The New Boys of Summer by Paul Hensler

Author:Paul Hensler [Hensler, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2017-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

Mirroring Bowie Kuhn as an enthusiastic baseball fan, President Richard Nixon tended to Opening Day duties at RFK Stadium. Major figures (in foreground from left) are Washington Senators manager Ted Williams, Kuhn, Nixon, and New York Yankees skipper Ralph Houk. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

At the All-Star break, the New York Times informed its readers that an assemblage of “glamorous baseball personalities [and] high-ranking government officials right up to President Nixon, will make the 40th All-Star game a super-social event.” A formal dinner the night before the contest drew some of the sport’s biggest names, with the exception of Ted Williams. The Senators manager refused to attend rather than break with his tradition of not wearing a necktie, and the afternoon of game day featured a gathering at the East Room of the White House, where guests were personally received by an enthusiastic Nixon. About three hours before the first pitch, guests were treated to a buffet dinner organized by hostess Bess Abell, who indulged them with traditional ballpark fare as well as a buffet of “steamship rounds of beef, . . . clams, oysters, green beans, kidney beans, ice cream cones, old-fashioned cookies, and potato salad.” Rather than enjoying the feast in its intended outdoor setting near RFK Stadium, the party had to relocate to a nearby armory because of a downpour that ultimately forced postponement of the game.86

Bad weather—and the lingering controversy over Senator Ted Kennedy’s involvement in the Chappaquiddick incident, which had occurred just days earlier—notwithstanding, there was a tangible sense of jubilation that underpinned America at this time. Historian Marty Appel placed that spirit in proper context, noting that “everyone was in a great celebratory mood in Washington and across the country” thanks to the recent lunar landing by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, thus making the All-Star Game and its associated agenda more than “a feel-good event.”87

Improving the State of the Game

With 1968—thankfully—in the past, America was trying to right itself under a new administration in Washington, while in its own parallel sphere, baseball under its new leadership endeavored to rebound from the ennui of the Year of the Pitcher. By midsummer of 1969, Sports Illustrated backed its sanguine outlook for the national pastime by pointing out the positive impact of a number of factors that were salvaging baseball from “a sick image” and transforming it into a revitalized sport revitalized with “changes demanded by modern tastes.”88

The resiliency of the game was manifest in an increase in run production as a result of rules changes assisted further by what the publication claimed to be an enlivened baseball. And in contrast to the singular league pennant races of 1968, the existence of two divisions in each circuit offered the potential for more excitement as teams such as the Mets and Cubs dueled for supremacy in the new National League East, and attendance in Baltimore rose even as the powerful Orioles were running away from their AL East rivals. Several new

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