Volume 4, Number 5 October, 2016 Page 1

Troubadour

Earl Meseth, editor Member, PROBE (Public Relations Officers and

Bulletin Editors) 15611 Glen Dale Lane

Homer Glen, Illinois 60491 815-838-1953

earlm@elmhurst.edu

Published as the spirit moves, Troubadour is the official publication of the Will-Cook Illi-nois Chapter of SPEBSQSA. The Will-Cook

Chapter is the home of the Knights of Harmony Chorus

Leadership Team President …………...……..……Lou Gonzalez Membership …………………......… Ed Brusic Music & Performance …...Rich Davidson Marketing ………………..……… Earl Meseth Program …………………………...Al Munneke Secretary …….……………….……..Hank King Treasurer…………………….…..Ken Witowski Member-at-Large ………………....Paul Cook Member-at-Large …………...…...Dave Beck Member-at-Large……….……...Frank Palko Musical Director…………..Bill Kerschbaum Asst. Director…………………..Rich Davidson

The Chapter and Chorus meet on Thursday evenings at 7:30 PM alternating between the

First Congregational Church, 700 Ninth Street in Lockport and

Glory to God Church, 18401 66th Avenue in Tinley Park

It might seem a bit odd to be discussing the Chicago Cubs in a bar-bershop publication but, as you read on, there is a connection. Be-sides, I have been a Cubs fan since the late 40s and can still remem-ber the angst I felt when they traded everyone’s favorite center fielder , Andy Pafko to the Brooklyn Dodgers. But, I stuck with them, cheering on the likes of Bill Nicholson, Eddie Miksis, Wayne Terwilliger, Dee Fondy, Bill Serena, Hammerin’ Hank Sauer and Frankie Baumholtz, names which have given way in the Chicago psy-che to Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, and Zobrist. I never was much of a White Sox fan, growing up on the Northside, yet I did admire players like Nellie Fox, Minnie Minoso, Luke Appling, Luis Aparicio and Billy Pierce, famous as the 1950s Go-Go White Sox. The Cubs hadn’t won a World Series since 1908 and hadn’t even appeared in one since 1945, when both the National League and See Cubs, Page 2

Special Edition

Chicago Cubs World Series Champs!

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Cubs, Cont. from p. 1

American League had players still wearing military uni-forms, concerned with more than playing a game. The 108-year drought is over, no longer does the “Loveable Losers” tag apply and, hopefully, Sam Sianis’ goat has gone to wherever old goats go after they die. That 1908 World Series culminated the dominance of the Cubs early in the century. It was the time of “Tinker to Evers to Chance”, pitchers Mordecai (Three-Finger) Brown and Orval Overall, who won two Series games that year. More interesting, though, was how the Cubs actually got to the World Series:

On September 23, 1908, the Cubs and New York Giants, involved in a tight pennant race, were tied in the bottom of the ninth inning at the Polo Grounds. The Giants had runners on first and third and two outs when Al Bridwell hit a single to center field, scoring Moose McCormick from third with the Giants’ apparent winning run, but the runner on first base, rookie Fred Merkle, went half way to second and then sprinted to the clubhouse after McCormick touched home plate. As fans swarmed the field, Evers retrieved the ball and touched second. Since there were two outs, a forceout was called at second base, ending the inning and the game. The game went down in history as "Merkle's Boner" and the Gi-ants and Cubs ended up tied for first place. The Giants lost the league's first one-game playoff, and the Cubs went on to the World Series, where they defeated the Tigers once again, this time four games to one, for their second consecutive World Series championship.

Now, 1908 is notable for another first of which you might not be aware (and here comes the Barbershop connection); it was the year that “Take Me Out To The Ballgame was composed (it wouldn’t be heard in a ballpark till 1934). "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which See Cubs, Page 3

has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attend-ed a game prior to writing the song (Norworth and Von Tilzer finally saw their first Major League Base-ball games 32 and 20 years later, respectively.) Jack Norworth, while riding a subway train, was inspired by a sign that said "Baseball Today – Polo Grounds" (Norworth and Bayes were also famous for writing and performing such smash hits as "Shine On, Harvest Moon"). The song was first sung by Nor-worth's then-wife Nora Bayes and popularized by many other vaudeville acts. Interestingly, it was played at a ballpark for the first known time in 1934, at a high-school game in Los Angeles and then later that year during the fourth game of the 1934 World Series. With the sale of so many records, sheet music, and piano rolls, the song became one of the most popular hits of 1908. The Haydn (Barbershop) Quartet, led by popular tenor Harry MacDonough, recorded a suc-cessful version on Victor Records. The most famous recording of the song was credit-ed to "Billy Murray and the Haydn Quartet", even though Murray did not sing on it. The confusion, nonetheless, is so pervasive that, when "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was selected by the National En-dowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry As-sociation of America as one of the 365 top "Songs of the Century", the song was credited to Billy Murray, implying his recording of it as having received the most votes among songs from the first decade. The first recorded version was by Edward Meeker. Meek-er's recording was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Below are the lyrics of the 1908 version, which is out of copyright. In the song, Katie's beau calls to ask her out to see a show. She accepts the date, but only if her date will take her out to the baseball game. Wikipedia contributors. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 Nov. 2016. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

Lyrics Katie Casey was baseball mad, Had the fever and had it bad. Just to root for the home town crew, Ev'ry sou Katie blew. On a Saturday her young beau Called to see if she'd like to go To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No, I'll tell you what you can do:" Chorus Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game. Katie Casey saw all the games, Knew the players by their first names. Told the umpire he was wrong, All along, Good and strong. When the score was just two to two, Katie Casey knew what to do, Just to cheer up the boys she knew, She made the gang sing this song: Chorus

Volume 4, Number 5 October, 2016 Page 2

Volume 4, Number 5 October, 2016 Page 2

A Tribute to Norman Rockwell, Painter of Stories Norman Perceval Rockwell was a 20th-century American author, painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for over nearly five decades.

Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, in New York City, to Jarvis Waring Rockwell and Anne Mary "Nancy" Rockwell, née Hill. His earliest American ancestor was John Rockwell (1588–1662), from Somerset, England, who emigrated to colonial North America, probably in 1635, aboard the ship Hopewell and became one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut. Most everyone remembers Rockwell as the cover illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, Boy’s Life, and numerous other popular magazines. We, as barbershoppers know well the illustration of the barbershop quartet which, for years hung in Harmony Hall in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Below are a few particular poignant illustrations which have some relevance to today given that the Cubs are World Champs.

The Dugout

(Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 4, 1948) This illustration, more than any other tells the story of “the loveable losers” where dejection and anguish can be seen in the visiting Cubs’ dugout and on the faces of the sneering, cat-calls of the fans in the background. The events depicted are from a double header with the Boston Braves at Boston Braves Field on May 23, 1948. The Cubs dropped both games that day, losing 5-8 in the first game and 4-12 in the second. The bat boy is actually a real bat boy. His name is Frank McNulty. He was the batboy for the Boston Braves, but donned a Cubs uniform to pose for the painting. Frank had a bit of a challenge getting into character for this painting. Rock-well had to really change his mood to get the facial expression he wanted. Remember, Frank's team was the Braves, and they were winning. Behind the bat boy, we can see the on deck hitter, All-Star pitcher Johnny Schmitz, the next Cub at bat, who looks very apprehensive and anxious. He doesn't look very confident at all. Inside the dugout, totally shielded from both the sun and the fans, we can observe the mood of three Cubs players. It is

dark inside the dugout. All three look disgusted at the course of events of the game. Maybe one of them has just batted and is dejected by their performance. That attitude can certainly be catching. Seated in the middle is manager Charlie Grimm. Seated to his left is pitcher Bob Rush and to Grimm's right is Al Walker, the catcher. Some of the model’s identities are known. The girl farthest to the left is Helen Fitzsimmons, daughter of Braves' coach Freddie Fitzsimmons. The girl just to the left of the batboy's head is Theresa Prendergrast, wife of Jim Prender-grast, one of the Braves' pitchers. We can actually get a glimpse of Rockwell in the painting. His face appears in the upper left corner as part of the jeering crowd. So the painting is also at least partly a Norman Rockwell self-portrait. See Rockwell, page 5

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Rockwell, Continued from Page 4

Game Called Because Of Rain (Saturday Evening Post, April 23, 1949) This Rockwell work could easily have been created after Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. Recall that the game was tied at 6-6 in the ninth inning when sprinkles began to fall in Cleveland. The tarp was rolled out and a 17-minute game delay followed. The Cubs proceeded to score two in the 10th to which the Indians answered with only one in the bottom of the frame: Cubs 8, Indians 7, and the Cubs had won the World Series. This familiar illustration featured three umpires —Larry Goetz, “Beans” Reardon, and Lou Jorda— as-sessing the weather during a Dodgers versus Pirates game. The scoreboard shows the score to be 1–0 Pittsburgh, bottom of the sixth— so if the game is called because of rain, Pittsburgh will officially win. Confused viewers have since wondered why the Pittsburgh manager seems so upset. In order to make Rockwell's intended scenario clear to readers, the

Post wrote, "In the picture, Clyde Sukeforth, a Brooklyn coach, could well be saying, 'You may be all wet, but it ain't raining a drop!' The huddled Pittsburgher —Bill Meyer, Pirate manager— is doubtless retorting, 'For the love of Abner Doubleday, how can we play ball in this cloudburst?'" In another interpretation, the Brooklyn manager seems delighted because the rain appears to be ending, and the game will not be called —that would have given Pittsburgh a victory— and the Dodger's cleanup batter is at the plate. So, the Dodgers manager thinks the rain is ending and play will continue, giving Brook-lyn a shot at tying or winning the game. This game, played at Ebbetts Field, was apparently a very important game that season. Brooklyn won the National League pennant that year, but were beaten by the Yankees in the World Series. The Dodgers (84-70) finished the 1948 season just one game ahead of Pittsburgh (83-71). See Rockwell, Page 6

The Norman Rockwell images seen on these pages are from Best Norman Rockwell Art (www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com). Permission for use is on the website. The stories about the art are also from that site and have been edited for space and continuity. This site is really worth a visit for any fan of Norman Rockwell and has over 400 pages of content. Gicleé prints may be purchased through this site, framed or unframed.

Fun fact: The Cubs last won the World Series 108 years ago. There are exactly 108 stitches on a major league baseball.

Rockwell, from Page 5 Construction Crew (Saturday Evening Post, August 21, 1954) Here we see a dilemma faced by many neigh-borhood boys and their scratched-out baseball field. I’m sure that many hours had been spent by the boys in the picture pulling weeds, picking up bottles, rocks and garbage, just enough to con-struct a baseball diamond and a reasonable outfield. Ahh, those were the days before the trappings of Little League when one group of neighborhood boys would “book a game” with boys from blocks away to be played on Saturday afternoon. These kids are about to have their playground become a new house. The plans show that the two men are supposed to start digging the cellar. These poor fellows are going to have to break someone's heart. Neighborhood kids, including one dog, are arriving on the scene to plead their case. The property may be owned by someone else, but this is their playground. The foreman, holding a hammer and blueprints, looks almost stunned. He did not know that there would be a hitch in fulfilling this job. If he is local, this may have even been where he also played

baseball during the summers. It is unlikely that the children will win their case. They are not even pleading to the right person. The construction crew is just here to do a job, not to decide whether or not it should be done . To a barbershopper, the illustration should conjure up images painted by the song "There Used to Be a Ballpark", a song written by Joe Raposo and recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1973. The song expresses sadness at the loss of a base-ball team and its ballpark, which once gave its fans and players joy, along with other childhood delights such as "rock candy and a great big Fourth of July". A key phrase in the song is "Now the children try to find it / And they can't be-lieve their eyes / For the old team just isn't playing / And the new team hardly tries." The song has often been cited by books and websites that discuss old-time baseball. It is typically assumed to be about Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers, even though composer once told Larry King the song was actually about the Polo Grounds, which had been the home of the New York Giants until 1957 and which had been the home of the New York Mets in 1962 through 1964 (who, ironically, won the National League pennant in 1973). The song, however, could be about any ballpark and team.

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And there used to be a ballpark Where the field was warm and green. And the people played their crazy game With a joy I'd never seen. And the air was such a wonder From the hot-dogs and the beer. Yes, there used to be a ballpark right here.

And there used to be rock candy, And a great big 4th of July With the fireworks exploding All across the summer sky.

And the people watched in wonder How they'd laugh and how they'd cheer! And there used to be a ballpark right here. Now the children try to find it, And they can't believe their eyes 'Cause the old team just isn't playing, And the new team hardly tries. And the sky has got so cloudy When it used to be so clear, And the summer went so quickly this year. Yes, there used to be a ballpark right here.

There Used To Be A Ballpark