having watched him play regularly from his second season until he left the A's, I need to note that he was a thoroughly competent, even better-than-average fielder when he came up.
I think then that his brains decayed after he left the rarefied air of Oakland. Because, he is universally regarded as a joke in Boston.
Ty Cobb sliding in cleats up certainly puts a lie to baseball never being a contact sport.
I found out, in the Ken Burns baseball documentary, that feet-first sliding (i.e. spikes up) was invented because of a black second-baseman in the major leagues, in the 1880s. The white guys on the other teams wanted to scare him off, so they slid into second and stabbed him in the legs with their cleats. That experiment in integration ended rather quickly.
(For the record, Cobb came a lot later, and would spike anyone for any reason. He also hated black people, but since he played in an all-white league, less of an issue at 2nd base.)
As does the picture they used on the cover of the King/O'Nan book. I LOVE that picture - only Jeter would have been a worthier glove-to-smug-face target (if only the catcher had figured out a way to get a cream pie in his glove beforehand).
I think the photo is over-used. It's grown kind of dull, and even if they wanted to use the 7/24 game as emblematic of the season, they could have picked another photo. E.g., as the fight was being broken up, any one of several players staring bloody murder.
(Or, my favorite, a photo mid-play, capturing a 2B or shortstop in the act of levitating in the infield.)
Gay marriage story: On my daily drive to middle school with #1 son we were listening to NPR and they were talking about gay marriage. #1 says "blah blah blah, why do they always talk about gay marriage so much?" I take the time to tell him that when I was his age the civil rights movement was in full swing thanks to dedicated activists and ordinary folks that would no longer tolerate the injustice. Continued to talk about the segregated schools, "white's only" signs, etc. that actually exisited in my memory. I explained that he was watching history in progress with the social changes that will take place with gay rights. His priceless response, "so you're saying that when I am your age little kids will be shocked to hear that gay people couldn't get married when I was a kid." Yeah, I think he understood what I was trying to say.
Out of the mouths of babes, Laura. That made me tear up a little bit.
Ellis Island, etc., didn't have much quality control over spelling.
This is a widely-held belief that is not entirely accurate. [link]
I've seen Jose work the heavy bag and do general krav. I wouldn't pick him over an all limbs fighter, since he's not that limber or exceptionally fast, but he'd make a solid and imposing bodyguard.
This is a widely-held belief that is not entirely accurate.
They certainly screwed up my family name...
I have to differ with the author of [link] . My family name changed (well after the Ellis Island era) on immigration to the States. Can't blame any INS people, though. My Pops could not spell English.
I have to differ with the author of [link] . My family name changed (well after the Ellis Island era) on immigration to the States. Can't blame any INS people, though. My Pops could not spell English.
That's not disagreement; the article is about the unlikelihood of name changes actually deriving from the procedures at Ellis Island.
That's not disagreement; the article is about the unlikelihood of name changes actually deriving from the procedures at Ellis Island.
Too true. Ellis Island procedures from then are not the INS procedures of today. Today, the INS just says "No!", which is much easier to spell.
