Mon. & Tues., April 15-16, 2024
We led a mostly laid back life style these two days spent mostly researching and enjoying each other's company.
Monday was Tax Day in the USA, the day that all income taxes are due. No big deal for us as we had settled our accounts with both the Feds and California months ago.
April 15th is also a big day in major league baseball (MLB).
It was Jackie Robinson Day
commemorating his breaking of the
infamous Color Barrier in MLB
on April 15, 1947
On this day, all major league players wear jerseys with no names on the back and all with the number 42 on them in tribute to Robinson's heroic endeavors in beginning the end of racial desegregation in MLB as well as our country.
On Jackie Robinson Day 2024, the Los Angeles Dodgers were beaten at home by the Washington Nationals, 6-4.
The Boys of Summer
This was the nickname given to those Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s by writer Roger Kahn.
In this photo, from left to right, we have Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Jackie Robinson, Carl Erskine, Gil Hodges, Don Newcombe, Duke Snider and Roy Campanella.
Reese, Robinson, Hodges, Snider and Campanella are enshrined in the MLB's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Robinson broke the Color Barrier on April 15, 1947 when he played in an MLB game for the first time against the Boston Braves in a 5-3 Dodgers win.
At the advanced athletic age of 28, he played First Base in that Opening Day game at Brooklyn's cozy Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623. Newspaper reports at the time estimated that over 14,000 of those in attendance were African-Americans there to support their new hero.
On that historic day he did not get off to a flying start, going 0 for 3 at the plate with a walk, a sacrifice and grounded into a double play. He did score a run.
Thus Robinson became the first black man in MLB since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1883. Back then, The Chicago White Stockings first baseman, Hall of Famer Cap Anson, was the top player of that era, think Shoihei Ohtani today, and used his stature to the worst possible end for America's National Pastime.
Walker was playing catcher for Toledo Blue Stockings of the Northwestern League in an exhibition game at home against Anson's Chicago nine.
Anson, who was also the manager of the White Stockings, flatly refused to have his team play if Walker was on the field. After being told by the Toledo manager Charlie Voltz that if the White Stockings did not take the field they forfeited there otherwise guaranteed share of the gate receipts, Anson relented but swore that they would never again be a game played with a black man on the field. With Walker entrenched in right field for the Toledo club, the game ended in extra innings with Chicago winning, 7-6.
This dark episode, with Anson as its nefarious leader, was the impetus for MLB's shameful Color Barrier.
Black baseball players were forced to play in their own segregated Negro Leagues as Walker and all African-Americans were banned from MLB from 1884 until April 15, 1947, when the Dodgers savvy General Manager, Branch Rickey, pushed to right a 63 year old wrong.
It must be noted that Jackie Robinson was a tremendous all-around athlete having lettered in football, basketball, track and baseball at UCLA. He is still to this day the only Bruin to earn letters in four different sports.
Robinson running the ball for UCLA
against Washington in a 1939 game
Among those trying to track Robinson down are two Husky All-Americans, Rudy Mucha on the far left and Ray Frankowski nearest to Robinson.
The announced Husky Stadium crowd of 15,017 was witness to some history. Up until that time, the UW had only carried three black players on Husky rosters over the many seasons.
In 1920, Johnny Primm was the first ever African-American Husky but did not earn a letter. My kind of guy.
In 1921, Hamilton Greene donned the Purple and the Gold and was indeed a letter winner.
The 1937 season saw Charlie Russell become the UW's second black football letterman.
In this 1939 UCLA at UW game, the Bruins started an unheard of three African-Americans in their starting lineup! The three were Halfback Jackie Robinson, Halfback Kenny Washington and End Woody Strode. Strode would go on to a long career as a distinguished film actor.
UCLA beat Washington 14-7 in this 1939 tussle.
On Tuesday, Boys of Summer pitcher
Carl "Oisk" Erskine passed at the
tender age of 97
With his death, there is now only one living member left of Brooklyn's only World Series Championship team, the 1955 Dodgers. That last survivor would be Hall 0f Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax who was a sparingly used rookie during that magical season appearing in only 12 games.
Erskine played his entire career with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1948-1956 and would follow the club to Los Angeles for the 1958 and 1959 seasons before retiring.
In 1953, "Oisk" as he was nicknamed in the dialect of the Brooklyn fans, won a career high 20 games and struck out a then World Series game record 14 New York Yankees. He pitched two no-hitters during his Brooklyn days, the first in 1952 against the Chicago Cubs and again in 1956 vs. the hated New York Giants.
After his baseball career was over, he became the Head Coach at Anderson College in his hometown in Indiana. During his 12 year tenure with the Ravens his reams won four Hossier Conference Championships.
Erskine devoted much of his life to charity work and special education issues as his son, Jimmy, was born with Down's Syndrome. For his tremendous work in these two areas, he was given the Baseball Hall of Fame's Buck O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.
Carl Erskine was born, raised, lived and died in Anderson, Indiana. He was a wonderful man and a fine baseball pitcher to be sure.
As I have mentioned before, our grandson Jacob is extremely interested in Marine Biology. While surfing the net on Tuesday, I discovered that Oxnard College has a Marine Center and Aquarium located at the Channel Islands Harbor.
We just had to go investigate
The Channel Islands Harbor seemed
like a good spot for this aquarium to me
As it turned out, there was not much to see here as the entire harbor-side shopping area that housed the aquarium had recently been sold to a developer. This has forced an upcoming move by the Marine Center to new digs on the nearby Oxnard College campus, Go Condors!
I did get to meet with Oxnard College's Marine Biology teacher, Shannon Newby, who suggested a couple of field guides that Jacob might like to read.
Then it occurred to us . . .
. . . we were in Oxnard and it was
Tuesday, need I say more?
We were definitely going to enjoy
a much needed Oxnard Taco Trail
stop on yet another Taco Tuesday!
The Oxnard Visitors Center is running this Taco Trail promotion that features stops at 15 different, delightful dining experiences around Ventura County's largest city.
We have divinely dined at some but not all of them. Starting today, if we eat at all 15 of these stops along the trail, we can qualify for an "I Conquered the Oxnard Taco Trail" t-shirt.
Game most definitely ON!
Our first Oxnard Taco Trail stop
was one we had visited before
The brightly painted House of Tacos
offers great adobada street tacos
Mexican comedian Cantiflas and
painter Frida Kahlo watched us dine
Only 14 more stops until that awesome t-shirt!
Canarelli M.S. Colts played a
soccer game on Tuesday
Kevin is the third athlete from the left in the front row.
The Colts (6-2-1) lost a close one, 5-4, to the Cashman Middle School Cougars.
On to overseas American football news . . .
After Sunday, the Catania Elephants
are still undefeated in Italian DIII play
Bart Iaccarino's Cecina Trappers
had a solid win last Sunday
A big game in Sweden's DI Super Serien
Tyresö Royal Crowns vs. Carlstad Crusaders
on Saturday
The Bogotá White Sharks are
ready to roll in the Colombian circuit
on the docket too it appears
Tigers vs. Shotguns in Belgium on Saturday
Old guys in Toluca, Mexico still
with passion and flair for our game
representing the Guepardos A.C.
This was randomly posted on Facebook
It brought up the memory of the 1959 trade that brought this marvelous athlete to the Los Angeles Rams from the Chicago Cardinals.
The Rams gave up four Offensive Linemen, two Running Backs, an End, a Second Round pick in the 1959 NFL Draft and a player to be named later, that's a total of nine players, for Matson.
I think that the Rams may have gotten the better end of this swap.
A nine for one trade is crazy but it was not the biggest in Rams lore.
That honor goes to the 1952
Les Richter trade
Note Richter's excellent bow tying ability on that knot that attached his face mask to his helmet.
He was the reason that I wore a "cage" face mask in high school.
I used screws not leather straps though to fasten it to my helmet.
Richter was an All-American
Center and Linebacker as a
University of California Golden Bear
and the Class of 1952 Valedictorian
Richter was the second player selected in the 1952 NFL Draft. In a wacky turn of events, the team that drafted him, the New York Yankees, folded a mere two days after the Draft.
The Dallas Texans snatched up the rights to Richter and then quickly turned around and traded him to the Rams. In great need of players in their first year in the NFL, the Texans felt they had made a great deal in shipping Richter off to the Rams.
This seemed an even better move for Dallas when you consider that Richter would be spending the 1952 and 1953 seasons serving in the United States Army in Korea rather than on the NFL playing fields.
So what did the Rams give up in 1952 in order to get Richter's services starting in the 1954 season?
With Richter sitting in the foreground,
this publicity photo has 11 Rams on
a knee behind him
They represent the eleven the Rams gave up to get the future Hall of Fame LB.
One Los Angeles newspaper's trade headline declared "Even Swap: Rams Give 11 Players for Richter."
The Texans received four Running Backs, three Offensive Linemen, two Defensive Backs, one End and one Linebacker.
Of those eleven new Texans, six never played in another NFL game, three only played in the 1952 season before retiring, one played in just one game in 1952 while one of the DBs did play another four seasons in the NFL.
In hindsight, with the Dallas Texans going 1-11 in 1952 and playing some "home" games in Hershey, Pennsylvania and Akron, Ohio, that headline writer was right.
The Texans folded after that vagabond 1952 season with a new Baltimore Colts franchise taking their spot in the still fledgling pro football league in 1953.
The Colts made it by the way.
Hall of Fame LB Les Richter's
square toed right shoe offers a clue
to his value to the Rams
In his nine year career, all with the Rams, he played in eight consecutive Pro Bowls when that honor still meant something, was named a First Team All-Pro LB and was the Rams Team MVP in 1956, 1957 and 1960.
Richter was also the Rams place kicker in those long ago days before specialization, scoring 193 points on 29 Field Goals and 106 Extra Points. His longest Field Goal was 42 yards.
Les Richter was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
I may have posted this before
but I still love it!
