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2011-01-04 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by ryuge 2011-01-04 13:19|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 Once the home of the brave, America is becoming the home of the risk-averse and the pain-avoiders.

I have been privileged to work with a great many young people in uniform who were and remain anything but "risk-averse." Some of them risked it all and gave their lives so we might remain free.

National sports were cancelled during WWII for obvious good reasons. The National Felon League (NFL) and the NBA should have been disbanded when the GWOT kicked off, perhaps before that. I watch neither of them, their big money, bling, and drug lifestyles make me sick! Just my humble opinion.

Posted by Besoeker 2011-01-04 13:40|| 2011-01-04 13:40|| Front Page Top

#2 National sports were cancelled during WWII for obvious good reasons.

Really? Where'd you read that?

Posted by tu3031 2011-01-04 13:55|| 2011-01-04 13:55|| Front Page Top

#3 I seem to recall something about a national girls' baseball league during the Big War...

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-04 14:41|| 2011-01-04 14:41|| Front Page Top

#4 Major league baseball, the minor leagues, and the Negro league all continued to play during WWII, though many players either volunteered or were drafted for the war effort.

The NFL continued to play, though their players too were drafted or volunteered.

The military academies accelerated their training to graduate cadets and midshipmen more quickly, but their sports programs continued. I didn't look up what happened to major college sports but I think at least some of that continued.

Posted by Steve White 2011-01-04 14:55|| 2011-01-04 14:55|| Front Page Top

#5 Not only a women's baseball league (see the film "A League of Their Own") but White Sox games in Comiskey Park beginning at 8 in the morning for workers coming off the graveyard shift. Bill Veeck's idea. He called them "Rosie the Riveter" games.

Most of the best players were in the military (Yogi Berra was at Normandy, but I think it was on D+1). So there were a lot of 4Fs and older players filling in the major league games, which probably explains why my dear Cubbies got into the World Series in 1945.

About the wussification of America: "First thing we'll do, we'll kill all the lawyers" (Shakespeare). So many asinine policies have been devised to cover tails in the event of lawsuits. Today my friend told me that policy states that staff at her medical facility cannot treat another staff member who falls ill on the job. So if one of the nurses she works with has a heart attack, she's not supposed to help; she's supposed to let the paramedics do it. Of course, in such an event, if somebody follows this policy the institution will be sued for NOT giving aid.

Ogden Nash:
Justice has been rerouted
From present to future tense.
The Law is so in love with the Law
It's forgotten common sense.

Posted by mom 2011-01-04 14:55|| 2011-01-04 14:55|| Front Page Top

#6 Sports were cancelled during WWII.

Not entirely true. My bad.

Posted by Besoeker 2011-01-04 15:02|| 2011-01-04 15:02|| Front Page Top

#7 Spoken like a gentleman, Besoeker. :-)

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-04 15:21|| 2011-01-04 15:21|| Front Page Top

#8 Double checked the story on Bill Veeck and found that he was in the marines in WWII, and that he didn't take over the White Sox until later. So it may have been Veeck Senior, who was also involved with baseball; or Veeck Jr. in Milwaukee (he owned the original Brewers in the early 40s) or a different club owner who thought of the Rosie the Riveter games.

Posted by mom 2011-01-04 15:26|| 2011-01-04 15:26|| Front Page Top

#9 The Steagles. The NFL in WWII.

Posted by tu3031 2011-01-04 15:28|| 2011-01-04 15:28|| Front Page Top

#10 I remember a comment in Stallion Gate, by Martin Cruz Smith, about a one armed outfielder playing in the MLB late in the war, so the talent may have been stretched fairly thin.

Posted by Grunter 2011-01-04 18:35|| 2011-01-04 18:35|| Front Page Top

#11 Pete Gray. St. Louis Browns.
True story.

Posted by tu3031 2011-01-04 20:32|| 2011-01-04 20:32|| Front Page Top

#12 Ted Williams hit .407 in....1941. Of course, the Majors were diluted. One team let a 15 year old pitch.

Posted by Gravise Hatrack7365 2011-01-04 23:46|| 2011-01-04 23:46|| Front Page Top

#13 The 1941 season was over before the war started. Dimaggio also hit in 56 straight in 1941.

Posted by tu3031 2011-01-04 23:49|| 2011-01-04 23:49|| Front Page Top

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