Devshirme

One of the coolest moments of the Pats’ victory over the Ravens to move on to the Super Bowl came when the “Law Firm”, BenJarvus Green-Ellis (greatest name ever, and a fabulous nickname) scored and pulled at the patch on his jersey commemorating Myra Kraft, who passed away this summer after a struggle with cancer.  Her spirit and memory clearly inspire this team, and it is refreshing and sobering to see how much she means to the whole organization.  (I had no idea, incidentally, that she was born in Worcester – I will need to do more research on her time here).  There is much talk from people in the organization and elsewhere about how she is guiding the team to their destiny.  This, to me, is understandable but a bit cringe-worthy; I have spent the past two months listening to sports talk radio people rake Tim Tebow over the coals for similar things his fans, though not Tebow himself, were saying.  These same voices have been silent on the Pats/Myra Kraft stuff though.

In any case…Myra Kraft was an extraordinary woman and I can’t help but think of my mother who passed away around the same time after a struggle with health problems.  Clearly Myra was an “away mother” for many players.  My own mother, for her part, was a bit of a sports sage, in the way that is peculiar to old school Boston fans.  Some memories:

-She was an unreconstructed Red Sox fan who never could really get comfortable with the fact that they won the World Series.  I mentioned this in my eulogy.  Last summer, when they were winning like crazy before the epic collapse, I would go to the hospital and tell her they won, and she would say “they are doing TOO well” meaning it was bound to fall apart – a true veteran Sox fan.

-She was so into the games that when Vinatieri trotted out to kick the field goal in the first Pats Super Bowl win she ran and hid in another room – she could not bear to watch it out of nervousness!

-My mother – Carol – was a huge, huge Bruins fan.  She could probably dress for a week in nothing but Bruins clothing – she had that much stuff.  She even had special Boston Bruins bowling balls for her weekly bowling with the church seniors.

-She was a devout Orthodox Christian but would talk about how she “hated” Roger Clemens, or Ulf Samuelsson, or some other such sports figure.  I asked her about this once and she said “it is sports hate, not regular hate.  It is different”.  As a sports fan I totally understand what she meant – she didn’t wish bad upon these people in real life but only in the arena of sports.

I miss her so much.

Saturday was my annual winter hike of Mount Monadnock, and it was epic.  I do this every year around this time with a great group of guys.  The core of the group are neighbors but many of us see each other only this once a year, and it is like no time has passed.  The group has its origins with George F. from the Cathedral and a gentleman named Randy who passed away several years ago.  Thirty-nine years ago on New Year’s Eve day they climbed Monadnock, and every year since a group has made this traditional climb.  George has retired from the hike beginning this year but through these two gentleman the rest of us have been brought into the fold.

People think we are crazy for going because it is so cold and the mountain is covered in ice usually, but that is part of the attraction.  Making the summit and then returning safely gives us quite a feeling of accomplishment, and the social part – breakfast beforehand, the climb and the after party – is super fun.  The temperature at the base was about 18 degrees, which I would normally say is very cold.  However, the main challenge on the mountain is not overheating from the exertion, so in addition to our ice axes and crampons we all had many layers that were shed as we ascended, and even then everyone was pretty warm.  It was a beautiful day and we made great time – up and down, with a stop for lunch and periodic brief rests, in under four hours.

At the after party, graciously hosted by Stephen, we celebrated with the traditional toast of Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry and ate cheese and Sophie’s famous keftedes.  No one really likes the Harvey’s, but we toasted the group and George’s retirement, and memorialized Randy, and all presented downed half a finger of Harvey’s.  With much relief we then switched to refreshing beer.  This year George enlightened us to the origins of the toast.  That first trek up the mountain George and Randy came back soaked and Randy’s wife made them go in the basement and sit by the furnace.  The only provisions down there were a bottle of Harvey’s and a block (or ball, depending on the source) of cheese, so they indulged accordingly.  Hence our yearly tradition.

This year we added a few rookies and welcomed them to the fraternity.  There is a big European bent to the group, with members of Norwegian, British, German, Swiss, and Greek (guess who) extraction.  Conversation was all over the place but stories were shared of the Brenner Pass, the White Mountians of Crete, Chamonix and other places.  We also went to a new breakfast place, Joseph’s in Westminster, which was awesome.  Breakfast is a big part of the event – we all catch up, the new guys get a chance to meet everyone and vice versa, chops are busted and we fuel up for the hike.  Here are a few pictures:

This is me at the summit.  Note the beard, which I grew specifically for the trip but am keeping as a “playoff beard” for the Pats.

Chris, a new member of the group and the other Greek on the trip, took this cool picture, which looks black and white but is in color and untouched up:

This is a very cool article by Lee Habeeb (UVa grad!) on A Charlie Brown Christmas and how this beloved program almost never happened.  It is an interesting story, but the most surprising thing for me was that the (I imagine) typically square and unadventurous TV execs and sponsors were scared that Linus’s recitation of a passage from the gospel of Luke was going to be controversial and a disaster.  I first saw the show in the late ’70s as a little kid, and I recognized even then that there was something old-fashioned about Snoopy and the gang, and that the program was very different than much of the other kids fare on TV.  I always figured the Christian message was something from the past – who would have thought that it was controversial in 1965? I understand things were changing at that point but I would have thought the networks would not be swept up in the cultural change until well after that.

One of the reasons that I think Mad Men (which I thoroughly enjoy watching) gets so much buzz is because it depicts a 1960s that has largely been forgotten.  The ’60s in popular mythology conjure up Woodstock, hippies, protests, colorful art and music, and other such things.  Mad Men captures the early and mid-60s and indeed what much of mainstream America was like in the late ’60s.  Woodstock was one thing, but take a look at baseball cards from 1970 (which feature photos from the year before).  Not an afro or long hairdo in sight.

I have never, in my 30 years of following sports thoroughly and knowledgeably, seen such hate from the sports media and others directed at a player as is directed at Tim Tebow.  I should qualify this by saying directed at a regular player who has not gotten into trouble – this is not a case of someone who has committed a career-ending error or some heinous crime.  Yet Tebow seems to get people’s gizzards.  My specific reference points are things like the Sports Hub 98.5 FM where Felger and Mazz, among others, trash Tebow regularly, and websites like Deadspin and KSK, which I read regularly.  Callers to the radio shows seem to really dislike him as well.  Why is he so polarizing?

Tebow is a committed Christian who speaks about his faith often and truly lives it.  He is also a successful athlete competing in the NFL in an unconventional way.  Read the wiki article to get an idea on his background and activities.  The trashing of Tebow usually harps on two things:

-His arm.  The criticism is he cannot throw at a pro level, and this may well be legit.  The Broncos have committed to an option offense and he is running it with success, although most games have him struggling and then pulling off a win in the 4th quarter.  Again, this is a decent and fair criticism and may well play out.  For now, the team is winning and his teammates have his back.

-His faith.  Tebow gets hammered on being a Christian in a way I never saw Kurt Warner of Hakeem Olajuwon get attacked for their strong Christian and Islamic faith.  The guys on the local sports shows are ridiculous.  They will side with him, when a caller says he is a fraud, by pointing out, truthfully, that he is not a hypocrite and backs up his beliefs with action, but they then say he is “insufferable” and “hammers us over the head” with his faith.  Does he?  He is not grabbing the mic from a reporter and with wild eyes shouting about Christianity; he talks about it as part of his normal life, answers questions about it, etc.  That is all.  We have become such an effete society that we fear talking about things on a normal level.  If religion is important to someone why can’t he mention it, among other things, in an interview?  This is not the same as trying to forcibly convert someone.

I find myself here in the interesting position of defending an evangelical Christian when, in my experience, most evangelicals don’t even consider Orthodox people to be Christians.  I have no idea what, if anything, Tebow thinks on this issue – I have certainly seen nothing that tells me he looks down on Orthodox or Catholics.

Tebow seems like a good guy who is enjoying success in the NFL.  Who knows how long this will last, but for now let’s enjoy the competitive games and his spirit.

Harmon Killebrew just passed away only days after announcing he was entering hospice care – this article is a good read except for Bud Selig’s involvement.  A few thoughts on the passing of this great player and great guy…

-I find it amazing that even after the steroid era and everything else that has come to pass in baseball, Killebrew still ranks 11th on the all-time home run list.

-When I was a baseball-obsessed child I spent hours a day poring through the baseball encyclopedia, and I was always fascinated that Killebrew had so many great years with the Twins and finished up by playing a year with the KC Royals.  Photos of him with that team are even rarer than Reggie with the Orioles pictures.  Here is one of two I found online.

-I always got a kick out of people from outside of New England at the seminary who jumped on the Sox bandwagon when “we” won the World Series in 2004.  They had no idea how twisted life was as a Red Sox fan in the decades before.  My house growing up was no different.  My mother was a big Carl Yastrzemski fan while my father, though a Sox fan, couldn’t stand Yaz (I remember asking him in 1979 why Yaz had a helmet with bigger holes in the earflap than other players and he said “so he could hear the boos better).  You can argue whether he had one good season or whether he had just tremendous career numbers (or whether he hung on five years too long, etcetera) but he did win the Triple Crown in 1967 and remains the last person to do that.  However, as my dad would argue, that ’67 Triple Crown is tainted because he did not win the home run title outright – he tied for the lead with…the late Harmon Killebrew.  RIP, Killer.

Tag Day always used to fill me with dread.  Two hours or so standing in the entryway of a local bank, making awkward conversation with strangers, and guilting people into throwing change or a dollar into the little carton things we held was no kid’s idea of fun, but it was something we had to do once a year for Little League and Babe Ruth league.  Tag Day now, at least here in Worcester, is a lot different.  The local Ty Cobb Little League (I think it is hysterical that the league is named after one of the nastiest players who ever lived, although he was a heck of a competitor, so that is good) had its Tag Day this past Saturday. The days of asking for money at the bank are gone – these kids collect at intersections throughout the city.  The parents are there as well – it is much too dangerous to leave kids, I suppose, the way we used to be dropped off.  I dutifully contributed – it is a great cause – but I must say I have problems with this system.  The biggest complaint I have is it is extremely dangerous.  The players, and in reality the parents who seemed to be doing most of the work, wander in and out of lanes as cars are moving.  I pray no one gets hurt during one of these events.  There is much banter with drivers and each other, and people get distracted easily.  The Little League is not the only group that does this – other charities, school organizations, etc. can be found fairly often at Worcester’s intersections.  I do not like to encourage this way of doing things but I always contribute – I usually have my collar on, and how bad would it look if a priest did not give something?  But the system needs to be rethought.  There is no reason we can’t go back to the standing at the bank (this time with a parent in tow) rite of passage that we all went through back in the day.

UPDATE: Apparently the law in Worcester is that you have to be 18 or older to “can” in the street.  This explains why it looks like the ‘rents are doing all the work.

In honor of baseball’s opening day, here is an excerpt of a graphic novel about Roberto Clemente, who got his 3000th and last hit on the last day of the regular season ( he played in the playoffs afterwards) before being tragically killed in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims.  Warning – the Deadspin site has very grim language.

I turned 38 today.  All things considered, I feel pretty much the way I did when I was 37.  Naturally, though, with turning a year older I have been thinking about mortality (and yes, I know 38 is young) and how it has been 20 years since I was 18 – unbelievable!  While checking out my sites today I saw this write-up on the passing of Duke Snider.  The article naturally mentions Mays and Mantle, and I was startled to read that Mantle was only 63 when he passed away.  I remember reading the referenced SI article when I was in college.  He mentioned in it how exciting it was to order a diet Pepsi instead of a drink when he was out.  The next week a recovering alcoholic wrote a letter (must have been two weeks later – I think that was the lag time back then in the snail mail days) saying that Mantle would not enjoy ordering diet tonic after a while when the honeymoon of not drinking ended.  He never got to that point, I guess – he had a much-publicized and controversial liver transplant and then he died not much more than a year after the article.

What a sad story.  He seemingly had it all – talent, fame, adulation, money, goodwill, championship rings – but in reality he never realized his potential both as a player (despite the stats and the rings, which were astonishing) and as a person, with his life derailed by chronic infidelity and boozing (all of which would have been exposed immediately in this era of Deadspin and TMZ – Mick’s tale would have played out very differently today.  It is quite a contrast to the story of the Duke, whose one blemish, according to the article, seems to be that he had some tax issues (I think the quoted judge, in his assessment of Snider’s character, is a little over the top).

So there you have my 38th birthday musings.  I suppose it is appropriate, since baseball cards, trivia, playing ball and watching baseball games dominated my life until I went away to college, and following the game and its history is still a huge part of my everyday existence.

So, back to the hike.  There were 14 of us in our group with an age range between 7 and 80.  All made it to the top and, more importantly, to the bottom safely.  The group has its origins in a scout troop back in the day, with the old scout master and several of his former scouts, now adults, making up the nucleus of the group.  Everyone else is a neighbor or someone like me who has received a special invitation to join the fraternity.  We are men of tradition, and several were followed yesterday.  The morning began at the meeting place in Shrewsbury.  From there we went to Nik Rylee’s, a diner in Winchendon, for breakfast.  And this was a breakfast.  They have something called the lumberjack special, which has pretty much every common breakfast food, and a bunch of the guys ordered it.  I stuck with an omelet and home fries.  We lingered a bit there – I think everyone was enjoying the toasty (harf harf harf) atmosphere and a bit hesitant to go back in into the cold, which was between -5 and 5 depending on where in town we were.  Once we got our crampons on and were all kitted up we started hiking, and all thoughts of the cold pretty much disappeared.

And it really was a beautiful day – sunny with no wind.  The parking lot at Monadnock was full, and there was everyone from snowshoers to people jogging -really – up and down the trails.  In years past when it was this cold and windy there were maybe one or two other groups climbing, but lack of wind made this a popular day – there were actually traffic jams on the mountain in a few places.  We spent more time than usual at the summit and took some pictures, then descended a bit until we found a good place to have our lunch.  From there it was a pretty quick but cautious descent – going down is when most injuries happen.  We then repaired to George F’s house, where Sophie had her usual delicious spread for us and we celebrated with the traditional Harvey’s Bristol Cream toast.  We are especially proud of Alexander and young George, who at ages 7 and 9 proved to be true warriors.  Bill, who is a young 80, also conquered the mountain in style.

Many people think were are batty for doing this but it is truly fun and a satisfying accomplishment.  There is also the camaraderie; many of us only see each other this once a year but there is such a special bond  between us that it is like no time has passed.  It is also great exercise and a chance to do winter climbing without worrying about avalanches, pulmonary edemas, and other not-so-fun stuff associated with climbing big mountains.  Can’t wait until next year!

Here is a picture George S. snapped of me on the summit – soon to be my Facebook profile picture:

Today was the annual winter hike of Mt. Monadnock that I do…well, annually, with a group of guys based largely out of Shrewsbury.  I was all excited to come home and blog about it but I am officially out of steam.  It was a beautiful day, and we all had a great time. It is funny – I put as my Facebook status that I was doing this, and I got several comments about how cold it was – 0 degrees up there.  The thing about these hikes is that you actually get very hot from the exertion, and the challenge is more to stay dry.  Today there was no wind (just a little at the top – not bad for the summit, which is most always windy any time of year) so that made it pretty easy to stay warm.  So more tomorrow, as well as some pictures from the latest stage of the building project – the abatement in the auditorium, the foundation for the “bumpout” and food pantry area, and the finishing of the floor in the foyer.