In this week’s address, the President highlighted the progress made towards rebuilding our economy, including the creation of nearly 10 million new private sector jobs in the past 53 months and the rise in the number of American exports to an all-time high. That growth is in part thanks to the actions of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an organization that creates American jobs by helping to take American businesses global. The charter of the Export-Import Bank is slated to expire next month, unless Members of Congress renew it, as has happened 16 times in the past with support from Democrats and Republicans. The President asked business owners and employees to reach out to their representatives, who are home this month, and let them know how important it is that the Export-Import Bank continue its work so that American businesses can continue to grow.
Hi, everybody. Nearly six years after the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes, our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs over the past 53 months. That’s the longest streak of private-sector job creation in our history. And we’re in a six-month streak with our economy creating at least 200,000 new jobs each month — the first time that’s happened since 1997.
Thanks to the decisions we made to rescue and rebuild our economy, and your hard work and resilience, America is leading again. Areas like manufacturing, energy, technology, and autos are all booming. And here’s the thing: we’re selling more goods Made in America to the rest of the world than ever before. American exports are at an all-time high.
Over the past five years, we’ve worked hard to open new markets for our businesses, and to help them compete on a level playing field in those markets. And we’ve broken records for exports four years running. Last year, our exports supported more than 11 million American jobs – about 1.6 million more than when I took office. They’re good jobs that typically pay about 15% more than the national average. And more small businesses are selling their goods abroad than ever before — nearly 300,000 last year alone.
We should be doing everything we can to accelerate this progress, not stall it.
One place to start is by supporting something called the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Its sole mission is to create American jobs. That’s it. It helps many American entrepreneurs take that next step and take their small business global. But next month, its charter will expire — unless Members of Congress do their job and reauthorize it.
Now, past Congresses have done this 16 times, always with support from both parties. Republican and Democratic Presidents have supported the bank, too. This time around shouldn’t be any different. Because the bank works. It’s independent. It pays for itself. But if Congress fails to act, thousands of businesses, large and small, that sell their products abroad will take a completely unnecessary hit.
Small business owners have had to overcome a lot these past several years. We all saw local businesses close their doors during the crisis. And in the past few years, we’ve seen more and more open their doors and do their part to help lead America’s comeback. At the very least, they deserve a Congress that doesn’t stand in the way of their success.
Your members of Congress are home this month. If you’re a small business owner or employee of a large business that depends on financing to tackle new markets and create new jobs, tell them to quit treating your business like it’s expendable, and start treating it for what it is: vital to America’s success. Tell them to do their jobs — keep America’s exports growing, and keep America’s recovery going.
For many months after the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s website, it was widely stated as incontrovertible fact that Obamacare was the primary reason Democrats were likely to lose control of the Senate.
But new ad data compiled by Bloomberg News tells a very different story. In three of the top-tier Senate races – North Carolina, Arkansas, and Louisiana – spending on spots about the health law has fallen sharply:
The party’s experience across the country shows that Republicans can’t count on the issue to motivate independent voters they need to oust Democrats in Arkansas, Louisiana and Alaska…
Some GOP candidates, such as Thom Tillis in North Carolina and Scott Brown in New Hampshire, have even vaguely claimed the newly insured should somehow continue to enjoy the law’s benefits after it is repealed – again, without saying how. Others, such as Terri Lynn Land in Michigan and Tom Cotton in Arkansas, won’t say whether the Medicaid expansion moving forward in their states should be rolled back.
Why has this disappeared as a campaign issue? Because the horror stories about premiums skyrocketing were just stories, wishful thinking by Republicans who have no qualms about sacrificing the lives of their constituents on the altar of their anti-government ideology.
The headlines were all too predictable when Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced in June that it would request an average 12.5 percent premium increase for its Connecticut market. “Now EVEN MORE States Report Double-Digit Premium Hikes,” the conservative Daily Caller trumpeted.
But that wasn’t the whole story. It never is with Obamacare premium news, though that hasn’t stopped news outlets from blaring headlines like that one from the Daily Caller whenever an insurance company announces its proposed rates for next year. Skyrocketing premiums are one of the last anti-Obamacare talking points that conservatives have to hold onto.
But then on Monday, the conclusion of the Connecticut story came. State insurance regulators had rejected Anthem’s proposed 12.5 percent premium hike. So after some revisions, the company would instead lower its premiums ever so slightly on average — 0.1 percent — in 2015, the Connecticut Mirror reported.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) released an ad touting provisions of the Affordable Care Act on Monday just as Republicans in competitive congressional races are spending less on political spots attacking the law.
The ad, titled “Cancer,” tells a personal story of how Pryor, a two-term senator who is now in a tight race to retain his senate seat, had to tango with insurance companies after being diagnosed with cancer in 1996. “No one should be fighting an insurance company while you’re fighting for your life,” Pryor says. “That’s why I helped pass a law that prevents insurance companies from canceling your policy if you get sick, or deny coverage for preexisting conditions.”
Obamacare is working in Kentucky. And that’s a big, big problem for Mitch McConnell.
In fact, the law’s growing success across the country is putting the entire GOP-for years committed to the law’s destruction-in a pretty awkward spot.
McConnell, who faces a tight re-election battle in his home state this fall, has looked clumsier than perhaps anyone. The GOP Senate leader has repeatedly called for Obamacare’s repeal-but now he’s trying to have it both ways. McConnell says that while he still wants to repeal the law, he wants to keep Kynect, the popular state-based insurance exchange.
There’s just one problem: As a policy matter, it won’t work.
Put simply, you can’t have Kynect, at least in its current form, without the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
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Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.
My maternal grandfather (1889-1966) was a racist. You won’t read that in his obituary, of course; they only talked about his “noted and controversial” legal career and the fact that he was a Big Cheese in the Roman Catholic laity, honored by two popes. I have the actual cutting from The Houston Chronicle in front of me, still in good condition, so I know there is no mention of his activities with the John Birch Society, his clandestine support of the KKK, or his nightly dinner table diatribes about “those Colored people.” I’m sure he thought his three daughters were thoroughly and safely indoctrinated.
One of those daughters, my mother, went to Rice Institute at the age of fifteen and fell in love with an engineering student from Colorado. Daddy was also the liberal son of liberal, activist parents, and by the time they were married, they were making monthly contributions to the NAACP.
My earliest memories of the Civil Rights protests are not bad ones. When I pulled my head out of my childhood ass and asked questions about what I was seeing on TV, my parents reassured me. They were part-time activists in Texas, fighting to get the hated Poll Tax revoked, registering voters, and monitoring what went on at the polls for the League of Women Voters. “Don’t worry about it,” they told me. “We’re going to make sure things change.” I was proud of them, and proud of the accomplishments of JFK and LBJ.
In January, 1977, I adopted a beautiful baby boy. He was a biracial infant (literally Black Irish) and I was a single white woman. The only thing considered remarkable about the adoption was the fact that this was the first time a single parent was allowed to adopt a baby in Harris County, TX. When someone asked me if I worried about racism I, in a moment of appalling ignorance, said no. “It’s just a matter of time,” I said. “We got the laws changed; hearts and minds will follow.”
Well. Of course it wasn’t long before the crap started. My co-workers decided there was no need to have a baby shower for “that” baby. I ended up buying a gun when I received anonymous threats on his life. Certain white people would see me with him in stores and I could tell their minds made the jump from a pretty brown baby to the mother in bed with a Black man. I later learned that my oldest friend, who often went with me to the grocery store, would sometimes follow those staring, judgmental racists and, when I was out of sight, demand, “Just what the hell do you think you’re staring at?!”
Fortunately, everyone who took the time to get to know Michael fell in love with him. Certain family members who had been using the N-word behind closed doors began calling and asking me to bring him to their homes. I kept him in the same racially diverse neighborhood for most of his childhood, attending schools with children of many racial and cultural backgrounds. Not all hearts and minds may have changed, but we chose to live our lives with people who saw sweetness, not color.
My son grew up, got his degree, and married his college sweetheart, a young woman whose parents came from the Philippines. Their bloodlines produced a breathtakingly beautiful son six years ago, and they continue to live productive lives in their community in North Texas.
That photo, taken last Christmas, doesn’t include the most recent addition to our family. A second son was born in June:
When I was raising my son in the last quarter of the twentieth century, racism went underground. Even in Texas it was politically incorrect to express racist thoughts and use racial epithets, and anyone stupid enough to put voice to evil thoughts quickly learned that they would never get a second chance with me or mine. But in this century, two things happened: social media was born, and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Racists were inflamed, and they could both hide behind screen names and congregate in like-minded groups.
I thought I was doing okay, all things considered. The hatred, the Second Amendment bullshit, the crazy militias, the slaughtering of schoolchildren, the rise of the Tea Party, even the killings of black sons like Trayvon Martin … I thought I was surviving it. I have the same fears for my grandsons that I had for my son, but he and his wife keep them close and safe … at least for now. But I’m NOT surviving it; over the course of the last week I have begun to fall apart.
Maybe it’s the new baby. In any event, the knowledge that there are – what? – hundreds of thousands of people in this country who hate my precious family because their skins are darker than mine has hit me in a visceral way that is literally making me sick. We can keep the babies safe … or die trying … but how do we change the world for them?
Another night has passed in Ferguson MO. The press were kept from covering a lot of what happened. More tear gas, more arrests. Peaceful nighttime protests are stymied.
“I realize there is tremendous interest in the facts of the incident that led to Michael Brown’s death, but I ask for the public’s patience as we conduct this investigation. The selective release of sensitive information that we have seen in this case so far is troubling to me. No matter how others pursue their own separate inquiries, the Justice Department is resolved to preserve the integrity of its investigation. This is a critical step in restoring trust between law enforcement and the community, not just in Ferguson, but beyond.
Yes.
We should all be troubled by the bs we see leaking out of Ferguson. Efforts to smear Michael Brown and divert the focus from the pursuit of justice continue.
I kept reading this sentence from the autopsy report of Dr. Michael M. Baden, reported in the New York Times:
One of the bullets shattered Mr. Brown’s right eye, traveled through his face, exited his jaw and re-entered his collarbone. The last two shots in the head would have stopped him in his tracks and were likely the last fired.
More:
Dr. Baden, 80, is a well-known New York-based medical examiner, who is one of only about 400 board-certified forensic pathologists in the nation. He reviewed the autopsies of both President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and has performed more than 20,000 autopsies himself.
He is best known for having hosted the HBO show “Autopsy,” but he rankles when he is called a “celebrity medical examiner,” saying that the vast majority of what he does has nothing to do with celebrities.
Dr. Baden said that because of the tremendous attention to the case, he waived his $10,000 fee.
Prof. Shawn L. Parcells, a pathologist assistant based in Kansas, assisted Dr. Baden.”You do this for the families,” Mr. Parcells said.
The two medical experts conducted the four-hour examination Sunday at the Austin A. Layne Mortuary in St. Louis. Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer for Mr. Brown’s family who paid their travel expenses, hired them. “The sheer number of bullets and the way they were scattered all over his body showed this police officer had a brazen disregard for the very people he was supposed to protect in that community,” Mr. Crump said. “We want to make sure people understand what this case is about: This case is about a police officer executing a young unarmed man in broad daylight.”
The National Guard is being called in, tear gas was fired last night…
So much to talk about, and I’m still trying to absorb the autopsy report.
I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers” … plus a profile of Sly and the Family Stone.
OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES – nineteenth-century works from the Romantic period in an exhibition entitled Romantic Spirits are at the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia through February 15th.
CHEERS to the whimsical German political party named Die Partei – whose chairman has actually won a seat in the European Parliament by advocating (with tongue firmly planted-in-cheek) for the rebuilding of the Berlin Wall, plus a war-of-aggression against …. Liechtenstein.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the Worst Baseball Teams in History – with the certifiably-worst team of all time … being one that you are unlikely to have heard of.
THURSDAY’s CHILD is Nelson the Cat – the 20 year-old winner of Britain’s “Cat of the Year” award, for having survived the loss of an eye and several cruelties in life … yet who has endured.
RELATIONS between Canada and Mexico have had some recent strains, as a result of some actions by ….. your-friend-and-mine, Stephen Harper.
EACH YEAR numerous visitors crowd into the Roman Forum; mistakenly believing that this is where the remains of Julius Caesar are interred.
FRIDAY’s CHILD is Cleo the Cat – who has won Britain’s “Hero Cat” award for 2014, by seeing a man through a heart attack (winners in three other award categories will be featured in this space next week).
YUK for TODAY – in seeing the news that Michelle Nunn’s candidacy for the US Senate seat from Georgia has been supported by no less than Zell Miller – I recalled the old Saturday Night Live skit of “Hardball” featuring Darrell Hammond (as Tweety) and Will Forte (as Zell) ….
Joining us now to shout about God knows what, everyone’s favorite looney tune – former senator and current Fox News contributor Zell Miller! Zell, whattaya got for us?
Let me tell you, Matthews! This country’s got a real problem with the media, and you’re one of them! If you can’t control that dirty liberal thing you call a mouth, then maybe I’ll have to jump on my horse and come up north myself and put a sock in it!! Do you hear me, Chris Matthews?!! Do you hear me?!!
Haaah! This is why I come into work every day, folks!!
HAIL and FAREWELL to the Italian-born soprano Licia Albanese – with the Met, who sang more than 400 performances over the course of 26 years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and who in 1995 was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton – who has died at the age of 105.
SEPARATED at BIRTH – CNN conservative pundit S.E. Cupp and former 1990’s MTV veejay Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery – now a Fox Business host (believe it or not).
…… and finally, for a song of the week …………… it may be an overstatement when the San Francisco Chronicle journalist Joel Selvin wrote, “there are two types of black music: black music before Sly and the Family Stone, and black music after Sly and the Family Stone” – but if so, perhaps not by much.
Emerging in a pivotal year musically (1967) the band Sly Stone assembled was (a) racially integrated, (b) had instrumentalists of both genders, (c) mixed together soul, R&B and funk along with rock and psychedelia and (d) brought social commentary into R&B in a way not seen before. To do any one of those things in 1967 would have been noteworthy .. but all four? ……
Born Sylvester Stewart in 1944, the man later to be known as Sly Stone moved with his family from Texas to California in the 1950’s. Under their parents’ guidance, He and three of his four siblings recorded a 78-rpm disc “On the Battlefield for my Lord” in 1952. Sly studied music at Vallejo Junior College in the early 1960’s and played in bands on the weekend. In addition, he became a DJ at the Bay Area R&B station KSOL but tellingly: added both the Beatles and Stones to his playlists. He parlayed this into a producer’s job at Harvest Records, working with performers such as Bobby Freeman (“Do You Want to Dance?“), the Beau Brummels (“Just a Little“) and the Great Society (with future Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick).
In 1966, organist Sly formed a band called Sly and the Stoners (with Cynthia Robinson on trumpet) at the same time as his guitarist brother Freddie formed one called Freddie and the Stone Souls (with Greg Errico on drums). At the suggestion of saxophonist Jerry Martini (Sly’s friend) – the two bands merged to form Sly and the Family Stone in early 1967. The group included two other Stewart Stone siblings: sisters Vaetta leading a back-up vocal quartet, and Rose on piano (after finally agreeing to give up her day job). Critically, they recruited bassist Larry Graham – whose ‘slapping’ bass lines have become standard in funk music. After a successful regional hit “I Ain’t Got Nobody“, Clive Davis signed them to his Epic label.
Their first release A Whole New Thing got some good reviews (interestingly, one from Mose Allison) yet sold poorly, and it took urging from Clive Davis for Sly to work on crafting a breakthrough hit single. 1968’s Dance to the Music was that hit, reaching #8 and the album of the same name became a success as well. Their next album Life followed in 1968 which did not have any hit singles but did garner more critical applause, as the band’s sound was becoming more tight and Sly’s songwriting more adventurous – all of which set the stage for an even greater recording in 1969.
This band was unlike any that had preceded them. With white musicians Greg Errico and Jerry Martini, the band was integrated racially. In Cynthia Robinson and Rose Stone, there were female instrumentalists, not simply singers. They played in traditionally black venues and at white ones (notably in 1969 at Woodstock). The mix of R&B, soul, pop, Gospel-style singing, rock and San Francisco psychedelia hadn’t been heard before, and their colorful clothing (plus Rose’s blonde wig) made them a visual sight to behold. Their lyrics emphasized love, anti-racism and understanding – all of which the band amply demonstrated by its own group member composition.
Their magnum opus recording was 1969’s Stand – preceded by the late 1968 release of the single Everyday People with the phrase “different strokes for different folks” that has achieved an iconic status even to this day. The album itself remained in the album charts for over 100 weeks, and its political tone became more edgy.
The title track Stand as well as “I Want to Take You Higher”, “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” and Everyday People led to this album being ranked #121 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Later that year came their triumphant appearance at Woodstock and all seemed well at the dawn of the 1970’s with the release of the Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) single which hit #1 on the charts. In truth: events were occurring that led to band’s dissolution within a few years.
It began with Sly Stone’s extensive heroin habit, which caused him to miss many of the band’s concerts. He hired several friends to act as bodyguards, thus driving a wedge between himself and others in the band. And by the 1970’s disillusionment with the pace of civil rights reform was beginning to take its toll. Drummer Greg Errico left in 1971 (with a series of drummers holding the chair for the next few years).
The band regrouped and released 1971’s There’s a Riot Going On which moved further in a moody direction. (It’s a) Family Affair was another #1 hit single from the album, and the group’s last. Backstage, all was not well. Saxophonist Jerry Martini was threatened with firing if he inquired again about management’s handling of finances and bassist Larry Graham left after a backstage brawl in 1972. (Graham has since had a successful solo career, beginning with Graham Central Station in the 1970’s).
The group released two further albums: Fresh (from 1973) which had a Top 20 single “If You Want Me to Stay” and Small Talk (from 1974) – both of which garnered mixed reviews. More problems arose as (a) Sly was overdubbing the recordings excessively for a band reliant on a fresh sound, (b) his drug habit became overwhelming, (c) the missed concerts started adding up and (d) the advent of disco music was starting to cut into the band’s appeal. The end came in January, 1975 when the band booked itself at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, bearing all the risk. When the seats were only 1/8 occupied: they had to scramble to afford plane fare home – for their last concert.
Sly Stone had some modest success as a solo artist throughout the 1970’s (and touring with George Clinton) but a 1983 arrest for cocaine led to spiraling personal problems. Freddie Stone carried on for a time before becoming a minister late in the 1970’s. Rose Stone became a session musician before becoming the music director at Freddie’s church and Greg Errico played in many different bands over the years (David Bowie, Santana, Jerry Garcia Band).
There have been various incarnations of the band since; the Family Stone Band features some of the Stone family members (photo right). Sly Stone was set to perform in April, 2010 at the Coachella Festival – but alas, just like the 1993 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies: Sly was late to the stage and went into a funk shortly thereafter. He has been described as being homeless, but eccentric may be a more apt word. In 2011 he released a comeback album entitled I’m Back! Family & Friends – and harkening back to his early days, it features an eclectic mix of guest performers (Ray Manzarek, Jeff Beck, Bootsy Collins, Ann Wilson of Heart, and jazz saxophonist Ernie Watts) – yet it garnered less-than-favorable reviews, and Stone again retreated to the shadows. An enigma wrapped insid …..
The band’s legacy, though is solid – besides the induction ceremony noted above, some of their achievements include: their Greatest Hits album was ranked #61 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and the magazine ranked them as #43 in the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Their musical legacy influenced musicians from Miles Davis to George Clinton to Prince, a tribute album entitled Different Strokes by Different Folks saw performers such as John Legend, the Black-Eyed Peas, Steve Tyler and Joss Stone play Family Stone songs, and the band was awarded a R&B Foundation Pioneer Award in 2001 and in 2007, the band’s entire back catalog was re-released. Even if Sly Stone never sings another note: this band has left a high-water mark of distinction.
Though I have other favorites from them: at this time of the year, it’s hard to surpass Hot Fun in the Summertime which upon first hearing: I mistook for a Beach Boys song (and decades later the Beach Boys may have agreed, as they recorded it on this album from 1992). The song was ranked #247 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of all time, and at this link you can listen to it.
Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diary series give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
In lieu of daily check-ins, which have gone on hiatus, Welcomings diaries will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning) and then, if necessary due to a large number of comments, again on Wednesday or Thursday to close out the week. To find the diaries, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
Heading into the stretch run: a look at the worst (single season) Major League baseball teams of all time, after the jump …..
When people are asked about the worst major league baseball teams of all time, many would lead-off with the 1962 Mets – and not without reason, as (a) they lost 120, (b) they were recent enough to be in the conscious minds of many fans (compared to teams earlier in the century) and (c) they lost with so much hilarity, rather than just dullness.
The 1962 Mets (who finished 40-120, for a winning percentage of only .250) were bad partly due to being an expansion team. But they compounded this by deciding to feature (a) several washed-up veterans who had formerly played for the Giants, Yankees and Dodgers for nostalgic reasons, as the Mets were a replacement team for both the (recently-departed) Giants and Dodgers, as well as (b) playing several young, not-ready-for-prime-time players while (c) investing their resources into their farm system, rather than acquiring players in their prime. Seven years later that paid-off, as the 1969 Amazing Mets won the World Series. Yet it led to some hilarious times early-on … to wit:
Having problems obtaining a major league-caliber catcher, they traded for the journeyman Harry Chiti of the Cleveland Indians for the proverbial “player to be named later”. And when he did not measure up, they designated Harry Chiti as the “player to be named later” – making him the first player ever …… to be traded for himself.
Overseeing all of this was the colorful Casey Stengel one of the most successful managers of all time at the helm of the New York Yankees. He was fired after the Yanks lost the 1960 World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates although Casey felt it was more due to … turning age 70, saying “I’ll never do that again”.
He understood his job was to entertain reporters while the franchise was building, and he did not disappoint. Some classics:
“They have shown me more ways to lose than I even knew existed”.
“You can look it up.”
“He (Lyndon Johnson) wanted to see poverty, so he came to see my team.”
“Good pitching will always stop good hitting and vice-versa.”
In 1965, he pointed at catcher Greg Goossen and was reported to have said, “Goossen is only twenty, and in ten years he has a chance to be thirty years old.”
“Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Years later, the journeyman infielder Marv Throneberry (photo right, below) became a staple of the early incarnation of Miller Light beer commercials. It all stemmed from his time on the 1962 Mets, where one memorable incident – and no two accounts of this are identical – took place in Chicago. Marv Throneberry hit a run-scoring triple, only to have the Hall of Fame first baseman for the Cubs (Ernie Banks) call for the ball on an appeal play, claiming that Throneberry did not touch first base. The umpire agreed, disallowing the run and calling Throneberry out … and when Casey Stengel came out to argue the call he was told, “Case, he missed second base, too”.
Yet there are other two other teams in the 20th Century with a worse winning percentage than the ’62 Mets – whose loss total partly came from playing in the National League’s first year of a 162-game schedule (rather than the traditional 154) – and there is one certifiable Worst Team of All Time from the National League, as we’ll see.
First, though: one team that earns consideration in this category even with somewhat better statistics (a 42-112 record, and a winning percentage of .273) is the 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates. And this is mostly due to the efforts of its former catcher and long-time TV announcer (in baseball as well as the Today show), Joe Garagiola – who has regaled audiences nationwide with his dinner-circuit talks on how bad the 1952 Pirates were. Some of his quips include:
“It was the most courageous team in baseball – we had 154 games scheduled, and showed up for every one”.
“We lost eight of our first nine games and then we had a slump.”
“We were so bad, they wouldn’t put our pictures on bubble gum cards.”
“In an eight-team league, we should’ve finished ninth”.
One day we had a rainout and we staged a victory party.”
“When we were sent to the minors, Gillette asked for their razors back”.
Garagiola (who actually was one of the team’s better players) allows that the only reason the team’s record wasn’t even worse was the presence of future Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner on the team. Interestingly Kiner went on to be a long-time broadcaster for the Mets beginning in 1962 … but if he ever expressed an opinion as to which team was worse, he did not let on.
Next we come to the 1935 Boston Braves (who later moved to Milwaukee, and now play in Atlanta). They finished with a record of 38-115 for a winning percentage of .248 … slightly worse than the ’62 Mets. On paper, they looked good – with two future Hall of Fame players (Babe Ruth and shortstop Rabbit Maranville, photo below), a future Hall of Fame manager (Bill McKechnie) and a center fielder who would lead the league in home runs and RBI’s (Wally Berger). Yet Maranville and Ruth were washed-up: Babe Ruth retired at age 40 after two months, batting only .181 (with Maranville ending the season hitting only .149, also retiring). And the pitching staff truly collapsed, with Ben Cantwell becoming the last pitcher in major league history to lose 25 games in a season.
Most importantly: the team’s owner Emil Fuchs was broke, leading the National League to have to finance the money for the team to hold spring training and preventing them from making any meaningful moves along the way.
The team with the worst winning percentage in the 20th Century was the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland A’s) with a 36-117 record for a winning percentage of only .235 – as a result of the stinginess of its owner Cornelius McGillicuddy, known as Connie Mack – whose grandson you may recall as a Florida GOP congressman and Senator.
Mack had blown-up his team in 1915, after a disastrous 1914 World Series loss, selling any player of value for cash … yet not re-investing the money. Instead, he signed untested rookies, hoping to strike gold. Two pitchers (Joe Bush and Elmer Meyers) combined for a record of 29-47, while the rest of the staff had an aggregate record of … 7-70. And what was Connie Mack’s comment about the 1916 Athletics? “You can’t win them all”.
Before we proceed to the all-time worst team, here is a look at the 21st Century’s worst team. The 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119 with a winning percentage of .265) are considered by some to be “the worst team of all time without a good excuse.” Most of the other teams on this list were either expansion teams, or in the midst of massive rebuilding efforts, or had owners that simply didn’t care, or were running a massive scam. The 2003 Tigers, by contrast, had high-paid players that didn’t perform. They lost several key players from 2002 to free agency and simply didn’t adequately replace those players, though they tried. The team had hopes for young pitcher Jeremy Bonderman, and when his record reached 6-19 … he was benched over the final weeks, to avoid him losing 20 games and possible damaging his psyche.
Just three years later, the Tigers made it to the World Series – but in 2003, new manager Alan Trammel (photo left, below and a star infielder for the club) had a horrible time. In fact, going into the last week of the season, the Tigers had 118 losses with six games to play … and seemed a cinch to break the ’62 Mets record (post-1900) of 120 losses … yet they managed to finish 5-1 to stave off that feat.
Finally, here is the certifiable worst baseball team of all time. You probably have never heard of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders for several reasons. 1899 was their last season (and were banished from the National League with several others), plus many baseball fans tend to discount any records made before 1900, as (a) the American League did not even exist until 1901, (b) the first World Series did not occur until 1903 and (c) some of the rules used today were not yet standardized. For example: a base-on-balls was awarded for more than four balls before 1889, before 1864 an out was recorded if a fly ball was caught on one bounce (like tennis), bats could have a flat side before 1893, etc.
However, most analysts do include the Spiders because – while certain rules may cloud-over batting titles and pitching records – wins and losses are still wins and losses. And so the Spiders’ 20-134 record (with a winning percentage of only .130) is unquestionably the worst in National League – and thus baseball – history.
The reason they were so bad? At the time, baseball did not prohibit cross-ownership of teams, and so the Robison brothers purchased the Cleveland Spiders at the same time they had a rival franchise in St. Louis (the Perfectos). And the Robinson brothers simply transferred the Spiders’ best players to St. Louis … leaving in place simply a bunch of cast-offs, has-beens and never-will-bes in its place.
Attendance was so bad that opposing teams flat out refused to travel to Cleveland to play the Spiders – as their cut of the revenue from ticket sales did not even begin to cover their hotel and travel expenses – so the Spiders had to play their final 36 games on the road. Predictably, they went 1-35.
The Spiders played their last game of the season against the Cincinnati Reds; they employed 19-year-old Eddie Kolb – a cigar-stand clerk and local amateur player, as pitcher. He lost to the Reds 19-3. Legend says that the Spiders gathered at a Cincinnati hotel after the last game and presented the team’s traveling secretary George Muir, a diamond locket because “you had the misfortune to watch us in all our games.”
Afterwards, the franchise was eliminated from the league (as noted above). When the American League came into being two years later in 1901, they awarded the city of Cleveland a franchise (known as the Indians) which helped clear people’s memory banks of the Spiders. More importantly, syndicate ownership – the owning of stock in several teams at once – was outlawed, preventing a disaster like the 1899 Cleveland Spiders from happening again.
Feel free to add other names (such as the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, the 1979 Toronto Blue Jays, 1988 Baltimore Orioles, etc. to this list. Before this summer comes to a close, let’s hear Louis Armstrong sing about it, with the song’s composer Dave Brubeck on piano (and his wife Iola who was the lyricist).
Across the nation today, people who believe in and demand justice will be gathering.
Groups on the ground in St. Louis are calling for nationwide solidarity actions in support of Justice for Mike Brown and the end of police and extrajudicial killings everywhere. On Saturday at 1pm — one week after the murder of Mike Brown by a Ferguson police officer–we in St. Louis will gather at the location that Mike was shot in the Canfield Apartment buildings. We ask that you gather at the places in your community on Saturday where police and extrajudicial killings have occurred to memorialize lives that have been lost and demand justice by ending systemic violence upon communities of color.
In this week’s address, with schools getting ready to open their doors again over the next few weeks, the President talked directly to students and parents about the importance of preparing for an education beyond high school.
In today’s economy, some higher education continues to be the surest ticket to the middle class, but for too many families across the country, paying for higher education is a constant struggle. The President and First Lady know this first hand — they only finished paying off their student loans ten years ago — and that’s why they have made it a priority to help make college more affordable for families. They have taken action to reform student loans, expand grants and college tax credits, help make loan payments more manageable, and have proposed plans to make sure colleges also do their part to bring down costs. And just this week, as part of the President’s Year of Action, the administration announced a new series of commitments to support students who need a little extra academic help getting through college.
Hi, everybody. Over the next couple weeks, schools all across the country will be opening their doors. Students will suit up for fall sports, marching band, and the school play; moms and dads will snap those first-day-of-school pictures — and that includes me and Michelle.
And so today, I want to talk directly with students and parents about one of the most important things any of you can do this year — and that’s to begin preparing yourself for an education beyond high school.
We know that in today’s economy, whether you go to a four-year college, a community college, or a professional training program, some higher education is the surest ticket to the middle class. The typical American with a bachelor’s degree or higher earns over $28,000 more per year than someone with just a high school diploma. And they’re also much more likely to have a job in the first place – the unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree is less than one-third of the rate for those without a high school diploma.
But for too many families across the country, paying for higher education is a constant struggle. Earlier this year, a young woman named Elizabeth Cooper wrote to tell me how hard it is for middle-class families like hers to afford college. As she said, she feels “not significant enough to be addressed, not poor enough for people to worry [about], and not rich enough to be cared about.”
Michelle and I know the feeling – we only finished paying off our student loans ten years ago. And so as President, I’m working to make sure young people like Elizabeth can go to college without racking up mountains of debt. We reformed a student loan system so that more money goes to students instead of big banks. We expanded grants and college tax credits for students and families. We took action to offer millions of students a chance to cap their student loan payments at 10% of their income. And Congress should pass a bill to let students refinance their loans at today’s lower interest rates, just like their parents can refinance their mortgage.
But as long as college costs keep rising, we can’t just keep throwing money at the problem — colleges have to do their part to bring down costs as well. That’s why we proposed a plan to tie federal financial aid to a college’s performance, and create a new college scorecard so that students and parents can see which schools provide the biggest bang for your buck. We launched a new $75 million challenge to inspire colleges to reduce costs and raise graduation rates. And in January, more than 100 college presidents and nonprofit leaders came to the White House and made commitments to increase opportunities for underserved students.
Since then, we’ve met with even more leaders who want to create new community-based partnerships and support school counselors. And this week, my Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, announced a series of commitments to support students who need a little extra academic help getting through college.
This is a challenge I take personally. And to all you young people, now that you’re heading back to school, your education is something you have to take personally, also. It’s up to you to push yourself; to take hard classes and read challenging books. Science shows that when you struggle to solve a problem or make a new argument, you’re actually forming new connections in your brain. So when you’re thinking hard, you’re getting smarter. Which means this year, challenge yourself to reach higher. And set your sights on college in the years ahead. Your country is counting on you.
And don’t forget to have some fun along the way, too.
