JFK vs. LBJ

“Neither heroic nor exciting.” That is how Patrick O’Donovan of the Herald Tribune – London Observer Service described President Eisenhower’s America of the 1950s. 1960 reversed the political status quo in the White House. Or at least detoured it towards a feeling of...

The Night That Ted Turner Managed the Braves

Some things aren’t meant to last. Prime time television’s roster has a handful of shows that didn’t endure more than episode, e.g., Co-Ed Fever, Public Morals, South of Sunset. Major League Baseball’s annals boast tales of players who only...

Bowling, Tim Matheson, and “Dreamer”

“You just dream about something, that’s all it’s ever gonna be.  Just a dream.” So says Harold Nuttingham in the 1979 film Dreamer, a post-Watergate, feel-good movie with a down-to-earth vibe. Nuttingham dreams of being a bowling...

The Hall of Fame Case for Charles Ebbets

For reasons passing understanding, Charles Ebbets is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is shameful at best and unforgivable at worst.  Imagine a baseball lineage without Ebbets Field, which débuted in 1913, becoming the home for a team with various...