Category: Guest Authors

Braves Return To Series Brings Memories of ’57

Braves Return To Series Brings Memories of ’57

By Joe Guzzardi

The Braves, once Milwaukee’s pride and joy, who earlier called Boston home, and are now Atlanta’s National League champions, will take on the Houston Astros starting 8 tonight, Oct. 26, in the 2021 World Series.

The Braves have a rich history that’s largely lost in baseball’s sands of time. In his book “Boston Braves,” author Richard A. Johnson reminded readers that the Beaneaters pulled off one of baseball’s greatest upsets when, in 1914, they surprised Connie Mack’s heavily favored and powerful Philadelphia A’s in a four-game sweep. In all, the Braves’ New England version captured 10 National League pennants, and put 38 players in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, among them Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Casey Stengel, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.

A near-miss for Cooperstown induction is Milwaukee’s Selva Lewis Burdette, a 203-game winner who dominated for the Braves in his team’s thrilling 1957 World Series triumph over the mighty New York Yankees. Burdette was commonly known in baseball circles by his hometown nickname, “Nitro Lew,” his West Virginia birthplace. In the seven-game 1957 series, Burdette hurled three complete game victories, including, on two-days’ rest, the 5-0 finale. Between the eight-game span between October 3 and 10, Burdette pitched 27 innings and allowed only two runs. In his three games, Burdette held slugging Yankees’ future Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra to a harmless single between them and, for the series, posted a 0.67 ERA.

Burdette became the first pitcher to hurl three complete games, and two shutouts since 1905 when the New York Giants’ Christy Mathewson performed the remarkable feat. And Nitro Lew went about his Yankee domination quickly. The times of Burdette’s Game one, Game five and Game seven starts were, respectively, 2:26, 2:00 and 2:34, and included his 24 consecutive goose egg innings. Like the Yankees, the 1957 Braves players’ roster included four future Hall of Famers: Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Red Schoendienst and Spahn; for the Bronx Bombers, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Enos Slaughter and Whitey Ford.

Braves Return To Series Brings Memories of '57

Society for American Baseball Research historian Alex Kupfer remembers Burdette as a fidgety moundsman whose constant hat and jersey adjustment, forehead-wiping, lip-touching and muttering to himself distracted batters who were convinced that the hurler was throwing a spit ball. Once asked to identify his best pitch, Burdette replied that it’s “the one I do not throw,” a subtle denial that he moistened the bulb. Originally drafted by the Yankees, Burdette had a golden opportunity to learn how to throw the spitball. During early days in the Yankees system, Burdette occasionally worked with roving pitching coach Burleigh Grimes, one of the game’s great spitballers. But, he was concerned that if he showed Burdette how to throw a spitter, the promising young right-hander would be thrown out of professional baseball.

Two years after his World Series Most Valuable Player performance, Burdette was a key protagonist in one of baseball’s most extraordinary games. On a rainy May 26, 1959, Milwaukee night, Burdette faced off against the Pittsburgh Pirates’ crafty Harvey Haddix. For 12 innings, Haddix retired 36 consecutive Braves, while Burdette also tossed scoreless, but not perfect ball. Then, in the 13th inning Braves slugger Joe Adcock drove in Felix Mantilla, the winning run.

Mantilla had reached first on Pirates’ third baseman Don Hoak’s error. The imperfect Burdette nevertheless turned in an excellent performance; he threw 13 scoreless innings, allowed 12 hits and walked none. After the game Burdette phoned Haddix to sympathetically tell him, “You deserved to win, but I scattered all my hits, and you bunched your one.” Not appreciative of either Burdette’s sense of humor or his timing, the still-smarting Haddix hung up.

Before his 18-year career ended in 1967, Burdette had short, occasionally effective stints with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago Cubs and the California Angels. When his active career ended, Burdette scouted, rejoined the Braves as Atlanta’s pitching coach, worked in public relations for a Milwaukee brewery and broadcast on Florida cable television. Although Burdette appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot for 15 consecutive years beginning in 1973, he always came up short.

In 2007, Burdette, a lung cancer victim, died at age 80 in Winter Garden, Fla., where he had taken up residency during his post-baseball career. At Burdette’s funeral, his World Series teammate, shortstop Johnny Logan, didn’t shed light on the decades-long unsolved mystery about crafty righty’s spitball. Logan, however, admitted in his eulogy that he couldn’t tell if Burdette threw a wet one, but he knew that his teammate “was a hell of a competitor.”

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

Braves Return To Series Brings Memories of ’57

Braves Return To Series Brings Memories of ’57

Write-in For Change In Solanco

Write-in For Change In Solanco

By Bob Small

Driving back from Lapp’s Family Restaurant in Quarryville (Pa.) we kept seeing signs of a write in Candidacy for the Solanco (Southern Lancaster County) School Board, One of the names listed was David Spangler. Arriving home, I searched the Internet for David Spangler –If the name was Bob Smith, I wouldn’t have tried– and discovered him. Once he was located, we arranged a time for the call.

David, who has six children with his wife (four in school) concluded that he wanted to have more of an input, if possible, on the School Board decisions. He said the mask issue was only one of many issues where he felt like he would of made different decisions than the Solanco School Board. He cited high quality teachers, CRT, and the lack of local control on many related issues, and other ideas “slowly seeping into our schools”. He spoke of government overreach and he was speaking about Governor Wolf

Write-in For Change In Solanco

In terms of outreach, there are about 30 yard-signs, along with some 5 to 7 cards. He does have some mentions on a local Facebook group. He was also interviewed by The Lancaster Patriot newspaper, a conservative publication.

He said that this is a movement across Pennsylvania. This may, possibly, be nationwide, and seems to be organic, rather than part of a plan. I find this more constuctive than persons constantly ventilating on their local Next Door group, but not attending government meetings, etc. These “internet warriors” believe they have accomplished something but my experience has been that real change requires “getting your hands dirty”, whether by running in an election you won’t win but at least getting the issue(s) out there, or by being part of a peaceful demonstration or vigil, or finding some other way to have your voice heard.

Write-in For Change In Solanco

I Vote In Person, Just Sayin’

I Vote In Person, Just Sayin’

By Bob Small

Preventing voter denial.

So this was the Presidential Election of 2004 and my Pennsylvania Social Service Union (PSSU) arranged for some recent retirees to work the election season with America Coming Together (ACT).

I Vote In Person, Just Sayin'

ACT was a political action 527, whose most famous Funder was George Soros.

Technically non-partisan — we could not be pro John Forbes Kerry — but we could be non-favorable to George Walker Bush i.e. telling the citizenry that it may be time for a change.

Due to these niceties, many of the people we came in contact with believed we were Socialists, once we convinced them we were not Jehovah’s Witnesses as we were going from urban door to urban door and suburban door to suburban door. Our stated task and what we were funded for, was the noble task of voter registration.

Once I decided I no longer wanted to go with my crew on the mean streets of Boothwyn or Philly, I invented a program which would have a crew to go to senior homes and help the residents complete absentee ballots.

We did this for the rest of the election season, until the absentee ballot deadline.

The facilities loved us because our program would begin in the late morning and continue until lunch then begin again, answering all manners of questions and leaving before rush hour.

Sadly, these efforts to provide absentee ballots to the old and disabled doesn’t seem to have been continued in the 17 years since.

While this does not qualify as voter suppression could it be called voter denial?

Most of the staff in these facilities probably have no reason to work to register the persons living there

This was one of the original reason for absentee ballots but, well, that reason seems to have mutated to people wanting to avoid large Covidy crowds.

I can understand that reasoning but, personally, avoid embracing it.

Due to Covid, we try to avoid large crowds, but on Nov. 2, we will walk the block to our Polling Place and cast our in person votes, because, as Americans and as Greens, that is what we do. Then, as husband and wife, we will go home and argue about it. Because that’s also what we do.

Lastly, because, well, I have worked for the Post Office and other government bureaucracies, I vote in person.

Just saying.

I Vote In Person, Just Sayin’

Vote Early Vote Often, Memories South Philly’s 2nd Ward

Vote Early Vote Often, Memories South Philly’s 2nd Ward

By Bob Small

This was probably around 1989, when I was visiting my old South Philly apartment-mate, having recently moved up and out to Swarthmore. On the way to the local dinery, we ran into a D Committee Person who asked if I was voting today, Election Day.

“Joe, I don’t live here anymore”

“Bob, I didn’t ask you that”

Vote Early Vote Often, Memories South Philly's 2nd Ward

This was back in the wild and wooly days of South Philly D Politics, where the 2nd Ward Meetings would end with the admonition to “vote early and often”.

Said as a joke. I think. The big names were Vince Fumo, Joe Tayoun, and Joe Vignola. Maybe you heard of them. Quite sure the same jiggery-pokery never happens with R’s in Delco.

If elected, the Greens would never engage in this. Not sure about the Libertarians.

In Swarthmore, at the 2005 Primary, I went in to vote on a Ballot Question, as befits a Green Party member. However, the Judge of Elections tried to refuse to let me vote as I was neither D nor R. As this Ballot Question would involve higher taxes, I asked whether I would be exempt from these taxes as I was denied my vote.

When that didn’t work, I stated I would sit on his election table, as I had sat in at various protests, until I was physically removed or allowed to vote. Wanting to avoid a scene, he allowed me to cast a ballot. What he should have done, if he was unsure of the law — imagine a judge not knowing the law — was to let me have a Provisional ballot.

Later that year, in my only foray into electoral politics, I ran against him, as a Green, and lost, but felt vindicated.

My story ended up being shared state wide among the third parties of the time,
so this particular slight, denial of the right to vote, could never happen again.

I had a running mate in that election, who ran as both a Green and a Republican,
for the Wallingford Swarthmore School Board. She lost, of course, but won the next year as a Democrat. Her name is Mary Gay Scanlon. I often wonder what happened to her.

Memories South Philly’s 2nd Ward

Overkill Predicted For Baseball

Overkill Predicted For Baseball

By Joe Guzzardi

Major League Baseball’s odyssey toward the World Series began with two wild card games; the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, and the Los Angeles Dodgers against the St. Louis Cardinals. Luckily for MLB, the two games featured four of baseball’s historic and most revered teams. Television rating were high, but the games were a slog, especially for East Coast fans. The American League contest was a tedious 3:13 hours, and the National League’s game was played at a quicksand-like 4:15 hour pace. The Dodgers-Cardinals face off was a tight 3-1, but most EDT views missed the exciting Chris Taylor L.A. bottom-of the ninth-home run that sealed the Dodgers’ victory.

Overkill Predicted For Baseball

For dinosaur fans that yearn for fewer and speedier playoff games, the forecast is grim. In 2022, the fondest wish of MLB owners will come true when a new collective bargaining agreement will expand the wild card from its current one-game, sudden death format to the best-of-three. More than half of baseball’s 30 teams will be post-season eligible, and inevitably MLB will expand to 32, thereby further diluting the talent pool that fans pay a king’s ransom to watch. MLB will surpass NCAA football and basketball and the NBA as the sports that endlessly grind on with impossibly long, overlapping seasons.

Post-season’s qualifying standards have plunged since 1968 when the Detroit Tigers were the last team to win a World Series by capturing the American League crown, and then advancing straight to the World Series. Ten times in history, teams have won 100 plus games and not even qualified for playoffs. Led by batting champion Norm Cash and his .361 average, the 1961 Tigers won 101 games, but finished eight games behind the Yankees. That’s the way it should be. Teams that feel deprived when they don’t get past the wild card have a simple solution: win more games during the season. Under the projected format, however, teams under .500 that qualify for the playoffs will be commonplace.

Unhappy fans might as well throw in the towel. Money overrides all other considerations. As money-hungry MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said: “Baseball is a growth industry. Eventually, we’d like to get to 32 teams.” Under the new set-up, MLB owners and players will cash in. MLB currently grosses more than $10 billion annually. With two new clubs, the owners would likely add $2 billion or more in expansion fees, and new media rights’ revenues.

MLB negotiated a new seven-year television contracts with Fox and Turner Broadcasting – TBS and TNT – which will fetch $8.3 billion, a 40 percent increase over prior contracts, mostly for the right to broadcast postseason games. Expansion, possibly to Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, Montreal, Vancouver or Mexico, is assuredly in baseball’s future, assuming 75 percent of the owners vote favorably. More teams mean more playoff games, and will generate much more revenue.

Players are all-in on expansion too. As part of the new collective bargaining agreement, players also win. More team revenues will mean higher minimum salaries, and player-friendly free-agency agreements. Today, baseball’s minimum salary is $572,000; the average is $4.2 million; and the most eye-popping incomes are the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout, a $427 million contract paid out over 12 years, and the New York Yankees’ Garrett Cole, $324 million spread out over nine years. Trout and Cole’s annual incomes are $37.7 million and $32.4 million, respectively.

In his giddy anticipation of never-ending revenues, Manfred is overlooking one important variable. Baseball’s television audience is dwindling. The under-18 market doesn’t care about baseball, a sport they consider too boring. Once baseball’s most passionate fans, youths have shifted their allegiance to soccer, basketball and football. Older fans, another of baseball’s traditional backbones, are dissatisfied with the constant changes, and have lost interest. Younger and older fans agree that baseball’s most important games, the playoffs and the All-Star Game, start too late; they yearn for old-fashioned day games. Kids go to school, adults work. All-Star Game television ratings have been in free-fall for years, and bottomed out in 2021 when only 8.2 million tuned in. Proof of fans’ indifference: compared to 2019, the last full 162-game season, the 29 regional sports networks that Nielsen Media Research measured reflected a 12 percent audience drop.

Baseball is on a collision course with overkill, and many consider its death overdue. No fan, young or old, is naïve enough to think that Manfred cares about baseball. His self-confessed mission is simple: let’s follow the money.

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

Overkill Predicted For Baseball

Overkill Predicted For Baseball

Biden Frivolously Neglects National Security

Biden Frivolously Neglects National Security

By Joe Guzzardi  

To learn first-hand how negligent the federal government is about national security, book an airline reservation to any destination. By comparison to the open Southwest border, airports are locked down tight.

Biden Frivolously Neglects National

The pre-boarding drill is too familiar. Travelers, once at the football-field long Transportation Safety Administration pre-boarding line, must remove shoes. After taking out iPads, liquids, gels and aerosol items (maximum 3.4 ounce-capacity) which have been packed into one quart-sized, clear plastic bag with a zip-top closure, airplane passengers then must toss their baggage into bins for screening.

After that frustrating drill, passengers must show government-issued identification with a current photograph to a TSA official, and go through a metal detector. Unlucky passengers are pulled aside for further screening with either a full-body pat-down or a handheld wand that’s passed across the upper torso, hands, legs and backsides. These considerable inconveniences that often involve affronts to privacy cost taxpayers $7.7 billion annually.

At the border, however, illegal aliens from more than 100 countries have been able to walk right in, surrender to Customs and Border Protection agents, and wait for transportation to their final destination within the U.S. The aliens’ backgrounds and health status at the time of their crossing are unknown. But, after the fact, officials learned that more than 18 percent of illegal immigrant families and 20 percent of unaccompanied minorswho recently crossed the U.S. border tested COVID-positive before border agents released them into the interior.

Moreover, trusted border sources revealed that, exclusive of their immigration offenses, 15 percent of border crossers have criminal records. Edgar Campos-Campos, for example, a previously deported and now detained Mexican national, was convicted of aggravated statutory rape in Bedford County, Tenn. Immigration law, until Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas redefined to his advantage what criminal behavior is, banned convicted felons from reentry. In his memo to Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tae D. Johnson, Mayorkas also doubled down on keeping the border crisis overheated when he pronounced that “undocumented non-citizens,” as he calls illegal immigrants, won’t be deported unless they represent a threat to border security, national security or public safety.

The contrast between airport security and open border insecurity proves that the U.S. isn’t a serious country. If the federal government should suddenly become motivated to protect its citizens, the border could be secured in little time. Israel can share its approach. Last month, Israel Aerospace Industries, a defense contractor, introduced REX MKII, a remote-controlled robot that can patrol border zones and track infiltrators. The unmanned vehicle can be tablet or manually controlled to achieve the most effective movement or surveillance functions. REX MKII is the latest addition to the drone technology world. Proponents claim that semi-autonomous machines, like the four-wheel-drive robot REX MKII, provide a large range of protection as they gather intelligence. The Israeli military currently uses a smaller but similar vehicle called the Jaguar to patrol Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

Israel is keenly aware of threats from foreign enemies, but the U.S. is indifferent to the identical risks. Former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, ousted by Biden after his 30-year career defending the homeland, said that terrorists and other criminals, now aware that the border is open, are diligently trying to cross into the U.S. Scott said that criminals want to gain access to the U.S. interior. Statistically, Scott added, the widely available public CBP statistics prove that every year the illegal entries always include rapists, murderers and potential terrorists. “Those all exist in who we actually catch,” Scott said, concluding that “to think there is not just as bad or worse people in those getting away would be naive.”

Scott’s credible warnings should be heeded. Moreover, last year’s DHS Assessment Threat predicted the 15,000-strong Haitian surge, also ignored. Neither Biden nor his immigration czar Vice President Kamala Harris has been to the border, proof of their superficiality. DHS Secretary Mayorkas continues to undermine national security and subvert immigration law with his dangerous statements and inaction. In the Biden White House, naïveté, to Scott’s assessment, reigns.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Biden Frivolously Neglects National Security

September BLS Report Boon To Open Immigration Boosters

September BLS Report Boon To Open Immigration Boosters

By Joe Guzzardi

For the second consecutive month, Wall Street analysts and media business forecasters badly missed the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s job creation total. Dow Jones projected 500,000 new jobs for September, a greater than 300,000 misfire after the true BLS number came in at 194,000. Television commentators were aghast at their second straight BLS whiff. August’s expected jobs creation total was predicted to be 720,000, which turned out to be a more inaccurate forecast than September’s when the so-called experts were off the mark by 485,000 jobs. In August, the economy created a mere 235,000 jobs.

September BLS Report Boon To Open Immigration Boosters

No surprise that COVID-19 took the brunt of the blame for the steep declines, particularly among workers in education and local/state employment, but also among bus drivers, food service workers and substitute teachers. Another variable that added to the dismal September results was the disappearance from the labor force of many older, low-wage workers still fearful about COVID-19 and its Delta variant. A historic 11 million jobs are open and available. As far as the economy and job creation are concerned, the U.S. is still in COVID-19’s grasp.

“We’re hiring” signs are everywhere, yet few workers have stepped up to fill the jobs. Although openings are at or near an all-time record, one hurdle to attracting employees is that many of the positions require in-person work for construction, hospitality, delivery services or warehousing, the exact types of jobs too many Americans shun in the current environment. Thanks to the pandemic fear the government and scare-mongering media have instilled in the general public, potential workers stay away from close-contact employment. Consequently, most job seekers are hopeful of finding mostly unavailable remote work. A recent review of the ZipRecruiter websitefound that only one in 10 postings offered remote employment.

When workers are in short supply, the clarion call for more immigration inevitably follows. Bill Kristol, for example, once a conservative, now a Democrat, and always an immigration advocate, put out a tweet which proclaimed that immigration could solve the economy’s employment doldrums. Kristol wrote: “We can debate infrastructure, tax policy, government spending, etc. But it’s not a close call as to the one thing that would do the most for our economy across the board: More immigration. Both ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled.’ Which the Administration and Congress have done nothing on.”

Well – not exactly nothing. Kristol must not be paying attention to the immigration news. Encouraging illegal immigration, bringing Afghan evacuees to the U.S. and raising the refugee cap are definitely something. Soon the U.S. will have a worker surplus. The 15,000 Haitians who surged the border, the 50,000 or more Afghanistan evacuees and the 125,000 refugees that Biden has committed to for fiscal 2021-22, and the 2 million released-at-the-border illegal aliens will inevitably receive employment authorization. Also on their way to compete for jobs in the U.S. labor pool are the annual 1 million-plus legal immigrants who, as part of their permanent residency, receive lifetime valid work permits. Finally, add about 700,000 guest workers that traditionally enter the U.S. to perform jobs which range from medical doctors to agriculture-based employees.

The approximately 1 million legal and 2 million illegal immigrants, the evacuees, the refugees and the guest workers will go a long way to making Kristol and the immigration lobby’s dreams come true. And if Congress passes the reconciliation bill that it’s kicking around, about 8 million more aliens will be granted amnesty, receive legal status and work permits. COVID-19 restrictions could impact the foreign-born arrivals, but illegal immigrant amnesty candidates already represent several million work permits.

High immigration and the lower wages immigrants earn harm those that can least withstand economic setbacks – American blacks and Hispanics, other minorities, the disabled, recently arrived low-skilled legal immigrants and others without a college degree. More immigration, regardless of how much it may hurt Americans who fund it, is the blueprint that the Biden administration has, to the disappointment of most, chosen to follow, and is committed to.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

September BLS Report Boon To Open Immigration Boosters

Swarthmore Was Once Republican

Swarthmore Was Once Republican

By Bob Small

For many years, Swarthmore, and Delaware County was safely Republican. Recently the tide has turned, as it usually does, and now both Delaware County Council, and the Borough of Swarthmore, are solidly Democratic. Though many have ascribed it to Swarthmore College’s influence, or “the Kremlin on the Krum”, as one Spiro T. Agnew called it, it was probably time for a change.

In the 2020 Election, Swarthmore had 3,345 votes for Biden and 427 for Trump. The Borough is 59.3 D and 37.0 Exact number of Registrants, it seems, were only available from the Delco Bureau of Elections, via a release of information form, which my inner Libertarian rebelled against.

The Swarthmore Republican Party does exist, but it has no electronic presence!

The Swarthmore Democratic Party has a Facebook page updated
on Sep. 28 (as of Oct 9), The website for the Swarthmore Democratic Committee was last updated in 2018, and also uses Latin (the influence of the College, no doubt). By the way, there was a Swarthmore College Republican Group, but….

As for the Nov 2, Municipal Election, Republicans Albert Federico and David Rowley are standing for Inspector of Elections in their Precincts; 2 out of the 13 major Party Candidates. Albert mentions that he is “running to retain his current position as Minority Inspector”. He could only become the Majority Inspector if he garnered more votes than the Democrat running in his precinct. David Rowley is fairly reticent.

As a Green, I don’t really have a dog in this hunt, though I’ll vote for the Libertarian on the Swarthmore ballot, Patrick John Hochstuhl, who is standing u for Constable. A Constable (courtesy of Berks County)
“A Constable is a sworn Law Enforcement/Peace Officer that can arrest for felony crimes and breaches of the peace committed in his presence, or by warrant anywhere in the commonwealth.”

There are 117 pages in the Municipal Races, just for Delaware County, and there are only 3 Libertarians and one Green running, which is a lost opportunity because many of these offices are unopposed. Among Independents, a David Cleary is running for Garnet Valley School Board.

Statewide, there are almost 150 Libertarians running for various offices, and nine Greens. One of whom, Kearni Warren, will be part of a three-way League of Women Voters of Central Delaware County Candidate Forum 7 p.m., tomorrow, Oct 12 . It will be live-streamed on YouTube. Visit here for details.

Swarthmore Was Once Republican
Swarthmore Was Once Republican

A Republican In Swarthmore

A Republican In Swarthmore

By Bob Small

I spoke to one of the Republicans in Swarthmore with a long and devoted history with the Party about his experiences. He is still active, though a young senior. we discussed the history of the history and future of the Swarthmore GOP, and how things had changed and not changed.

For purposes of this article, he agreed to the interview as long as his name wasn’t used, I’ll call him RS (Republican in Swarthmore)’

Swarthmore, Pa., for those who don’t know is overwhelmingly Democrat.

RS remembers the time when the Borough was almost all Republicans and now
is almost, well it is all Democrat, except for a few minor offices.

A Republican In Swarthmore

He didn’t feel it had changed “a whole hell of a lot”, and that Borough Council continued to be dedicated to “the needs of the local citizens”.

We also touched on Alice “Putty” Willets , whom he worked with in her capacity on Borough Council and who I knew for her work on the “Dew Drop Inn” Senior Center. We both agreed it was a shame she was never elected Mayor.

Here is her obit from The Swarthmorean https://www.swarthmorean.com obituary-death-notice

RS says he has maybe received maybe 10 “crazy comments” in his various duties for the Borough about being a “Republican”, probably the same I have received for being a Green and not a Democrat.

RS is a proud Swarthmore College graduate and we discussed where he agreed and disagreed with the College’s decisions I. e. He thought the Inn was “a great enrichment”, for instance, but worked against the College dropping football. How the College affected the Blue Route (2 lanes rather than four), and how the College seeks to maintain “good community relations” by having Athletics, Concerts, Lectures , etc open to the public.

Lastly, we both being Seniors, feeling “it beats the alternative”, we discussed how the Borough helps with walkability by keeping the sidewalks in shape by reminding homeowners about repair, trimming bushes, etc. Right now, there’s a whole vibrant downtown area, but people of all Parties are becoming opposed to this huge Condo project that might eviscerate up to 50 percent of our shopping area. (More about that in the future).
Like many of us, he worries that the increasing RE taxes and higher rents will affect the future of Swarthmoreans to continue to “age in place”.

A Republican In Swarthmore

Remembering Stanczaks For Polish American Month

Remembering Stanczaks For Polish American Month

By Joe Guzzardi

October is Polish American Heritage Month, originally celebrated by congressional proclamation in August until it moved to October. Polish heritage month commemorates the first Polish settlers who arrived in America in 1608, and also honors Generals Kazimierz Pułaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, two military leaders who bravely fought in the American Revolution. The change from August to October enabled schools to participate in traditional Polish festivities – singing, dancing and plenty of pierogi eating.

The list of accomplished Polish-Americans is long and impressive. In the baseball world, one of the most prominent is Aloysius Harry Szymanski, aka Al Simmons, the home run bashing outfielder for Connie Mack’s daunting 1920s Philadelphia Athletics, and later the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers. The slugging Hall of Famer Simmons had a 20-year .334 career batting average.

Remembering Stanczaks For Polish American Month

Simmons, well-known for his foot-in-the-bucket batting style, was involved in one of the World Series’ most unlikely incidents. A .329 hitter in his four World Series appearances, Simmons ignited a memorable and improbable development in the Fall Classic’s history, the seventh inning of the fourth game between the A’s and the Chicago Cubs in 1929. With the Cubs comfortably ahead 8-0, Simmons blasted a leadoff home run. The Athletics batted around and soon trailed by only one run, 8-7. Then, Simmons singled in his second at-bat of the seventh as the A’s completed a historic and unforgettable ten-run inning and went on to win, 10-8. The A’s, with six future Hall of Famers, took the 1929 series crown, 4-1.

Simmons is well known among baseball historians. But few are aware of Chicago’s late 1920s 10-man Stanczak brothers’ team, one of the most unusual semi-pro ball clubs to ever appear on a diamond. Polish immigrant Martin Stanczak was father to 10 sons, and one daughter, who covered nearly a 20-year age span. Martin’s ball playing sons included Joe, a county clerk; Mike, an ordained priest; Bill, a tobacco-chewing spitball pitcher, and high schoolers Martin and Julius. In his book, “The League of Outsider Baseball,” award-winning graphic artist Gary Cieradkowski wrote about how, after dominating the Chicago and Milwaukee sandlot teams, promoter Nick Keller became the guiding light for the Stanczak Brothers team, and led them to greater heights.

Keller’s first move was to, for phonetic purposes, eliminate the “c” from Stanczak. Keller renamed the siblings “The World Brother Champions,” issued challenges to other sibling-only ball clubs, and defied them to prove him wrong when he proclaimed his team as global sibling title-holders. From way out West, the Marlatt Brothers, having crushed the Skiano Brothers in 1925, accepted. Quick to strike while the iron was hot, Keller set up “The Brother Championship Series.” The first two games were played on the Marlatt Brothers’ home turf, Hot Springs, Wyoming. Bill’s wet one befuddled the Marlatts, and the Stanzaks swept the first two games. Back in Chicago for games three and four, the Stanzak brothers polished off the Marlatts to retain their title as undisputed sibling champions.

Wearing their crown proudly, the Stanzak brothers toured the Midwest, and dominated all comers. After winning the 1933 Lake County championship, the brothers received an invitation to travel to Wichita to take on the Deikes of Fredericksburg, Texas. The Texans, however, were not totally above board; the team was only eight-ninths all-siblings. The Deikes installed a ringer at first base – U.S. president-to-be Lyndon Baines Johnson. No matter. The Stanczak boys defended their championship title effortlessly, and breezed past the Deikes; future president Johnson made no difference in the outcome.

None of the brothers played major league baseball. Joe had a brief stint in the minors; Louis and Martin had unsuccessful tryouts with the Cincinnati Reds. Nevertheless, the brothers’ photograph is prominently on display at Cooperstown where the Hall of Fame declared them as the 10 best brothers ever to play baseball.

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

Remembering Stanczaks For Polish American Month

Remembering Stanczaks For Polish American Month