HARRY THE CAT

My favorite scene in the movie Field of Dreams is when Kevin Costner's character gets to play a game of catch with his deceased father. I would like to dedicate this blog to the memory of my father, Raymond Robert Blake, who adored Harry Brecheen. Dad, this is the game of catch I never got to have with you.

I used to brag up the greatness of my hero Carl Yastrzemski to my father, which one day caused this reaction in him: he told me about a player named Harry "The Cat" Brecheen, who to his mind was the greatest pitcher he had ever seen, and possibly the greatest ballplayer who had ever lived. Yes, he even placed him above Ted Williams, who I had always assumed was his hero. But no. It was somebody nicknamed The Cat. Now just who was this guy? He was on none of my baseball cards, and I found no mentions of him in the sports pages. He certainly wasn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Harry Brecheen was born October 14, 1914, in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. He was to become a star pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. He got the nickname "The Cat" for his ability to cover bunts. They seldom outfoxed him. He was the key to the Cardinals upset win over the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series, winning 3 games. He held Ted Williams to a .200 batting average, 1 RBI and no extra base hits. This was when Ted developed his admiration for The Cat. Harry Carey interviewed this other Harry after Game 7, and he was his usual modest self, calling their victory a team effort. His won/lost record that year was a deceptive 15-15, because his teammates could not supply the runs needed for the wins. Brecheen held many Cardinals club records for many years, and still holds the career shutout record (25) for lefthanders. He was an All Star in 1947 and 1948. He also won a World Series ring in 1944, and one last time in 1966 as a pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles (a position he held for 14 years). The experts say he had the 8th best screwball of all time.

The Cat had a lifetime won/lost record of 133-92, and a 2.92 ERA over 11 seasons. His World Series ERA of 0.83 stood as a record for 30 years.  His lifetime fielding percentage was .983 and he only committed 8 errors in his entire career.

He had his best season in 1948, when he went 20-7 with a 2.24 ERA. He led the National League with 7 shutouts and 149 strikeouts while completing 21 of 30 starts. He gave a lot of credit for inspiration to pitcher Carl Hubbell, another tantalizing screwball artist who earned his place in the Hall of Fame in 1947. "Hubbell was my favorite pitcher because he was lefthanded like me." The Cat watched him play in many post season exhibition games in Oklahoma. To me, the great mystery is why Mr. Brecheen was never voted into the Hall of Fame.

Harry "The Cat" Brecheen died on January 17, 2004, at a nursing facility in Bethany, Oklahoma, at age 89. His wife, Vera, predeceased him by several years. They had 62 years together. He remained a fan of the game until the end, catching several games on TV each season.

I don't know if my father followed Harry's career and post-baseball life. I think he would have been pleased that The Cat outlived him by several years.

Long live the fame of Harry "The Cat' Brecheen!!!

 

MEET THE BEATLES: AGAIN???

 

It was February of 1964 when we all met the Beatles. Now Capitol Records would like us to meet them all over again, like the millions of dollars we gave them the first time were not enough! Anyway, Capitol has reissued all of the original American Beatles LPs on special CDs, which feature all the tracks in both mono and stereo. Which is a great gimmick, I must admit. We'll get into those reissues in a moment, but first a brief look back at how Beatlemania got off the ground. Meet the Beatles! was the title of what Capitol Records would have us believe was their first album. The first of many lies and untimely tampering with the music of the greatest group of all time. Capitol felt that the group's recordings, done in England by "primitive" producers and engineers, needed some Americanization, and general re-merchandising. (Yes, of course George Martin is now widely considered to be a hack. Not!) Most of these tracks were taken from the group's second UK LP With the Beatles, which all United Kingdom fans had well ahead of the USA item pictured above.

 

You may note the similarity in the photos of both albums! A look at the back covers tells the story of what songs the two albums shared.

 

 Three of the songs from With the Beatles ended up in the USA on The Beatles Second Album.

 

Capitol made sure the big singles were featured on their albums. I Want To Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There were on Meet the Beatles and She Loves You was the prime draw on the Second Album.

 

All of this jockeying around usually overlooks the Beatles real first album, Introducing the Beatles, which was the USA title for Please Please Me, the original UK debut for the Fab Four.

 

 

The main cheat on us was that the British LPs had 14 tracks and ours had 12 and eventually 11. Capitol kept a few tracks back from each new release to create additional albums for the USA market. The most prominent and popular were Beatles 65 and Beatles VI.  We will take a closer look at those two, which I actually purchased. I own all of the British LPs and most of the CDs, but these two were among my teen years favorites by John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

 

 

I was especially looking forward to hearing these songs in true stereo, which was not always the case with the original releases.

 

Capitol has even included miniature versions of the inner sleeves from the original albums, another nice touch.

 

Beatles '65 sleeve. Everyone remember the Teen Set? A decent magazine, as I recall.

 

 

Beatles VI sleeve 

 

Capitol has even duplicated the original record labels! 

 

Many of the songs on these came from the UK release Beatles For Sale.

 

A look at the back covers shows what was taken from this for the USA-only albums.

Another reissue of interest for the stereo aspect is The Early Beatles, which essentially stole its tracks from Please Please Me/Introducing the Beatles. I always found it unusual that both the VeeJay and Capitol labels laid claim to the track I Saw Her Standing There, which showed up on both Meet the Beatles and Introducing the Beatles. It was also a single for Capitol, as the B side of I Want To Hold Your Hand. The VeeJay album was practically impossible to obtain in stereo, and much of The Early Beatles was in Capitol's "duophonic" sound, a distasteful attempt to pass mono off as a 2-channel experience. So this CD will be a treasure to many Beatles fans.

 

Just about every Beatles LP up to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is part of this new promotion. Starting with Pepper's, British and American Beatles albums were identical, at the insistence of the Beatles, God bless them.

 

There are two CDs to avoid, in this critic's opinion: A Hard Day's Night and Help!

 

The problem is that in duplicating the USA albums, they are just doing us the same injustice twice. The UK editions of these film soundtracks stand head and shoulders above what Capitol did to them in the USA. Her are the back covers of the American releases, followed by those of the British. Note how many songs went missing from the ones offered to us in America.

 

 

Both of the UK LPs contained several songs that Capitol did not wish to share with hungry American fans like me. I had a friend who went to France pick me up a copy of the French release of Help!, which was identical to the British version, so I was the only Beatles fan I knew in this country with such a treasure. The missing tracks eventually became parts of those "extra" Capitol LPs like Yesterday and Today. Tracks were also withheld from Rubber Soul and Revolver.

 

 
One additional "extra" on the CD reissue of Yesterday and Today is the inclusion of the infamous "butcher cover," which had the lads in hospital attire doing horrible things to new born babies. Those with a need to see this lapse of good taste (which was promptly removed from stores and the cover above slapped over it) should definitely buy this CD reissue.

 

I highly recommend the original UK releases (on vinyl or CD) of A Hard Day's Night and Help! Those allow you to experience these classics the way the Beatles wanted you to. All of the irritating instrumental tracks by the George Martin Orchestra which took the place of all those great Beatles tracks are all dutifully included on these reissues. George Martin was a great producer and a true friend to the Beatles, but his contributions to these two American albums are just filler taking the place of greatness. Greatness by Martin can be found in all of the great producing he did for the Beatles. For that we will be forever in his debt.

 

Other titles in this reissue package which are of some interest include Something New, for which Capitol helped themselves to several tracks from the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack, which had been released in America by previous agreement on the United Artists label. Capitol never took kindly to any other label selling Beatles records but them. Also of interest on this one is the German version of I Want To Hold Your Hand, Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand.

 

 

We'll give a mild endorsement to the reissues of  Rubber Soul and Revolver. My complaint remains the same: Capitol held back songs from us that the rest of the world was enjoying.

Well, I guess this brings us to the end of this minor magical mystery tour. I understand the desire to own these. I had a hard time keeping myself to two. These albums are ingrained in the memory of so many Baby Boomers, including myself. I guess I should give Capitol some praise for bringing these back, whatever the motive may have been. There have been so many Beatles CD reissues that I don't imagine the sales of these are making anyone rich, except what's left of the Beatles, of course. Hats off to Paul and Ringo. I would love to hear their thoughts on these. We wish them, and George Martin, long and happy lives. Thank You For the Music, as ABBA would sing.

My Kurt Vonnegut Story

For years I have been in conversations that ended up in me offering to tell my "Kurt Vonnegut Story." But the subject was always interrupted, and I still have not told my story. Until today! Don't get too excited. I don't save his life or anything like that. But I did play a small part in one day of his life. Read on, and I will get to that at the conclusion of this blog.

When author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. appeared at Connecticut College in New London on October 5, 1980, it was not to promote any of his books, but rather to support his wife, photographer Jill Krementz, whose photo exhibit was opening at the College library. But as so often happened wherever Vonnegut went, he could not go unnoticed, being one of the most popular writers of his day. Reporters mobbed him in front of the card catalog, and he was soon forced outside into the beautiful autumn New England day. On a lawn near the library, a short podium was hastily put in place, and (as was his style) he spoke off the cuff for about 30 minutes to an audience of enthralled college students (possibly his most vocal fan base). His most recent bestseller at that time was Jailbird (1979), and the most recent one to take the country by storm was 1973's Breakfast of Champions.  But then, and throughout his long career, the book everybody wanted to hear him talk about was his 1969 classic Slaughterhouse Five. This work had made him into an international star, and it was even made into a popular motion picture.

Kurt Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, a town that was seen as a symbol of American values, and which was used as a setting in many of his novels. His boyhood was short-curcuited (at age 20) by a stint in the army during World War Two. Almost immediately he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. While he was home on leave after escaping, his mother committed suicide on Mother's Day 1944. He survived the Allied bombing of Dresden to become a prisoner of war, which provided inspiration for Slaughter House Five. In 1958 his sister Alice died of cancer within hours of her husband's death in a train crash. Vonnegut and his first wife assumed custody of his sister's three children. A biography on his website offers insight into what made him tick:

His vision of the fantastic in daily life influenced by extraordinary events made him learn to cope with a world of tragi-comic disparities, a universe that defies causality and whose absurdity lends the fantastic equal plausibility with the mundane.

Vonnegut also invented an alter ego: Kilgore Trout (the name thought to be a play on that of another science fiction writer, Theodore Sturgeon). Trout was always getting into trouble by mouthing off on the things that Mr. Vonnegut only wished he could do himself. Trout was first prominently displayed in the story collection Welcome To the Monkey House in 1968.

Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano, was published in 1952, followed by Sirens of Titan in 1959. These were strictly works of science fiction, which would continue to play a part in his work throughout his career.

Vonnegut often listed among his many influences: Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, Aristophanes, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Robert Lewis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Jonathan Swift, H. L. Mencken.

Among his many works:

                                                                Dead-Eye Dick - 1982

                                                                Galapagos - 1985

                                                   God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater -1964

                                                  Welcome To the Monkey House - 1968

                                                                   Slapstick - 1976

                                                               Player Piano - 1952

                                                               Hocus Pocus - 1990

                                                                 Mother Night - 1961

       

                                                                      Bluebeard - 1987

                                                        Breakfast of Champions - 1973

His second wife, Jill Krementz, took all of the photos of Vonnegut that graced the back of his dust jackets. Among the best were:

Besides novels, he also published Fates Worse Than Death (1992), a collection of essays and speeches, and Palm Sunday (1999), an autobiographical collage of writings. Bagombo Snuff Box (2000) consisted of uncollected short fiction, Kurt Vonnegut On Mark Twain, Lincoln, Imperialist Wars, and Weather (2004), Wampeters, Fora & Granfalloons (2004), rare and unexamined writings, The collections continued posthumously: Fubar: Look At the Birdie, a collection of unpublished fiction from 2009. If This Isn't Nice, What Is?, a collection of his commencement addresses, with Dan Wakefield (2014), While Mortals Sleep (2012) unpublished short fiction with Dave Eggers, and most significantly Armegeddon In Retrospective (2008), unpublished pieces compiled by his son, Mark. A novel, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkien was completed by Neil Gaiman in 2010. Also worth checking out: The Last Interview and Other Coversations, with Tom McCartan (2011).

Also in the field of Vonnegut collectibles are two short stories turned into books by greedy publishers determined to milk Mr. V for all he was worth. The Big Trip Up Yonder (2009) is an expanded version of a short story that first appeared in 1954 in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, and 2BR0213 (2009), an expansion of a 1962 story from Worlds of If.

Vonnegut wrote fourteen novels in all, the last being A Man Without a Country (2005, actually a collection of short fiction). When he passed away on April 11, 2007, the requiem from the book was quoted widely:

when the last living thing

has died on account of us

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say 

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon

"It is done."

People did not like it here.

In a Time magazine appreciation, Lev Grossman wrote:

Even at his most despairing he had an endless willingness to entertain his readers: with drawings, jokes, sex, bizarre plot twists, science fiction, whatever it took.

We're sure Vonnegut himself would have added "So it goes!"

Vonnegut also wrote a play, 1971's Happy Birthday, Wanda June. It was wild with satire and absurdity. It starred Kevin McCarthy as Harold Ryan and Marsha Mason as Penelope Ryan, and ran for about a year and a half. Photos by Jill Krementz, unless otherwise credited.

       

                                                       Kevin McCarthy and Marsha Mason
                                                              (photo by Bert Andrews)

                                                              Fine tuning Wanda June

                                                       Wanda June: an audience of one

Also worth mentioning is his screenplay for television, Between Time and Timbuktu (1972). Vonnegut did not claim authorship of the original draft, but it was all based on his writings and he added a great deal to the finished product. As with Wanda June, he got to work with people who greatly impressed him. The radio comedians Bob and Ray were in the cast, much to his delight.

                                               Bob and Ray as Gesundheit and Williams

Between Time and Timbuktu brought back Wanda June as a minor character who appears near the end of the production.

                                                         Ariane Munker as Wanda June

In his final years, he took more satisfaction from his art work than his literary creations. His art was appreciated, but like Picasso he was thought of as too far out.

Now let's return to Mr. Vonnegut's visit to Connecticut College, as it is there that yours truly becomes a part of the Kurt Vonnegut legacy! In those days I was driving a milk vending route for Maple Hill Farms of Bloomfield, Connecticut, and my stops included Connecticut College.

Ben and truck

I had heard Kurt was going to be there that day, but of course I had no idea if I would actually see him. Well, as fate would have it I was motoring along the main drag at the College when I noticed a crowd of students gathered around a distinguished looking gentleman, who I immediately recognized as Kurt Vonnegut! I instinctively sounded the truck's horn, hopefully setting him up for a good one-liner. About 30 seconds after I rolled past, I heard a loud outbreak of laughter. I had succeeded! Of course I'll never know what he said, but I imagined it was something like "The teamsters love me!" In any case, I played my part in that moment of his life. And that, my friends, is my Kurt Vonnegut story. Yes, I know you were expecting something more exciting and meaningful, but I am very happy with it as it was. It was a moment I will recall pleasantly forever. And although I never got to meet the man, somehow I felt closer to him after our shared (if unprepared) collaboration in humor. 

And so it goes...

Kurt Vonnegut's legacy is carried on and celebrated by the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.

 In this shot, one of his typewriters is on display. The library's website is www.vonnegutlibrary.org. It may be visited at 340 N. Senate Avenue, Indianapolos, IN 46204, and emailed at info@vonnegutlibrary.org.

Sincere thanks to Chris Lafave at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, and Rebecca Palmer at Connecticut College, for helping me make this much more authoritative and fun. You ladies are the best!

                                                 The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library


http://vonnegut.com/

We'll end this with a moving video, featuring a great Billy Joel song. And so it goes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atABhlMLYvU&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLBA98097412D7253D