Southern Bookman

Willie Mays, America's Say Hey Kid, turns 90

Happy 90th birthday, Willie.

You brightened my boyhood with your rare TV appearances, when you played like no one else. Everything you did was exciting: running the bases, making basket catches in centerfield, throwing the ball back to the infield, hitting home runs, legging out doubles and triples.

Back then, baseball played two all-star games each season, on daytime TV, and you glowed brighter than any of the other stars.

I followed your San Francisco Giants in box scores printed in the Baton Rouge State Times, and on radio when the Giants played the Cardinals or Astros. On special Saturday afternoons, you starred on NBC's Baseball Game of the Week.

Through books and magazine articles, I thrilled to your brilliant early days as the New York Giants' Say Hey Kid.

Arnold Hano's "A Day in the Bleachers" relived your over-the-shoulder catch of the long fly ball hit by the Indians' Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series.

After running down the ball in deep center field in the Polo Grounds, you spun and hurled a throw to the infield to keep an Indians runner from advancing. You always said the throw was greater than the catch.

I've watched video of the play many times, and it never loses its wonder. The picture of you going back, lit by sunshine as the ball falls toward your open glove, your No. 24, will be one of my last mental images as I leave this earth.

Happy 90th, Willie. No sports hero ever matched you.

 

 

 

 

Ken Burns' Hemingway documentary condemned for ignoring FBI surveillance of writer

Ken Burns' Ernest Hemingway documentary is drawing fire for neglecting the FBI's surveillance of the writer.

Journalists David Talbot on his web site and David Masciotra in a Salon article berated Burns and Lynn Novick for ignoring longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's vendetta against Hemingway, which worsened the anguish that led to the author's suicide.

The Hemingway series' avoidance of the FBI harassment is all the more glaring when several Academy Award-nominated films examined the FBI's surveillance of black civil rights leaders and entertainers and white leaders of the antiwar movement during the 1960s.

Hemingway attracted the FBI's attention with his support of Republican anti-fascist forces while reporting on the Spanish Civil War. Never a communist, Hemingway also sympathized with Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.

Burns and Novick have been accused of distorting and even falsifying history in their PBS documentaries.

Critics claimed their Civil War series romanticized the Confederacy, especially historian Shelby Foote's glorification of Nathan Bedford Forrest and other Southern leaders.

The film-makers' Vietnam series was condemned for its rosy view of the American escalation of the war.

Burns and Novick’s series on baseball, jazz, country music and World War II were marred by broad, sanctimonious generalizations, which I found less prominent in the Hemingway series, also written by longtime Burns and Novick collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward.

Avoidance of the FBI's persecution of Hemingway is puzzling for film-makers known for exhaustive research. The FBI campaign to destroy the writer's reputation is well-documented in several books.

Masciotra cites more than 100 pages of FBI documents, 15 of them redacted, that were released in the 1980s after a Freedom of Information request by Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers.

The file included Hoover's orders to monitor Hemingway, plans to tap his phones, and even the disclosure that Hemingway's Mayo Clinic doctor gave the agency reports on the writer's deteriorating physical and mental condition during his final years.

Masciotra also faults Burns and Novick for discounting mental illness as the cause of Hemingway's worsening abusive behavior.

While the series cites Hemingway's multiple concussions, Masciotra blasts Burns and Novick for not interviewing a neurologist about how such injuries affect personality changes, such as occur with pro football players.

The last episode of the series cites a vignette in which Hemingway says he is being watched by two men in a Ketchum, Idaho restaurant. Hemingway also believes that bank employees are working after hours to alter his account. Hemingway's wife, Mary, rejects Hemingway's beliefs as paranoid delusions. Masciotra and Talbot demonstrate that Hemingway's suspicions were plausible.

Burns gave several publicity interviews before the program's broadcast, but has not been asked about why the FBI's Hemingway probe was not included.

Whatever justification Burns might eventually give, the absence is another of his serious violations of history.

 

Keep Masters free from politics

I've been amused by the misguided campaign for a Masters protest of Georgia's voter suppression law.

Even sophisticated writers like the Atlantic's Jemele Hill have the misconception that the PGA tour runs the Masters, as Major League Baseball does the All-Star game. The PGA has nothing to do with the tournament. The annual "tradition like no other" is put on by the private and exclusive Augusta National Golf Club.

Some even called for the Masters to be moved, as Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred switched the all-star game from Atlanta to Denver. That will never happen. The Masters would no longer be the Masters if not played at Bobby Jones' hallowed course.

No sporting event is more defined by its venue than the Masters is by Augusta National. The U.S. Open, PGA and British Open move to different courses each year. The Masters is always played at Augusta National. The tournament is intertwined with the Amen Corner, the Green Jacket, legendary holes like the par 3 12th.

Masters Chairman Fred Ridley at his news conference Wednesday supported voting rights without directly opposing Georgia's law. Like voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, Ridley also opposed boycotts. As Ridley said, many average Augusta residents benefit from the tournament. Some pay their mortgages by renting their homes for the week.

There's no doubting Augusta National's continuation of the Southern plantation myth. Founding Chairman Cliff Roberts, a notorious racist, resisted inviting black players to participate in the tournament for years. The club also fought efforts to open its membership to blacks and women, once putting on the tournament without TV commercials to head off corporate boycotts.

I've poked fun at the club's pretensions, like calling the fans "patrons" and mandating CBS Television's reverent coverage.

But I've loved the tournament since childhood. A bunch of wealthy Republican 1-percenters run the event, deigning to let us plebeians watch it on television. But the tournament celebrates golf, sportsmanship, competition. The Masters is an arcadian fantasy of true sport, which should be free from politics.

Baylor wins, and America turns toward summer

Now that the Baylor Bears have dispatched the overhyped Gonzaga Bulldogs, the Great American Circus caravan can move on

Baylor won a women's basketball championship a few years ago, and now the Baptist school from Waco rules the men's game once dominated by teams like Kansas, North Carolina, Indiana, Duke and Kentucky. Those old bluebloods need a transfusion. At least traditionalists could cheer for UCLA.

All season, everyone talked about the Zags' greatness, especially after the Bears were knocked flat for a spell by the coronavirus.

But after barely surviving the UCLA Bruins, who won 11 titles under John Wooden back in the days when shorts were short, the Zags were overwhelmed by Baylor Monday night.

Once a small religious school struggling to survive in the old Southwest Conference against behemoths like Texas, Texas A&M and SMU, Baylor has succumbed to scandal over the years in seeking sports glory. 

Less than 20 years ago, its basketball team was rocked by the murder of a player by a teammate, and coach Dave Bliss' brazen coverup. Recently, rape allegations rocked Baylor’s football team.

But under Coach Scott Drew, Baylor basketball rebounded from harsh NCAA punishment to take the title over a Gonzaga team that's often heralded in the regular season before collapsing in the tournament. At least this year, the Zags made it to the championship game.

With the men's finale over, a weary nation blinked, realizing Bill Rafferty will be silent until next season.

The men's finale followed Stanford winning the women's championship over upstart Arizona. Shown on ESPN while the men's spectacle was unfolding on CBS, TBS, Turner Sports and Tru TV, the women's tournament was often more entertaining than the men's.

As with the NBA, the college game is marred by too many three-point attempts clanging off the basket. Air balls are no longer that rare.

Goodbye, March madness. Hello, Masters. After the upper 1 percent's gathering in Augusta, Ga., the sports hype machine slows to a long summer of major league baseball,  and the yawning NBA playoffs.

The Academy Awards are coming; does anyone care? Godzilla vs. King Kong excited movie fans more than any of the dreadful Oscar nominees.

Playing its role as the King Kong and Godzilla of sports, the NFL will take the spotlight with its preening draft.

And then there's Aaron Rodgers hosting "Jeopardy." Yes, the NFL superstar in his college days played for another team known as the Bears: California. The Cal basketball team won the NCAA title in 1959 under legendary coach Pete Newell. How's that for a Jeopardy question? 

On his opening night quarterbacking the show long ruled by the late Alex Trebek, the now bearded Packers star was amusing, but he might grow old over two weeks.

Shaileine Woodley says she won't grow bored. Hope the rest of us don't feel like Olivia Munn.

While Texas gained the sports world's acclaim with Baylor's championship, fans a few miles up I-35 in Arlington packed the Texas Rangers' game, many of them maskless.

Hey, it's Texas. Why worry about those doomsayers predicting another covid surge? It's spring break time, when the breeze blows free on the Texas plain.

The question looms: Come college football season this fall, can fans return to full stadiums and drunken tailgating?

Roll up those sleeves, America.

 

 

Say It Ain't So, Joe: Casino operator Bally takes over Braves network

Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox were born too soon.

Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned the great hitter and his White Sox teammates for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series, rigged by gamblers.

Now, major league baseball embraces sports betting.

Beginning with opening day Thursday, casino operator Bally will broadcast Braves games and other pro and college sports, taking over from Fox. Bally plans to eventually promote betting on games to young fans with interactive features.

The regional sports networks, owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, will also show Atlanta Hawks and Nashville Predator games, along with Atlantic Coast Conference competition, further entrenching sports gambling.

Familiar Braves voices Skip Caray, Jeff Francoeur and Tom Glavine remain, but the broadcasts will look different, with Bally's red logo replacing Fox's blue trademark. Bally bought naming rights to the sports networks from right-wing and Trump-supporting Sinclair, which purchased the channels from Fox. The days when environmentalist and Braves owner Ted Turner's Channel 17 showed "America's team" across the nation recede farther into the past.

The Braves' Caray, Francoeur and Glavine and the Hawks' Bob Rathbun and Dominique Wilkins still will call the games. But they won't be giving betting lines and insider tips, at least for now, according to a comprehensive article on the changes by AJC stalwart Tim Tucker.

Bally eventually plans interactive "gamification" features to encourage betting by younger fans. The experience will be more and more like video games, a Sinclair executive told Tucker. 

As major league baseball supports gambling, the ban on all-times hits leader Pete Rose looks more and more ridiculous. Rose was accused of betting on games. Now, that's sanctioned.

Put Shoeless Joe in the Hall of Fame too. He hit .375 in the 1919 World Series.

 

 

 

Doublethink rules: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy publisher of George Orwell

Rupert Murdoch seeks to own George Orwell.

Murdoch's News Corp. announced on Monday a $349 million deal to purchase Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's book publishing unit, whose massive backlist encompasses Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm."

If the deal goes through, big-lie purveyor Fox News Network will be in the same stable as Orwell's novels. Newspeak will co-exist on Fox broadcasts and the pages of "1984."

Murdoch's Harper Collins will also gain rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Virginia Woolff's novels and Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men." 

When envisioning Willie Stark and the corruption of populism, Warren might not have imagined the Republican assault on democracy fueled by Fox News. But his examination of political power and its abuses remains valid. 

Murdoch, in owning the work of Orwell, Woolf, Tolkien and Warren, shows a cynical contempt for the power of ideas. The aging media mogul and political manipulator likely believes that the lies of Fox News will prevail. "Who controls the past controls the future," Orwell warned. "Who controls the present controls the past."

The deal, following the announcement of Penguin Random House's $2.2 billion acquisition of Simon & Schuster, will bring further consolidation of the book-publishing industry. The Harper Collins-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt coupling raises familiar fears about a chill on new voices and unorthodox ideas.

Big brother will be watching even closer. Already in charge of the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, London Times and other British newspapers, the Times Literary Supplement and Fox News, Murdoch will own even more of the media industry.

All publishers will be equal, but some will be more equal than others.

 

 

 

Farewell, Elgin Baylor

When I was a boy, NBA teams like the Syracuse Nats, Cincinnati Royals, Philadelphia Warriors and St. Louis Hawks flickered across our TV screen on Sunday afternoons.

Reading the long-vanished Sport magazine, with its glowing profiles of sports stars, I turned into an NBA fan, a rarity among Southern boys raised on college football.

My favorite team was Bob Pettit's Hawks, who beat the Celtics of Bob Cousy and Bill Russell in 1957 to win the franchise's only championship.

But my favorite player was the Lakers' Elgin Baylor. Soaring above the basket, leaping after the ball, Baylor was like a supersonic jet among crop-dusters.

As many commentators said this week after Baylor's death of natural causes at age 86, Baylor was the prototype for later high-flying stars like Julius Irving, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

Before Wilt Chamberlain scored his 100 points in Hershey, Pa., Baylor held the record of 71, scored against the Knicks at old Madison Square Garden in 1960, as the New York Post's Mike Vaccaro recalled.

A few images remain from my  childhood moments watching TV sports: Willie Mays in centerfield, Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese calling baseball games, Mickey Mantle and the Yankees, the old New York Giants, Bears and Packers, the old AFL Houston Oilers and Oakland Raiders, college football on Saturday afternoons. And Elgin Baylor, flying to the basket.

"This Is Us" brings Nicky home at last

If Nicky Pearson would have gone to Woodstock with his girlfriend, Sally, he would have heard John Sebastian's acoustic solo performance of "Darlin' Be Home Soon," which mesmerized the music festival's huge crowd.

Sebastian's recording of the song with his band, The Lovin' Spoonful, casts a nostalgic glow on Nicky and Sally's fragile love affair during Tuesday night's "This Is Us."

All of the broken hopes of the 1960s play out, shattered like the elderly Nicky's handmade snow globe. Yet, the dream endures at the episode’s end.

Beautifully portrayed by Michael Angarano, the wounded young Nicky rejects Sally's dream of going to Woodstock, then traveling across country to California for a life of hippie freedom. She imagines voyaging the open road with him in her van she calls Pearl, evoking Janis Joplin's posthumous album.

Instead, Nicky, who expresses his fears to his brother, Jack, chooses to stay home with his loving mother, Marilyn, and abusive, alcoholic father, Stanley. Sharing their pride at Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, Nicky can't free himself from his family's emotional entrapment.

Jack, who's left the family home but remains tied to its rituals, would have made the trip with Sally. A previous episode of the show followed his road journey to California with his future wife, Rebecca.

The broken relationship between Jack and Nicky, their close ties a casualty of Vietnam, adds to the episode's drama.

Desperate to reconcile with Jack, Nicky is unable to connect with his brother at a Vietnam reunion. After receiving affirmation from his wartime commanding officer, Jack heads toward marriage and fatherhood, while Nicky withdraws to a solitary, embittered life as a chronic alcoholic.

As the aged Nicky traveling across country to greet his nephew Kevin's twin children, Griffin Dunn endearingly portrays a man discovering his true self after years lost to Vietnam grief and family wounds. His gruff exterior conceals a sensitive, fragile, creative man still fearful of intimacy.

Kevin has named the boy twin for Nicky, whose efforts to cope with the modern world after years of withdrawal flavor the drama with bittersweet humor. He sees his beautifully carved gifts destroyed because of idiotic air-travel regulations; isn't it time for those to be banished from the nation's life?

But Nicky makes it to California, at last accomplishing a replica of the dream envisioned by Sally.

The cross-cultural references continue: Dunne is the nephew by marriage of Joan Didion, whose writings on her native California and the turmoils of the 1960s counterculture are hallmarks of the era's literature. Didion's warmth and insight glow in conversations between her and Dunne in an enlightening Netflix documentary.

"This Is Us" at its best illustrates our battle with the past, what we seek to save, and what we seek to escape.

Directed by "30 Something's" Ken Olin, Tuesday's episode titled "One Small Step" indicates that no matter how long, we can come to see ourselves at last.

 

 

 

 

 

Watching Helen Mirren in "Prime Suspect" at last

They smoke a lot of cigarettes on "Prime Suspect."

I missed the BBC police procedural starring Helen Mirren when it ran on PBS' "Masterpiece Theater" in the early '90s, and have searched for it ever since. 

After a couple of misses in streaming land, I at last found the show on Hulu and clicked it up.

Mirren's beleaguered detective Jane Tennison does most of the smoking. Creepy serial killer Gary Marlow - another English poetry reference - also lights up an alarming number of cigs, especially when Jane at last breaks him into confessing. The cigarettes give "Prime Suspect" a film noir haze. There's a lot of drinking too; the Brits float on booze.

The lads in the London police station resist Tennison when she's put in charge of investigating the murders of several young women, a couple of them prostitutes. But Mirren with her steely determination wins their admiration. The extreme reversal of fortune is somewhat implausible, but Mirren and her cast of British theatrical actors carry it off.

John Bowe  stands out with his portrayal of the charming Marlow, who has the creepiest mother fixation since Norman Bates. Zoe Wanamaker steals the show as his combustible common law wife. The cast with their slangy British accents cast a harsh light on London's bloke culture.

Tennison's battles against misogyny resemble those of S. Epatha Merkerson's Lt. Anita Van Buren in "Law and Order," New York City's counterpart to "Prime Suspect." Van Buren is also subjected to the insidious racism of New York City's police department. But the London cops' lad chauvinism is more ingrained.

"Prime Suspect's" London appears sunnier and less menacing than "Law and Order's" Manhattan. But the subterranean garage where Marlow's car is discovered, the site of his torturing and murdering his victims, is more revolting than "L&O" murder scenes, no matter how many rats scurry by.

The London detectives' legal system contrasts with New York City's. No Miranda rule in Britain, although Marlow does receive legal representation. And Jack McCoy doesn't have to wear a wig, as does the London prosecutor.

Even with its convoluted plot and English slang, "Prime Suspect" was worth the wait.

Too bad that Mirren's Jane couldn't have met Jerry Orbach's Lenny Briscoe. Two lonely souls solving crimes with wit and intuition: They would have made beautiful music. That could be another spinoff: "Law and Order: Prime Suspect."

 

Shaquille O'Neal opens new door for media diversity

Former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, one of the most successful black TV personalities, has made a major commitment to increasing media diversity.

O'Neal announced the creation of a new ad agency that will expand opportunities for minority creative professionals.

Based in his adopted hometown of Atlanta, the agency will be called "Majority" because it seeks a talent pool that's 75 percent "black, brown, women and LGBTQ," co-founder and CEO Omid Farhang told the Wall Street Journal. 

“Most agencies still struggle to meet a 25% diversity target,” Mr. O’Neal said in a telephone interview with the WSJ. “We want to flip that diversity ratio to turn the minority into the majority.

“I’m just motivated to do this in a way to create new opportunities,”  he told the newspaper. “A lot of people talk about it. I’m tired of talking about it. I want to do something about it. I just want to make progress.”

While identified as an ad agency, Majority is well-positioned to expand into marketing and public relations, drawing from Atlanta's music, film and media businesses, as well as image-savvy corporations like Delta, Coca-Cola and UPS.

If successful, Majority could revitalize Atlanta's ad industry, which has withered since the 1960s.

O'Neal will not involve himself in Majority's day-to-day operations but will participate in conference calls, give advice and generate deals using his contacts as a TV pitchman. Farhang, an industry veteran, says the agency's diversity will build business opportunities.

The ad agency is the latest venture for O'Neal, one of the most successful entrepreneurs among former pro athletes. Along with endorsing a variety of products, O'Neal owns a number of Papa John's Pizza and Auntie Annie's pretzel franchises.

The owner of Midtown Atlanta's iconic Krispy Kreme restaurant recently destroyed by fire, O'Neal endeared himself to the city by vowing to rebuild the beloved doughnut shop.

O'Neal's also looking to purchase Reebok from Authentic Brands group, according to the WSJ article. Last fall, he participated in the launch of a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to make media and technology acquisitions.

Along with fellow former Laker Magic Johnson, O'Neal is gaining recognition as a business legend as well as an all-time NBA great.

Pro basketball fans love the former LSU All-American's jousts with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson Jr. on TNT's NBA show, often more entertaining than its accompanying game.

An all-star center for championship teams with the Lakers and Heat, O'Neal stands out for his witty sallies with Barkley and Smith, and his astute understanding of the game.

While O'Neal has expressed political ambitions and explored a law enforcement career, he has not spoken out on black issues as much as Barkley, and current Laker superstar Lebron James. O’Neal’s new agency shows he’ll be more engaged in widening the playing field for minorities.