April 20, 2011
The Wrong Side of History
Here’s hoping you all had a Happy Patriot’s Day, whether you went to watch the Minutemen reenactment in Lexington and Concord or went to join Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann for what she thought would be a reenactment in New Hampshire.
Patriot’s Day is the annual holiday when we commemorate the battles of Lexington and Concord, when the British, in what they thought would be a covert operation, marched from Boston to Concord to capture and/or destroy Colonial munitions there. It turns out that while the British high command was able to keep the plan secret from their own troops, the Colonials were well aware of the plan thanks to their network of spies. Hence Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode ahead of the British regulars screaming, “The British are coming! The British are coming!”
With the advantage of forewarning, the Colonials prepared and wound up chasing the Brits back to Boston with their hindquarters smarting of musket shot.
Unfortunately for Dawes and Prescott, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow chose Revere and his more melodic name for his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Thus, no child ever heard in elementary school, “Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Samuel Prescott.”
Battle reenactments have been a tradition for many years with many individuals dressing as Colonials and some hearty souls volunteering to dress as British soldiers. It might seem contrary for someone to volunteer to be on the losing side but if you want to fully reenact a battle someone’s got to be on the wrong side. It would kind of lame to have a battle with only one side showing up. This could also be said of the poor guys who “play” for the Washington Generals, who know going into every game against the Harlem Globetrotters that their chances of winning are a long shot, to say the least.
Many years ago on a July 4th weekend while I was in York, Maine I stumbled upon a Colonial-British reenactment. However, the group putting on the reenactment did so without working with local officials, thus streets were not blocked off for the event. This led to the odd sight of a Revolutionary War battle raging with minivans driving in between the two sides. It had to be a little startling to some poor guy taking a right turn only to see a British Redcoat firing a canon at him.
The American Revolution is not the only war for which reenactors are used. The Civil War is also known to have battle reenactments but the difference is that in many parts of this country, the Confederates are not necessarily considered to be the bad guys.
World War II is another matter, however. I’m not aware of any of those battles being revisited, perhaps because it is still too fresh in people’s minds with many individuals who participated in those battles still alive or maybe because nobody wants to volunteer to dress up like a Nazi (with the possible exception of Britain’s Prince Harry).
This would likely also be true of Vietnam and since we lost that war, it’s probably best not to reenact scenes from that one. It really wouldn’t make for such a great family day to see guys smoking hash and listening to The Doors as a moment of historical significance (Well, that would be an Oliver Stone reenactment).
Come to think of it, I don’t suppose that anyone reenacts the Battle of The Little Bighorn, unless of course you’re a member of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne or Arapaho nations.
Then there’s the forgotten war…no, not Korea but Grenada. If you need to look that one up then you’ve proven that this war was indeed forgotten. In 1983 the U.S. invaded the tiny island to rescue several American medical students who, as satirist Barry Crimmins pointed out were “dangerously close to graduating.”
One group perhaps getting short shrift is the doughboys from World War I. They fought “the war to end all wars,” at least until the next war, World War II, which some must’ve have seen coming since they numbered the first one World War I.
My point is that the losing side never bothers to commemorate a war. It is certainly too early to tell how future generations will reenact The War on Christmas.
Posted by dmargarita at 1:20 PM
April 6, 2011
Bumped Up
For the record, I don’t play Major League Baseball. I have never played Major League baseball. Oh sure, I once told a woman I had played shortstop in the Philadelphia Phillies organization to impress her, but she didn’t believe me, I felt stupid and (if you’ll pardon the pun) I struck out.
Anybody who has ever played in one Major League game has played in one more game than I ever have or ever will. This begs the question, who am I to criticize or mock ballplayers who have made it to the game’s highest level?
Well, fans have been criticizing players for 140 years. That’s part of being a fan. As for mocking them, I am paid to be a smartass. Anyway, even the worst ballplayer, a guy whom we might term a “stiff” is still better than the rest of us (at baseball, anyway).
Having established my lack of playing history (as well as my lacking of succeeding in picking up women), I shall now get to the matter at hand (I know, “it’s about time!”). My most recent column for this space centered on my trip to The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. and it was there I ran into the name of a ballplayer whose name came to my attention a few years back. The name is that of Lynn, Ma. native, Irving Darius “Bump” Hadley.
I first got to know The Bumpster (Okay, I made that one up) a few years back when I went to see a North Shore Navigators baseball game at Fraser Field in Lynn. It was on a run to the concession stand (or men’s room) that I saw a picture of a ballplayer from the 1920’s or ‘30’s, which turned out to be Mr. Hadley. Being a native of Lynn, it’s understandable that they would feature a photo of him at the ballpark. It was the captions beneath the photo that got my attention. There was a list of “accomplishments” that were at best, dubious. They included such notes as:
“Bump gave up home runs to both Babe Ruth AND Ted Williams.”
“In a 1941 exhibition game, Ted Williams hit a ball so hard off of Bump that it chipped concrete off the adjacent Manning Bowl in right field,” (since torn down).
The last one was my favorite: “In 1937 Bump beaned Detroit Tiger’s player-manager Mickey Cochran in what would be Cochran’s last game in the Major Leagues.”
Yes, as an “accomplishment,” they list that he ended the career of a great player who would one day be in The Baseball Hall of Fame.
As I would discover on my trip to Cooperstown, this incident would also earn Bump a trip to Cooperstown…sort of.
One of the many exhibits is the catcher’s mitt that Cochran used to use. The caption below it states that in 1937 Cochran’s career was ended when he was “beaned by a pitch from Bump Hadley.”
Much as the photo at Fraser Field included some embarrassing and needless information, did the Hall of Fame need to mention Mr. Hadley by name? Couldn’t they have just said “Cochran’s career ended in 1937 when he was beaned by a pitch”?
Incidentally, unlike many of the ballplayers of his day, who acquired their nicknames while in baseball, i.e. Babe Ruth, Ducky Medwick, Dizzy Dean and Rogers Hornsby, wait…that was Hornsby’s real name, according to BaseballLibrary.com, Hadley got the nickname “Bump” as a child because he resembled a children’s book character named “Bumpus.” I’ve never heard of that character but I’m just glad I wasn’t called Curious Dan.
After an impressive rookie season in which Bump had a 14-6 record for the Washington Senators, Hadley then did what most players for the Washington Senators and later the St. Louis Browns did…he stunk.
His fortune’s seemed to turn around when he pitched for four years for the N.Y. Yankees from 1936-1939. I suppose any pitcher having Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio on his team is going to increase his likelihood of success.
After his playing career ended, he had a sports radio show on WBZ and became a broadcaster for the Boston Braves baseball games.
As for his non-baseball accomplishments, Mr. Hadley was a graduate of Boston University.
That was also the alma mater of Mickey Cochrane.
Posted by dmargarita at 4:57 PM