air Force bombers. In one ten day period in the summer of 1943, 35,000 people were killed, 120,000 were injured and almost a million subsequently fled the city. To keep this horrendous destruction in perspective, however, the exhibition also details the role of the German Luftwaffe in the bombing and destruction of Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, and the bombing and destruction of Warsaw, Coventry, and Rotterdam and the massive bombing of London. The destruction of Guernica from the air is understood to be the first such act of war carried out by aircraft. 

(Click here for other posts in this blog.)

(To decline future posts, reply to this e-mail with REMOVE)