by RICHARD K. MUNRO

(SEPT 26, 2016)

So today was Vin Scully’s last game ever at Dodger stadium and there was a thrilling extra-inning game won by a clutch homer by Charlie Culberson. I wish my father and Auld Pop could have been here to enjoy it with us!

My cousin Helen Munro (born 1943) was discussing how she lived to keep score at home with Auld Pop and listening to Red Barber and then Vin Scully. She went many times to Ebbett’s Field as did my parents but I went only once (in utero in August 1955 (see my mother’s ticket below!)

My grandfather came to love baseball with his friend “American” Johnny Robertson and they saw many big league games and Texas league games together in the 1920’s and 1930’s. I know also they played shinty while with the Argylls in Greece and on at least one occasion played baseball with Canadians and Americans (while wearing kilts!!!).

Auld Pop, it is said had quite a wallop. So I know he played the game in America probably pre 1910 and certainly in the 1920’s when he was in his early 30’s.

I know his favorite player was Zack Wheat and Wheat played for the Dodgers in the 1910’s and 1920′. Auld Pop’s favorite players were Wheat, Duke Snider (he passed on an autograph) , Jackie Robinson, Johnny Podres and Gil Hodges. He saw the Yankees play many times (he always rooted against them). He saw Bob Feller no-hit the Yankees and Joe Dimaggio in 1946 and some years ago my son and I met Bob Feller in Bakersfield and had a nice talk with him (he signed our books and memorabilia for no charge)

So Auld Pop saw many great moments at Ebbets field and even lived long enough to see them on color TV in 1959 and in April 1962 at Dodger stadium. So my father and Auld Pop saw (and met in person at the ballpark and in Brooklyn many Dodger players many future Hall-of-Famers).

But Auld Pop could only go to so many games; he followed the Dodgers on the radio day to day with Red Barber (up to 1953) and later Vin Scully and by reading the Daily News and Red Smith in the Herald Tribune.

But Vin Scully played a very important part of Auld Pop’s life.

One curiosity that my cousin told me about this past week is that Auld Pop would NEVER go to July 4th games or celebrations. He would stay home by himself and listen to Scully and Barber on the radio. he would retreat to my father’s cellar den which he called his dugout or bunker. It was soundproofed. He would sip on beer and Four Roses whiskey and smoke. He just couldn’t stand to hear fireworks or the noises of firecrackers and cherry bombs. My cousin Helene Munro -Auld Pop called her Buntie- said the noise made him very anxious and sometimes even give him uncontrollable tremors. She remembered seeing him on the edge of his bed, shaking and she would (she was just a girl at the time) say she would stay home with him and she ladled whiskey into him and held his hand until he calmed down or fell asleep. But listening to baseball was calming to him and he taught Helene and my father the basics of the game and how to keep score.

He used to read to me Red Smith articles just as much as comic books or the Bible and he used to show me the intricacies of the box score. One of my favorite books was the classic MY GREATEST DAY BASEBALL.

I was thrilled that Auld Pop had seen so many greats players. Both my father and Auld Pop read the book to me. It was a gift from him for Christmas , 1959. After he died I cherished that book like I cherished his collection of Scottish records.

Life was tough on Auld Pop. He suffered the loss of many friends and loved ones and was lonely at the end of his life -he was the last surviving member of his squad, his company and his Regiment. He suffered the loss of the Dodgers when they left Brooklyn. But he always had baseball in the newspapers and on the radio.

Even on the 4th of July when he huddled alone or with my cousin in “the dugout” or “Jaja’s Bunker.” On those days, listening to Vin Scully, my cousin said Auld Pop would not drink to excess and even laugh and joke and tell stories. My cousin Buntie (little Button) and I were very close to Auld Pop as some of you know. As a little boy, I had no idea how his entire life had been an odyssey of survival and a veritable journey of the cross. Later I learned more. He went to the Western Front in January 1915 and at 2nd Ypres suffered 36 continuous days of vicious combat , ambushes and bombardment. For a few days he was missing in action in No Man’s Land doomed to death or a fate as German POW. But the Leal n’ True men and the Dins -led by American Johnny Robertson came to his rescue. So he survived.

And thanks to them my father, my cousin, my mother my sisters and I could enjoy so many great moments with Auld Pop. And some of the best were at the ballpark, with the newspaper and with Vin Scully and the other announcers on the radio (at later TV but in those days there were few games on TV).

Baseball was a very soothing hobby and pastime for Auld Pop and the sweetest cream was the dulcet voice , good humor and conviviality of Vin Scully whom my grandfather would see sometimes at a distance in Mass on Sundays in Brooklyn.

Vin always went to Mass with his mother and father and I think my Auld Pop told my cousin they would go Saturday night or Sunday morning. My Auld Pop -so my cousin told me- very much appreciated Vin’s salute to veterans on Memorial Day etc. And on the 4th of July when Auld Pop dare not leave the house there was Vin Scully “It’s time for Dodger baseball!

and

“Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good (afternoon/evening) to you, wherever you may be.”

Next Auld Pop and Johnny Robertson, Vin Scully was the most beloved “legendary” heroes. He was the Bard of Brooklyn, and Irish Minstrel. He was the voice of the Dodgers and the voice of Baseball. Vin Scully was truly the Babe Ruth of sports broadcasting. Thanks for so many great memories as the announcer of so many games and six World Series.

Ne obliviscaris. Do not forget. You meant so much to veterans and disabled people who weak in limb and endurance could not go out as freely as they might have wished. You were their best friend and better than any whiskey or doctor or pill.

I close with some great Scully moments: It’s a mere moment in a man’s life between the All-Star Game and an old timer’s game.

During the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game held at Dodger Stadium

It’s a passing of a great American tradition. It is sad. I really and truly feel that. It will leave a vast window, to use a Washington word, where people will not get Major League Baseball and I think that’s a tragedy.

(At the end of the last NBC Game of the Week, October 9, 1989).

Ah, yes, baseball is an acquired taste and it has to be taught and savored.

***

Scully: A little roller up along first; behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!

Famous call from Game 6 of the 1986 World Series

***

(Roberto) Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.

I saw Clemente play many times; hyperbole but almost the truth! Of course, he would have to be playing on the border!

***

And to me his most legendary call.

I heard this recording at the Hall of Fame with my father. My cousin (living in LA at the time and keeping score) heard it live.

This is from the radio transcript of 1965. This is Vintage Vin:

” It is 9:46 p.m.

Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here’s the pitch:

Swung on and missed, a perfect game!

(Crowd cheering for 38 seconds)

On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of twenty-nine thousand one-hundred thirty nine just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game. And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a flourish. He struck out the last six consecutive batters. So when he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that “K” stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X.”

Word-for-word transcription of Scully’s call of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game on September 9, 1965.

***

There is only one word for Vin Scully: INVINCIBLE. Thanks for 67 years of companionship and laughs and much simple happiness and joy. We will miss you, Vin Scully and we will never forget you.

You will remain an American and a Dodger and a Baseball legend.

Ave et vale. Hail and farewell.

Or as they say in the Irish “slan leat gu brath!”

By Richard K. Munro, MA

SPECIAL NOTES ON ENGLISH LEARNING

Do you believe that English is easy or hard? Most would say English is a very difficult language. It is like learning two languages at the same time.  Nabokov, who learned English as an adult said famously, “learning English was like moving from one darkened house to another on a starless night during a strike of candlemakers and torchbearers.” I think Nabokov captured exactly the fear and confusion of people trying to learn English from scratch. Yet, Nabokov following another ESL student Joseph Conrad survived and became one of the great English language authors. Yes, English can be weird(peculiar). It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though! (Yes, that is correct English!) Can anyone think that English is (facile) easy, that is to say, it can be learned by a little effort or effortlessly? No. The truth is this: some things about English are easy and others are, to put it mildly, devilishly difficult.

The grammar of English is relatively simple. The word order (syntax) of English is regular. However, spelling English words and pronouncing English words can be a challenge as compared to the Spanish German, or Italian languages which are mostly phonetic. The scope of English vocabulary and the variety of its dialects is daunting. Spanish has regional dialects but none is so far removed from standard Spanish as English or American dialects are from Standard English.

But English is not a remote or exotic language but a language firmly in the mainstream of European/Western languages.  Therefore, if we use an etymological or “historical” approach to vocabulary development it will help the English speaker learn Spanish or French words but, furthermore, since many common Spanish or French words have cognates in academic English. Similarly, a Spanish or French speaker can also better (ameliorate) his or her English vocabulary the same way.

Of course, English has a huge (enormous) vocabulary. It takes much reading and study to understand and acquire these words and learn to PRONOUNCE them clearly. But, compared to other languages its grammar is relatively simple.

On the other hand, though READING English words may be easy to recognize and interpret, you have four jobs with every English word:

1)to understand the basic sense or meaning of a word (denotation)

2)to know how to pronounce it correctly; its diction (orthoepy)

3)To know how to spell the word (orthography)

 4) To understand additional senses of meanings of a word (connotations) or words that sound alike (homophones and homonyms!)

Number one and two are the most critical.

Many people have difficulty with English spelling (#3) their entire lives. Spelling is just a matter of practice and simple memorization.

Spanish is like a disciplined Roman Army organized, regular with very few silent letters.  English is more like a chaos of tribes or charismatic church revival by the river or clandestine poker game in a speakeasy. No one would ever say English was uniform or behaved like an Anglican tea or church service! English is more like a rodeo! Or New York baseball fans crying in unison, “BUM! BUM! BUM!” when the umpire made a bad call.

Number four –connotations- is very important and comes from regular reading, study, and analysis of words. Besides learning the connotations of words the learner must learn many idioms (or expressions) plus attain a certain level of cultural literacy so as to understand references and allusions found in stories, articles, and books.

English has an extraordinary richness (or wealth) of vocabulary, idioms, and expressions. It is not unusual for a word to have many synonyms that mean the same or NEARLY the same thing but each word may have a different nuance or shade of meaning that gives that word a special tone or a positive or negative connotation.

A house is a basic need or shelter, as is a residence or a habitation but a shack, hovel, shanty, cabin, tenement, wickiup, wigwam, teepee and Motel 6 do not evoke the same meaning as palace, mansion, palazzo, villa, country house, chateau, townhouse, penthouse apartment or Hilton Hotel. It should be obvious to anyone that the first group represents very humble habitations while the second group represents domiciles of varying degrees of luxury.

Reading English is not that difficult but understanding spoken English and speaking English clearly are difficult problems.   

I will present shortly another essay specifically on HOW TO LEARN ENGLISH, to PRONOUNCE IT and TO SPELL IT.