Americans Love Their Baseball and Peanuts

From Marketwatch.com 

Consumers eat more than 6 lbs of peanut products each year

ELGIN, Ill., Mar 25, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Is there anything more American than peanuts at a baseball game?  In Chicago, a city with a baseball pedigree and part of America's heartland, fans have eaten nearly 500,000 bags of Fisher Salted-In-Shell peanuts in one season alone.  Okay, there's mom and apple pie, but when was the last time someone's mother passed out pie at a sports event?

Eating peanuts to the crack of a bat is engrained in the national consciousness. It's a rite of spring, a signal that it's time to grab a favorite old cap, go outside and crack some salty shells.

Fisher salted-in-shell peanuts fill the bill with crunchy goodness in every chomp. The Fisher brand has provided the best in nuts since 1922, when Babe Ruth entered his prime, began hitting prodigious home runs and forgot about Boston and pitching.

Peanuts, after all, are featured in one of America's best-known songs, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," whose lyrics suggest that they are as important as the game itself. Note that the songwriter did not ask for cheese, crackers, hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, cotton candy or one of the big foam hands everyone waves around.

How important are peanuts at baseball games? For one day, in 1950, the peanut was banned from baseball, noted Gaylon White in an article for the Society for Baseball Research. The one who made it happen, Paul Fagan, was the owner of the San Francisco Seals, a team best known for having Joe DiMaggio on it before he went to the major leagues to make history.

Fagan, concerned about a lack of cleanliness and order in the game, ordered players to wear their uniforms just so. He even provided each player with a handkerchief to address runny noses. He put the kibosh on favorite old lucky sweatshirts and socks. Finally, to save money on the cost of cleaning up peanut shells after games, Fagan banned shelled peanuts. That did it, White wrote. San Francisco "went nuts."

A local druggist complained that baseball without peanuts was like eating "mush without salt." A beer vendor said he'd rather wrestle a tiger than take peanuts away from baseball fans. And a sensible office girl chimed in: "Just like a man to think of something as nutty as that." Fans threatened to boycott Seals games and Fagan caved after only one day. To make amends, he promised fans that he would give away 18,000 bags of peanuts on opening day. He said he'd never been beaten in his life, but the humble peanut proved his match.

Given all their attributes, plus the fact that they satisfy our stated preference for salty and crunchy snacks, peanuts are American royalty. Baseball fans rooting their favorite teams or razzing the umpires only have to stomp on some discarded shells to know they are in heaven.

John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., founded in 1922, is a leading processor, marketer and distributor of shelled and in-shell nuts that are sold in multiple distribution channels. Their products can be found under the company's Fisher and Sunshine Country brand names and under a variety of private labels.

From Marketwatch.com

The Curveballing Ambidextrous Greg Allen Harris

From BaseballLibrary.com

by Jane Charnin-Aker and James G. Robinson

The curveballing, ambidextrous Greg Allen Harris -- not to be confused with another Greg Wade Harris who pitched at approximately the same time -- bounced around the NL before landing with the 1984 NL champion Padres. Roughed up by the Cubs in the playoff opener, he allowed a NLCS-record six earned runs in one inning. He came into his own after his 1985 sale to Texas, leading AL relievers with 111 strikeouts and posting a 2.47 ERA. He went 10-8 (2.83) with a staff-high 20 saves in 1986, but in 1987 he both started and relieved, went 5-10 without a save, and was released. He had missed some games that season after injuring his elbow flicking sunflower seeds to a friend in the stands.


Harris caught on with the Phillies, but was waived in August 1989 after a year-and-a-half of solid relief work. He signed with the Red Sox, beginning a five-year Beantown tenure that would include some of his most productive years in the majors. Helped by Sox starter Mike Boddicker, Harris adapted his curve to a variety of pitching motions. The experiment paid off -- his first two seasons, spent in the rotation, produced 24 wins. Harris' ERA dropped from 3.85 to 2.51 after he returned to the bullpen in 1992, and he made a league-leading 80 appearances in 1993.

Harris' heavy workload soon took its toll. He moved to the Yankees after starting the 1994 season with an 8.38 ERA, and pitched just three games for his new team before the strike hit. Harris' unusual ability to pitch with both hands led to some tension between him and the Red Sox, who forbade the ambidextrous hurler from throwing lefty. GM Lou Gorman insisted it would "make a mockery" of the game, leading Harris to grumble, "Boston is so conservative. People are afraid to try anything." In a muted show of defiance, Harris usually chose to wear an ambidextrous glove on the mound.


But just before his retirement, while pitching for the Expos in 1995, the veteran hurler finally became the only twentieth-century pitcher to throw from both sides of the mound. After Harris (pitching righty) retired Reggie Sanders to start off the ninth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on September 28, 1995, he turned around to
face the left-handed Hal Morris.

Harris issued a free pass, thus becoming the first ambidextrous
major-league pitcher since Elton "Ice Box" Chamberlain of the American Association in 1888. Nerve-wracked, he stayed a southpaw and induced a ground-out from Eddie Taubensee, closing out the inning by retiring Bret Boone as a righty. The last pitcher to use both hands in a pro game had been Bert Campaneris, who did so in 1962 while playing for Daytona Beach in the Florida State League. (JCA/JGR)

Willie Davis Gone, But Never Forgotten

Willie Davis holds six team records,

including most career hits (2,091) and

triples (110). Herb Scharfman/SI

Dodgers speedster will live on forever in franchise lore
FRED CLAIRE; COLUMNIST

No one knew Willie Davis better than Tommy Davis, his Los Angeles Dodgers teammate.

Because they shared the same last name, many thought they were brothers.

"We were as close as brothers," said Tommy as he recalled his memories of Willie, the Dodgers player they called the "3-Dog" because of his uniform number and his blazing speed.

The headline in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday on the passing of Davis at the age 69 declared: "Brilliant on the field, troubled off."

It's not a description that fits the memories of Tommy Davis.

"I think of Willie and I think of a guy who was always laughing," he said, "and he had that great laugh. He loved his family, loved his golf and loved his race horses.

"He lived his life the way he wanted to live it. I think Willie enjoyed each and every day. We were roommates for six years and we shared great times and great memories."

"The first time I saw Willie was at Dodgertown in the spring of 1959," he continued. "We were put together with several other players to run a 60-yard dash. I remember that Maury [Wills] was in our group and I figured Maury would win the race with me right behind him, because I could run in those days.

"Willie left us in the dust."

When Dodgers scout Kenny Myers signed Willie Davis out of Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles in 1958, the fleet-footed youngster was regarded as a candidate for the 1960 Olympic team. He once ran a 9.5-second 100-yard dash in high school and set a city record in the long jump.

In Willie Davis' first two Minor League seasons, with the Reno Silver Sox in a Class C Minor League in 1959, and with Spokane in the Pacific Coast League in 1960, Willie led both leagues in runs, hits, triples and batting average. His composite batting average for his first two years: .352.

He stole 33 bases for Reno and 30 for Spokane.

"Willie has only begun to run," said Pete Reiser, a former Dodgers great who tutored Davis as a member of the team's Minor League department.

Reiser couldn't have been more on target, as Davis became the Dodgers' regular center fielder in 1961, and in the next dozen seasons ranked in the top-10 in stolen bases in the National League each year. He finished his 18-year Major League career in 1979 with 398 career stolen bases and a .279 batting average.

Davis remains the all-time Los Angeles Dodgers leader in hits, extra-base hits, triples, runs scored, at-bats and total bases.

It wasn't just Davis' stolen bases that caught the fancy and fascination of Dodgers fans. It was his style, his flare and the blazing speed that saw him go from first to third with his helmet flying off in the process.

"I once saw him score from second base on a sacrifice fly," recalled Tommy Davis.

He was a fan favorite on Dodgers teams that included the likes of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Wills, Jim Gilliam, John Roseboro, Johnny Podres, Ron Fairly, Wes Parker, Jim Lefebvre, Frank Howard, Claude Osteen, Wally Moon, his great friend Tommy Davis and others.

These were the players who eased the transition of the Dodgers' move from Brooklyn and the teams of the "Boys of Summer" while building a foundation of great popularity for Dodgers baseball in Los Angeles.

Davis was traded by the Dodgers to the Expos after the 1973 season, and although his shining star in Los Angeles lost its luster as the years went by, the memories of "3-Dog" in Los Angeles remain in the minds of long-time fans.

Willie Davis never tried to hold onto stardom or fame. He lived his life, as Tommy Davis described, in his own style.

He lived quietly in Burbank, Calif., near Dodger Stadium, and would show up at the stadium from time to time for various events. Every January he would call for tickets to the L.A. Open because golf was his passion. He once told a friend that meeting golfing great Ben Hogan while he was a member of the Texas Rangers was one of the highlights of his time in baseball.

Willie would often go for a walk around his Burbank neighborhood and have his 9 iron in hand so he could always be in contact with a club. He was a good enough player to lower his handicap to a 3 at one point.

My son, Jeff, called me on Tuesday to say that he was sorry to hear about the passing of Willie, and Jeff relayed the story that he once saw Davis walking along with a golf club in Burbank and stopped to say hello and give his regards.

"How did you know it was me?" inquired Willie.

"Everybody in Los Angeles knows you, Willie," replied Jeff.

Davis was surprised to be recognized and remembered.

The fact is those of us who were fortunate to know him, and the fans who cheered him, will never forget Willie Davis.

Fred Claire was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1969-98, serving the team as executive vice-president and general manager. He is the author of "Fred Claire: My 30 Years in Dodger Blue."

Judge Sylvia Pressler, Who Opened Little League to Girls, Dies at 75

Judge Sylvia Pressler

By BRUCE WEBER

The New York Times; February 16, 2010

Sylvia B. Pressler, whose 1973 ruling as a hearings officer with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights opened the door for girls to play Little League baseball, and who later rose to be the presiding administrative judge of the state’s Appellate Division, died Monday at a family cottage in Sparta, N.J. She was 75, and her primary residence was in Englewood, N.J.

Her husband, David, confirmed her death. The specific cause was uncertain, but his wife had lymphoma, he said.

Judge Pressler was an especially prolific jurist, the author of hundreds of opinions in 31 years on the bench.

In 1995, she extended the legal rights of gay couples in a ruling that allowed a woman to adopt her partner’s 3-year-old twins.

“They function together as a family,” Judge Pressler wrote of the two women, who had lived together for 14 years. “The twins are, by reason of upbringing, daily lives and ties of mutual affection, the children of both Mary and Hannah, and no court order granting or denying the adoption will change that.”

In 2004, three years before the New Jersey Legislature abolished capital punishment, she ruled that the state’s procedures for carrying out the death penalty were insufficient to guarantee the rights of the condemned and that they had to be re-examined before the state could perform another execution by lethal injection.

“It is one thing for proponents and opponents to talk about capital punishment as an abstract proposition,” Judge Pressler wrote. “It is quite another to see it carried out.”

But she was best known for her decision in the Little League case, which she made before she was elevated to the bench. This was in 1973, when discrimination cases in New Jersey were heard by the Division of Civil Rights before government-appointed examiners, of which Sylvia Pressler, then a lawyer, was one.

The previous year, a 12-year-old girl, Maria Pepe, had played three games for a Hoboken Little League team before national Little League officials learned of her participation and threatened to revoke the local league’s charter if she continued to play. The National Organization for Women brought suit on behalf of the girl and all others in New Jersey. Ms. Pressler’s ruling in favor of them was upheld by the New Jersey Appellate Court, and in 1974 Little League Baseball agreed to allow girls to play on its teams and to start a softball division especially for girls.

“The institution of Little League is as American as the hot dog and apple pie,” she wrote in her ruling. “There is no reason why that part of Americana should be withheld from girls.”

Sylvia Diane Brodsky was born in New York City — either in Upper Manhattan or the Bronx, her husband said — on April 10, 1934, and grew up in the Bronx. (Professionally, she used the initial of her maiden name as a middle initial.) Her parents were Jewish immigrants, her mother from what is now Belarus and her father, who came to New York via Argentina, from what is now Poland. For a time he was an owner of a parking garage; he died when his daughter was a young girl.

Judge Pressler graduated from Hunter College High School in Manhattan and then attended Queens College before transferring to Boston University, where her future husband was in school, and where she received a bachelor’s degree. Her law degree was from Rutgers School of Law — Newark. Before becoming a hearings examiner, she worked in private practice and was the Englewood city attorney.

She was named to the bench in Bergen County Court in 1973 by Gov. William T. Cahill; Gov. Brendan T. Byrne appointed her to the state’s Superior Court in 1976, and she was assigned to the Appellate Division the following year. In 1997 she was named presiding judge for the administration of the Appellate Division. She retired in 2004.

Judge Pressler was at the center of a controversy in 1983, when a state senator, Gerald Cardinale, invoked the privilege known as senatorial courtesy to block her reappointment to the Superior Court. Mr. Cardinale claimed that she lacked a judicial temperament, but the Senate overwhelmingly approved her reappointment anyway, after it was disclosed that Mr. Cardinale had appeared before Judge Pressler as an unsuccessful litigant.

In addition to her husband, whom she met in 1953 when both were working as waiters at a Jersey Shore hotel, she is survived by a daughter, Jessica Pressler of Tenafly, N.J.; a son, Noah, of Englewood; and three grandchildren.

“She was not a good waitress,” her husband said in an interview on Tuesday. “She was very good at other things — almost everything else.”

2010 Election of the Shrine of the Eternals

Baseball Reliquary Announces Candidates for 2010 Election of the Shrine of the Eternals

The Baseball Reliquary, Inc. has announced its list of fifty eligible candidates for the 2010 election of the Shrine of the Eternals, the membership organization’s equivalent to the Baseball Hall of Fame. This year marks the twelfth annual election of the Shrine, a major national component of the Baseball Reliquary, a Southern California-based organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history. The thirty-three individuals previously elected to the Shrine of the Eternals are, in alphabetical order: Jim Abbott, Dick Allen, Emmett Ashford, Moe Berg, Yogi Berra, Ila Borders, Jim Bouton, Jim Brosnan, Bill Buckner, Roberto Clemente, Steve Dalkowski, Rod Dedeaux, Jim Eisenreich, Dock Ellis, Mark Fidrych, Curt Flood, Josh Gibson, William “Dummy” Hoy, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bill James, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Roger Maris, Marvin Miller, Minnie Minoso, Buck O’Neil, Satchel Paige, Jimmy Piersall, Pam Postema, Jackie Robinson, Lester Rodney, Fernando Valenzuela, Bill Veeck, Jr., and Kenichi Zenimura.

The Shrine of the Eternals is similar in concept to the annual elections held at the Baseball Hall of Fame, but differs philosophically in that statistical accomplishment is not a criterion for election. Rather, the Shrine’s annual ballot is comprised of individuals – from the obscure to the well-known – who have altered the baseball world in ways that supersede statistics.

On a procedural level, the Shrine of the Eternals differs significantly from the Baseball Hall of Fame in the manner by which electees are chosen. While the Baseball Hall of Fame’s electees are chosen in voting conducted by a select group of sportswriters or committees, the Baseball Reliquary chooses its enshrinees by a vote open to the public. A screening committee appointed by the Reliquary’s Board of Directors prepares a ballot consisting of fifty candidates, on which the membership votes annually. The three candidates receiving the highest percentage of votes gain automatic election.

Among the fifty eligible candidates for 2010, nine individuals appear on the Shrine of the Eternals ballot for the first time. A tenth candidate, Roger Angell, returns to the ballot after an absence of eleven years. (Angell appeared on the Shrine ballot one previous time in 1999.) The newcomers and returnee, in alphabetical order, are:

ROGER ANGELL (b. 1920) – self-described baseball “reporter” whose elegant and masterful prose, and remarkable power of observation, on display for years through his books and essays in The New Yorker magazine, established a new standard for baseball journalism.

STEVE BLASS (b. 1942) – one of the National League’s top pitchers in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Blass inexplicably lost his control after winning a career-high 19 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1972; while no definitive explanation has ever been given for his sudden ineffectiveness, Blass was out of baseball by 1975, and to this day pitchers who have had success and then mysteriously could not find the strike zone are referred to as having “Steve Blass disease.”

JAY BUHNER (b. 1964) – one of the most beloved and charismatic ballplayers of his era, Buhner was a right-handed power hitter for the Seattle Mariners from 1988-2001, known as much for his shaved scalp, goatee, free-spirited ways, and occasional fielding miscues (hence his nickname “Bonehead,” or “Bone” for short) as for his dramatic home runs.

JEFFERSON BURDICK (1900-1963) – often referred to as “the father of card collecting,” Burdick amassed a collection of 300,000-plus trading cards, including over 30,000 baseball cards, for which he developed a system of cataloging that remains in use today; he eventually would donate his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and remains a stellar example of the baseball card collector as researcher and scholar rather than speculator and celebrity hunter.

HECTOR ESPINO (1939-1997) – known as “the Babe Ruth of Mexico,” Espino slugged over 450 home runs between 1962 and 1984 in the Mexican League, while steadfastly refusing to play in the United States because of the racism he encountered while playing in Florida during the Civil Rights era; a true national hero along the lines of Jackie Robinson (his number 21 was retired by all Mexican professional teams), he was admired by fans throughout Mexico as much for his sense of pride and loyalty for his country as for his incomparable baseball skills.

EDDIE GRANT (1883-1918) – the first major league ballplayer killed in action during World War I, the Harvard-educated Grant was a light-hitting infielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants from 1907 to 1915; his unusual academic pedigree stood out in an era when many fellow players were barely literate, and his bravery was honored by a legendary granite monument that stood for decades in New York City’s Polo Grounds.

CONRADO MARRERO (b. 1911) – the elder statesman of Cuban baseball, the diminutive 5-foot-7 Marrero was a great amateur pitcher in his homeland before joining the Washington Senators from 1950 to 1954; after returning to Cuba, where he is reportedly the last surviving major leaguer living on the island, he taught baseball to children and became a beloved goodwill ambassador for the amateur game.

FRANK O’ROURKE (1916-1989) – one of the greatest, albeit largely unknown, baseball fiction writers of the post-World War II era, O’Rourke authored gritty, highly realistic short stories and novels that were influenced by his ballplaying experiences (he even worked out with the Philadelphia Phillies in spring training in the late 1940s) and his intimacy with the major leaguers he used for his fictional characters.

PETE ROSE (b. 1941) – the inimitable “Charlie Hustle” began his assault on the record books in 1963 as the first piece of what would become the Big Red Machine; his prowess at hitting a baseball would be matched only by his penchant for generating controversy, and, in the eyes of many, his eventual placement on baseball’s ineligible list and banishment from the Hall of Fame made what he had achieved between the white lines seem irrelevant.

MAURY WILLS (b. 1932) – single-handedly restoring the stolen base as a potent offensive weapon with the Dodgers in the 1960s, paving the way for the even greater stardom of Hall-of-Famers Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson, Wills electrified the baseball world by stealing 104 bases in his 1962 MVP season; but his popularity and public acclaim came with a steep price, as he would eventually battle cocaine and alcohol addiction.

A complete list of all fifty candidates for the 2010 election of the Shrine of the Eternals follows. Election packets, containing ballots and biographical profiles of all candidates, will be mailed to Baseball Reliquary members on April 1, 2010. To be eligible to vote, all persons must have their minimum $25.00 annual membership dues paid as of March 31, 2010.

The three new inductees will be announced in May, with the Induction Day ceremony scheduled for Sunday, July 18, 2010 in Pasadena, California. In addition to the presentation of plaques to the 2010 inductees, this year’s ceremony will honor the recipients of the 2010 Hilda Award (named in memory of Hilda Chester and acknowledging a baseball fan’s exceptional devotion to the game) and the 2010 Tony Salin Memorial Award (presented annually to an individual dedicated to the preservation of baseball history).

For additional information on the Shrine of the Eternals, contact Terry Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary, at P.O. Box 1850, Monrovia, CA 91017; by phone at (626) 791-7647; or by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net.

THE SHRINE OF THE ETERNALS

CANDIDATES FOR THE 2010 ELECTION

2010 Candidates

The number to the right of candidates' names indicates number of years on Shrine of the Eternals ballot.
1. Hank Aguirre (6)
2. Roger Angell (2)
3. Eliot Asinof (7)
4. Billy Bean (8)
5. Steve Blass (New!)
6. Chet Brewer (11)
7. Charlie Brown (3)
8. Jay Buhner (New!)
9. Jefferson Burdick (New!)
10. Helen Callaghan (7)
11. Charles M. Conlon (9)
12. Dizzy Dean (10)
13. Ed Delahanty (7)
14. Buck Dent (2)
15. Hector Espino (New!)
16. Eddie Feigner (10)
17. Lisa Fernandez (10)
18. Rube Foster (12)
19. Ted Giannoulas (8)
20. Eddie Grant (New!)
21. Jim "Mudcat" Grant (6)
22. Pete Gray (12)
23. Ernie Harwell (7)
24. Dr. Frank Jobe (8)
25. Charles "Pop" Kelchner (3)
26. Mike "King" Kelly (3)
27. Effa Manley (12)
28. Conrado Marrero (New!)
29. Dr. Mike Marshall (5)
30. Jocko Maxwell (2)
31. Tug McGraw (7)
32. "Nuf Ced" McGreevey (4)
33. Fred Merkle (4)
34. Manny Mota (3)
35. Frank O'Rourke (New!)
36. Phil Pote (8)
37. Vic Power (2)
38. Dan Quisenberry (4)
39. J.R. Richard (11)
40. Pete Rose (New!)
41. Rusty Staub (5)
42. Casey Stengel (12)
43. Chuck Stevens (2)
44. Luis Tiant (8)
45. Fay Vincent (9)
46. Rube Waddell (12)
47. John Montgomery Ward (4)
48. Maury Wills (New!)
49. Wally Yonamine (3)
50. Don Zimmer (6)