HIST 1250 Lecture Notes PDF

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HIST 1250 Lecture Notes Fall 2018...

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The Web of the Game ● ●

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Roger Angell- baseball writer for the New Yorker At a Yale- St John’s baseball game at the Yale Stadium in New Haven (May 21st 1981) ■ Occassion but not the reason he went to the game ■ Reason was to meet joe wood ● Angell knew Dick Lee, and Dick Lee knew joe wood → set up the meeting ○ Regional Tournament → whoever one would go to NCAA championship ○ Pitchers duel ■ Ron Darling (Yale) and Frank Viola (St. Johns) ● Both went on to pitch in the MLB ■ Darling: 11 innings no hitter (NCAA tournament record) ● Got a standing ovation ○ 12 inning game → St. Johns win (on the trick-like play) → 1-0 ■ Double steal attempt, couldnt cut off the throw to second ; run down from first to second so runner on third could score During the game Angell is sitting and talking with Dick Lee (former mayor of New Haven) and Smokey Joe Wood (legendary pitcher → played for the Red sox and indians) ○ The whole game smokey joe wood is watching the game at hand but also reminiscing about his time as a player ■ He was a wicked good pitcher, tons of records ((famous fastballer))etc ■ Also baseball coach at Yale for 20 years ○ Also like in his 90s currently ○ Played baseball for like 15 years, was so good he has been talking about the same stories over and over for sixty years ○ 1.39 era ■ Injured on a bunt play → never pitched the same again ● Only had a slider and fast ball ■ Stories of other good players at the time ● ex) Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker Babe Ruth etc ● Johnson → champion vs challenger joe wood @ fenway sept 6th 1912 **pitchers duel ○ Publicized like a prize fight (( two aces against each other )) ○ Bottom 5th, tied 0-0 Tris Speaker doubled to left, then a pop up bloop double and speaker scored ■ Red sox won ■ Wood only allowed 2 hits ● 16 consecutive victories Days out at the ball park

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Different for angell and wood ■ Figured out the true meaning of sports ■ A case for sports Roger’s Day ○ Sat on home side between third and home ■ Sat with a bunch of old new haven townies & wood ○ Yale ball field → a little run down “pigeon land of all ballparks of our youth” ○ Lee priming wood with baseball questions ■ ex) bloomer girls q, score of game he beat walter johnson, does he still root for the red sox ○ Roger asked about baseball history ■ What kind of a pitcher were you, did you become different after our injury (what about all of that pain), did he hit shortened up , have special coaches → comparative question ■ Angell knew a bunch of the history ● Could have even recognized a picture of him from back then ● Then why did he ask about it? He already knew the answers ○ Went to shake his hand and he yelled out ■ Thought it was because of his ribs ■ But he said it was because that was the arm that he threw out in 1913 ● Touched history (in the flesh) and almost brought it to its knees ● Wanted to see history, ask him about his past because he wanted to hear history in person ○ Forging a personal connection to the past ○ Not there for the game of the present, was there for the past → get a personal connection with the past ■ Remembered tha his dad saw the game, his mom in cleveland alone (tris speaker was traded with her) ○ Sports were an opportunity to return/connect to the past ■ Make history and myth live again ● Present one with the past ○ Education in fabric of baseball, schooling of the web of the game ■ A hole out of time ● Weaving past and present together

Woods day at the ball park ● About the ball game THAT day ● Opportunity to be in the present -- be alive, live here and now ● Answered their questions ○ The past didnt really interest wood ○ The present game interested him more ● Was so excited for game

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Omg did you see that for all the new players Kept trying to get up to see something, but never got quite up (cause he is so old) ○ “I could teach these guys how to bunt” ■ Why does the coach have his own coaches Coaching the little leaguer Sometimes didnt answer, answered impatiently, prefered not to ○ So focused on the game now ○ Still enjoyed despite angells intrusion ■ He had never seen a better game Angell was focused on the past ○ Wanted to ask more questions but held back People come by to see wood all the time ○ People always want to talk about the old days ○ Had been going on too long for wood → angell got it ■ Wood had played for 14 years and people wanted to talk about it for 60 ■ Magic for wood is prob gone, but people still want to talk about it ● Intruding almost

Woven together into the fabric of baseball ● Everything stitched together ● Not only time ○ Darling also stitched US together ○ Tertullian → sports alienated sports from god ■ Angell = opposite ● Sport of baseball makes us whole...