It was 40 years ago today ... Tom Seaver taught the band to play

(with apologies to The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper) Long Island’s Newsday daily has been asking people about 1969, when (quote) “the Mets marched to a World Series victory that even their most avid fans couldn't have predicted. On a farm in Bethel, N.Y., nearly 500,000 people gathered for the Woodstock music festival that would come to symbolize the hopes for making "love, not war." For some, Woodstock also was an orgy of drugs and overindulgence. It was a summer of tumult. While students throughout the country marched for civil rights, casualties in the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam continued to mount.” (end quote)
I was 11-12 that year, the first that I really followed baseball. My Aunt Shirley, a long suffering Brooklyn Dodgers fan, helped fuel my love for baseball. She quit the game when the Bums left for Los Angeles and only returned when the Mets were born in 1962. They were mostly ghastly for the first seven seasons but in 1969 they went from worst to first under Gil Hodges, the ex-Brooklyn first baseman who once was prayed for in a New York Catholic church by a priest and parishioners, when he was in the midst of a batting slump.
’69 was a magical year for the Mets and a great time to have that be the first year I followed baseball. (My passion for the game continues via the MLB baseball TV package and trips to dozens of major/minor league ballparks ... that includes the Durham Bulls Triple-A park yesterday). What I remember from 1969, off the top of my head: the Mets winning both games of a doubleheader 1-0 - with the pitchers driving the only run in both games!
There was Ron Swoboda hitting 2, two-run homers to overcome a 20 strikeout game by Steve Carlton, TV announcer Lindsay Nelson’s outrageous, gaudy sport jackets and Kiner’s Corner – the ponderous post game show awkwardly hosted by ex-slugger Ralph Kiner. Now well into his ‘80’s, Kiner still comes on SNY Mets broadcasts for several games every year and struggles, but its still good to hear him as a thread to my youth. Baseball was the game I listened to on my transistor radio as I cruised around the block on my Schwinn bike, or as I threw pitches in to the backyard pitch-back net.
I remember light-hitting infielder Al Weis becoming a hitting star in the playoffs, the Mets winning four straight World Series games after losing the first to Baltimore, the Cleon Jones hit-by-pitch incident, when Hodges came out of the dugout with a ball that had shoe polish on it – and the umpire awarding first base to Jones in a crucial spot.
We listened to playoff games in school or got updates from teachers – everything happened during the day back then, and the NY newspapers provided wall to wall coverage. Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo drew his eagerly anticipated “Hero and Goat” cartoons after every playoff game involving the Metsies.
Radio announcer Bob Murphy provided the “happy recaps” and detailed descriptions of the weather and clouds. (I just found out he was an Army meteorologist, now it all makes sense). Shea Stadium sold great fried knishes and was adorned with blue and orange metal squares on the outside of the building, where ramps to the stands were.
In the early ‘70’s my Aunt, father, brother and Uncle Ray (Aunt Shirley’s husband) would go to games at Shea… my Uncle (who would arrive by subway from his Manhattan business) didn’t care much for baseball and would sit there reading Guns and Ammo magazine,
Back to October, ’69: I got off the St. Pius X school bus at my Aunt’s house that day, instead of at home, and we scored every play in the last game of the World Series, when the Impossible Dream came true. That’s the first time I had ever scored a game and my Aunt showed me all of the codes and symbols. Later the Mets were on Ed Sullivan that weekend, singing “You Gotta Have Heart” from the musical Damn Yankees. The names … Tug McGraw, Ken Boswell, Tommy Agee, Jerry Koosman, Duffy Dyer, Jerry Grote, Ed “The Glider” Charles… 1969 was my coming of age year, and the Mets had plenty to do with it. They were a national phenomena – witness George Burns in the movie “Oh, God!”, as God, describing their win as one of his true miracles. Few would disagree.
Oh yeah, the country was a mess because of the Vietnam War and we landed on the moon (I was glue to the TV for hours and remember the surreal moment when the first images from the moon flickered on to the screen) … but the Mets helped New Yorkers and others that rooted for underdogs around the country, in that Nixonian era, take heart – anything was possible.
I may not know where my wallet or keys are half the time now, but I remember 1969 – and the Amazin’ Mets.

Sparring over the Must See TV incident

(a woman who saw me comment on Craig Wright's In the News TV program didn't like my spin on the City Market "Must See TV" incident that ended with an arrest. Here's our back and forth)

On May 27, 2009, at 8:26 PM, Diane Tyler wrote:

(Her) I just watched "In the News" with you and David Tate regarding the incident on the City Market a few weeks ago. Wow - to think that you think it is perfectly ok for anyone to purposely disregard a police officer is beyond belief. Have you ever had to call on the police to assist you with anything? If that had directly affected a member of your family (fight, weapons etc.) I bet you would be singing a completely different tune. It amazes me how you can say that if "Roanoke" wants to attract "Artsy - Young People" that we need to not do this type of thing. If that is the way we need to attract people to the downtown area then we are on the wrong path. When is it ok for an officer to arrest someone? Where do you draw the line? I can tell you that everyone that I have spoken to about this incident has completely supported the officer. He doesn't get paid enough to risk his life everyday for a community that feels that they can ignore the law. What were you thinking?

(me) Diane, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I was right there in the middle of it, and as far as I am concerned Officer Lucas totally overreacted. The Police Dept. also act as ambassadors for the city, and in this instance he did not do his job in reading the situation correctly. I am not condoning the young woman for not producing ID when asked, but there was no danger, no threat, and if you listen to Lucas's diatribe on YouTube you'd see he had some sort of ax to grind about the type of folks that like to hang out in front of the City Market building.

Police officers are merely human beings, they make mistakes, overreact, misread situations. Lucas did here, and it gave the city a black eye. Thanks for watching In the News!

GOP Candidates in 17th district: not many contrasts during forum

Attorneys Bill Cleaveland, Josh Johnson and Melvin Williams; small business owner Chris Head and former Roanoke County Supervisor Mike Wray all converged on the Patrick Henry High School stage Tuesday night, hoping to state their case. “They all did a great job,” said one attendee, as she watched the five Republican 17th District candidates make their case for being selected in the June 9 primary, for the right to face Democrat Gwen Mason in the fall for a House of Delegates seat.

In fact it was hard for some in the audience to differentiate, based on questions about taxes, registering by party, transportation and funds for non-state agencies. About 100 showed up for the forum, sponsored by the Roanoke Valley Republican Women and moderated by Kathy Hayden Terry (with the Republican National Committee). “Any one of them is better than their Democratic counterpart,” said Terry as the forum opened. Whoever wins on June 9 she declared “will beat Gwen Mason.”

In opening remarks Williams, a part time minister, called himself a “person of conviction,” chastising President Obama’s Supreme Court pick earlier that day of Sonia Sotomayor as someone “who will not be that type of person.”

Johnson, just 30 years old, said he would “represent a new generation of Republican leadership. I have a lot of new ideas.” Head, who lives in Botetourt County, (as does Cleaveland) asked the audience if they were “satisfied with the direction that our nation and the Commonwealth is going in right now?” Many in the audience responded “no!”

Cleaveland said he was “100% committed,” to making a difference and held up a Taxpayer Protection Pledge he has signed, along with State Senator Ralph Smith (in attendance), which states he will not raise taxes. Wray, who served one term in Cave Spring on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, touted his experience as an elected official and said he had pushed for job creation while chairing the board.

On the question of whether voters should register statewide by party, Johnson and Cleaveland were opposed, while the other candidates said they could back such a measure. On most other questions there was more cohesiveness. All said they would not raise taxes under any or most circumstances. Look at eliminating waste in the state budget and realign funding priorities instead said the candidates.

Transportation funding emerged as the top priority for most candidates, with Cleaveland pushing education. Johnson would “look at toll roads” while others were hesitant to support that – or a gas tax increase.

Johnson pushed for offshore drilling as a way to raise revenue, while Cleaveland (also supporting offshore oil drilling) wanted to know why the $2 billion in waste identified several years ago by the Wilder Commission had not been slashed. “That’s the first place I’d start.”

Cleaveland also provided the only note of disharmony on the night, disputing Wray’s claim that he had cut taxes as a supervisor: while the rate per $100 of assessed value was lowered by a penny or two Cleaveland noted that sharply rising assessments had more than negated that reduction.

As for funding non-state agencies, like Center in the Square, some said a cost-benefit analysis of some sort would be in order first; others touted more public-private partnerships as a way to fund museums and the like. “Some times you do need a little help,” said Wray, recognizing the “quality of life issues” cultural organizations can provide.

Cleaveland, an attorney, prosecutor and substitute judge over the past 30 years, said he would provide “straight talk” to his constituents if elected, while Johnson vowed to “work hard.” Williams read from an endorsement just given him by Don Huffman, former chair of the Virginia Republican Party, and Head pledged to follow through on promises made during the campaign. “You can take that to the bank.”

Hollins University political science professor Ed Lynch, a former GOP chair in Roanoke County, was among those in the audience. If it made the task more difficult for voters, to distinguish one candidate from another, he said that was “a good thing. The answers were very thoughtful. It was clear that they all knew an awful lot about state government. They all have a lot of great experience [and] all have a lot to bring to the table.”

“Each one of them brings their own strengths,” said Fred Anderson, the former Roanoke County treasurer and current 6th District Republican chairman. He sported a Mike Wray button and said he was supporting the former supervisor because of a long-standing friendship. “I’d really like to have one candidate with all those strengths. Each one will appeal to a certain element in the party. I just hate that we have five good candidates, but only one nomination [to select].”

An arts-friendly town? tell the cops!

Our Take

An arts-friendly town? Someone forgot to tell the cops

First of all I was there, right in the middle of it, so I’m not opining second hand. I’m talking about the “Must See TV” performance art piece carried out by dozens of people in the Farmer’s Market area and in front of the city market building last week. You know by now, the exercise where people were to sit silently and watch the blank screen of a television set for five minutes. If passersby asked what they were doing, participants were supposed to reply, “I’m watching TV.” Local performance artist Beth Deel, who likes to “push the envelope,” at times, called it a “way to slow down time with an action and see what the interpretation is. Its really in the spirit of improv.”

Even some of the organizers weren’t sure what the message was supposed to be. But that’s the point of art, whether it hangs on a wall, stands in a plaza – or involves people staring at blank TV’s. The way Roanoke City Councilman David Trinkle explained it on Monday – his wife took part – the group was careful not to assemble in large bunches, thus avoiding the need for a permit on their part.

Someone forgot to let certain Roanoke City police officers in on the secret: that the Star City aims to position itself as an arts-friendly town, one that welcomes artists of all stripes and ages. So what happens? Officer Bill Lucas and company overreacted to the fact that several young people were sitting on the sidewalk in from of the market building last Thursday.

Brooke Rosel was there watching her television when Lucas barked at her to get up. “It wasn’t to be negative in any way,” said Rosel afterwards. Lucas threatened to fine and arrest her, said Rosel. “He was very, very rude.” Other officers “laughed” she said when they were let in on what was going on.

One young woman, Katherine Gwaltney, stayed in character when “Wild Bill” asked her for ID (?) by saying “wait, this is the best part!” as if she was obsessed with what whatever was playing on her (blank) portable TV. That wasn’t a good move – when a cop asks for something the better choice is probably to accommodate them, but Lucas and a fellow officer were totally over the top, yelling about keeping the sidewalks free for pedestrians (have they not seen young people sitting on the steps at the market building before?), barking at some of them to turn off their video recorders or to move along.

Huh? Have they not heard of the First Amendment? “Freedom of speech!” became a rallying cry, as Lucas cuffed Gwaltney and took her to the paddy wagon for a free ride to jail – hauling her portable TV under one arm. (One online wag compared Lucas to Barney Fife… does that mean Roanoke is Mayberry? Hardly the image it seeks.) “Looks like the Roanoke cops were just in a bad mood today,” said Matt Ames, “Its just ridiculous.”

City Manager Darlene Burcham has called the incident “unfortunate.” Trinkle said he hopes to see more performance art in the streets of Roanoke soon and fellow council member Gwen Mason decried Police Chief Joe Gaskins for (once again) displaying his fortress-like mentality by not coming out and making a statement, days after the incident.

Roanoke City sent the wrong message last week: that art is meant to be more stodgy – go spend your money to look at paintings hanging at the Taubman perhaps – and that youthful ideas involving performance art need not apply here. If I’m a young person on the fence about staying Roanoke and was a witness to the market incident – or if I’ve seen it on YouTube by now – do you think I want to stay here? What about tourists or conventioneers visiting from Hotel Roanoke? What must some of them have thought?

Some of those involved with “Must See TV” have held off the cuff, permit-less events in the past, like racing big wheels through parking garages. Maybe there is a way they could tip off the city in the future that, hey, this what we want to do. In any case the Roanoke City Police Department overreacted big time. I’ve lived elsewhere in a small city like Roanoke that also pegged part of its growth to the arts and young people – and this would not have been an issue 30 years ago!

Time to decide what you want to be Roanoke, how tolerant you want to be when it comes to the arts, and what type of arts, and how welcoming you want to be towards young artists and others that support them. Then let the rest of us in on the secret – starting with some of those apparently humorless, non-art loving police officers. “I think sometimes fear makes people overreact,” said Beth Deel, who thought Lucas might have believed it was “a political action. Hopefully we can get it all straightened out.”


(from May 22 Roanoke Star-Sentinel)

Remembering the Holocaust

(Sally Frishberg came to Roanoke last month to meet with local students. She was a Holocaust survivor. This story was written for but never made it into the Roanoke Star-Sentinel.)

Holocaust survivor tells Roanokers: never forget the Holocaust

By Gene Marrano

Emigrating from Poland after World War II, Sally Frishberg didn’t speak much about the two years her family hid from the Nazis, protected by a sympathetic Catholic townsman. Frishberg, a retired high school teacher from Brooklyn (she taught history and Holocaust studies) only opened up many years later and now speaks to groups, often to young people, about a time the world should not forget.

Frishberg was in Roanoke recently, visiting schools, speaking to students at all grade levels. This was her second visit to the valley – she studied at Hollins College with an NEA grant 20 years ago.

Now a volunteer at a Jewish heritage museum in New York, Frishberg also spoke at Temple Emmanuel and attended a Roanoke Symphony Orchestra concert, a program filled with music written by Jewish composers that had been interred in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. She spoke at the end of the Jefferson Center program.

“The night we landed [in New York] my Uncle told my father ‘you must forget about the past,” recalls Frishberg, “you lived through hell, but now you’re in America.” She overheard that conversation and took it to heart.” In general there was “a conspiracy of silence,” where no one seemed to talk about the planned extermination of Jews and others by the Nazis. Frishberg also felt “shame” that human beings could behave that way.

Some were protected, like the Frishberg family, which lost three family members while in hiding. “I don’t think enough were [hidden]. My generation is missing. The Nazis killed the children. We served no purpose.” Students she speaks to now ask her how the family survived two years in an attic – they had to crawl out when liberated by the Russians because their legs had atrophied from lack of use. She wishes more asked about how to prevent hatred and war. “I’d like to hear questions like that [but] I have absolute faith in America’s young people.”

Her trip started with the North Cross middle school class and ended at Patrick Henry. In between she also visited Hidden Valley Middle, William Byrd High School, Penn Forest Elementary and several other schools. Students at William Fleming High School performed an interpretive dance about the Holocaust, with Frishberg in attendance. “It’s a wonderful way to reach youngsters,” she said of arts-related programs about the Holocaust.

Frishberg isn’t sure if the world has fully grasped the lessons of World War II: “I am very discouraged by how little learning there has been, but when I speak to young people that changes. I feel vibes that are very positive. They want to learn [and] have a safer future.” That was Sally Frishberg’s message to young Roanokers.