Category: Guest Authors

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

By Bob Small

So we –me and Paula my wife — spent Tuesday, Nov 7, at our polling place on Rutgers Avenue, in the Cades Building in Swarthmore, Pa.  We were handing out information on behalf of two Republicans running for Borough Council. Did I really say Republicans? To paraphrase Admiral James Stockdale “Who am I and what am I doing here.?”

This started with there being a special election for Swarthmore Borough Council.

One of the candidates, Rob  M. Jordan, had contacted me and I shared my years of expertise, such as it is, from involvement with Green Party Politics.  Surprisingly, he followed my guidance, and both GOP Candidates made it on the ballot. 

This was the first time in decades that there was a contested election for Swarthmore Borough Council!  For some more perspective, see A Republican In Swarthmore.

So we spent the day and night, 8 to 8, asking people to “be part of history, vote in a Swarthmore Borough Council contested election.”

Usually, you could only vote for the Democrat.  Or not. Are elections for the Beijing City Council like this?

At any rate, several Democrats engaged with me during the campaigning. They know us from attending almost every Borough Council Meeting –we even received a citation for this — and considered Green and harmless. 

When one elected official, as part of his harangue, asked me why I would dare be doing this, I mentioned Swarthmore Council members who promised to vote against the Condo but ended up voting for it.

At least 80 percent of the public comment on this issue was against.  

Also mentioned was Council’s inability to prevent PECO doing massive replacement of trees for their new and taller electrical poles..

 Swarthmore has boasted about been a “tree city”.

Cell phone tower trees are not a replacement.

My candidates lost getting around 5 percent of the vote.

We consider it both a “new beginning” and a consciousness-raising”.

On Wednesday, I transitioned my voter registration from Green to Republican.

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

By Joe Guzzardi

Legendary Pittsburgh Pirates sluggers Ralph Kiner and Hank Greenberg shared more than Hall of Fame induction. They were World War II heroes whose Buccos power-hitting careers overlapped, and led to the construction of Forbes Field’s controversial Greenberg Gardens. Over the years, Kiner and Greenberg developed an enduring friendship.

The day after Pearl Harbor, Kiner enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Kiner flew Martin PBM Mariners from Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station in Hawaii on submarine search patrols, and accumulated 1,200 flying hours. Unlike most other major league players stationed in the Pacific, Kiner played little baseball during his Navy service. As Kiner recalled, he played at the most six games during his two and a half Navy years. Kiner considered his pilot training and defending America more valuable than baseball.

When the war ended, the Pirates had Kiner penciled in to begin the 1946 season for the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars. But during Spring Training, Kiner tore the cover off the ball, and made the Pirates active roster. The Pirates chose wisely. Despite Forbes Field’s imposing dimensions for a right-handed hitter, 365’ down the left field line, 406’ in left center and 457’ in dead center, Kiner’s 23 home runs led the league in his rookie 1946 season, and he topped the league every year thereafter through 1952. Kiner’s home run title streak for seven consecutive years is an unbreakable record.

Enter Greenberg. In the 1946 off season, the Pirates bought American League home run king and two-time MVP Hank Greenberg, who was embroiled in a bitter salary dispute with the Detroit Tigers. Like Kiner, Greenberg served in World War II. Greenberg was drafted in 1941, and he was honorably discharged when Congress released servicemen age 28 years and older. After Pearl Harbor, Sergeant Greenberg volunteered to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. “We are in trouble,” Greenberg told The Sporting News, “and there is only one thing for me to do – return to the service.” Assigned to the first Boeing B-29 Superfortresses’ group to go overseas, Greenberg spent 1944 flying in the India-China-Burma theater. Greenberg served 47 months, the longest of any major league player.

When he joined the Pirates, Greenberg befriended Kiner, corrected his swing, which during the following season helped raised his anemic batting average from .247 to .313, and increased his home run output to 51. Pirates’ management, in turn, acted swiftly to help Greenberg hit more homers; they installed an inner fence that shortened left field’s distance by 30’. Society for American Baseball Research historian Ron Backer analyzed the controversial Greenberg Gardens’ consequences, and found that the new construction benefited Kiner more than Greenberg.

In his one year with the Pirates, 1947, Greenberg hit only 25 home runs. Of that total, 18 were hit at Forbes Field, of which nine landed in the Gardens. Of the 369 home runs that Kiner hit throughout his major league career, 71 landed in Greenberg Gardens, or about 20 percent. Eventually, Greenberg Gardens became known as “Kiner’s Korner.” Greenberg Gardens and the home run barrage launched from Kiner’s bat that it facilitated made Pirates ownership the biggest winner. In 1947, for the first time in Pirates’ history, more than 1 million fans showed up at Forbes Field, a milestone that, even though the Pirates were perennial cellar-dwellers, continued throughout most of Kiner’s Corsair days.

In June 1953, General Manager Branch Rickey abruptly traded Kiner to the Chicago Cubs. Since Rickey’s arrival, the relationship between the two had been acrimonious. The next day, Rickey ordered the fence torn down and said: “I don’t believe in building artificial barriers to suit any individual.” The league intervened, ruled that parks could not be reconfigured in mid-season. The gardens remained in left field until February 1954.

After their playing days ended, Greenberg and Kiner had prosperous careers. In 1948, Greenberg became the Cleveland Indians farm director and in November 1949 was promoted to general manager. Greenberg assembled the 1954 Indians squad, which set the then-American League record for most wins in a season, 111. In his eight years as GM, the Indians finished in first or second place six times.

In 1956, Greenberg became the first Jewish ballplayer inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Greenberg died from liver cancer on September 4, 1986. Greenberg, along with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx and Ted Williams, is one of only five players to hit over .300, have an on-base percentage over .400, and a slugging mark above .600. In 2013, Greenberg received the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award given to 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members to recognize the courage he displayed during his World War II Army Air Force service.

Kiner, injury-plagued, was traded from the Cubs to the Indians in 1955, but was unable to produce for his old friend Greenberg. After hitting only 18 homers, Kiner retired. During the late 1940s, Kiner dated Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and Ava Gardner before marrying tennis star Nancy Chafee in 1951. Greenberg was Kiner’s best man. Then in 1962, he joined the expansion New York Mets broadcast team. Kiner joked that he was chosen “because I had a lot of experience with losing.” Kiner broadcast through 2013, and is one of the longest tenured broadcasters with a single team in MLB history. In tribute to Greenberg Gardens, Kiner’s post-game television show on WOR was called Kiner’s Korner and aired for more than 30 years. Kiner died of natural causes in February 2014. Like Greenberg, Kiner received the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award given in honor of his heroic World War II Navy service.

Kiner and Greenberg played important roles in Pittsburgh’s history and are remembered for being bright lights in an otherwise bleak chapter in the Pirates’ early 1950s Forbes Field era.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research historian. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border Says Az Rep

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border Says Az Rep

 By Joe Guzzardi

From the Oval Office, President Joe Biden made an impassioned mid-October address that laid out the stakes for Americans as to why they must support Israel and Ukraine in their wars against aggressors Hamas and Russia. He called the wars an American national security imperative, with victory critical to the future of democracies worldwide.

Biden spoke forcefully, but unconvincingly to many in his audience. Included in Biden’s message was an “urgent budget request” – his proposed $106 billion package which designated $64.1 billion for Ukraine. But Biden gave short shrift to Israel, a proposed $14.3 billion, and tagged on $10 billion for humanitarian assistance, a category that will give $850 million to process more illegal aliens at the border.

Since the start of Ukraine’s endless war with Russia in 2022, the U.S. has sent more than $135 billion on Ukraine. For its ally Israel, since its founding as an independent state in 1948, the U.S. has provided just over $150 billion. President Biden’s latest request would tie Israel’s $14.3 billion to Ukraine’s $61.4 billion. But Louisiana U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson’s election as House Speaker put Biden’s bid for continued Ukraine funding in doubt; Johnson is a long-time opponent to indefinite Ukraine funding. Johnson did, however, agree to $14.6 billion for Israel, slightly more than Biden requested, with the caveat that each dollar given must be offset by an equal amount in federal government spending cuts, a process called “pay for’s.”

Biden urged Americans to get behind Israel and Ukraine’s defenses because, in the president’s words, support “is vital for national security.” The president’s plea to send Ukraine more billions while the Southern border remains wide open, and exploitable to terrorists, is incomprehensible, and it is unacceptable to Johnson and millions of concerned Americans. Ukraine is a profoundly corrupt country. Transparency International, a worldwide movement that works to expose corruption and the injustice it inflicts, ranks Ukraine No. 116 out of the 180 nations it evaluated, a red flag to lenders since monies sent aren’t specifically accounted for in detail.

Biden and his administration’s like-minded, pro-war Secretaries of Defense and State, Tony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, are staunchly behind Ukraine. In September, Blinken made his fourth trip to Kyiv to give President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a message from President Biden: the U.S. wants “to reaffirm strongly our support” for Ukraine. Austin, in a recent telephone call to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, reassured his Ukrainian counterpart of the U.S.’s continued support in the war against Russia.

Yet, none of the federal government’s three most powerful and influential – Biden, Blinken and Austin – have even hinted at what dangerous and possibly fatal consequences could evolve from the border invasion. In October alone, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 100 Syrians and 50 Iranians. During the one-week period from October 8 to October 14, CBP arrested six Iranians, three Lebanese, one Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian trying to cross the Rio Grande River in the Del Rio Sector, which includes besieged Eagle Pass. Because of ongoing terrorism, instability and anti-American sentiments in the region, Syria and Iran are currently listed under State Department Level Four Travel Advisories: DO NOT TRAVEL. Adding to the homeland’s risk from Middle Eastern nationals who may harbor terrorist intentions is the growing number of what CBP refers to as “known gotaways,” 23,000 during October’s first three weeks, or about 1,000 per day.

Eli Crane, an Arizona U.S. representative whose 2nd congressional district includes portions of Maricopa and Pinal counties which have experienced a steady inflow of illegal aliens, is on the invasion’s front line. Noting that about 280 people on the FBI terrorist watch list have been apprehended at the border, Crane wrote in a “Newsweek” op-ed, “If you don’t think there are any lone wolves or terrorist cells that have come in through that wide open border, you’re a fool.”

To ignore the obvious risks that open borders present, and at the same time vigorously promote and magnanimously underwrite Ukraine’s defense of its border against Russia, insults all Americans, proving Biden’s contempt for Americans.

This entry was posted in Posts, Project for Immigration Reform and tagged CB, Lloyd Austin, Mike Johnson, Tony Blinken, Ukraine.

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border

4 Seek 2 Seats For Pennsylvania Superior Court

4 Seek 2 Seats For Pennsylvania Superior Court

By Bob Small

Two seats are up on Pennsylvania Superior Court  and those seeking them are Maria C. Battisa and Harry F. Smail Jr. on the Republican ticket; and Jill Beck and Timika Lane on the Democrat one.

The court was established in 1895 and is one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts. It hears appeals in criminal and most civil cases from county courts of common pleas; and matters involving children and families.

Terms are 10 years and the court is headquartered in Harrisburg.

Maria C. Battista

Maria C. Battista received her Juris Doctorate from Ohio Northern University. She has worked with the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and currently works for the Judge group in Wayne, Pa..

 She has been endorsed by the Pennsylvania FOP.

Jill Beck

Jill Beck is a graduate of Duquesne Law School. She has worked at Kids Voice a private nonprofit representing Allegheny County abused, at-risk, and neglected children.  At Blank Rome, she was co-chair of their working group aimed at protecting the right to protest. She worked for a decade as a clerk with Justice Christine Donahue.  She has also focused on representing “low-income criminal defendants.” Shlives in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh with “her husband, two children, and  their rescue dog”.

Timka Lane

Timika Lane has her law degree from the Rutgers University of Law-Camden. She was elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas  in 2013 and has also served as a chief legal counsel for the Pennsylvania Senate.  Her philosophy is that “litigants are not just names on a pleading”. 

She sees the greatest threat to the practice of law as  “ keeping up with the changes of technology and its effect on traditional methods of litigation.” 

She also worked for Habitat for Humanity during Hurricane Katrina,.

Judge Harry F. Smail Jr.

Harry F. Smail, Jr. has been a Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court judge since being appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett in 2014. He attained his Duquesne University of Law Degree while working as a full-time Probation/Parole Officer.  He has also worked for the Federal Public Defender’s Office of indigent defendants.

‘I do not legislate from the bench; rather, I apply and enforce the law as intended as the third branch of government providing the checks and balances that make our government functional,” he said.

He is a member of The Federalist Society 

He states his opinions “have a 97 percent affirmation rate.”

He said that his decisions about setting aside ballots without the required dates were affirmed by Commonwealth Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

He lives in Westmoreland County with his wife and  two daughters. 

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

By Joe Guzzardi

Recently, San Diego’s Customs and Border Protection officials issued an intelligence notice alerting its agents that “Hamas and Hezbollah militants may potentially be encountered at the Southwest border.”

The memorandum added, in part: “Individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border.” The intel document showed various insignias associated with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups. The document also informed CBP personnel to be vigilant of young men wearing military gear and traveling alone. CBP’s alert coincides with San Diego’s latest border encounters data that show a dramatic increase; September 2023’s 26,000 encounters reflect a 67 percent increase from last year’s 15,000.

From the view of the cartels and coyotes, nothing has been better for their multibillion-dollar businesses than the Israel-Gaza war. As little attention as Biden has paid to border enforcement during his presidency’s three years, the Middle East warfare has pushed Southwest security completely out of the White House’s line of vision. Potential terrorists are well-aware that the border is open. They know that now is the ideal time to take further advantage and ratchet up crossings.

Through the 12 months ending October 21, 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists were encountered between southern border ports of entry, a number that exceeds not only fiscal year 2022’s record-setting total, 98, but the last six fiscal years combined. With encounters between ports at the northern border included, the total for fiscal year 2023 was 172.

Ample evidence exists that terrorists are already present, and plotting. U.S. Customs and Border Protection warned agents that someone who is planning to torture, if not murder, them is looking for their addresses. One text that CBP intercepted read: “We will pay for any addresses of border patrol agents!!”

The sender offered to pay $200 for an agent’s address and $1,000 for “they mommas [sic] address.” Another message read, “I’ll post us torturing any bp agent u send.” Perhaps the texts, a federal felony, are a hoax; no one knows. The FBI, as is its practice, will neither confirm nor deny that an investigation to locate the sender is in progress. But if and when a probe gets underway, the FBI should have little trouble pinpointing the source. When motivated, the FBI operates with peak efficiency. The Department of Justice has, for example, identified and charged nearly 1,200 people who participated in the January 6 protest, the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

With the loss of life mounting in Israel and Gaza, and hostages’ fates unknown, the Biden administration is focused exclusively on the Middle East. And on the domestic front, the administration is focused on appeasing Israeli and Palestinian supporters. But the invasion of the U.S. continues, and more migrants are on the way. In September alone, more than 75,000 migrants crossed the roadless Darién Gap jungle on foot, the second-highest monthly tally recorded by Panamanian officials, only a few thousand less than the 82,000 reported August crossings.

In total, more than 400,000 U.S.-bound migrants, many of them Venezuelans, have crossed the treacherous jungle route this year to enter Central America, a record and once-unimaginable number. Luis Gilberto Murillo, Colombia’s ambassador to the U.S., called illegal immigration through the Darién Gap “an unsustainable crisis” that poses serious safety risks to all who attempt the trip.

Murillo added, disingenuously, that Colombia and the U.S. are working together to dissuade those who contemplate the dangerous journey from taking their first step. Truth be told, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s left-wing president, has said his government will not physically stop illegal aliens from entering the jungle. He argued instead that migration must be dealt with in a humanitarian way – translation, no impediments to the journey further north. The U.S., for its part, has imposed no deterrents to stop the invasion.

Biden’s criminal disregard for breaking immigration laws ensures either bad or tragic results. The bad – crime, bankrupt communities, a lost America – is terrible. The worst, an attack on the homeland, is unthinkable.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analysts who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

1925 World Series Mystery Went Unsolved For 50 Years

1925 World Series Mystery Went Unsolved For 50 Years

By Joe Guzzardi

It took nearly 50 years to resolve one of the World Series’ most controversial plays. For the decades between 1925 and 1974, fans debated whether Pittsburgh Pirates batter Earl Smith was out when Washington Senators outfielder Sam Rice tumbled into the left field stands to hold on to a long fly ball. Or was Smith, as some cranks in the bleachers insisted, safe when the ball fell out of Sam’s glove? The dispute was the stuff that kept hot stove leaguers buzzing for many a cold winter month.

The National League Pirates were the reigning world champions, and the Senators, the American League challengers. Both squads had several players destined for the Cooperstown Hall of Fame. From the Senators, Rice, Walter Johnson, “Goose” Goslin and boy manager, 27-year-old Bucky Harris; from the Pirates, Pie Traynor, Kiki Cuyler and Max Carey. The teams split their first two games and braced themselves for a pivotal third game that would be played in terrible weather. Griffith Stadium, the Senators’ home park, was, wrote one reporter, “swept by hurricane blasts that chilled to the marrow.” In the bottom of the eighth, with the Senators clinging to a 4–3 lead, Pirates catcher Smith sent a line drive into right field. Fleet-footed Rice snared the bulb, and his momentum carried him into the stands.

1925 World Series Mystery Went Unsolved For 50 Years
Sam Rice

As Rice re-created his dramatic catch, he jumped as high as he could, backhanded Smith’s drive, but toppled into the first row. Umpire Cy Rigler raced out from his position at second base, some 250’ away, to signal Smith, rounding third, out. But Pirates fans, first-hand witnesses to the catch, protested that the ball had fallen from Rice’s glove. Rice, the fans griped, replaced the ball in his glove before Rigler arrived on the scene. Some fans were prepared to sign sworn affidavits to back up their claims. Pirates manager Bill McKenzie and team owner Barney Dreyfuss stormed over to the box seats where Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and President Calvin Coolidge were watching the unfolding action. McKenzie demanded that Landis overturn Rigler’s call. The commissioner, deferring, said that his baseball powers didn’t include reversing umpire’s judgment calls.

The Senators won the game, but lost the series 4–3. For the rest of his years and wherever he went, Rice was asked if he truly caught the ball or if the questioning fans had really seen sleight-of-hand. Rice had a pat response: “The umpire called Smith out.” Finally, tired of being pestered, Rice announced that he would write a letter to Hall of Fame officials describing the events that could be opened upon his death.

After Rice died in 1974 at age 84 from cancer, HOF brass began a two-week search digging through their files — no letter. Finally, Rice’s missive was found in HOF historian Lee Allen’s file. Allen died before Rice, so he couldn’t point administrators to the tell-all’s location. Finally, the moment of truth had arrived. In Rice’s testimonial, written July 26, 1965, he related that Smith’s line drive landed in his glove’s pocket, that he had “a death grip on it,” and “at no time” did he “lose possession of the ball.”

Time has diminished Rice’s skills and contributions. During his 20-year career, most of which he spent in Washington, Rice achieved a .322 lifetime batting average and fell just 13 shy of 3,000 total base hits. He missed .300 only five times, never by more than seven points, and reached 200 or more hits in a season six times, including 207 in 1930, when, at age 40, he hit .349, a single point shy of his career best.

Rice rarely struck out, averaging only once every 33 at bats, and still shares the all-time American League lead with Joe Jackson for most consecutive multi-hit games, 11, set in 1925 season, and his peers considered him to be the league’s most effective baserunner, on par with Ty Cobb.

The Hall of Fame inducted Rice in 1963, a class that included Dizzy Dean, Bill Dickey and Jimmie Foxx.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Email guzzjoe@yahoo.com or X @JoeGuzzardi19.

1925 World Series Mystery Went Unsolved For 50 Years

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

By Bob Small

We went to the Peace and Conflict Studies Speaker Series on Oct. 24, at Lang Performing Arts Center at Swarthmore College. 

There was conflict, though, and it was not peaceful.

The topic was Israeli Security Policy.   The attempted speaker was Dr. Barak Mendelsohn from Haverford  College and the Israeli IDF

However at the beginning, members of various protest groups  left en masse chanting loudly. though not always in sync. Then continued chanting outside of the auditorium.

They did not have identification on their handouts.  It’s not like we did it in the sixties, eighties, or even this century. The chants were incomprehensible but they made speaker in comprehensible too.

We worried about Jewish students in the audience, who might of felt fearful.

We learned some background from the Swarthmore College Phoenix;

The three listed organizing groups for and Oct. 12 event, and we assume, the Oct. 24 event were Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) which is the campus section of Democratic Socialists of America; and Swarthmore African-American Student Society (SASS)

 There were three other unlisted groups implied.

Dr Sa’ed Atshan, the chair of Peace and Conflict series responded by e-mail, to my query about the disruption.

“Thank you so much for being present and for this feedback. We’d love to have you with us again in the future,” he wrote.

He was not present during this event. Frankly, we didn’t see any Swarthmore Public Security either albeit we were later told that they were there.

Now, being nothing if not thorough, I emailed Visualizing Palestine, which was named on the sign expressing my concerns. Visualizing Palestine. The conversation led to a contact with Visualizing Impact.

The best way to explain Visualizing Impact is that they provide the signs for Visualizing Palestine and would equally provide signs for a visualizing Israel group.  They seem not to have any agenda except profit.  For one of many critiques of this kind of group, see Pros & Cons of Data Visualization: the Good, Bad, & Ugly 

Lastly, read  Our Protests Should Be More Thoughtful in The Phoenix.

This said everything that I felt.  Including “ But working to silence someone is never an avenue towards justice.”

I  wanted to hear the questions to Dr. Mendelsohnn from the  protesting group.

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

Remembering Sal Maglie The Demon Barber For Italian-American Heritage Month

Remembering Sal Maglie The Demon Barber For Italian-American Heritage Month

By Joe Guzzardi

When Sal Maglie was finishing his two years, 1956-1957, with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he gave advice to his two future Hall of Fame teammates, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Known around baseball as “The Barber,” Sal told the future greats: “Throw that second brushback pitch right away so the batter will know you meant the first one.” Koufax and Drysdale were quick studies, and with Maglie, rank numbers 3, 4 and 8, respectively, in the Top Ten among baseball history’s most feared moundsmen. The always-intimidating St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson tops the list.

Judith Testa, in her book, “Sal Maglie, the Demon Barber,” described Maglie as “a glowering, 6-foot-2-inch, 180-pound righthander whose game-day face bristled with thick black stubble.” Although Maglie looked fearsome and his high, hard one whistled right under batters’ chins – hence his nickname – off the field, he was gentle, courteous and good-natured. 

Born Salvatore Anthony Maglie, he was his parents’ third and youngest child, and their only son. His father, Giuseppe Maglie, came from a prosperous Italian family, and he had earned a high school degree. But once in America, Giuseppe’s limited English meant he had to work as a common laborer. Sal’s mother, Maria Bleve, was from a peasant background and never attended a day of school. Despite their economic challenges, Sal’s parents worked hard. They encouraged Sal to be determined and to pursue the life that he wanted.

Sal’s first passion was baseball; he turned down a basketball scholarship that Niagara University offered him in order to play baseball at the Union Carbide plant where he worked, and also with local semi-pro teams. Along the way, Double A Buffalo Bisons’ manager Steve O’Neill, a former MLB catcher who managed four big league teams, noticed Maglie. In 1938, he added Maglie to the team’s roster.

Maglie struggled and was demoted to Class-D by 1940. In I945, he had pitched well enough to earn an invitation to join the New York Giants. After pitching in the Cuban Winter League and the short-lived Mexican League, Maglie had mastered the art of effective pitching. Banned for years from MLB because he had played for the outlaw Mexican League, Maglie returned to the Giants in 1950, where he posted an 18-4 record, followed by 23-6 and 18-8 for the next two seasons. Then, in 1955 at age 36, and plagued by back pain, Maglie was sold to the Cleveland Indians. The Indians, in 1956, sold Magie to the Brooklyn Dodgers for $100, a mistake General Manager Hank Greenberg rued for years.

Supposedly washed up, Maglie became the key figure in Brooklyn’s nail-biting 1956 pennant drive. The Dodgers edged out the Milwaukee Braves by one game, and the Cincinnati Redlegs by two. Maglie’s 13-5 record included winning two of the season’s final five games and pitching a no-hitter against the Braves. Maglie kept his hot streak going when he won the World Series opener against the New York Yankees, 6-3. In the series’ fifth game, however, Maglie faced Don Larsen, allowed only two runs over eight innings, but no pitcher could have outdueled the perfect game pitcher.

In 1957 and 1958, Maglie pitched ineffectively for the Yankees and the Cardinals before closing out his MLB career as a Boston Red Sox and Seattle Pilots pitching coach. In 1966, Maglie’s wife, Kay, died, and he became a 49-year-old widower with two young children. Sal’s life began a downward spiral. Although Sal happily remarried in 1971, his adopted son Sal Jr. became addicted to drugs and had frequent police encounters.

For a few years, putting his personal heartache aside, Maglie played golf, socialized with friends, signed autographs at card shows, and attended old timers’ games. But, Maglie’s good health ended abruptly in 1982 when he suffered a brain aneurysm. After making a remarkable recovery, Sal enjoyed several more good years. But tragedy struck again in March 1985. Sal Jr. fell from a window and died. Law enforcement, aware of the troubled young man’s drug associations, suspected foul play. After that, Sal’s physical and mental health declined rapidly, and he was placed in a nursing home in 1987 where, for five years, he struggled with dementia. “The Barber” died on December 28, 1992, at the age of 75.

Maglie is one of the most recognizable players in baseball history. He is the last to hold the distinction shared by seven others of having pitched for the New York Giants, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Few remember, however, how dominant Maglie was. His won-lost record was 119-62; a .657 winning percentage which ranks him 22nd on the all-time list just below Randy Johnson and just above Koufax.

The last chapter of Roger Kahn’s book, “The Head Game: Baseball Seen from the Pitcher’s Mound,” is titled “A Golden Dozen: a Listing of Armed Men.” Along with Bob Feller, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson is Maglie’s name with Kahn’s observation: “No one on any mound was any meaner. Like Iago, he didn’t know the meaning of remorse.”

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Remembering Sal Maglie The Demon Barber

Remembering Sal Maglie The Demon Barber

Biden Urgent Address Omits Border Crisis

Biden Urgent Address Omits Border Crisis

By Joe Guzzardi

During his Oval Office address to the nation about Russia’s invasion into the Ukraine and Israel’s offensive against Gaza, President Biden quoted former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who had once called America “the indispensable nation.” The reference to the U.S. as indispensable struck many viewers as curious since the president, starting on the first day he entered the White House, has worked with such determination to destroy American sovereignty.

Since Biden assumed office, about 8.6 million foreign nationals have crossed the border and settled in the interior. Their personal histories, health statuses and intentions are mostly unknown. Worth noting is that Albright is one of a long line of secretaries of state who can turn a patriotic phrase but are, at heart, devoted globalists. The line, post-Albright, includes Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.

As expected, Biden pleaded for more money to fund the two wars and will send a $105 billion package to Congress where it will face an uphill battle. The bulk of the funding, $61.4 billion allocated for Ukraine at a time when Americans have grown tired of sending their tax dollars, without accountability, toward what appears to be an endless, distant conflict. Within the $61.4 billion is $481 million to support Ukrainians arriving in the U.S. through the “Uniting for Ukraine” program which provides a two-year parole that includes work permission and other affirmative benefits. In other words, more immigration – another Biden policy that Americans are weary of, especially as they watch thousands of migrants cross the U.S. border unchecked daily.

Israel’s share of the $105 billion pie is a mere 25 percent of Ukraine’s – $14.3 billion. Biden’s proposed national security package will provide Israel with $10.6 billion in assistance through the Defense Department, including air and missile defense support, industrial base investments and replenishment of U.S. military stocks that have been drawn down to support Israel.

The $105 billion total also allots $10 billion for humanitarian assistance. Tucked into the $10 billion is $850 million for what’s referred to as “migration and refugee assistance” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Again, more immigration and more facilitating of immigration which voters oppose.

Biden’s address flummoxed viewers. The president passionately made the case for the U.S. to aid in defending the Ukraine and Israel, and few dispute that both embattled nations need U.S. aid. But Biden has created a U.S. border crisis and then continuously ignored the calamities that an unprotected border spawned; among them, migrant deaths, drug smuggling, human trafficking, sex trafficking and environmental damage. Key administration officials like Vice President Kamala Harris and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have rubbed salt into concerned citizens’ wounds by, in defiance of ample evidence, insisting that the border is secure.

While Biden, imploring Congress and the Americans it represents, to act as the “agents of democracy,” he never in his 15-minute address mentioned the border and the terrorism threats that leaving it unprotected represents.

Maybe – but only maybe – the latest Customs and Border Protect report will awaken Biden, et al, to the homeland dangers percolating. Border officials arrested 18 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist in September, making fiscal year 2023 a record year for such encounters at the southern border. The watchlist, now officially called the Terrorist Screening Dataset, is the U.S. database that contains information on terrorist identities and includes not only known or suspected terrorists, but also affiliates of watch-listed individuals.

CBP statistics released Saturday showed that 169 people on the FBI terror watchlist were encountered between ports of entry at the Southern border in the past 12 months, a number that exceeds not only FY 22’s record-setting total, 98, but the last six fiscal years combined.

Including encounters between northern border entry ports, the total for FY 23 rose to 172. Thousands of “special interest aliens” from numerous countries, including the Middle East, have been arrested by Border Patrol agents while attempting to cross the U.S. southern border illegally over the last two years. Special interest aliens are people from countries the federal government identifies as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some sort of national security threat. Iranians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Afghans, Egyptians, Chinese and other nationalities have been stopped.

If the administration wants to avert what looks like the inevitable – a major terrorist attack on the homeland – it will have to get immediately busy shutting the border and deporting illegally present aliens.

Biden Urgent Address Omits Border Crisis

Biden Urgent Address Omits Border Crisis

Winds of change in Swarthmore?

Winds of change in Swarthmore?

By Bob Small

We attended a  “meet and greet”, Oct. 19, for the two GOP Candidates in the Swarthmore Borough Special Election, Nov. 7. 

This election was necessitated by the resignation of two Democratic Borough Council members, Sarah Graden and Francine Halderman.

It’s been many years since the Republican Party has meant anything in Swarthmore. There was an enthusiastic audience, despite the Phillies playing in the NCLS.

The Republicans are Rob M. Jordan and Bill Pearce.  They explained why they were running in a letter published  in the Oct. 20 Swarthmorean.

“Our Council’s financial decisions are causing great concern.  Overspending, a draw down  of reserves, and the Mayor’s ominous warning of a looming budget crisis have left us burdened with a 9 percent tax hike in 2022 and a 10 percent tax hike this year – with an even higher jump possibly to come shortly.”

They also mentioned  “the erosion of civility and accountability in leadership”.

They noted that the GOP is not merely the “party of grievance”. The candidates said they want to “preserve our cherished Tree Canopy from PECO Deception”.

They said they also want to“increase the exceptional quality of  life that defines our community,” and to embrace “intelligent zoning and forward thinking planning.”

They said at the event they feared Swarthmore would turn into Lansdowne if the current board’s agenda was not checked.

Rob Jordan is a Villanova University Economics Graduate and has worked as a senior healthcare executive.  He is a member of the Don Guanella Park Master Plan Advisory Committee and is president of the Board of Directors of Saint Joseph Family Hope emergency housing center.

Bill Pearce is a graduate of Drexel in Chemical Engineering. He also has a masters of education from Rutgers, and an MBA from Tulane.

After a 35 year career in what he describes as “global business development”, he moved to Swarthmore.  At the time of COVID, he joined the Widener University SBDC(Small Business Development Center) where he is a business consultant and international trade specialist. 

He recently joined the Goldman Sachs 10 K Small Business Program at Community College of Philadelphia.

We’ve had two decades of one-party rule in Swarthmore.  As long as there’s only one choice, whether Democrat or Republican, this  feels more like dictatorship than democracy.

Winds of change in Swarthmore?
Bill Pearce and Rob Jordan,