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“Moneyball: The art of winning an unfair game” is one of my all time favorite books.  Written in 1993 by Michael Lewis, the book follows Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s, as he uses intensive statistical analysis to identify and obtain “undervalued” baseball players for his low-payroll by usually competitive baseball team.  There are many reasons I like the book: Lewis’s writing is always amusing and interesting; books that like this that look at the inner workings of pro sports are (almost) always enjoyable to read; one of the “stars” of the book was a then unknown former Lowell Spinner named Kevin Youkilis; and, even though the book was about baseball, it demonstrated how valuable statistics and data are in the decision making process. 

Because the book was so good, I was somewhat excited to discover a while ago that a movie version of the book starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane was in the works.  Today, however, we learn that just before filming was to begin, Sony Pictures abandoned the project with no public explanation.  Speculation is that Sony had doubts about the potential box office appeal of the film and didn’t want to risk a substantial chunk of money on a risky project in this tough economy. 

Maybe if Sony’s decision makers were better informed of the city of Lowell’s demonstrated photogenic-ness and got a look at LeLacheur Field during a Spinners game, they might revive the project.

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The day before a national holiday seems to be a popular time for press conferences and press releases containing important announcements. Governor Sarah Palin chose to ignite her own fireworks today by announcing that not only will she not run for reelection but that on July 26th she will step down - resign from the Governor’s office so as not to become a typical lame-duck politician. Speculation is rampant about what this could mean for her political future.

On the local front - breaking news on the Sun website notes that Rachel Kaprielian the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles announced today that the Lowell Branch of the Registry will close due to budget cuts. No date certain was mentioned. The closest branch convenient for Lowell and Greater Lowell customers may be the Lawrence Branch at 73 Winthrop Avenue - about 11 miles and 17-20 minutes from downtown Lowell. Lots of registry business can be handled on-line - especially registration renewals. But where will all those over 55, 65, 75 or 85 year old senior citizens line-up to re-take their driving tests?

Was there something else I missed? Let me know.

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Despite strong Union resistance on the second day of the battle, Lee believed that his troops had almost achieved victory.  One more push, he thought and the Union troops would break.  Lee believed that Union commanders had thinned out the center of their line to reinforce Cemetery Hill on their right (Day 1) and Little Round Top on their left (Day 2).  So on Day 3, he ordered Longstreet to attack the center of the Union line. 

The above photo shows the Union position along Cemetery Ridge in the foreground.  The starting point of the Confederate attack was the wood line in the distance which is nearly two miles away.  After a 2 hour artillery barrage, 14,000 Confederate troops marched out of that tree line and across the open field, all the while under withering Union fire.  The Confederates did make it to the stone wall at the spot in the photo – the place that became known as “the high water mark” of the Confederacy – but more than half of them had already become casualties and the attack failed. 

Both armies were devastated by the casualties that were incurred over the three day battle.  That night, Lee quietly retreated and slipped back into Virginia.  The commander of the Union Army, General George Meade, spent the evening preparing for another Confederate attack.  Once he realized the Confederates had left, he decided his army was too spent to pursue.  This infuriated President Lincoln who felt that an aggressive pursuit and attack of Lee at this point would have ended the war.  Instead, the Civil War went on for two more years, but from July 3, 1863 onward, the Confederate Army was always on the defensive.

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The following was submitted as a comment by Jack Mitchell of the Centralville Neighborhood Action Group, but since it’s such important news, it gets its own post.

Consider this a public notice to all Lowell Candidates to attend a Centralville Neighborhood Action Group (CNAG) meeting(s) which are held on the 3 rd Monday of every month, except December.  Prior to the November election, meetings will be on July 20, August 17, September 21 and October 19.  The next two meetings, July & August, will be held at the Dom Polski Club on Coburn Street, starting promptly at 6:30 p.m. 

CNAG will be treating this with an “Open Door Policy”, giving candidates a 10-minute “Hi, my name is ….. I’m running for ……..”   Please be prepared to answer a couple of random questions from the audience in this time.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me, John Mitchell, aka Jack by email or contact your friendly CNAG POC.

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After much effort and experimentation, the local newspaper has finally discovered the key to its long-term financial viability.  Mandatory furloughs, elimination of corporate 401K contributions, staff layoffs, declining subscriptions, evaporating advertising revenue and all the other seemingly insurmountable challenges of the past year have been swept away by this incredible example of journalistic innovation.

To what, you wonder, does the local newspaper owe this financial renaissance?  Pet Memoriams (see below).  For just $25 for a 2×2 piece or $40 for 2×4, bereaved pet owners throughout the Merrimack Valley are now able to share their grief with the entire newspaper buying community.  And because the crafting of these memorials will be the product of trained, unbiased, professional journalists whose work will be held to the highest standards of ethics and exactitude, this service will be a game-changing financial windfall that will be emulated by other publications around the world.  So congratulations to the Dutton Street brain trust for this remarkable achievement.

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Two of the better-known poets due in Lowell this October at the 2nd Massachusetts Poetry Festival (www.masspoetry.org) are featured in the July.August issue of American Poetry Review (www.aprweb.org), which is probably the most recognizable poetry publication in the nation after Poetry magazine. Anne Waldman, a co-founder of the Kerouac School of Writing at Naropa University in Colorado, and Aafa Michael Weaver, who holds an endowed faculty chair in poetry at Simmons College, both have a few pages of writing in the new APR. On the cover is legendary poet Gary Snyder, one of Kerouac’s best friends; the model for the main character in The Dharma Bums, Japhy Ryder, the rucksack poet of bohemian California; and sharpener of the front edge of the California counterculture that made the 1960s “The Sixties.”

Here’s background on APR: “The American Poetry Review is unique in American publishing. With eclectic editing, a newsprint tabloid format, and a circulation of 17,000, APR reaches a worldwide audience six times a year with some of the very best contemporary poetry and prose from a diverse array of authors. Over the past 35 years, APR has helped to make poetry a more public art form without compromising the art of poetry.” 

Here’s the cover of a back issue featuring the late Allen Ginsberg, a frequent visitor to Lowell in the 1980s and ’90s.

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This is a fascinating video of President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. Ten years earlier the United Sates Supreme Court in Brown v the Board of Education ruled that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional paving the way for this historic legislation. Johnson signed the bill at the White House during a nationally televised event. The President used 75 pens. He can be seen in this video giving them away to prominent guests and elected officials. Some people you’ll recognize besides Johnson are Hubret Humphrey and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr…see if you can name others.

This video was originally posted by MaxNTHP

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Today marks the 93rd anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. The offensive would continue until November of that year and led to more than 1.5 million casualties. The Allied offensive to the north and south of the River Somme in northern France was an attempt to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun to the south. On the first day alone, the British suffered 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 were deaths.

In the first phase of the offensive, known as the Battle of Albert, French forces advanced 6 miles, but the British made almost no gains in spite of the horrific casualties they suffered. However, the Allies did succeed in forcing the Germans to shift soldiers from Verdun to the Somme. On September 15th at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, the tank made its first appearance in battle. By November, the farthest Allied advance was only five miles.  The British alone had lost 420,000 soldiers for a gain of just 2 miles in their sector. Although the battle was not decisive, Germany finally recognized Britain as a strong military power and began its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to knock Britain out of the war.

There were two divisions of Irish soldiers in the British Army at the Somme: the 16th Division and the 36th Ulster Division. Their conduct during the battle played a large role in the increase in tensions both between the Irish and their British rulers and between the Nationalists and the Unionists.
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This is my favorite scene from the 1993 movie Gettysburg.  Colonel Chamberlain won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions:

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Despite their setbacks on Day 1, the Union forces still held the critical Cemetery Hill as the sun rose on July 2, 1863.  A ridgeline ran south from Cemetery Hill (and away from the town of Gettysburg) for more than a mile to a pair of hills called Little Round Top and Big Round Top.  As new Union troops arrived at the battlefield, they were deployed along this ridgeline. 

Lee intended to simultaneously attack both flanks of the Union position but decided that Cemetery Hill in the north was too strongly defended, so he ordered General James Longstreet to attack the southern end of the Union line.  Longstreet opposed such an attack and was slow to get started.  (After the war, he became the target of withering criticism from Virginians who held him responsible for losing the battle because his tardiness allowed the rest of the Union army to get into position on the ridgeline and Little Round Top – In 1998 a controversial statue of Longstreet (shown above) was erected at Gettysburg.  The controversy is due to the abnormally small size of Longstreet’s horse and the fact that it stands on the ground, not on an elevated base as is the case with every other General’s statue).

While Longstreet was hesitating, the Union commander, General George Meade, was plagued with his own troublesome subordinates.  Meade had ordered all units into defense positions along the ridgeline (known as Cemetery Ridge), but his left wing commander, Gen Dan Sickles moved his entire corps a half mile forward to some high ground.  He positioned his units in an upside down “V” with one side of the V in a peach orchard and the other in a wheat field that ended in a maze of boulders called “Devil’s Den.”  Although this gave Sickles some high ground to defend, it left his men unconnected to the main union line and vulnerable to attack on their flanks.  By the time Meade learned of this disposition at 4 pm, Longstreet had already launched his attack. 

During the next few hours, some of the war’s bloodiest fighting took place in the peach orchard, the wheat field, and at Devil’s Den.  Sickles’ corps was crushed.  A brigade from Alabama advanced on the undefended Little Round Top.  If they captured that hill (which dominated the entire Union line) the Confederates would win the battle.

When Longstreet’s attack began, only a handful of Union signalmen were atop Little Round Top.  When Union Gen Gouvernor Warren (an engineer from Massachusetts) discovered this precarious situation, he found the nearest brigade and sent it running up the hill.  It arrived just before the Confederates. 

The heavily-wooded left and rear of Little Round Top was defended by the 20 th Maine Regiment commanded by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain.  For two hours they held off repeated Confederate assaults until one-third of them were casualties and the survivors were out of ammunition.  Another Confederate attack began.

In his official report, Chamberlain wrote

It was imperative to strike before we were struck by this overwhelming force in a hand-to-hand fight, which we could not probably have withstood or survived.  At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet.  The word was enough.  It ran like fire along the line from man to man, and rose into a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away.  The effect was surprising; many of the enemy’s first line threw down their arms and surrendered.

Chamberlain won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top. 

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