An Open Letter to Pericles

Pericles, 495-429 B.C.E.

Dear Pericles,

You’ve been away 2500 years and that’s far too long.  Greece needs another Golden Age.  Please hurry back, all expenses paid.

Protesters gathered in front of Greek Parliament.

Your incredible Parthenon still towers above Athens, though it’s missing its marbles.  Come to think of it, I think your city might be too.  Have you been following the media coverage of what’s going on here?  Or are you tuning out, as seems much of the world, tired at hearing about Greece and its problems?   There’s a war going on.  No, not with the Persians or of the Peloponnesian sort, this one is of a more civil(ized) sort.  Where it is headed is anyone’s guess and everyone’s fear.  But headed it is.

Rioters attacking businesses

This is the third Christmas season in a row that Molotov cocktail and paving stone tossing demonstrators of disparate views have mortally wounded holiday shopping in central Athens.  Perhaps that’s the truest tradition of the Christmas season in that part of town.  Deck the malls with bombs and salvos…

Police confront protesters by Parliament

This week 20,000 or so largely peaceful citizens turned out in central Athens as part of a general strike across Greece to protest additional austerity measures under consideration by the Greek Parliament for addressing the country’s financial crisis.  If you haven’t heard about that fiscal meltdown, my friend, stop reading immediately and under no circumstances leave whatever state of innocent bliss you’ve found.

That demonstration answered a question I’d been asking my friends on Mykonos all summer: Why aren’t the politicians holidaying here this year?  They always did, but this year tipota, nothing.  My informal survey yielded what I thought a flippant rather than reasoned conclusion: “Because they’re afraid the people will beat the $#!^ out of them.”   I should have learned by now not to bet against popular wisdom or vox populi (if you prefer Latin).

Costis Hatzidakis, MP

During that demonstration a current member of parliament—who’d been a minister in the government that was at the helm of Greece’s economy when it drove into the rocks under full sail—tried to exit the Parliament Building and was pelted with stones and bloodied by a crowd of one hundred.  If you’re wondering what the police and other guardians of order are doing about all the goings-on, take a number and get in line.  Your question will be answered before the next 2500 years have passed.

There is real anger in the country, a pit of the stomach sense that serious suffering waits just around the corner, and one hell of a lot of finger pointing.  Perhaps the only thing the country appears to agree upon is that “all in government are corrupt.”  The second most agreed upon point is, “nothing will change.”

There is an old saying Greeks use when a fairy tale ends happily, “They all had a good time, and we did too.”  Perhaps that’s why so many Greeks let their politicians get away with so much for so long.  Everyone was profiting.  Now that times are bad, and the people want someone to blame for the unhappy ending, they’re pointing at the politicians they kept electing.

Whatever the answer, the solution is not going to be easy.  And it will be painful. I wish there were a magic wand to wave or a simple answer to the crisis.  But there is not, and the country seems desperate for a new Greek voice to listen to and trust.

The people would listen to you, Honored First Citizen of Athens; certainly those I know who act as if they had a personal hand in all the incredible contributions you helped bring to the world.  Think of them sort of like American baseball fans that claim because an ancestor happened to be at the third game of the 1932 World Series when Babe Ruth pointed before hitting his legendary “called shot” homerun off Charlie Root of the Chicago Cubs, that they’re somehow entitled to take partial credit for Ruth’s swing of the bat.  If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, wait until someone starts talking about cricket.

The great New York Yankee Bambino calls his shot.

In fact, even I would rather talk about cricket.  It’s so much easier to grasp than the sticky wicket of a relationship Greeks share with those they choose to govern them.

Jeff — Saturday

1915 World Series: Phillies vs. Red Sox

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...well sort of, the Phillies appeared in the World Series during the early part of the 20th century. The Phils lost the 1915 Series to the Boston Red Sox and legendary outfielder Tris Speaker by 4 games to 1, marking the 2nd straight season that a team from Boston beat a team from Philly for the championship. The NL's Boston Braves had swept Connie Mack and the AL's Philadelphia Athletics in the previous fall classic. It is not likely that there are too many left alive who saw or in some way experienced that 1915 Series. If you were just born that year, you are now 93 years old, so most everyone who was there is now gone. Much as with their current 2008 brethren, things started well in that 1915 Series for the Phillies. They won the first game here in Philly at the old Baker Bowl over the Red Sox by a 3-1 score behind the pitching of ace Grover Cleveland Alexander to take a 1-0 lead in the Series. The Phils got on the board first when in the 4th inning leftfielder George 'Possum' Whitted singled home centerfielder 'Dode' Paskert. The Sox tied it up in the top of the 8th, but in the Phils bottom half they manufactured a pair of runs to take the 3-1 lead. The 28-year old Alexander, who had won 31 games that season, finished up a complete game win, but not before some baseball history was made. In that top of the 9th, the leadoff batter reached on an error, and the Red Sox sent to the plate a kid pinch-hitter who they felt had some pop in his bat. It would be the first-ever World Series plate appearance in the big leagues for the 20-year old George Herman 'Babe' Ruth, and in fact it would mark his only appearance in the entire Series. Ruth was in his 2nd season with Boston, having begun with 10 at-bats in 1914 and another 92 in that 1915 season, so he had just 102 total big-league at-bats to that point. Alexander induced Ruth into an easy groundout to the first baseman, then got the final hitter on a popup to first, and the Phils had their first-ever World Series win. Little did the franchise' owners, players, and fans know that it would be 65 years before they would enjoy another. Game #2 was also at Baker Bowl, which was located in a small one-square block area bordered by Broad Street and 15th Street, and Lehigh Avenue and Huntingdon Street. Approximately 20,000 fans would pack the Baker Bowl for each of the three games that would be played there that fall, and for this 2nd game there was more history as one of those in attendance was President Woodrow Wilson, marking the first time that a U.S. President had attended a Series game. That game #2 began with the Sox scoring a run in the top of the first inning, and it would be their only run until they scored another in the top of the 9th. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they could only muster one of their own, and the Red Sox evened the Series at a game apiece thanks to that 2-1 victory. When the Series reverted back to Boston for games 3 and 4, the now famous Fenway Park was the Red Sox home, having just opened a couple of years earlier. However, the Red Sox ownership often used Braves Field, which had just opened that very year and was the home of the National League Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves) for their 'big games' because Braves Field was larger and held more fans than Fenway. So the Phils never got into Fenway that year, instead playing before over 40,000 rabid sox fans at Braves Field. The Red Sox 2-1 victory in the 2nd game was exactly duplicated in those next two games, with Boston winning by identical 2-1 scores to take a 3-1 lead in the Series, which headed back to Philadelphia. Things looked good early in Game #5 back at the Baker Bowl thanks to veteran 1st baseman Fred Luderus, who doubled home a run as the Phils scored twice in the first. Boston answered with single runs in the 2nd and 3rd, but then Luderus blasted a solo homer and the Phils rallied for another in the bottom of the 4th for a 4-2 lead. That lead held all the way into the top of the 8th before Boston leftfielder Duffy Lewis cracked a 2-run homer off Phils' reliever Eppa Rixey to tie the score at 4-4 heading into the 9th. In the top of that 9th, rightfielder Harry Hooper, who would be selected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1971, broke the tie with a 1-out homer, his 2nd of the game, and the Red Sox took a 5-4 lead into the bottom where the Phils went down in order meekly. Both of Hooper's homers actually bounced over the fence in what would be considered 'ground rule doubles' today. The centerfield fence that his game-winning homer in the 9th bounced over was erected especially for the World Series to allow more seating capacity at Baker Bowl. Boston celebrated it's third World Series victory, having won the first-ever modern Series in 1903, and then again winning it in 1912. For the Phillies, that first-ever World Series win would have to wait all the way until 1980. But it was here all the way back in 1915 that the Phils got their first taste of the Series, only to fall short thanks to four consecutive 1-run losses.

The House That Ruth Built

Baseball's most storied playing grounds, Yankee Stadium in New York, played host to one of baseball's premier events last night as the stars shined for MLB's annual All-Star game extravaganza. The game was awarded to the Big Apple to honor the grand old ball yard in its final season. It is slated for demolition this winter, to be replaced by the New Yankee Stadium. The stadium was nicknamed "The House That Ruth Built" because it literally was just that. Early in their history, the New York Yankees played their games at The Polo Grounds, a park that was the real home of the New York Giants ball club. The Giants threatened to evict the Yanks, so the club ownership purchased a plot of land in the Bronx and built the most magnificent facility of it's kind at the time. Ruth had been baseball's biggest star as a pitcher and hitter for the Boston Red Sox, who sold him to the Yankees while he was still a young player. Yankee Stadium opened its doors for the 1923 season, and Ruth christened it by hitting the first home run there. The stadium's signature feature was a white frieze or facade that runs all along the top of the outfield, and following various renovations over the years at least part of the frieze was always maintained. The New Yankee Stadium will incorporate one as well as a homage. The stadium has played host to 37 World Series over the years, with the Yanks clinching wins in 16 of those series at the stadium, the most recent back in 1999. Beginning in the 1951 season, Bob Sheppard became the public address announcer, and still serves in that role, though he has appeared less frequently as he battles illness associated with old age the past couple seasons. Sheppard's booming voice over the loud speakers became affectionately known as "The Voice of God". Yankee Stadium has played host to numerous events besides baseball. In December 1958, what has become known as 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' in the NFL took place there as the Johnny Unitas-led Baltimore Colts rallied to dramatically defeat the New York Giants 23-17 for the world championship. Legendary college football coach Knute Rockne gave his famous "win one for The Gipper" speech at halftime of a 1928 game to his Notre Dame charges, who went on to down Army 12-6. One of the most important boxing matches ever took place there in 1938 when black American Joe Louis fought Max Schmeling, a German from Hitler's Nazi-era machine. Schmeling had beaten Louis 2 years earlier, and there was a highly charged political climate to the fight as Louis knocked the German out in the first round. Louis fought there 8 times, and Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson also won there. In last night's All-Star finale at the stadium, the stars didn't seem to want to say goodbye. The game dragged in to the 15th inning with numerous tremendous defensive plays before the AL won on a sacrifice fly. J.D. Drew of the hated Red Sox proved to be the MVP in one final twist of irony. The House That Ruth Built is closing down in a few months, but it will be forever remembered, and last night's MLB All-Star classic was just one of many unforgettable events there.