The Bitter Rivals Thread

[SDL]

C: Wally Schang
1B: George Scott
2B: ???
3B: Wade Boggs
SS: Everett Scott
LF: Duffy Lewis
CF: Johnny Damon
RF: Babe Ruth
DH: Kevin Youkilis

SP: Roger Clemens
SP: Luis Tiant
SP: Carl Mays
SP: Derek Lowe
SP: Sam Jones

Rv: Sparky Lyle
CL: Lee Smith

Closest to a 2B I can think of off-hand

2004.bellhorn.jpg

[KenFougere]

Everyone hates a winner.

I agree. I think envy is the motive behind the "hate". -

[YankeeMan]

2 days 12 hours 28 minutes until Red Sox @ Yankees!

I agree. I think envy is the motive behind the "hate". -

And if anybody knows anything about "hating a winner," it's Ken (and Red Sox Nation).

Personally, I think "the monster" is green with envy. :clown:

[KenFougere]

And if anybody knows anything about "hating a winner," it's Ken (and Red Sox Nation).

Personally, I think "the monster" is green with envy. :clown:

_{This calls for my weekly, 'You (so) Suck' . . . .}

[KenFougere]

Baseball History Trivia . . .

---

Here's a fascinating bit of history trivia that I bet 'you' never knew...(Interesting read.)

When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included.

1.jpg

The answer was simple: Berg was a US spy.

Speaking 15 languages - including Japanese - Moe Berg had two loves: baseball and spying.

In Tokyo, garbed in a kimono, Berg took flowers to the daughter of an American diplomat being treated in St. Luke's Hospital - the tallest building in the Japanese capital.

He never delivered the flowers. The ball-player ascended to the hospital roof and filmed key features: the harbor, military installations, railway yards, etc.

Eight years later, General Jimmy Doolittle studied Berg's films in planning his spectacular raid on Tokyo.

2.jpg

Catcher Moe Berg

Berg's father, Bernard Berg, a pharmacist in Newark, New Jersey, taught his son Hebrew and Yiddish. Moe, against his wishes, began playing baseball on the street at age four.

His father disapproved and never once watched his son play. In Barringer High School, Moe learned Latin, Greek and French.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton - having added Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit to his linguistic quiver.

During further studies at the Sorbonne, in Paris, and Columbia Law School, he picked up Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Arabic, Portuguese and Hungarian - 15 languages in all, plus some regional dialects.

While playing baseball for Princeton University, Moe Berg would describe plays in Latin or Sanskrit.

During World War II, he was parachuted into Yugoslavia to assess the value to the war effort of the two groups of partisans there. He reported back that Marshall Tito's forces were widely supported by the people and Winston Churchill ordered all-out support for the Yugoslav underground fighter, rather than Mihajlovic's Serbians.

The parachute jump at age 41 undoubtedly was a challenge. But there was more to come in that same year.

Berg penetrated German-held Norway, met with members of the underground and located a secret heavy water plant - part of the Nazis' effort to build an atomic bomb.

His information guided the Royal Air Force in a bombing raid to destroy the plant.

4.jpg

The R.A.F. destroys the Norwegian heavy water plant targeted by Moe Berg.
There still remained the question of how far had the Nazis progressed in the race to build the first Atomic bomb. If the Nazis were successful, they would win the war. Berg (under the code name "Remus") was sent to Switzerland to hear leading German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a Nobel Laureate, lecture and determine if the Nazis were close to building an A-bomb. Moe managed to slip past the SS guards at the auditorium, posing as a Swiss graduate student.

The spy carried in his pocket a pistol and a cyanide pill.

If the German indicated the Nazis were close to building a weapon, Berg was to shoot him - and then swallow the cyanide pill.

Moe, sitting in the front row, determined that the Germans were nowhere near their goal, so he complimented Heisenberg on his speech and walked him back to his hotel.

5.jpg

Werner Heisenberg - he blocked the Nazis from acquiring an atomic bomb.
Moe Berg's report was distributed to Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and key figures in the team developing the Atomic Bomb.
Roosevelt responded: "Give my regards to the catcher."

Most of Germany's leading physicists had been Jewish and had fled the Nazis, mainly to Britain and the United States.
After the war, Moe Berg was awarded the Medal of Merit - America's highest honor for a civilian in wartime.
But Berg refused to accept, as he couldn't tell people about his exploits.

After his death, his sister accepted the Medal and it hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

6.jpg

March 2,1902-----May 29, 1972

[KenFougere]

And if anybody knows anything about "hating a winner," it's Ken (and Red Sox Nation).

Personally, I think "the monster" is green with envy. :clown:

I gotta say, in the last decade, 'Not So Much'! -

[TonyK]

---

Here's a fascinating bit of history trivia that I bet 'you' never knew...(Interesting read.)

When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included.

[ATTACH]137748[/ATTACH]

The answer was simple: Berg was a US spy.

Speaking 15 languages - including Japanese - Moe Berg had two loves: baseball and spying.

In Tokyo, garbed in a kimono, Berg took flowers to the daughter of an American diplomat being treated in St. Luke's Hospital - the tallest building in the Japanese capital.

He never delivered the flowers. The ball-player ascended to the hospital roof and filmed key features: the harbor, military installations, railway yards, etc.

Eight years later, General Jimmy Doolittle studied Berg's films in planning his spectacular raid on Tokyo.

[ATTACH]137749[/ATTACH]

Catcher Moe Berg

Berg's father, Bernard Berg, a pharmacist in Newark, New Jersey, taught his son Hebrew and Yiddish. Moe, against his wishes, began playing baseball on the street at age four.

His father disapproved and never once watched his son play. In Barringer High School, Moe learned Latin, Greek and French.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton - having added Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit to his linguistic quiver.

During further studies at the Sorbonne, in Paris, and Columbia Law School, he picked up Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Arabic, Portuguese and Hungarian - 15 languages in all, plus some regional dialects.

While playing baseball for Princeton University, Moe Berg would describe plays in Latin or Sanskrit.

During World War II, he was parachuted into Yugoslavia to assess the value to the war effort of the two groups of partisans there. He reported back that Marshall Tito's forces were widely supported by the people and Winston Churchill ordered all-out support for the Yugoslav underground fighter, rather than Mihajlovic's Serbians.

The parachute jump at age 41 undoubtedly was a challenge. But there was more to come in that same year.

Berg penetrated German-held Norway, met with members of the underground and located a secret heavy water plant - part of the Nazis' effort to build an atomic bomb.

His information guided the Royal Air Force in a bombing raid to destroy the plant.

[ATTACH]137751[/ATTACH]

The R.A.F. destroys the Norwegian heavy water plant targeted by Moe Berg.
There still remained the question of how far had the Nazis progressed in the race to build the first Atomic bomb. If the Nazis were successful, they would win the war. Berg (under the code name "Remus") was sent to Switzerland to hear leading German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a Nobel Laureate, lecture and determine if the Nazis were close to building an A-bomb. Moe managed to slip past the SS guards at the auditorium, posing as a Swiss graduate student.

The spy carried in his pocket a pistol and a cyanide pill.

If the German indicated the Nazis were close to building a weapon, Berg was to shoot him - and then swallow the cyanide pill.

Moe, sitting in the front row, determined that the Germans were nowhere near their goal, so he complimented Heisenberg on his speech and walked him back to his hotel.

[ATTACH]137752[/ATTACH]

Werner Heisenberg - he blocked the Nazis from acquiring an atomic bomb.
Moe Berg's report was distributed to Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and key figures in the team developing the Atomic Bomb.
Roosevelt responded: "Give my regards to the catcher."

Most of Germany's leading physicists had been Jewish and had fled the Nazis, mainly to Britain and the United States.
After the war, Moe Berg was awarded the Medal of Merit - America's highest honor for a civilian in wartime.
But Berg refused to accept, as he couldn't tell people about his exploits.

After his death, his sister accepted the Medal and it hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

[ATTACH]137754[/ATTACH]

March 2,1902-----May 29, 1972

Great story. It would be extremely difficult to find an actor who could play Moe Berg in a movie about his life...good catcher, speaking 15 languages, fearless parachuting into enemy territory, and able to leap tall Nazi buildings in a single bound.

[YankeeMan]

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I sure did! Well, mostly... I think I enjoyed about 75% of my weekend... You know, like three outta' four... :clown: [Hiya Ken! ]

weekend.png

[SDL]

The season is still young. I am not panicking.

[trosmok]

Thanks, Ken. Over the winter I re-read The Catcher Was A Spy..The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff.

Quite a story, but I'm not at all convinced there wasn't just a tad of embellishment to the tale. A rival catcher with the white Sox once told him: "I don't care how many of them damn degrees you got, they ain't never learned you to hit the curve."

[KenFougere]

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I sure did! Well, mostly... I think I enjoyed about 75% of my weekend... You know, like three outta' four... :clown: [Hiya Ken! ]

[ATTACH]137887[/ATTACH]

It's nice that a man your, (advanced) age can still find such enjoyment from winning a series in early April of a six month season . . .

Good for you buddy! -


BTW, what was that dripping down your pitcher arm & hand? -

[KenFougere]

Thanks, Ken. Over the winter I re-read The Catcher Was A Spy..The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff.

Quite a story, but I'm not at all convinced there wasn't just a tad of embellishment to the tale. A rival catcher with the white Sox once told him: "I don't care how many of them damn degrees you got, they ain't never learned you to hit the curve."

What a coincidence that I would find this piece just after your re-read.

I think that, "a tad of embellishment" always makes the pages in the book turn a little quicker, don't you? - -

[YankeeMan]

BTW, what was that dripping down your pitcher arm & hand? -

I dunno... He said he got the stuff from Buchholz. :clown:

[KenFougere]

...and the difference between water and the July sweat on all pitchers arms would be?

I dunno... He said he got the stuff from Buchholz. :clown:

You've a problem with water? Really? - - :stare:
Everyone knows that Buchholz touches the back of his wet hair, but there’s nothing wrong with that as long as he wipes it off, which he does . . .

Got another one for you.

Remember Lester was touching his fingers inside his glove, (sticky substance), before each pitch during the last *World Series?

*(Which, in case you forgot, we won.) icon.png

[YankeeMan]

You've a problem with water? Really? - - :stare:
Everyone knows that Buchholz touches the back of his wet hair, but there’s nothing wrong with that as long as he wipes it off, which he does . . .

Got another one for you.

Remember Lester was touching his fingers inside his glove, (sticky substance), before each pitch during the last *World Series?

*(Which, in case you forgot, we won.) [ATTACH]137918[/ATTACH]

Yeah, the Red Sox' roster is replete with cheaters*. Hey, you could even say Lester was caught "red-handed!" :clown:

[*I have absolutely no proof of this.]