Then... and Now Episode 14

In this episode of Then and Now, host John Schomo covers various historical events and birthdays that occurred between May 29th and June 4th. Some notable events include President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to Talmadge, Ohio in 1907, the establishment of Rhode Island and Wisconsin as states, the first Indianapolis 500 race in 1911, and Lou Gehrig's death in 1941. Birthdays of famous individuals such as Bob Hope, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and Tony Curtis are also mentioned. The episode concludes with a discussion on a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Good day, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to another edition of Then and Now. This is episode 14. I'm your host, John Schomo. Welcome back. We have a lot to do today, a lot to get to. So let's get started with our facts for the week. This will cover the dates May 29th through June 4th. So we'll start on May 29th and a very unknown event outside this little town that we live in here. On May 29th, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt was traveling by train through Ohio and stopped for about an hour in Talmadge as the train made a stop, got out of the train, and as was his want, he just walked all over town, walked around a few farms, talked to a few people, took a little stroll through Talmadge, Ohio during his presidency. That's pretty cool. Rhode Island became the 13th state on May 29th, 1790. Wisconsin, hello, Badgers, became the 30th state on May 29th, 1848. Birthdays on May 29th include the patriot Patrick Henry from Virginia, give me liberty or give me death, Patrick Henry, born on May 29th, 1736. Bob Hope, the great actor, comedian, American hero for all the work he did for the USO and giving shows for troops overseas through several wars, Bob Hope was born Leslie Towns, actually in England, on May 29th, 1903. His family moved to Cleveland and he lived in Cleveland for a long time, was part owner of the then Cleveland Indians for quite a while, a legendary career. Virginia legends, John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29th, 1917. A little bit more about John F. Kennedy later on. Okay, May 30th is the traditional date of Memorial Day. When Memorial Day was set up after the Civil War, we have turned it into a Monday holiday, as you know, but May 30th used to be, in my youth, at least Memorial Day every year, no matter what day of the week it fell on. Assuming that it was Memorial Day, the first Indianapolis 500 was run on May 30th, 1911. More about the Indy 500 in a few minutes here. An event that I was a pleasure, it's a pleasure that I was there for this, Cleveland Indians right-handed pitcher, the young Dennis Eckersley, no hit the California Angels at the stadium up in Cleveland on Memorial Day, 1977. The score was one to nothing, the only run was scored on a squeeze bunt by Jimmy Norris of the Indians, and Dennis Eckersley got the no-hitter. It was the second of three no-hitters that I've witnessed in person. Just pretty lucky there. Mel Blank, the voice of a thousand characters for Looney Tunes, et cetera, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and the gang. Mel Blank, born May 30th, 1908. Gail Sayers, the Kansas Comet, former Kansas Jayhawk, turned draft choice of the Chicago Bears, NFL Hall of Famer. He lost to Gail Sayers a few years ago, he would have been 81 years old on May 30th. And Manny Ramirez, Manny being Manny, came up through, I saw him play for the Akron Indians down at Thurman Munson Stadium before he made the major leagues. What a hitter, maybe the purest right-handed hitter of his generation. Manny Ramirez will be 52 on May 30th. May 31st, Johnstown, Pennsylvania suffered a flood that killed approximately 2,300 people on May 31st, 1889, the famous Johnstown Flood. W. Mark Felt, former number two of the FBI, revealed on May 31st, 2005, that he had indeed been the secret source for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, known as Deep Throat. Mark Felt was 91 when he revealed that, he died just a couple of years later, but it was a great guessing game for about 33 years or so, who was Deep Throat, who was this source that helped bring down the Nixon presidency? Turned out it was the associate director of the FBI, W. Mark Felt. Birthdays on May 31st, actor-director Clint Eastwood will turn 94 on May 31st. Football Hall of Famer from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, University of Alabama and the New York Jets, Joe Willie Namath will be 81 on May 31st. That does make me feel old right there. Brooke Shields, the actress, will be 59. Kenny Loftin, former Cleveland Indians leadoff hitter, played for several other teams in the big leagues, Kenny Loftin will be 57 on May 31st. And the late John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, born May 31st, 1948. Moving on to the month of June. June 1st was the anniversary of a couple of our early states. Kentucky became the 15th state on June 1st, 1792. And Tennessee became the next one, the 16th state, four years later on June 1st, 1796. The Beatles released the groundbreaking album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1st, 1967. The first album, among other firsts for that album and that group, that listed the lyrics on the back of the album, and it had cutouts inside for you to cut out. Just, you know, the Beatles changed a lot, and Sergeant Pepper's was a transformation for them. CNN, the cable news network, first went live on June 1st, 1980, and think of how that changed our media. Birthdays, lots of them. The late, great Marilyn Monroe, born June 1st, 1926, as Norma Jean Mortenson, that was her given name. Born the very same day, Andy Griffith, born June 1st, 1926. Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, who are touring America, and I can't believe I'm saying that in 2024. Ronnie Wood is 77 on June 1st. Alanis Morissette will be 50 on June 1st. Model Heidi Klum will be 51. The great voice Morgan Freeman will be 87 on June 1st. And June 1st, 1938 is the date that the first ever Superman comic was published. Superman, basically the idea of a couple of guys from Cleveland, Ohio. All right, moving to June 2nd. On June 2nd, 1941, Yankees legend Lou Gehrig died of the disease that now carries his name, Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS, died June 2nd, 1941. Queen Elizabeth II was coronated in England on June 2nd, 1953. As you know, Queen Elizabeth II just passed away about a year and a half ago. Martha Washington, first First Lady of the United States, born June 2nd, 1731. Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon, born June 2nd, 1930. Pete Conrad was, everybody asked him, well, what are you going to say when you set foot on the moon? Neil Armstrong had been the first, and he had said, one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. Pete Conrad, who was about 5'7", went down the ladder, set foot on the moon, and said, that may have been a small step for Neil, but it sure was a big one for me. I like that. Speaking of the Rolling Stones, the late drummer, Charlie Watts, the great Charlie Watts, born June 2nd, 1941. Rest in peace, Charlie. Jerry Mathers, who played the Beaver on Leave It to Beaver, is 76 on June 2nd, and comic former SNL star, Dana Carvey, will be 69 on June 2nd. Moving on to June 3rd, the first land battle of the Civil War was held in the city in which I was born, Philippi, West Virginia, on June 3rd, 1861. The Battle of Midway began in the Pacific, talk about a turning point, on June 3rd, 1942. Ed White, West Point graduate, became the first American to walk in space aboard Gemini 4 on June 3rd, 1965. President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, born June 3rd, 1808. The great actor, Tony Curtis, born June 3rd, 1925. Three-time U.S. Open golf champion, Hale Irwin, will be 79 on June 3rd. He was also the quarterback of the Colorado Buffaloes in college. Billy Cunningham, University of North Carolina star, played for the Philadelphia 76ers, coached the Philadelphia 76ers to a championship. The lefty, Billy Cunningham, will be 81 on June 3rd. CNN's Anderson Cooper will be 57. And former Cleveland Indian, Travis Haffner, Haffner, Hronk, as they called him, Travis Haffner, will be 47 on June 3rd. Okay, ending this week's anniversaries and birthdays, we move to June 4th. June 4th, 50 years ago, was, they had a promotion at the Cleveland Indians game against the Texas Rangers. Many of you remember this, us older folks. Some of you may have heard about it, you younger folks. It was 10-cent beer night in Cleveland, and there was no limit on how many beers you could buy. So, the crowd of about 25,000, which was a big crowd for Cleveland back then, got a little unruly. Cleveland led the Rangers in the ninth inning, and people started to run on the field and have fun dress and take after the Texas Rangers players. It was a melee on the field. The umpires, the police could not get control of the situation, and unfortunately, Cleveland had to forfeit that game to the Texas Rangers. It was a great embarrassment to the city, to the organization, just, you know, one of those things, boy, it's an idea that you just shouldn't follow up on. They did, and they regretted it. June 4th, 1984, Bruce Springsteen released probably his most notable album, Born to Run. June 4th, 1738, King George III of Great Britain, made some mistakes, was born. Former Pirates, Cardinals, Cleveland catcher Tony Pena, love Tony Pena, Tony Pena will be 67 on June 4th. Angelina Jolie, the actress, will be 49. And last but not least, Jim Lachey, former Buckeyes offensive lineman, Washington then Redskins offensive lineman, won a Super Bowl or two with them, and currently the analyst along with Paul Keels on the Ohio State Radio Network, Jim Lachey will be 61 on June 4th. Happy birthday, Jim. Let's go Bucs. Okay, there are our anniversaries and birthdays, love doing those. Glad people I've heard had some feedback from folks that are glad we do those, reminds them of class a little bit. Those are fun, glad to do them. All right, a few topics this week. One will be, my wife and I made a trip to the state up north last week. We met our son Matt in Saugatuck, Michigan, and on the way we stay tonight in Grand Rapids. Now Grand Rapids, Michigan is not one of those destination vacation places, but I got to be honest, they have done a wonderful job developing the city of Grand Rapids. Population is just about the same as the population of Akron. They renovated old buildings, old five, six story buildings that were built in the 1880s and 90s. They're looking very nice, it's a very walkable downtown area, set up for that, many restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating along the way. We stayed right downtown. It was a real eye opener. Kind of sad that we can't kind of replicate that here in the Akron area, or Cleveland for that matter, but hats off to the folks in Michigan and Grand Rapids. They have really done a great job with the development of their city, particularly their downtown area. We then, on the way out of town, visited the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum, which really, almost surprisingly, was fantastic. I would rank it right up there. I've been to several of those, and I would rank it right up there with the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, in terms of just being a wow. It was really well done, really well put together. The displays and the artifacts were fantastic. Really great. If you're ever in the area up there, you've got to drop by the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. It sits right along the river in Grand Rapids, it's really fantastic. While on the weekend vacation, Matt and I went golfing a couple of times. We visited the Mines, which is a very interesting course in Grand Rapids. And then on Sunday afternoon, we played Ravines Golf Club, an Arnold Palmer signature course, right there in Saugatuck. And it just so happened that on the 17th hole, yours truly hit a pretty good shot with an eight iron from the tee, and it trundled on down into the hole. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a hole in one. Luckily for me, it's my second of my career, and it just goes to show what a lucky thing that is. You have to hit a pretty good shot usually, not always, I guess, Joe Abbott, to have a hole in one. Hit a good shot, landed about five feet from the hole, kind of left and short, and just rolled right in. Rather be lucky than good. Again, you have to hit a good shot to get close, but it's really lucky when it rolls in the hole. So, that was pretty exciting. I got a kick out of that for sure. Okay. Now, moving on to a little bit of sports here, and then we'll get to some politics. In the NBA, we know that the Boston Celtics have won the Eastern Conference, and they're in search of banner number 18. They'll get to the finals, which don't start for another week and a couple of days, as I record this. Will they play the Dallas Mavericks? That will be determined this evening as I record this on Tuesday evening. Dallas held a 3-0 lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves. They're looking pretty good. Out of 150-some tries, no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a series. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but it hasn't happened in over 150 tries. All right. National Hockey League, we are in the conference finals. The Dallas Stars are playing the Edmonton Oilers, and the New York Rangers are playing the Florida Panthers. We'll see who emerges from that for the Stanley Cup final. The Indy 500 was held on a rainy Sunday this past week. Pat Riley, who asked one of the three good questions last week, and his friends faced long delays in Indianapolis, which probably were tough to sit through or walk back to the car to or hang around in the concourse with. Finally, they got the race going in the late afternoon, finished it before dark. It was an exciting finish, won by Joseph Newgarden for the second year in a row. He wins back-to-back Indy 500s. He's the sixth driver to ever do it. The last was Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002. So I hope everybody got home okay after a really long day down there. I'm sure it was excruciating at times, but an interesting finish to the race at least. Speaking of basketball, we can't let this go by. Rest in peace to the great Bill Walton. Bill Walton passed away this past week at the age of 71. For those of you who don't remember, Bill Walton was perhaps the greatest passing big man in basketball history. I've talked back and forth by email with the great Frank Jesse, the former state V coach, University of Akron star, University of Akron and Cincinnati assistant coach, our athletic director at one point in time at Talmadge, and Frank and I kind of agreed that Bill Walton, I don't think any big man ever passed the ball better than Bill Walton. He led the UCLA Bruins to 88 consecutive wins while he was there, national champions in 1972 and 73, got beaten the final four by David Thompson's North Carolina State Wolfpack in 1974. He was 21 for 22 in the 1973 national championship game against Memphis State, 21 for 22 from the field. He was the MVP of the NBA in 1978. He led the Portland Trailblazers to their only NBA title the year before in 1977. They beat Julius Erving in the Sixers. He then had a series, he suffered through foot injuries, knee injuries, all kinds of injuries. It's a great what if. What would Bill Walton's career have been if he had stayed healthy? He got healthy enough to join the Boston Celtics, which he said was like playing, you know, like heaven on earth for a basketball player. And he was part of that great 1986 Boston Celtics team that ran through the league and won the championship over the Houston Rockets. Bill Walton, counterculture figure. He hung out in the woods. He looked like a guy who got lost in the woods for three weeks during the 1970s. He knew some of the people, those of you old enough to remember the Patricia Hearst kidnapping and hostage situation. He was involved in that somehow. He knew some of those people that called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army who kidnapped the heiress Patty Hearst and held her captive for a while. I'm chuckling because it's so improbable. But that's Bill Walton. Bill Walton went on to a great career in broadcasting. He was highly entertaining, one of a kind. They broke the mold when they made that guy. And it was really sad yesterday as I recorded this to hear that Bill Walton had passed away. Really an original and, again, one of the great basketball players of all time. Okay. We'll finish with some politics here. I tread lightly sometimes, but I got to really knock the Ohio State Legislature, the General Assembly in Columbus. They are embarrassing, quite frankly, our state. There is an old law in the books in Ohio that says that there has to be so many days, I think 70 days, between the nomination of a presidential candidate and the election. Well, that rule has been violated several times. In 2008, the Republican-led Ohio State Legislature passed a special law that said, okay, the Republicans aren't having their convention until September. John McCain will be the candidate. We'll let him on the ballot. They did it again in 2020 because the Republicans didn't hold their, you know, convention on the White House lawn until late in August. It was after the deadline. They said, all right, we'll pass a little law to make sure Trump's on the ballot. They refused to do that this year for the Democratic candidate, President Joe Biden. The Democratic convention will be held in Chicago in mid to late August, which is, you know, closer than 70 days to election day. And be that as it may, the General Assembly is balking and making it very difficult and has not revised that law to allow the President of the United States to be on the ballot here. Governor DeWine was furious with them last week. He knows, he understands that they're making Ohio look like the laughingstock of the nation. It's embarrassing, quite honestly, that they're playing politics with this. I don't know what it is. It could be part fealty to Donald Trump. It could be that just our gerrymandering has put so many partisan people in the General Assembly that they just think they can do anything they want. It's probably a little bit of both, but it's making us look clownish to the rest of the country, quite honestly. It's embarrassing. The Democrats announced today that they're going to virtually nominate President Biden on August 7th. That's a couple of weeks before the convention in Chicago, so that he will qualify for the Ohio ballot. What a shame that it comes down to something like that. Again, it's just embarrassing for our state, really. That's all I can say, and all I will say about that. Okay. Now we get to the three good questions part of the podcast. We've got them rolling in here. We've got a couple stacked up for next week already. Here are our three good questions for this week. The first one asked by Lynn Downey, who happens to be closely related to me, actually my sister. She said, choose one album from each of the decades of the 60s, 70s, and 80s as a perfect album. No bad songs. But she hung a little caveat out there for me. She said no Beatles albums were allowed or Beatles solo projects were allowed. Well, that made it a little more difficult for yours truly. No greatest hits compilations. I get that. That's a good rule, because they are obviously greatest hits. So here's what I picked, and I'm sure a lot of you will have an argument with this, but here goes my selection. The album I picked from the 60s was the Beach Boys album, Pet Sounds, from 1966. It was so revolutionary, so ... I've run out of adjectives to describe it. I know that Paul McCartney was really fired up when he heard it, met with Brian Wilson, and came up with the idea on the plane back to England for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. That was the Beatles' answer to Pet Sounds. So if it made them answer, it is a great album. It is a great album. For the 70s, I've mentioned it last week, I believe, What's Going On by Marvin Gaye. It just encapsulates literally what was going on in the early 1970s like no other album of that decade. So I'll go with that for the 70s. For the 80s, I mentioned it earlier, Born in the U.S.A., pardon me, not Born to Run, that was 1975. Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen. Just a great album. It really made him a superstar. Bruce Springsteen was a ... he had a niche. He had a genre from the mid-70s into the early 80s. He became an international superstar with Born in the U.S.A. in 1984. Okay. Thank you, Lynn. Thanks. That was a great question. It would have been a lot easier had I been able to choose Beatles albums, but that's okay. All right. Question number two from Jeff Cole. What are the three best sports books I have read? Really, I really had to think about this one. I'll go with Jim Bouton's Ball Four as one of them. Jim Bouton was a pitcher, first for the New York Yankees in the 1960s, then he kicked around, kind of lost his fastball, developed a knuckleball, got back to the big leagues, and wrote a book about the 1969 season in which he pitched for the expansion Seattle Pilots. The book was not just about baseball, it was about the lives of the baseball players off the field, which really nobody had talked about much publicly at that time. He got called into the commissioner's office, the commissioner said it was embarrassing baseball. Man, is it a good and entertaining book, so Ball Four is on the list. The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn, about the Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s. It's just a great chronicle of those times. If you love old-time baseball stories, that's a must. It's just so well-written. The third one is a bit more obscure. I read it a few years ago, I have it in my book collection. It's called The President's Team by Michael Connelly. It's about President Kennedy and his relationship and fondness for the Navy, the Naval Academy football team of 1962 and 63. That was captained by Roger Staubach, who won the 1963 Heisman Trophy. President Kennedy, being a Navy veteran, as was my father, full disclosure, just loved the team. He would come to Annapolis to visit them in training camp in 63. He would attend the Army-Navy game during his time in office. They loved him. The players loved him. When he came down, they were just enthralled by the fact that he took an interest in their football team. The 1963 Navy football team was darn good. They were number two in the nation in late November of 1963, looking toward their annual meeting with Army, which was scheduled for, oh boy, I'm trying to remember, November 30th, perhaps. Then, as you know, President Kennedy was shot to death, assassinated on November 22nd, 1963. They didn't know what to do with the game. There was talk about canceling the Army-Navy game. The Kennedy family said, no, the game should go on. President Kennedy would have wanted it to go on. He was looking forward to it. They wound up playing it on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th. It was the first telecast that used instant replay. CBS used an instant replay machine for the first time ever. It was played with heavy hearts. Navy won the game barely, went down to Dallas and got beaten a cotton bowl by Texas. That ruined their national championship hopes. It's just a moving story about the President and his affinity for that football team in particular and their affinity for him. It's a great story. Thanks, Jeff. Jeff gets the third question this week as well. He wants me to name my top five golf courses of all time. I probably should put Ravine's Golf Club on there now, shouldn't I? It was nice, but I don't think it makes my top five. I'll go back for sure. All right. My top five, I guess this is in order. It's the order I thought of them in, so here goes. It's not golf courses I've played, but I have played one of them. It's my top five golf courses of all time. One would be the old course at St. Andrews where it all started. You have to do that, I think. Number two, Pebble Beach Golf Links in California. Number three, I got to put Augusta National in there. We get so enthralled and so thrilled when the Masters comes around every April. The course really brings out excitement. It will be allure of the tournament. Number four, we'll go nearby a couple hours southeast of here, Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the great courses, hosts the U.S. Open periodically. It's just a fantastic test of golf. And number five, I had to put it on there. Played there a few years ago. We'll go up to Wisconsin and put Whistling Straits on the list. We had a very memorable day there four summers ago in 2020 during the pandemic. Matt and I got to go up and play it, and it was really quite the experience. And boy, is it a test of golf. They played the Ryder Cup there a couple years ago, if you remember. So that's my list. The old course, Pebble Beach, Augusta, Oakmont, and Whistling Straits. Just one man's opinion, but that's where we're at. Okay. Thank you for the questions. Again, we got a question or two lined up already for next week. If you have a good question, please email the podcast email at threegoodquestionsatgmail.com. That's three, T-H-R-E, goodquestionsatgmail.com. And we'll get to them as soon as possible. I am very grateful for those of you that have emailed or texted or let me know somehow that you're enjoying the podcast. It's fantastic. I'm really honored by that. I enjoy doing it, and I'm glad people are tuning in and listening and, you know, taking it in. It's really fantastic. I'm very happy about that. So that'll wrap it up for Episode 14 of Then and Now. You can find us on Spotify. Thanks a lot for picking us. I'm John Schomo. We'll be back next week for another episode of Then and Now. Have a great week, everybody.