The reviews of this book attracted me because its theme is a conclusion that my amateur reading of history for the last half century has led me to. I have thought for some time that the expectations of almost everyone in this country, regardless of age, class, education or background are predicated on the illusion of the boom from the post-war era. It was temporary, and that is this author's premise. And quite depressingly, he asserts that the boom is not going to come back.
The author cites the quarter century from 1948 to 1973 as a time when the world economy expanded faster than ever before or since. In 1973, the average income per person around the world leaped 4.5%. "The almost universal feeling of prosperity quickly faded." The primary reason was a slowing down of productivity, without which economies and living standards do not improve. Theorists and politicians of every stripe have offered solutions, none of which have worked. Perhaps governments and central bankers can't fine tune economies. As this came to pass, most wealthy societies turned right and no longer saw collective solutions to problems. "Political leaders frequently understate the connection between large global trends and the individuals' well-being, first so they don't seem hapless while in power and second so they can blame the incumbents for economic troubles while in opposition." "As the Golden Age became a memory, so did the boundless optimism of an era of good times for all."
At the end of the war, 2 million mules plowed US farms and one in 175 Japanese homes had a telephone. By the mid-70's you could cross the Atlantic on a super-sonic plane in less than four hours. The US -funded Marshall Plan in 1948 jump-started the economies of the free world. Part of the reason for the beginning of the boom was pent up demand after almost twenty-years of depression and war. Millions moving from farms to factories was equally critical. It seemed as if labor, capital and government were together marching toward the future. Trade barriers fell, infrastructure was modernized, education became more universal and productivity doubled in the US, tripled in Europe and quadrupled in Japan. Capitalism and economic planning seemed to have created a new world.
The Seventies brought some new challenges to that prosperity. A US-based rise in inflation spread around the world because of the Bretton Woods system. Environmentalism raised its head for the first time and many, many people and nations began to reconsider just how they profited from the planet. Exchange rates became unglued after the US abandoned the gold standard in early 1973. The Yom Kippur War in October led to an almost doubling of the price of oil and an embargo on Israel's supporters. Add in the above-mentioned productivity decline (which this author cannot ascribe to anything in particular), and the party was over.
The mid to late seventies saw two defining changes. The first was the Japanese onslaught in almost very manufacturing sector that wreaked havoc throughout industrial Europe and America. Globalization had begun. The governmental response were protectionism, tariffs, and quotas, all of which raised the cost of living in the US and Europe by protecting failing businesses. The west's first and truly effective response was deregulation in energy, telecommunication, transport and finance. Better and better technology now came into play. Economic growth would no longer be driven by the massive industries of old. "The era of well-paid factory jobs for all was over; in the new economy, value would come from innovation, design, and marketing, not from the physical process of turning raw materials into finished goods."
As matters deteriorated, reducing the welfare state was not an option and in many countries tax burdens rose to provide continued support. This led to the swing to the right embodied by Kohl, Thatcher and Reagan. Thatcher's privatization of British industry moved 650,000 workers from state-subsidized jobs to the private sector and ushered in the UK's transformation to a service economy. She is deemed to have reversed Britain's slide, but to have only barely set it on an upward trend. In late 1979, in the US, Paul Volcker, Fed Chair, shifted the focus from monetary supply to bank reserves and saw interest rates skyrocket. Two years later, the Fed Funds rate was over 20%, the economy was in free fall and Ronald Reagan initiated a small tax cut, while borrowing heavily to increase the size of the navy. In August of 1982, Wall Street concluded that inflation had been contained and the great bull market in stocks and bonds began. The Reagan Revolution tamed inflation (thanks to the Democrat Paul Volcker) but made little difference to the well-being of the common man. "What the Reagan Revolution could not do was restore the broad improvement in living standards that Americans expected." Referring to the leaders of the eighties, the author states, "When it came to restoring the sense of economic security that had vanished along with cheap oil, their efforts were no more effectual than those of the less market-oriented politicians they drove from office."
In the closing chapter, Levinson again returns to the productivity theme. It boomed, then slowed down and no one knows why. He acknowledges that the micro-processor provided a temporary increase in productivity in the 90's, but has not established a long-term trend. He closes with a quote from Paul Samuelson. "The third quarter of the Twentieth Century was a golden age of economic progress. It surpassed any reasoned expectation. And we are not likely to see its equivalent soon again."
11.29.2016
11.26.2016
Blood In The Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 And Its Legacy, Thompson - A*
This is the history of the most important prison riot in US history. Much of the information has been accessed by a historian's good fortune, as NYS keeps most of it under lock, key and classified designation. I suspect his book is going to win a lot of awards - it is a masterpiece. The NYT reviewer refers to it as "a superb work of history." That said, it is a long tough slog, not because of the writing, which is excellent, but the topic, which is flat out horrible.
The State Correctional Facility at Attica was understaffed, the correction officers (COs) were not trained, and they were severely underpaid. The inmates were overcrowded, virtually starved, provided with a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap per month, underpaid for their work, uncertain of the rules as inconsistency of enforcement was rife, allowed parole only if they had a job, seldom visited because of the distance from NYC, unable to communicate with common-law relations, proscribed from writing or receiving letters in Spanish, unable to read almost all outside material, free to listen only to three local am stations, completely lacked access to medical or dental services - essentially hopeless. Conditions were and had been horrible. Add into the mix a new black militancy among the prisoners and a power structure that felt obliged to suppress and fight them, and you had a burgeoning problem. "Warden Mancusi viewed prisoner activism as the work of black militant troublemakers who needed to be watched with particular care and shut up the minute they spoke out."
The summer of 1971 saw increased militancy. Riots had taken place in NYC and at nearby Auburn. Standing pat was Rockefeller's new man in charge, Russell G. Oswald, a wannabe reformer put on the defensive upon taking over the NYS system. The prisoners at Attica had sent a petition to Oswald. He told the men he would consider their requests to improve life at the prison. But, after the Attica Liberation Faction had wrote to the Commissioner, the guards began to strictly and brutally enforce all the rules. On the morning of Sept. 9, a combination of fear, confusion, change of routine and general sense of anxiety led to violence in A Tunnel and a full scale riot within minutes. Although there was no plan for a response to a riot, the COs and the State Police were able to re-take half of the cell blocks by noon. About half of the prisoners, approximately 1300 men, gathered in the Yard of Cell Block D and began to organize themselves.
Oswald arrived and immediately prohibited a violent re-taking. He was in the Yard by 4 pm. His primary concern was the well-being of the 40 hostages. He acceded to the demand that tv, newspapermen and outside observers be allowed into the prison. Ironically, it was only the presence of the outsiders that kept those clamoring to attack at bay. Outside the prison, the families of the hostages, local police and state troopers, as well as COs from around the region, gathered, waited, and were primed for revenge. The whole concept of observers turned into a circus within twenty-four hours. There were dozens in the prison including rabble-rousers and outsiders more radical than the inmates. Among the more notable observers were William Kunstler, Tom Wicker, Congressman Herman Badillo and State Senators John Dunne and Arthur Eve. Oswald spent a meaningful amount of time with the prisoners and agreed to the majority of their demands. However, the ongoing sticking point was amnesty, and unbeknownst to all inside, the forces of revenge were marshaling in Rocky's office. It was an era of law and order and the Governor could not be seen as lacking. Matters became more complex on the third night when Bobby Seale showed up to stir the pot and the officer hurt in the riot by the inmates, William Quinn, died. "By Saturday night, no one...thought that this standoff could continue much longer. Someone, somewhere was going to break." Discussions continued on Sunday but the prisoners wanted amnesty and the state would not budge. By 7 pm Sunday, Oswald had given up. Both the State Police and the Corrections Dept. left the planning and implementation of the recovery of the prison in relatively low-level hands, which the author suggests was a case of Rockefeller deliberately distancing himself from whatever the consequences would be.
On the morning of the 13th, the troopers who were readying the attack were characterized by a National Guardsmen standing by as "haggard" and "exhausted". They had had zero training in an action such as this, and had never handled the rifles given them. Those rifles were loaded with particularly destructive ammunition. The men were unfamiliar with gas masks, which would impede their ability to communicate. They were not instructed on how to accept a surrender, or what to do after they stormed the yard. No one had even recorded the serial numbers of the rifles distributed. Many were also armed with personal handguns. It was a classic snafu ready to happen. At about 9:40 am, a helicopter dropped cs gas on the Yard. The troopers followed and unleashed all they had, firing indiscriminately, often with intent to kill. One-hundrd and twenty-eight men were shot, nine hostages were dead, as were 29 inmates. The author, undoubtedly correctly, attributed the massacre to racial ferocity and animosity.
The State began spinning immediately, attributing all of the hostage deaths to the prisoners, who had purportedly slit their throats. The truth was that all but one had been shot. Throughout the day and the first night, the COs tortured and beat the inmates and Warden Mancusi denied them medical attention. It would take days and outsider's efforts to force the State to allow the wounded men medical care. As the first weeks passed, interest in what had happened grew and it became apparent that the state's coverup would fail, notwithstanding the public assertions of Rockefeller, Agnew and Nixon that organized militancy was behind the riot.
The Governor eventually assigned the Organized Crime Task Force to look into Attica. This commission became known as the Fischer/Simonetti Commission and was charged with assigning criminal responsibility. In December of 1972, Simonetti indicted sixty-three prisoners for 1289 crimes, which included the death of William Quinn as well as three prisoners who were murdered by their fellow inmates. The grand jury did not indict a single trooper or CO in the three dozen shooting deaths. Aligned against the state was the Attica Brothers Legal Defense (ABLD). It was more of a loosely organized movement than an entity, but it was able to change the trials' venue from Attica to Buffalo. The state lost the first two cases, but won the trial for murder of the guard, William Quinn, even though the evidence was patently fraudulent. The next trial for two murders of inmates was lost by the state. In the third trial, the state allowed a man to plead to 'time served' and not acknowledge his guilt. By late 1975, the state's prosecutorial record was a total failure and someone inside the prosecution team went public as a whistleblower. That attorney's actions led to more newspaper stories, a lengthy report, another commission and a Special Asst. Attorney General assigned to reconsider everything. In 1976, all cases except one against an inmate for murder were dismissed. The only indicted CO also had his case dismissed. At the end of the year, Gov. Carey pardoned or granted clemency to all inmates and attempted to "close the book" five years after the riot. Millions and millions had been spent and millions of pages of reports, affidavits, grand jury and trial testimony produced. But the truth was buried far from the public view.
Soon thereafter, the civil lawsuits began. It would take two decades for some semblance of justice to be provided. In January of 1991, a federal court in Buffalo, in a class action lawsuit, determined that the inmates civil rights had been violated during the retaking. The Judge in charge delayed the penalty stage of the trial for another five years. Big Black Smith, the lead plaintiff, did not have a chance to testify about his torture until June, 1997. After a day of deliberation, the jury awarded Smith $4,000,000. Smith's damage case was the strongest. Next the plaintiffs presented Frank Brosig's story, believed to be an average Attica case, and he was awarded $75,000. At that point, the state decided to appeal the original liability case, because they now knew they could be on the hook to the 1200 surviving inmates. In 1999, the Second Circuit reversed the liability judgement. It had been almost thirty years since the riot
The senior judge for the Western District took over the matter and forced the state (by now, Gov. Pataki after Mario Cuomo had refused to settle for 8 years) to pay $12m. The state never admitted guilt. Judge Telesca allowed every man to recount his story and thus place on the record the full saga of what had happened at Attica. The inmates and their lawyers were finally paid. The last chapter of the Attica tale is the pursuit of damages on behalf of the hostages, the families of the slain hostages and the now forty-year old-daughter of the slain guard, William Quinn. However, having previously received some monies from the workers comp funds, they were precluded from any other remedy. One woman had accepted $36 per week until her daughter turned 16 after being told by the state's lawyers they would be provided for for life. The FVOA ( Forgotten Victims of Attica) only had a political option and once again, a commission was authorized by Gov. Pataki. Hearings were held over the summer of 2002 and once again, the only thing that outweighed the depth of the damages suffered was the perfidy of the state. In January of 2005, the state agreed to $12m of damages - the same amount previously granted to the inmates. However, the state parceled out the money over six years, without interest.
Although, starting in 1973 NYS led the way with meaningful prison reform, it also led the nation into the era of mandatory minimum sentencing and the criminalization of previously civil matters. In 1996, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act, severely restricting prisoners' access to federal courts. The incarceration rates around the country skyrocketed after Attica. NYS had 12,500 prisoners in 1971 and 72,600 by 1999. Both Congress and President Obama have begun to reverse this process. Nonetheless, we still lead the world in the percentage of our population incarcerated.
The author clearly takes the side of the inmates and relentlessly, in a manner reminiscent of Robert Caro, pours it on against the state. Although there seem to be points in the narrative where she is more than sympathetic to the inmates' activities, including brutal criminal acts, history has shown that the state treated the inmates horribly, viciously and indifferently murdered them and the hostages during the assault. It covered it up and cheated throughout all the legal proceedings and follow-up. I am reminded of the Kerner Commission referring to the events at the 1968 Democratic Convention as a "police riot." This is much more egregious government activity. I also cannot escape pop culture's most famous reference, as far as I know, to the riot, i.e. Al Pacino riling up the Brooklyn crowd with "Attica, Attica" in 'Dog Day Afternoon'. This is a great history book and one of the most powerful stories I've ever read.
The State Correctional Facility at Attica was understaffed, the correction officers (COs) were not trained, and they were severely underpaid. The inmates were overcrowded, virtually starved, provided with a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap per month, underpaid for their work, uncertain of the rules as inconsistency of enforcement was rife, allowed parole only if they had a job, seldom visited because of the distance from NYC, unable to communicate with common-law relations, proscribed from writing or receiving letters in Spanish, unable to read almost all outside material, free to listen only to three local am stations, completely lacked access to medical or dental services - essentially hopeless. Conditions were and had been horrible. Add into the mix a new black militancy among the prisoners and a power structure that felt obliged to suppress and fight them, and you had a burgeoning problem. "Warden Mancusi viewed prisoner activism as the work of black militant troublemakers who needed to be watched with particular care and shut up the minute they spoke out."
The summer of 1971 saw increased militancy. Riots had taken place in NYC and at nearby Auburn. Standing pat was Rockefeller's new man in charge, Russell G. Oswald, a wannabe reformer put on the defensive upon taking over the NYS system. The prisoners at Attica had sent a petition to Oswald. He told the men he would consider their requests to improve life at the prison. But, after the Attica Liberation Faction had wrote to the Commissioner, the guards began to strictly and brutally enforce all the rules. On the morning of Sept. 9, a combination of fear, confusion, change of routine and general sense of anxiety led to violence in A Tunnel and a full scale riot within minutes. Although there was no plan for a response to a riot, the COs and the State Police were able to re-take half of the cell blocks by noon. About half of the prisoners, approximately 1300 men, gathered in the Yard of Cell Block D and began to organize themselves.
Oswald arrived and immediately prohibited a violent re-taking. He was in the Yard by 4 pm. His primary concern was the well-being of the 40 hostages. He acceded to the demand that tv, newspapermen and outside observers be allowed into the prison. Ironically, it was only the presence of the outsiders that kept those clamoring to attack at bay. Outside the prison, the families of the hostages, local police and state troopers, as well as COs from around the region, gathered, waited, and were primed for revenge. The whole concept of observers turned into a circus within twenty-four hours. There were dozens in the prison including rabble-rousers and outsiders more radical than the inmates. Among the more notable observers were William Kunstler, Tom Wicker, Congressman Herman Badillo and State Senators John Dunne and Arthur Eve. Oswald spent a meaningful amount of time with the prisoners and agreed to the majority of their demands. However, the ongoing sticking point was amnesty, and unbeknownst to all inside, the forces of revenge were marshaling in Rocky's office. It was an era of law and order and the Governor could not be seen as lacking. Matters became more complex on the third night when Bobby Seale showed up to stir the pot and the officer hurt in the riot by the inmates, William Quinn, died. "By Saturday night, no one...thought that this standoff could continue much longer. Someone, somewhere was going to break." Discussions continued on Sunday but the prisoners wanted amnesty and the state would not budge. By 7 pm Sunday, Oswald had given up. Both the State Police and the Corrections Dept. left the planning and implementation of the recovery of the prison in relatively low-level hands, which the author suggests was a case of Rockefeller deliberately distancing himself from whatever the consequences would be.
On the morning of the 13th, the troopers who were readying the attack were characterized by a National Guardsmen standing by as "haggard" and "exhausted". They had had zero training in an action such as this, and had never handled the rifles given them. Those rifles were loaded with particularly destructive ammunition. The men were unfamiliar with gas masks, which would impede their ability to communicate. They were not instructed on how to accept a surrender, or what to do after they stormed the yard. No one had even recorded the serial numbers of the rifles distributed. Many were also armed with personal handguns. It was a classic snafu ready to happen. At about 9:40 am, a helicopter dropped cs gas on the Yard. The troopers followed and unleashed all they had, firing indiscriminately, often with intent to kill. One-hundrd and twenty-eight men were shot, nine hostages were dead, as were 29 inmates. The author, undoubtedly correctly, attributed the massacre to racial ferocity and animosity.
The State began spinning immediately, attributing all of the hostage deaths to the prisoners, who had purportedly slit their throats. The truth was that all but one had been shot. Throughout the day and the first night, the COs tortured and beat the inmates and Warden Mancusi denied them medical attention. It would take days and outsider's efforts to force the State to allow the wounded men medical care. As the first weeks passed, interest in what had happened grew and it became apparent that the state's coverup would fail, notwithstanding the public assertions of Rockefeller, Agnew and Nixon that organized militancy was behind the riot.
The Governor eventually assigned the Organized Crime Task Force to look into Attica. This commission became known as the Fischer/Simonetti Commission and was charged with assigning criminal responsibility. In December of 1972, Simonetti indicted sixty-three prisoners for 1289 crimes, which included the death of William Quinn as well as three prisoners who were murdered by their fellow inmates. The grand jury did not indict a single trooper or CO in the three dozen shooting deaths. Aligned against the state was the Attica Brothers Legal Defense (ABLD). It was more of a loosely organized movement than an entity, but it was able to change the trials' venue from Attica to Buffalo. The state lost the first two cases, but won the trial for murder of the guard, William Quinn, even though the evidence was patently fraudulent. The next trial for two murders of inmates was lost by the state. In the third trial, the state allowed a man to plead to 'time served' and not acknowledge his guilt. By late 1975, the state's prosecutorial record was a total failure and someone inside the prosecution team went public as a whistleblower. That attorney's actions led to more newspaper stories, a lengthy report, another commission and a Special Asst. Attorney General assigned to reconsider everything. In 1976, all cases except one against an inmate for murder were dismissed. The only indicted CO also had his case dismissed. At the end of the year, Gov. Carey pardoned or granted clemency to all inmates and attempted to "close the book" five years after the riot. Millions and millions had been spent and millions of pages of reports, affidavits, grand jury and trial testimony produced. But the truth was buried far from the public view.
Soon thereafter, the civil lawsuits began. It would take two decades for some semblance of justice to be provided. In January of 1991, a federal court in Buffalo, in a class action lawsuit, determined that the inmates civil rights had been violated during the retaking. The Judge in charge delayed the penalty stage of the trial for another five years. Big Black Smith, the lead plaintiff, did not have a chance to testify about his torture until June, 1997. After a day of deliberation, the jury awarded Smith $4,000,000. Smith's damage case was the strongest. Next the plaintiffs presented Frank Brosig's story, believed to be an average Attica case, and he was awarded $75,000. At that point, the state decided to appeal the original liability case, because they now knew they could be on the hook to the 1200 surviving inmates. In 1999, the Second Circuit reversed the liability judgement. It had been almost thirty years since the riot
The senior judge for the Western District took over the matter and forced the state (by now, Gov. Pataki after Mario Cuomo had refused to settle for 8 years) to pay $12m. The state never admitted guilt. Judge Telesca allowed every man to recount his story and thus place on the record the full saga of what had happened at Attica. The inmates and their lawyers were finally paid. The last chapter of the Attica tale is the pursuit of damages on behalf of the hostages, the families of the slain hostages and the now forty-year old-daughter of the slain guard, William Quinn. However, having previously received some monies from the workers comp funds, they were precluded from any other remedy. One woman had accepted $36 per week until her daughter turned 16 after being told by the state's lawyers they would be provided for for life. The FVOA ( Forgotten Victims of Attica) only had a political option and once again, a commission was authorized by Gov. Pataki. Hearings were held over the summer of 2002 and once again, the only thing that outweighed the depth of the damages suffered was the perfidy of the state. In January of 2005, the state agreed to $12m of damages - the same amount previously granted to the inmates. However, the state parceled out the money over six years, without interest.
Although, starting in 1973 NYS led the way with meaningful prison reform, it also led the nation into the era of mandatory minimum sentencing and the criminalization of previously civil matters. In 1996, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act, severely restricting prisoners' access to federal courts. The incarceration rates around the country skyrocketed after Attica. NYS had 12,500 prisoners in 1971 and 72,600 by 1999. Both Congress and President Obama have begun to reverse this process. Nonetheless, we still lead the world in the percentage of our population incarcerated.
The author clearly takes the side of the inmates and relentlessly, in a manner reminiscent of Robert Caro, pours it on against the state. Although there seem to be points in the narrative where she is more than sympathetic to the inmates' activities, including brutal criminal acts, history has shown that the state treated the inmates horribly, viciously and indifferently murdered them and the hostages during the assault. It covered it up and cheated throughout all the legal proceedings and follow-up. I am reminded of the Kerner Commission referring to the events at the 1968 Democratic Convention as a "police riot." This is much more egregious government activity. I also cannot escape pop culture's most famous reference, as far as I know, to the riot, i.e. Al Pacino riling up the Brooklyn crowd with "Attica, Attica" in 'Dog Day Afternoon'. This is a great history book and one of the most powerful stories I've ever read.
Europe In Autumn, Hutchinson - B
This fascinating novel is a traditional spy/thriller with an interesting wrinkle - it's set a few decades in the future, after Europe has closed its borders because of a drift to the right compounded by the Xian Flu, which has taken 30 million lives. The continent keeps spawning more "progressively smaller and crazier nation-states." Our protagonist is Rudi, an Estonian chef working in Krakow and recruited to be part of Les Coureurs, a sort of a supra-national messenger service. His travels, travails and adventures take us from Krakow to Silesia to Potsdam, back to Estonia, then to London and finally to a game preserve near the Belarus - Poland border. It's the first book in the Fractured Europe series, of which there are three so far. It's a delightful diverting bit of fun.
11.15.2016
The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the LA Dodgers, Leahy - B -
At the dawn of the decade, baseball ruled the world of sports in America, a domination that was decades old and seemingly in place forever. The NFL and the NBA were the minor leagues. Baseball changed in the sixties and the focus of this book is on seven of the core players of the Dodgers teams that went to three World Series in four years and won two of them - Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski and Lou Johnson. The truth be told though, this book is not really about the 1960's or the Los Angeles Dodgers. This book is about the most legendary Dodger of all-time, number 32, Sandy Koufax.
Wills made it to the bigs in 1959 after eight years of race-baiting torture in the minors, having worked his way up from the D League. The MVP of the 1962 season had few friends on the team but was close to Sandy Koufax. They screened each other's hate mail, as being either black or Jewish wasn't particularly popular. The Brooklyn-born Koufax had joined the team as a 19-year-old 'bonus baby' in 1955. If bonus babies were sent to the minors, there was a chance another team could poach them. So, Koufax rode the pine in Brooklyn and LA and never got to learn his craft in the minors. The first half of his brief career was a struggle, but he blossomed into a star in 1962 and started game one at Yankee Stadium in the '63 Series. He struck out 15, a Series record, and took his first steps towards baseball immortality. Followed by Drysdale and Roebuck, he pitched game four of the first sweep of the Yankees since 1922.
Tommy Davis, a Brooklyn born and raised center fielder, was a star on the same team, while Dick Tracewski was a light hitting utility infielder from rural Pennsylvania. Joining them at Vero Beach in 1964 were two college graduates, first baseman Wes Parker from USC and catcher Jeff Torborg from Rutgers. The 1964 season saw the beginning of the end for Koufax's majestic left arm. He was in pain and struggling. Unlike today, that meant he was not rested to conserve the future, but rather over-used to assure current usefulness. It was not unusual for the Dodgers to pitch him on two days rest. By August, his season was over. A month later, LA would close a losing season in sixth place.
The Dodgers bounced back in 1965 even though Tommy Davis broke an ankle early in the season. He was replaced by journeyman Lou Johnson, a black man who swung ferociously at the ball because it was 'white'. Unlike all the black men on the Dodgers, Johnson didn't just roll with prejudice, he fought back, particularly with the racist locals at Vero Beach. The author had the good fortune to be at Chavez Ravine the night of Sept. 9th, 1965. Sandy Koufax's perfect game was viewed by a select few because O'Malley did not allow home games to be televised. In a pennant race for the ages, the Giants ran off a 14 game winning streak and the Dodgers won 15 of their last 16. Koufax pitched 335 innings. He started game 7 against the Twins on two days rest and notched his second shutout in three days. He had won a game 7 on the road and did it on a day he did not have his curveball. He pitched almost all fastballs.
One of the overriding themes of this book is how deceptive and mean-spirited GM Buzzie Bavasi was on behalf of the tight-fisted Walter O'Malley. Bavasi was in charge of annual salary 'negotiations' during which he insulted, intimidated and abused the men of one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled. Whether it was the mighty Koufax or the lowly Tracewski, Bavasi had in his back pocket baseball's reserve clause. If you wanted to play professional baseball, you played for the team that signed you and did so until you retired or they traded you. Not even Koufax, the 1963 Cy Young winner, World Series and regular season MVP had any leverage at all. The smiling, affable O'Malley was pulling in over two million in attendance every year, with a big league payroll of about $500,000. The author refers to his position as morally indefensible. After the performance of Drysdale and Koufax in 1965, Bavasi and O'Malley still thought it was business as usual.
The two pitchers held out 'together' and skipped spring training. The Dodgers buckled and paid Drysdale $110,000 and Koufax $125,000. That same spring, Marvin Miller started making his rounds and by the end of the season was the Executive Director of the Major League Players Association. Baseball was about to change. Koufax had already made up his mind. He was only thirty but he knew 1966 would have to be his final season. His arthritis was debilitating and he couldn't go on. He is the only pitcher to win the Cy Young in his final season and led the league in ERA, wins and strikeouts. However, the team was exhausted and barely won the pennant in the second game of a last day double header. Everyone was looking past the Series to a mandated month long, eighteen game trip to Japan with a $4000 pay day attached. O'Malley let Koufax and Drysdale and a few others out, but there had been an implied threat ; go, or run the risk of being traded. They were swept by the Orioles in the World Series, and shut out in the last three games. Maury Wills was so badly hurt that after four games in Japan, he left and returned to the US. In November, Koufax retired and O'Malley retaliated against Wills by sending him to Pittsburgh. It was over.
The players moved on, as did the franchise. The were, and still are one of the most valuable sports brands in the world. Drysdale became a Dodger announcer and died in his mid-fifties. Although feelings were rubbed raw at the end of their careers, both Maury Wills and Sandy Koufax remain regulars at spring training and at Chavez Ravine. As this was 'my' baseball team as a kid, I've enjoyed this.
Wills made it to the bigs in 1959 after eight years of race-baiting torture in the minors, having worked his way up from the D League. The MVP of the 1962 season had few friends on the team but was close to Sandy Koufax. They screened each other's hate mail, as being either black or Jewish wasn't particularly popular. The Brooklyn-born Koufax had joined the team as a 19-year-old 'bonus baby' in 1955. If bonus babies were sent to the minors, there was a chance another team could poach them. So, Koufax rode the pine in Brooklyn and LA and never got to learn his craft in the minors. The first half of his brief career was a struggle, but he blossomed into a star in 1962 and started game one at Yankee Stadium in the '63 Series. He struck out 15, a Series record, and took his first steps towards baseball immortality. Followed by Drysdale and Roebuck, he pitched game four of the first sweep of the Yankees since 1922.
Tommy Davis, a Brooklyn born and raised center fielder, was a star on the same team, while Dick Tracewski was a light hitting utility infielder from rural Pennsylvania. Joining them at Vero Beach in 1964 were two college graduates, first baseman Wes Parker from USC and catcher Jeff Torborg from Rutgers. The 1964 season saw the beginning of the end for Koufax's majestic left arm. He was in pain and struggling. Unlike today, that meant he was not rested to conserve the future, but rather over-used to assure current usefulness. It was not unusual for the Dodgers to pitch him on two days rest. By August, his season was over. A month later, LA would close a losing season in sixth place.
The Dodgers bounced back in 1965 even though Tommy Davis broke an ankle early in the season. He was replaced by journeyman Lou Johnson, a black man who swung ferociously at the ball because it was 'white'. Unlike all the black men on the Dodgers, Johnson didn't just roll with prejudice, he fought back, particularly with the racist locals at Vero Beach. The author had the good fortune to be at Chavez Ravine the night of Sept. 9th, 1965. Sandy Koufax's perfect game was viewed by a select few because O'Malley did not allow home games to be televised. In a pennant race for the ages, the Giants ran off a 14 game winning streak and the Dodgers won 15 of their last 16. Koufax pitched 335 innings. He started game 7 against the Twins on two days rest and notched his second shutout in three days. He had won a game 7 on the road and did it on a day he did not have his curveball. He pitched almost all fastballs.
One of the overriding themes of this book is how deceptive and mean-spirited GM Buzzie Bavasi was on behalf of the tight-fisted Walter O'Malley. Bavasi was in charge of annual salary 'negotiations' during which he insulted, intimidated and abused the men of one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled. Whether it was the mighty Koufax or the lowly Tracewski, Bavasi had in his back pocket baseball's reserve clause. If you wanted to play professional baseball, you played for the team that signed you and did so until you retired or they traded you. Not even Koufax, the 1963 Cy Young winner, World Series and regular season MVP had any leverage at all. The smiling, affable O'Malley was pulling in over two million in attendance every year, with a big league payroll of about $500,000. The author refers to his position as morally indefensible. After the performance of Drysdale and Koufax in 1965, Bavasi and O'Malley still thought it was business as usual.
The two pitchers held out 'together' and skipped spring training. The Dodgers buckled and paid Drysdale $110,000 and Koufax $125,000. That same spring, Marvin Miller started making his rounds and by the end of the season was the Executive Director of the Major League Players Association. Baseball was about to change. Koufax had already made up his mind. He was only thirty but he knew 1966 would have to be his final season. His arthritis was debilitating and he couldn't go on. He is the only pitcher to win the Cy Young in his final season and led the league in ERA, wins and strikeouts. However, the team was exhausted and barely won the pennant in the second game of a last day double header. Everyone was looking past the Series to a mandated month long, eighteen game trip to Japan with a $4000 pay day attached. O'Malley let Koufax and Drysdale and a few others out, but there had been an implied threat ; go, or run the risk of being traded. They were swept by the Orioles in the World Series, and shut out in the last three games. Maury Wills was so badly hurt that after four games in Japan, he left and returned to the US. In November, Koufax retired and O'Malley retaliated against Wills by sending him to Pittsburgh. It was over.
The players moved on, as did the franchise. The were, and still are one of the most valuable sports brands in the world. Drysdale became a Dodger announcer and died in his mid-fifties. Although feelings were rubbed raw at the end of their careers, both Maury Wills and Sandy Koufax remain regulars at spring training and at Chavez Ravine. As this was 'my' baseball team as a kid, I've enjoyed this.
11.11.2016
Revolution: The History Of England From The Glorious Revolution To Waterloo, Ackroyd - B
This, volume four of a wonderful history of England, opens with the succession of William of Orange, who brought to the throne in 1789 a detestation of France, who he had been fighting for over a decade and with whom he initiated a nine-year war that, on and off, would continue for over a century. The parallel theme of the book is the sorting out of power between the monarchy and Parliament, which had granted William a crown with considerable limitations, the antithesis of divine right. 'William's War' required financing, and Parliament created the world's first national bank when it passed The Bank of England Act. The establishment of the Bank of England is considered one of the seminal acts of the age, and was the financial foundation upon which England's ability to wage continual war and later build an empire was established.
Anne, the last Stuart, succeeded in 1702 and Parliament had already decreed that the crown would later pass to the Protestant House of Hanover. England and Scotland soon agreed to an Act of Union. Adam Smith later attributed the 1707 decision to the economics of creating the largest free trade area in the world. "In effect the treaty created a single sovereignty between the nations and a single parliament, including Scottish representatives, but it also preserved the Kirk, Scottish law and Scottish local administration." Soon thereafter, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ushered in an era of peace, established Great Britain as a world power and, a year later, the Protestant succession was forever assured when George I took the throne.
The 18th century saw a blossoming of growth that propelled England to its position as the world's leading country. Commerce began to boom, trade grew, the nascent industrial revolution began, towns around the country became cities, merchants became esteemed members of society, schools and hospitals were built, and the professions flourished. The fuel for these massive societal changes was something that England had an abundance of - coal. The UK had more coal than any nation in Europe, and a system that allowed its unfettered usage and deployment. Newspapers and magazines carried advertisements for consumer goods created by Joseph Wedgwood and many others. In 1776, Adam Smith introduced the world to the invisible hand of the marketplace in 'Wealth of Nations', setting forth ideas that would dominate social and economic thought for a century. There were many downsides though to industrialization and urbanization. Gin was mother's milk to many of the poor and a true curse upon society. There were 8,659 gin shops operating in London at mid-century. The Gin Act's attempt to restrain consumption led to riots. Only a crop failure that led to price increases slowed down gin's conquest of the city. As coal ash filled the sky and the waters, and as people flocked to the growing urban centers, there many more problems would follow.
Robert Walpole had managed the Commons and the government of George II by diligently pursuing peace. Not so the Great Commoner, William Pitt. Seventeen fifty-six saw the Seven Years War start because of conflicts in North America, and soon it spread around the world. "Pitt had a vision of England and of the nation's destiny, bound not by the narrow frontiers of Europe but by the global trading empire that would ensure the nation's commercial and naval supremacy." The Prussians defeated the French in Silesia and the British defeated them in Africa, India, Canada and the Indies as the decade closed. In the fall of 1760, George III began his sixty years on the throne. England did not have an imperial policy, but after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, it had an empire and the songs 'Rule Britannia' and 'God Save The King'. Matters quickly came a cropper. To pay for the war and future defense of the colonies in America, Parliament imposed taxes. After the Tea Party, the British punished the Bostonians, who pushed back, and soon there were shots heard around the world and revolution. The King and his ministers were convinced that they were entitled to tax and rule their colonies. There were many in the UK, particularly those underrepresented in Parliament or not represented at all, who agreed there should be no taxation without representation. American victory was assured after the victory at Saratoga garnered the support of France and Spain. In January of 1783, "Britain acknowledged the thirteen United states to be free, independent and sovereign". It was generally concluded that "it was better to trade with the Americans than attempt to rule them, and this salutary lesson became the single most important principle of the second British Empire.." It was much better to have a string of trading posts that "would be guarded by the navy in the world's first maritime empire."
It was industrialization, in conjunction with trade, that propelled the UK to the forefront of the world in every conceivable calculation of wealth and success. The steam engine harnessed 'power' for the first time and the English rocketed into the future. They created firsts in just about all manufactured goods and led the world in iron and steel production, textiles, food processing, brewing - everything. Why England? As mentioned above, England had abundant natural resources. The non-Anglican dissenters, particularly the Quakers and Methodists, had limited career opportunities and pursued the new opportunities with a vengeance. The government made no attempt to regulate or control the process. Capitalism was running unconstrained.
Revolutionary France declared war on the UK in early 1793 and the two nations would be at war, with a brief truce, until June 1815. The war would enshrine Nelson and Wellington in the pantheon of English immortals. Peace made the UK "the foremost power in terms of territory, and its empire included Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Australia and the Caribbean. It ruled, therefore, a large proportion of the earth's surface". Nonetheless, an exhausted nation, ruled by a King who had finally slipped into dementia in 1810, faced major political challenges in Ireland, cries for parliamentary reform, and the consequences of industrialization. That said the UK's greatest century was to follow.
Anne, the last Stuart, succeeded in 1702 and Parliament had already decreed that the crown would later pass to the Protestant House of Hanover. England and Scotland soon agreed to an Act of Union. Adam Smith later attributed the 1707 decision to the economics of creating the largest free trade area in the world. "In effect the treaty created a single sovereignty between the nations and a single parliament, including Scottish representatives, but it also preserved the Kirk, Scottish law and Scottish local administration." Soon thereafter, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ushered in an era of peace, established Great Britain as a world power and, a year later, the Protestant succession was forever assured when George I took the throne.
The 18th century saw a blossoming of growth that propelled England to its position as the world's leading country. Commerce began to boom, trade grew, the nascent industrial revolution began, towns around the country became cities, merchants became esteemed members of society, schools and hospitals were built, and the professions flourished. The fuel for these massive societal changes was something that England had an abundance of - coal. The UK had more coal than any nation in Europe, and a system that allowed its unfettered usage and deployment. Newspapers and magazines carried advertisements for consumer goods created by Joseph Wedgwood and many others. In 1776, Adam Smith introduced the world to the invisible hand of the marketplace in 'Wealth of Nations', setting forth ideas that would dominate social and economic thought for a century. There were many downsides though to industrialization and urbanization. Gin was mother's milk to many of the poor and a true curse upon society. There were 8,659 gin shops operating in London at mid-century. The Gin Act's attempt to restrain consumption led to riots. Only a crop failure that led to price increases slowed down gin's conquest of the city. As coal ash filled the sky and the waters, and as people flocked to the growing urban centers, there many more problems would follow.
Robert Walpole had managed the Commons and the government of George II by diligently pursuing peace. Not so the Great Commoner, William Pitt. Seventeen fifty-six saw the Seven Years War start because of conflicts in North America, and soon it spread around the world. "Pitt had a vision of England and of the nation's destiny, bound not by the narrow frontiers of Europe but by the global trading empire that would ensure the nation's commercial and naval supremacy." The Prussians defeated the French in Silesia and the British defeated them in Africa, India, Canada and the Indies as the decade closed. In the fall of 1760, George III began his sixty years on the throne. England did not have an imperial policy, but after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, it had an empire and the songs 'Rule Britannia' and 'God Save The King'. Matters quickly came a cropper. To pay for the war and future defense of the colonies in America, Parliament imposed taxes. After the Tea Party, the British punished the Bostonians, who pushed back, and soon there were shots heard around the world and revolution. The King and his ministers were convinced that they were entitled to tax and rule their colonies. There were many in the UK, particularly those underrepresented in Parliament or not represented at all, who agreed there should be no taxation without representation. American victory was assured after the victory at Saratoga garnered the support of France and Spain. In January of 1783, "Britain acknowledged the thirteen United states to be free, independent and sovereign". It was generally concluded that "it was better to trade with the Americans than attempt to rule them, and this salutary lesson became the single most important principle of the second British Empire.." It was much better to have a string of trading posts that "would be guarded by the navy in the world's first maritime empire."
It was industrialization, in conjunction with trade, that propelled the UK to the forefront of the world in every conceivable calculation of wealth and success. The steam engine harnessed 'power' for the first time and the English rocketed into the future. They created firsts in just about all manufactured goods and led the world in iron and steel production, textiles, food processing, brewing - everything. Why England? As mentioned above, England had abundant natural resources. The non-Anglican dissenters, particularly the Quakers and Methodists, had limited career opportunities and pursued the new opportunities with a vengeance. The government made no attempt to regulate or control the process. Capitalism was running unconstrained.
Revolutionary France declared war on the UK in early 1793 and the two nations would be at war, with a brief truce, until June 1815. The war would enshrine Nelson and Wellington in the pantheon of English immortals. Peace made the UK "the foremost power in terms of territory, and its empire included Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Australia and the Caribbean. It ruled, therefore, a large proportion of the earth's surface". Nonetheless, an exhausted nation, ruled by a King who had finally slipped into dementia in 1810, faced major political challenges in Ireland, cries for parliamentary reform, and the consequences of industrialization. That said the UK's greatest century was to follow.
Night School, Child - B
This Reacher goes back in time to the end of his Army career, specifically 1997. I wonder if we will be seeing more of this from Lee Child. He gives up Jack's year of birth, 1962, placing Reacher deep into the AARP crowd. How long can a guy in his mid-fifties live Jack's rogue, revenger lifestyle. In this one, Jack is assigned to an NSC joint-op involving the CIA and FBI in a hunt for Muslim terrorists in Hamburg. Throw in some ultra-nationalist Germans and there's plenty of muck for Jack to straighten out. There's probably a lot more deduction than force here - but, as usual, a great and timely escape.
11.08.2016
The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Connelly - B +
The author, who is now 60 and Harry, who is old enough to have fought in Vietnam (but I can't quite piece together how late in that war), both get better with age. Harry is completely finished with the LAPD, doing some P.I. work, and a volunteer reserve officer with a small LA area jurisdiction police department. He winds up working a very interesting private case involving a missing heir as well as a tough case for the San Fernando PD. His insights save the day, and more importantly, Connelly's skills now tell great stories without some of the frightening background that was featured in the earlier books. Connelly worked the police beat for the L.A. Times and paints an always sublime picture of the city.
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