Richard Johnson, curator of The Sports Museum in Boston and author, co-author, or editor of several baseball titles including: The American Game; Baseball. Ethnicity, and The American Dream, Red Sox Century, DiMaggio, An Illustrated Life, and Ted Williams, A Portrait in Words and Pictures, posted this piece on Facebook today. I have taken the liberty of dividing the very long piece into more reader-friendly chunks.
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The smart kids always seem to come to school with BoSox hats, none of that trendy pinstripe stuff. Quincy native and Thayer Academy alum John Cheever a/k/a “America’s Chekhov of the suburbs” once observed “All literary men are Red Sox fans, to be a Yankee fan in literate society is to endanger your life.” I’m guessing longtime season ticket holder Stephen King would agree as would a packed gallery of literary lights past and present whose august number would include Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bart Giamatti, Roger Angell, John Updike, George V. Higgins, Tim O’Brien, Dennis Lehane, and Robert P. Parker among others.
Thusly it is safe to say that most Sox fans are famously well informed and know the difference between actor Derek Jacobi and phenom Jacoby Ellsbury and can talk at length about Ted, Dick Tennessee, Hank, Esther and William Carlos Williams, Moe Vaughn and Moe Berg, Marty and Mighty Bosstones frontman Dicky Barrett, Damon and Fats Domino’s Blue Berryhill, Cranberry and Wade Boggs, Daniel and Ray Boone, General Simon Boliver Buckner and first baseman Bill, Hillary, Bill or Lu Clinton, Charles, Danny or Bobby Darwin, Don or the Greek agricultural deity Demeter, General Black Jack Pershing or Robert Pershing Doerr, Dame Edith Evans, Mary Ann Evans (a/k/a George Eliot) & Dewey Evans, speech maker Edward Everett & screech maker Carl Everett, all-purpose actor Albert Finney and all-purpose infielder Lou Finney, pop star Fabian and Fabian Gaffke, 1912 hero Larry Gardner and Chauncey “Being There” Gardner, Ellen and Billy Goodman, Thomas and Carroll Hardy, Woody and Hawk Harrelson, Woody and Billy Herman, Henry and Pinky Higgins, Natalie and “Baby Doll” Jacobson, Thomas and Reggie Jefferson, John Paul and Dalton Jones, Billy Klaus and the infamous Klaus Barbie, Robert E & William Francis “Spaceman” Lee, Sinclair Lewis,Duffy Lewis and Hugh Duffy…
Politician/philosopher Martin and catcher Steve Lomasney, Dave and Senator Eugene McCarthy, Bob and actor Robert Montgomery, the biblical Moses and Jerry or Wally, Eugene or Steve O’Neill, Stan Papi and Big Papi, Margaret, Joseph and Johnny Mitchell, The Crawford Clan (Broderick, Joan,Shag, Steve and Carl) singer Charlie and Curtis Pride, Remy-Martin cognac and our beloved Remdawg, Anne and Jim Ed Rice, Arthur and Rudy Schlesinger, actor George C. Scott and “Boomer” George C. Scott, explorer Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Walter Scott, and shortstop Everett “Deacon” Scott, Tris Speaker and House Speakers McCormick and O’Neil, Chick and Jake Stahl…
Bill James “world of stats” and Jigger Statz, Doctor Strangelove and Doctor Strangeglove, composer Richard, Broadway Charlie and Heine Wagner, His Honor Kevin and Sammy White, The Duke of York and Rudy York, composer Leroy Anderson and Larry Anderson, righties Rod and Glenn Beck, Gary and Millicent Bell, Grady and Stuart Little, strongmen Marshall Tito and Tito Francona, Larry and Doug Bird, Bullet Joe and George W. Bush, heroic chronicler Joseph Campbell and Vietnam vet/pitcher Bill “Soup” Campbell, Samuel L. and Roger Clemens, President Grover and Reggie Cleveland, Cindy and Steve Crawford, Nancy and Ray Culp, the New Deal and Cot Deal, Stephen Collins Foster and Rube Foster, Woody and Mark Guthrie, John, Gary and Josh Hancock, William Randolph Hearst and Bruce Hurst, Elmore and Dutch Leonard…
Lester Maddox & Mike Maddux, Carl & Willie Mays, sidekick Don McMahon and reliever Don McMahon, Russ “Mad Monk” Meyer & Russ “Supervixens” Meyer, Agnes & Dave Morehead, Nipper “His Master’s Voice” pup and knucklehead Al Nipper, Charles Stewart & Mel Parnell, General George Patton & Marty Pattin, Tom and Mike Paxton, dabbler extraordinaire George Plimpton and Jeff Plympton, Civil War raider William Clark Quantrill & pitcher Paul Quantrill, reporter Martha Raddatz and closer Dick Radatz, Celtic Demi-God William Felton Russell & Jeff Russell, anchorman Chuck and pitcher Ray Scarborough, John Calvin and Calvin Schiraldi, Jeff and Peter Sellers, Ernie and Eddie Shore, Bronte’s Heathcliff and The Bullpen’s Heathcliff Slocumb, explorer Henry Morton Stanley and reliever Robert William Stanley, activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mike Stanton, novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and Jerry Stephenson.
The House of Tudor and John Tudor, Sad Sam Jones and James Jones, Elmer Smith, Betty (“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”) Smith, and Lee Smith, author A.J. Cronin and Joe Cronin, Rip and Wilkie Collins,Josh and Samuel Beckett, Sean Casey and Sean O’Casey, Robert, James Russell, Amy and Mike Lowell, Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Dizzy Trout, Mark, Donnie, and Rube Wahlberg, “Steel Driving Man” John Henry and our own “Deal Driving Man” John Henry,Woodrow and Earl Wilson, reporter Bob and pitcher Rob Woodward, President Richard, Russ, Otis or Trot Nixon, and ask not about the two John Kennedys.That torch has been passed.
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