A letdown to start

A fine article by CHB today marking the 88th birthday of Jackie Robinson and his daughter’s efforts in honoring his legacy. An interesting topic with important insights and a few new bits of trivia for this reader (Oil Can Boyd’s father pitched against Hank Aaron and Willie Mays in semi-pro baseball). The interview of Sharon Robinson is good, yet the writing is a little bland; mostly quotations strung together. And he manages to tie it into this week’s historic Super Bowl without being overbearing. Nothing to note.

A fine article is more impressive when one considers that CHB manages to write over one thousand words without any cheap asides or ad hominen attacks. It is a serious subject and only the most cynical observer would expect Shank to use it as a forum to attack his familiar whipping boys. But the article had a few setups I bet he wishes he could have taken a swing at. Oil Can is there; the Elks Club situation came up; and there even was chance to take a swipe at Mo Vaughn (The Hit Dog was one of the few players who continued to wear 42 after its retirement), and by extension Dan Duquette. It must have been tempting, but Dan’s sense of propriety triumphed.

Note: Is it me, or does Dan quote Selig a great deal? Although for this column Selig’s input was relevant, CHB seems to rely too much on a Commissioner with many questionable dealings in his past. But then again, a questionable past never kept Dan from appearing on a friend's talk show.