Jackie Robinson Statue Tour of Philadelphia

After 3 hours of sleep, it was up at 3am and driving down from NY with the Jackie Robinson statue to do the first of many interviews and appearances at Fox. Ably assisted by Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi of the Phillies, we hit our marks out in front of Fox at 7:20am. A few teaser shots and then a short interview with Fox 29′s John Anderson. Click here to see the interview in a new window

Then it was immediately over to CBS3 for another interview with Uke Washington and Kenny and Deb of the Phillies. Click here to see the interview in a new window

Here’s a small clip my brother took from a little way away during the Uke Washington interview:

Then it was on to a community Jackie Robinson Event at the Philadelphia Stars Memorial at Belmont and Parkside Aves, in Philadelphia. That crossroads was the location of the Philadelphia Stars ballpark. The Stars were Philly’s entry in the old Negro League. Later this day, my family would get to meet two of the last surviving members of that franchise.

There were many groups attending and special promotions from the Phillies. The children were having a ball and posed for this photo.

There were several groups and this particular group did a dance number before posing.

There were many nice monuments marking the site and those who were a part of it. I really enjoyed meeting regular folks from this community and just listening to the older fellows tell me how much Jackie Robinson and Monte Irvin and Larry Doby meant to them growing up. You know, when you do an event like this, those dusty pages in a history book become real live anecdotes and recollections and it was amazing to take it all in. It was also very flattering to hear the very sincere compliments for the statue. When you spend that long covered with itchy sawdust, it is very gratifying to hear these things and see the sparkle in their eyes, as opposed to words on a page.

Here we are finally at The Bank. It’s early; well before batting practice and my amazing handlers with the Phillies (Kenny Johnson & Deb Rinaldi) lined up a couple of more interviews. The first was with John Mayberry, the man who’s hit won the exciting Phils opener. I don’t have any photos of that interview but it went very well and it was nice to see and hear John’s reaction to the statue. It was probably the first time I had spoken to someone who was directly in line with Robinson’s courageous work, so it was extra special for me.

After that piece, we did a short interview with Comcast out in dead center field. What a beautiful backdrop! I have been to 40 different major league ballparks in my lifetime and Citizens’ Bank Park is my favorite building. Everything about it just feels right.

All night it was the same thing: folks lined up in a semi circle around it, taking photos and asking questions. It never gets old. I met some really tremendous people and heard just an amazing array of stories and anecdotes about Robinson, Civil Rights, baseball, art and on and on. This part of it is easy and never feels like work.

By this point in the day, I’m feeling my 3 hours of sleep and nonstop itinerary pretty acutely, however, a great subplot was that my 3.5 year old son, Thomas, came to the game and it was his first time in a big league ballpark! What a way to break in! His uncle Bob, shown below, was holding him up to see the Phillies take batting practice and he caught a BP homer left handed while holding Thomas in his right hand! So on his first game day, Thomas gets a ball!

Later on this evening, Thomas got the ball signed by the last two remaining Phildelphia Stars and for that I am very grateful and want to thank both the Stars and again, my Phillies guardian angel, Kenny Johnson. Kenny is just a pro’s pro and he hit his marks (and kept me hitting mine) all day long with aplomb. He put on a clinic. It’s a pleasure to watch someone do something that they are so good at, whether it be art, or sports, or even business.

Below is Thomas showing off his baseball. How great is that?

Here’s the family; my wife Carol and Thomas (Jack Benny is too little and is spending the day with his grandparents). I’m looking a bit tired by this point and perhaps a bit cold as the temp dropped towards gametime, but on April 15th in the East, you are going to have that. I was just thanking God all day that there was no rain as that was the one thing that would have given us a problem.

Since my statues are 100% solid wood, they will not hold up to weather, so it was a concern. All around baseball, there are many life size statues that honor players but they are all bronze. Bronze is great for holding up to weather and can be outdoors permanently. But Bronze is one color. The great thing about the wooden statues is that I can show color and isn’t baseball a colorful thing anyway? Add to that the color component of the Robinson story and it makes a nice fit. There are currently no color statues such as this permanently residing in any major league ballpark. Wouldn’t it be nice (and somehow fitting) for this statue to be the first?

After a little breather, I did two more spots thanks to Deb Rinaldi and Kenny Johnson. The first was a spot right behind the statue that went very well. It was what they call a “talkback”, which means, I wore an earpiece and had to listen for a cue from an unseen host. It was hard to hear with the crowds and I was worried that I would miss the cue or not be able to make out what the host was asking me, but it turned out to be the best one all day just about. I think I was too tired to be nervous! I’ll tell you, I have new respect for anyone who makes their living with a mike and a camera. They make it look easy–it isn’t.

Here is a link to that spot: Click here to see the NBC interview in a new window

Here’s what it looked like. I sure look rigid in this shot, but I felt pretty loose, all in all.

After that, I had to run halfway around the stadium and do a pregame radio spot and that was fun and went really well. By then I suppose, it didn’t seem so strange to be doing this stuff.

On the way back to the statue from the plate area, I heard my voice on the PA and quickly ran down the tunnel to the seating area, so that I could see the Phanavision screen. They were showing my 2 minute video which I had narrated. It was the strangest sensation to hear my voice blaring around Citizens Bank Park like that, but there it was. It was a day of things like that and one that I’ll never forget.

Here is a quick video of the end of it:

Click here to see the full 2 minute video in a new window

I mentioned that two of the old Philadelphia Stars had signed Thomas’ ball and here are their names on the statue by their old stomping grounds which we had visited earlier.

The gentlemen who signed were Mahlon Duckett and Harold Gould. I also got a chance to meet some of the Tuskegee Airmen and that was a big thrill. My father and just about all of my uncles were WWII vets. Men of that generation shaped me more than any other and I have read a great deal about that war and so it was just tremendous to shake the hand of men who flew Jugs and P-51′s against the Germans in those dark days.

Guys like that gave us a lot of freedom and I think it gets taken for granted sometimes, unfortunately. The Tuskegee Airmen, not only had to deal with bombs and bullets, but the institutionalized racism of the day: a double whammy. They are great men for having done all of that and children should know their story.

And again and again, all night, folks stopped by to talk, take photos and ask questions. It was great.

April 15th 2011, a day in which the Jackie Robinson statue went many places and met many nice folks, hopefully, making them happy and spreading awareness of what went on, not that long ago. The statue is tentatively slated to visit the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City later this Summer but as of right now, there are no details.

I want to thank the Philadelphia Phillies for all of their support. I have worked with various organizations and baseball clubs through the years, but I have never seen the professionalism and can-do spirit that I did these past few weeks while working with the Phillies. As I have said, much of that was through the hard work of Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi, who made it easy to do all of these things without one single hitch. As I look back at the itinerary and see all the marks we hit from 7am to 10pm, I am amazed that it went so seamlessly and that is a testament to their diligence. I hope to work with them again in the future.

Here’s my takeaway shot for the day: the first time my little buddy is at a big league game. It was filled with memorable things. I have to wonder, however, that at 3 and a half, will he remember it years from now? I hope he does. I know I will.

Thanks for all the kind words and stories! Enjoy the game.

This was the basic scene all night:

Tommy on Tommy

Here is Tommy getting weighed on the same scale that my mom used to weigh her children. He doesn’t seem to mind but sometimes he squawks. This thing is pretty darned accurate–down to the ounce.

Here is the very first time that Tommy hears ANY Mississippi Delta Blues at all and of cour

The Battle of the Bulge

The 28th Pennsylvania : Their Finest Hour

Going through the Europe files last night and I came to Luxembourg. During December 16 to December 26, 1944 in Luxembourg, in a place called the Ardennes forest, Hitler threw his last roundhouse of the war against a stretch of front that was considered impassable due to the rugged terrain. It was felt that no attack would come at this point so Eisenhower was rotating units here for rest and the front was patrolled fairly thinly. My uncle’s division, the 28th Pennsylvania, was put here after 100+ days of straight combat going all the way back to Normandy in June 1944.

Cash Plays LaMaze

Mrs. Pinetar and I finished the LaMaze classes last night.  Near the end, the teacher spoke of when the baby’s head is crowning and stuff is stretching and she said that, “Midwives, might call this ‘the ring of fire’ but that’s not a medical term…”

And that was it.  For the rest of the night, all I could hear were the Spanish trumpets: pah-pah, pah, pah-pah-pah–paaah …..puh-puh, puh, puh-puh-puh–puuuuh…

And then Johnny Cash of course: “I fell in to a burning ring of fire….I went down,down,down….and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns…the ring of fire….the ring of fire.”

All night.

No exceptions.

And on the way home.

I don’t believe any song ever written can get into your head and STAY there, like the Ring of Fire.  And now you’re all hearing it.  Hearing the trumpets.  And  humming it.  Good luck.  –fog

June 6, 1944 D-Day

Click here to watch an actual high school video project on D-Day (who said video games are a waste of time?)

Today was the day that a lot of people got all shot up so that others could be free.  Amazingly, as time goes on, many young people today do not know much about it.  Is that an indictment of our current education system?  Perhaps.  

The guys who did this are the guys from my dad’s generation.  Every one of my uncles and my dad’s friends, it seemed, were in this fight.  Some Europe, either France or Italy.  Some the Pacific.  Some in India in the CBI theatre.  But they were all in it.  This generation is rapidly passing into history every day now and we owe it to them not to forget these deeds.

Oh, and the rumor is not true that CNN has demanded a posthumous apology from Dwight D. Eisenhower and an admission that, “mistakes were made” on D-Day.

To quote a popular song of 1944: “Praise the Lord and pass the amunition and we’ll all stay free…”

–fog 

Cheny is Evil. The Taliban? Misunderstood.

I got to talking politics a little with the woman next to me at work. Somehow it came up where she repeated the oft-chanted, Democratic/Liberal-talking-point, “Cheney is evil”. Now this woman is older (50′s) and is pretty darned smart, so when I heard the talking point come out of her, verbatim, I was fascinated. I asked her if she was joking. “No”, she said she was serious, and kept repeating that “he is just evil”. I said, “well, what has he done that is evil? Can you give me some examples?”

Sgt. York

Click here to read the article on locating Sgt York’s stomping ground

(Addendum to post: I found a photo from the Verdun Ossuary inside and the outside.  Not really where I wanted to take my wife on vacation–I’ve read enough books on this stuff, I didn’t have to go here although I’m sure, like the Anne Frank house that we visited in Amsterdam, it leaves you speechless.) 

IrishEagle, I didnt realize you wrote so much and was randomly clicking through your old archives and found this story on Sgt. York. Mrs. Pinetar and I went to Europe this summer (trying to get it done before any baby) and since I had read many books on WWI, I thought it might be neat to see a WWI battle field. Then I googled up Verdun and it just was so grim that I thought better of it. The room full of bones at Verdun is what did it. What do they call it? The Oci..Oci..I forget but it means room of bones, basically.

We travelled by train back from Brussels to Paris and had to go right through the Hindenburg Line and the countryside looked a lot like photos I had seen in the books but I could see no evidence of what had gone down there except one, lone, French cemetery in the middle of a wheat field near the tracks.

That war was so horrible and really uneeded. People who didn’t understand that modern war would be so much different (they were thinking of 1870) than in the past, entered into it with no idea of what they were unleashing. We are STILL paying for it now. All of the subsequent WWII could easily be pinned to it. In fact, I believe that in 4 or 500 years, both world wars will be viewed as the SAME war–and just as pointless, both.

I think I’d rather have been in just about any other conflict than in those cold, wet, muddy trenches, getting the stuffing shelled out of you and having officers order you to run up against machine guns. The casualty figures of the First Day on The Somme are some 56,000 wounded or killed. That’s just the British! That’s one day! Astounding. Sad. –fog

How did Weird New Jersey miss this?

What the heck, since we are already looking at old slides, here’s one I took in New Providence, NJ, near where I used to work some years ago.  This cemterey was old enough to have a couple of American Revolution graves in it.  And, while I’m not into “Goth” or anything like that, I just thought that the tree growing over the tombstone was photoworthy.  Call me Ansel Adams.

It takes a long time for a tree to do that.  They’re probably raking this guy up each fall, you know?  –fog 

What Exit, Liberty?

 

Mrs. Pinetar and I went to Princeton, NJ today just to look around and shop and see what there was to see. It’s a unique and historic American town (and it’s in New Jersey–no “exit” jokes, please~) I liked this marker placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

A Single Fall Caused Two World Wars

As Mrs. Pinetar is now in her second trimester, and we had snow last night, I was reminding her to be careful coming down the steps.