The Sultan of Swat – Babe Ruth hits 60th Home Run of the season

Babe Ruth is known by many nicknames: The Sultan of Swat, the King of Crash, and the Colossus of Clout. On September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth entered the record books, and in doing so, continued to evolve into the mythic nicknamed character we remember today. In the 1927 season, Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs. No one would be able to touch Ruth’s single season home run record until Roger Maris in 1961. Most recently, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa vied to break Maris’ record, but their achievements have been tainted by the suspicion of steroid use. In a world in which home run records are increasingly paired with steroid allegations or some indication of an unfair advantage, Ruth’s record is all the more impressive today.

As a career home-run hitter, Ruth’s numbers are particularly incredible. Ruth entered the major leagues at the age of nineteen in 1914. In 1919, Ruth hit 27 home runs, which was considered an incredible feat for his time. Ruth’s hitting ability was bolstered by rule changes which benefited the hitter. In an earlier era of baseball, the rules made for a faster more strategy -ridden game. The object was not often to hit home runs with the towering swing Ruth made famous, but to instead get runners on base and then maneuver to advance them towards home. Economy was also a concern, so the same game balls were used until they literally came apart at the seams. When foul balls were hit into the stands, they were thrown back by the crowd and used in the same game.

After hitting 60 home runs in 1927, Ruth was unable to surpass his single season home run record in any of his subsequent seasons. In his last year in the major leagues, Ruth hit just 6 home runs. In popular culture depictions of Ruth, many focus on his own personal excesses, which seemed only to find their match in the grand scale of his baseball talents. That said, many films also focus on Ruth’s inability to walk away from the game he so loved at his prime. Ultimately, Ruth could not abandon the game that brought him so much joy. In his farewell address at Yankee Stadium in 1948 just months before his death, Ruth spoke of the power of baseball in his own life and in the life of the youth in general:

You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you’re a boy and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in your national pastime. The only real game – I think – in the world is baseball.

Here is a clip from Ruth’s farewell address:

Check out this video which shows Babe Ruth hitting his 60^th home run of the 1927 season.

[Image via family-ancestry and NYDailyNews]

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” – Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky

September 26 – October 6, 2009 is Banned Books Week in the United States. To celebrate, the American Library Association is holding reading events at libraries across the country where select banned books will be read aloud. They have also created an interactive map showing every attempt to ban a book in the United States during the period 2007-2009. Click here to check it out. I live in Connecticut, so imagine my surprise when I learned by clicking on the interactive map that the public schools in Manchester, CT briefly banned Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from its classrooms due to racially charged language. Books often speak to the age in which they were written, and if we were to eliminate books from libraries that were in some way tainted by the social views of their age, few books would remain.

After checking for lists of banned books, I found the list of banned or challenged books from this year, also published by the American Library Association. This astonishing list shows that books spanning many genres have been susceptible to public challenges. Besides perennially banned classics such as The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Bluest Eye, and the Harry Potter series, I also found some history books on the list. In particular, Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States was challenged this year as part of the curriculum of North Stafford Virginia High School’s AP United States History class. Although the book was not the primary textbook of the course, the book was challenged as being “un-American, leftist, propaganda.” To balance out the “un-American” and “leftist” aspects of the book, the students were also required to read an article titled, “Howard Zinn’s Disappointing History of the United States.”

The idea of book banning has existed as long as books have been published. Book banning is not only a challenge to the text being banned, but to the very right of all people to read and write about ideas which may not garner the approval of all of society. If we examine American history, reading has been considered a hallmark of our citizenship since the American Revolution. During the early years of the republic, reading allowed citizens to learn about their government and its laws and to help these ideas to spread. Furthermore, reading allowed people to understand different political ideas and to conceive of different definitions of citizenship. This kind of understanding imparted by books, pamphlets and even newspapers allowed people to form educated opinions, even if they opposed those in power. So banning books is not just about robbing a child or adult of a reading experience that might be informative and fun, it’s also a challenge to a basic tenet of our citizenship. By not supporting book banning, we acknowledge the right of everyone to read books such as Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, and to still be able to draw their own conclusions. Interestingly, several United States Presidents have spoken out against book banning and its attempts to quiet the voice of opposition and to deny free speech. In a speech delivered at Dartmouth College on June 14, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.” President Lyndon Johnson also spoke out against book banning by advocating for the positive influence of books on society, “books and ideas are the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance.”

Happy Banned Books Week!

[Image via thebookladysblog]

Anniversary of the Warren Commission Report

On September 27, 1964 the Warren Commission concluded that there was no conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy, and that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The Commission consisted of Earl Warren, Richard Russel, Jr., John Sherman Cooper, Hale Boggs, Gerald Ford, Allen Welsh Dulles and John J. McCloy. The Commission’s findings have been thought of as controversial ever since they were made available to the public three days after they were presented to President Johnson on the 24^th. Many still believe that President Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy and by more than one shooter (ie the shooters on the grassy knoll theory). In his posthumous memoir, Teddy Kennedy stated that he accepted the findings of the Warren Commission, but his brother Robert was notably cynical about the commission’s findings for the remainder of his life.

For a pop culture investigation into the Warren Commission’s findings, check out Oliver Stone’s JFK. This film follows New Orleans’ District Attorney Jim Garrison’s investigation into the assassination, which reveals an elaborate conspiracy. For any conspiracy nuts out there, even if your strain of conspiracy isn’t specific to the Kennedy assassination, you may want to check out this film. I’ve heard that Stone footnoted the screenplay to emphasize that his claims could be supported by facts, but I’ve never seen a copy of it. Has anyone heard of this?

[Image via PBS]

Holocaust survivors reunite with their rescuers

This week a history teacher facilitated a reunion of Holocaust survivors with some of the World War II veterans who liberated their camp. Many had not seen one another since the day the concentration camp was liberated. Follow the link to read this incredible story.

Holocaust survivors reunite with their rescuers :: Today :: PostStar.com

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[Image via USAtoday]

“I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don’t have that experience." - Richard Nixon

On September 24, 1960, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy took part in the first televised presidential debate. The two candidates appeared in front of an estimated audience of 60 million viewers for the first of four debates. The candidates took different approaches to their debate preparation. Kennedy rested beforehand and allowed the television crew to apply make- up to his skin before taping. This allowed him to appear relaxed and tan. Nixon, on the other hand, did not rest much before the taping. He had also been ill shortly before the debate, so he appeared underweight, pale and uncomfortable. In a storied political flub, Nixon did not wear any make up for the cameras before the debate. This made him appear pale and tired when standing beside a composed Kennedy. Those who listened to the debate on the radio believed Nixon to be the winner. Those who watched it on television thought the winner to be Kennedy. This speaks to the power of the televised image that would be cultivated by every other presidential candidate since the 1960 election. Nixon would wear make-up for the next three televised debates, but by then, fewer people were watching. Here is their first debate in two parts courtesy of www.archive.org.






[Image via smh.com.au]

Happy Birthday F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)!

Today would have been F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 113st birthday. Fitzgerald is widely known for his quintessentially American novels including The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise and Tender is the Night. His novels depict life in the post World War I Jazz age. Fitzgerald is also known for being among a group of Americans who remained in Paris after the war. Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein are just a few of the writers who made up this rich ex-pat social life abroad. Outside of his rich social life, there was sadness in Fitzgerald’s life that ultimately ended up in his novels. He battled alcoholism and dealt with the emerging mental illness of his wife, Zelda. He ultimately ended his days working in Hollywood as a screenwriter. While I don’t know anything about whatever screenplays he worked on, I don’t think anyone could deny the enduring beauty of his prose. In honor of Fitzgerald’s birthday, here is the concluding paragraph from The Great Gatsby that speaks both to the power of the American dream and Fitzgerald’s talent as a writer:

And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning –

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

For more information on F. Scott Fitzgerald check out the Library of Congress.

[Image via ExquisitelyBored]

“Regardless of what they say about it, we’re going to keep it” – Richard Nixon’s “Checkers Speech”

On September 23, 1952, Richard Nixon delivered his now famous “Checkers Speech.” Two months after being selected as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s running mate, Richard Nixon decided to use the medium of television to appeal to the American public directly. He had been accused of using money raised for his senate campaign for private/political uses. In an attempt to clear his name and retain his spot on the Republican national ticket, Nixon appeared on television and disclosed his own financial history. He told the audience how much money he and wife Pat had at that time, and how much they owed (and to whom). After listing what he owed, Nixon reaffirmed that he never accepted any gift without payment, except for a pet dog given to his children which they named “Checkers.” He said that he would not be returning his children’s dog, "Regardless of what they say about it." Nixon also indicated that he would not be stepping down from the Republican ticket. Ultimately, Nixon asked the audience to contact the Republican National Committee to say whether or not he should stay on the ticket. The response to his address was overwhelming. An estimated 60 million Americans heard his speech. As history shows, Nixon did not step down as Eisenhower’s Vice-Presidential nominee, and the two swept the election in November.

Here is the “Checkers Speech” broken up into two parts:

[Image via personal.psu.edu]