The winner of the Final Four may be the biggest loser

The field is set for the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four. The first game will feature the University of Oklahoma against Villanova University. The Sooners have never won the title. Villanova had their one magical upset win for the national championship over superpower Georgetown in 1985.

Citing relatively minor recruiting and benefits violations that occurred between the fall of 2001 and March 2003, the panel placed the Villanova Wildcats on two years' probation. The ruling will not keep Villanova from playing on television or participating in postseason play should it qualify, and the school will not lose any scholarships as a result of it. But the program will be watched more closely.

Villanova had its 1971 runner-up position vacated due to having an ineligible player on their roster. Howard Porter, who had signed with an agent prior to the tournament, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, but the award was taken away by the NCAA.

Oklahoma had about one quarter of its recruiting days this season taken away by the NCAA as punishment for committing major violations while the men's basketball program already was on probation. The NCAA Division I infractions committee reduced the Sooners' recruiting days from 130 to 100 and also put Oklahoma on probation for three years, vacated all 13 wins from the 2009-10 season, took away one scholarship and eliminated two of the school's 12 allowed official visits this year.

The second game will have Syracuse University against the University of North Carolina. Syracuse is the lowest seeded team to reach the Final Four. The Number 10 seed has proved deserving of its bid.

It took nearly eight years for Syracuse and the NCAA to complete an investigation into the school's athletic department. Syracuse is hit with harsh penalties as the NCAA releases its 94-page public report. Head Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim is suspended for nine conference games in the 2015-16 season and has 108 of his victories vacated. The program also has 12 scholarship reductions over a four year period and recruiting limitations, and the school is hit with a financial penalty.

Syracuse issues a response to the NCAA's findings disputing that Boeheim "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance."

As for the top ranked Tar Heels' of North Carolina , the University has charted a bold course of leading change to improve society and to help solve the world’s greatest problems. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, serves North Carolina, the United States, and the world through teaching, research, and public service. We embrace an unwavering commitment to excellence as one of the world’s great research universities.

Our mission is to serve as a center for research, scholarship, and creativity and to teach a diverse community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to become the next generation of leaders. Through the efforts of our exceptional faculty and staff, and with generous support from North Carolina’s citizens, we invest our knowledge and resources to enhance access to learning and to foster the success and prosperity of each rising generation. We also extend knowledge-based services and other resources of the University to the citizens of North Carolina and their institutions to enhance the quality of life for all people in the State.

On March 29, 1982, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels win the NCAA men’s basketball championship with a 63-62 defeat of the Georgetown University Hoyas. It was the first title for Carolina coach Dean Smith, who would retire in 1997 as the most successful coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball history with 879 career wins.

Smith, who graduated 97 percent of his players while at Carolina, would win his second and final championship with UNC in 1993.

North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams responded with a full-throated defense of his health and sharp criticism of a recent Washington Post story about him. The story, written by Kent Babb, detailed the apparent physical and emotional toll the past year has taken on Williams, whose team will face Syracuse in the Final Four on Saturday night in Houston and whose program is being investigated by the NCAA following accusations of academic fraud. "I haven’t read it, don’t care to read it, never will read it."

Attorneys representing two former University of North Carolina athletes filed a lawsuit against the university and the NCAA in connection with the academic scandal involving Tar Heels athletes. The suit, which seeks to become a class action, was filed in a North Carolina state court on behalf of women's basketball player Rashanda McCants and football player Devon Ramsay. Also involved in a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina and the NCAA is Rashad McCants, brother of Rashanda. Rashad McCants claimed to have taken phony classes at North Carolina and had tutors write his classwork. McCants compared UNC to a prison, stating, "You're not allowed to say certain things, but once you get out of jail, you're free. (I'm) in my sentence, and I'm doing my time."

One trustee asked about Mary Willingham, who had been quoted in The News & Observer of Raleigh about her time as a reading specialist at UNC. Willingham told the paper she had worked with athletes who couldn’t read and didn’t know what a paragraph was. She said she had complained about athletes remaining eligible to play despite not doing their academic work.

Calling parts of the report “painful,” Board Chair Wade Hargrove said the academic issues “strike at the heart of the core values of the University. In facing and correcting these lapses, we honor more than 200 years of commitment by members of the faculty, the staff and the administration — past and present — to assure that every student who comes here receives a rigorous, challenging and meaningful academic experience. These irregularities must never be allowed to occur again.”

While AFAM(African and Afro American) was the only department found to have fraudulent practices, six others — communications studies, Romance languages, linguistics, dramatic art, exercise and sport science, and naval science — showed “curious features” that were found to have “rationally acceptable explanations.”

A “dozen or so” courses listed as independent studies had instructor signatures that appeared to be forged. Martin said that eight AFAM faculty members had been unwittingly drawn into the issue of forged signatures but were innocent of malfeasance.

At the center of the probe was Nyang’oro, the department’s first and only chair until he resigned as chair under pressure in August 2011. Nyang’oro joined the faculty in 1988 and became chair of the curriculum in 1992, then chaired the department for 15 years. Evidence of fraud subsequently uncovered involved more than 50 classes, many of which had been taught in summer sessions by Nyang’oro.

Last October, an independent investigator released a report that found evidence directly tying years of no-show classes at North Carolina to a scheme that helped hundreds of athletes — particularly football and men's basketball players — raise their grades and stay eligible over an 18-year period.

We can’t be the world-class university that we are and the economic driver for the state that we are if there are any questions about our integrity.”

In the words of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell' " Ignorance is not an excuse." After all the games in the tournament have been completed, the NCAA Investigative Committee is going to throw the book at the University of North Carolina and Men's head basketball coach Roy Williams . It is too bad that Mister Rogers isn't around to read it to them.

2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Pamela Smart should have taken the deal

"Who wouldn’t support a woman who still wears the Scarlet Letter and is hated by an unforgiving public that has been fed poison and lies by the media for 25 years? - Dr. Eleanor Pam

On May 1, 1990, Pamela Smart came home from a work meeting to find her condominium ransacked and her husband murdered. Police officials say the crime scene looked like a disrupted burglary. Smart was later accused of seducing 15-year-old Billy Flynn and threatening to stop having sex with him unless he killed her husband. Flynn did so with the help of friends Patrick "Pete" Randall, Vance "J.R." Lattime, Jr., and Raymond Fowler. Flynn shot Greggory Smart as Randall held him down, while Lattimer, the driver, waited in the getaway car outside with Fowler.

Pamela Smart's trial in Rockingham County Superior Court in Exeter, NH was widely watched and garnered considerable media attention. The prosecution's case relied heavily on testimony from Smart's teenaged co-conspirators, who had secured their own plea bargains before her trial began. Billy Flynn, Patrick Randall, Vance Lattime Jr. and Raymond Fowler would be household names following the sensational trial. Smart chose to refuse a pretrial plea bargain, hoping that her high priced attorney, Albert Johnson of Boston could garner an acquittal and spare her from potential capital punishment. Johnson had worked on the Watergate case defending James McCord. He also represented Patty Hearst and well known attorney, F. Lee Bailey.

The trial started on March 4, 1991 with Assistant Attorney General Diane Nicolosi portraying the teenagers as naive victims of an "evil woman bent on murder." The prosecutor, Paul Maggiotto portrayed Pamela Smart as the cold-blooded mastermind who controlled her young lover. Nicolosi claimed that Smart seduced Flynn to get him to murder her husband, so that she could avoid an expensive divorce and benefit from a $140,000 life insurance policy. In her testimony, Smart acknowledged that she had an affair with the teenager, but claimed that the murder of her husband was solely the doing of Flynn and his friends as a reaction to her telling Flynn that she wished to end their relationship and repair her marriage. She insisted that she neither participated in the murder plot nor had any foreknowledge of it.

After a 14-day trial, Smart was found guilty on March 22, 1991 of "being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering." This was largely as a result of the testimony of her co-conspirators and secretly taped conversations with Cecilia Pierce who wore a wire to record the discussion. Smart appeared to contradict her claims of having wanted to reconcile with her husband and of having no knowledge of the boys' plot. She could have been charged with capital murder, but the prosecution decided against it. Pam was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility for parole.

The last inmate to be put to death in New Hampshire was in 1939. Howard Long, a storekeeper from Alton, was hanged at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord on July 14, for molesting and fatally beating a 10-year-old Laconia boy named Mark Neville Jensen.

I had the privilege of speaking with Paul Maggiotto, the former prosecutor, and now defense attorney. Paul had moved to New Hampshire in 1990 from Brooklyn, NY where he had been an Assistant District Attorney. He was heavily involved in many high profile cases involving murder and rape. The fact that he had handled cases under the bright lights in a large city made him an easy selection for the Pamela Smart trial.

It’s the plot that launched 1,000 satellite feeds, a theme of the soap operas interrupted by live broadcasts of Pamela Smart’s murder trial for three weeks in March 1991. Judges and lawyers have seen enough criminal cases to know how the crazy equations of human dynamics can add up to murder. "It was another murder case. It was strange, but I’ve seen stranger," said Judge Douglas Gray.

The extensive television coverage was nothing new to Paul Maggiotto. It was the first time that a court case was filmed live. Channel 9 carried the proceedings, interrupting regular daily programming with live film of what was happening in the courtroom, and then rebroadcasting the day’s highlights at midnight. Former Rockingham County Sheriff Wayne Vetter estimated there were about 150 reporters from all over the world milling about the courthouse. With 20 cameras in the courtroom, and Pamela Smart just a few feet away, it was "business as usual" for the relatively new Granite State prosecutor.

I was the one and only telephone call to Paul Maggiotto's law practice wanting to discuss the Pamela Smart verdict on the 25th anniversary of the event. Paul was more than gracious with his time reliving the whole process. "The day is no different than any other", said Paul.

The television coverage was nonstop. The media descended on southern New Hampshire in a way that had never been seen before. "It was absolutely bizarre." Knowing how to "avoid the noise' and preparation were the key ingredients in the case. According to Paul, the case was strong. A prosecutor needs to do a few basic things, and they will win. 1. Know the rules 2. Follow the rules 3. Don't do something stupid.

" The prosecutor stands on third base while the defendant is still in the batters box. Follow the game plan, stay focused, and one can walk to home plate before the defendant can even get the bat off their shoulder. "

There was never a fear of Pamela Smart. The media coverage was the same for both sides. While the verdict is always in doubt, "I didn't lose any sleep prior to the decision." The move from prosecutor to defense attorney in 1993 was going to happen, regardless of the outcome of the trial. I don't replay the trial because there is no need to. It did help me build my private practice because clients knew who I was.

Smart argues that the media had influenced her trial and conviction. Pamela has been trying get a new trial, but so far has been rebuffed at each step. The latest was an attempt "to pursue an appeal from the denial of her federal habeas petition." This appears to be a mechanism used when one's constitutional rights have been violated and a lower court has refused an appeal. A three judge panel ruled against her, saying some claims were forfeited by not bringing them up before, and that others did not merit an appeal.

I mentioned to Paul Maggiotto that Pamela Smart is still trying to get a new trial. She blames the poor performance of her attorney Albert Johnson in representing her. Maggiotto laughed when I asked if he wanted to be part of the sequel. " That ship has sailed."

"I still have my notes if anybody wants them."


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Goose Gossage may need some help from upstairs

"Hitters always have the fear that one pitch might get away from him (Goose Gossage) and they'll wind up DOA with a tag on their toe. "

When asked how he’d like to be remembered, Gossage said, “I gave them their money’s worth.” Now, he is giving anybody will listen to him his two cents' worth. What has gotten away from Goose Gossage is reality.

Goose Gossage took exception to comments made by Washington Nationals' star outfielder, and 2015 National League MVP, Bryce Harper. Gossage want things the way they used to be. This would include the takeout slide on the basepaths, the collisions with the catcher at home plate, and the non fraternization with opposing players. “Hate is an ugly word, but I hate hitters,” said Gossage. He's not fond of bat-flips and brazenness, either.

The Hall of Fame reliever blasted Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista and the “nerds” working in high positions across Major League Baseball last week in an expletive-laden rant for the ages.

Gossage since has continued his assault on the state of MLB, even taking a shot at Carolina Panthers quarterback/reigning NFL MVP Cam Newton amid his most recent takedown. “It’s a shame, it breaks my heart to see the direction this game is going,” said Gossage . “What, do we want a bunch of Cam Newtons running around?" Gossage took issue with Newton's fashion choices, or maybe even questioned his effort on that Super Bowl fumble. "Newton celebrates too much!" has been tiresome for a while now.

Over a nine year stretch from 1977- 1985, Richard "Goose" Gossage was baseball's best relief pitcher. His era for this period was a paltry 2.01. He struck out 793 batters in 833 innings. The heavy workload took its toll on the righthander. His era ballooned to 4.45 in 1986 while pitching for the San Diego Padres.

The 1986 clubhouse beer ban, which is not in effect anywhere else in the National League, was met with resistance by the Padres. "I don't know what this will accomplish," said Terry Kennedy, Padre player representative. "The only thing not in the news around here is the baseball team. Everything else takes precedent. First, they talked about drug testing. Now, it's no beer.

Goose Gossage took issue with the clubhouse ban on beer. He belittled the owner of the San Diego Padres, Joan Kroc. "She's poisoning the world with her (McDonald's) hamburgers."
Joan had taken over control of the baseball team in 1984, following the death of her husband, Ray. He was the founder of McDonald's.

Goose Gossage apologized to General Manager Ballard Smith, Joan Kroc, McDonald's restaurants, the people of San Diego and anyone else who would listen. He had been suspended by the team for conduct unbecoming a major league ballplayer. Gossage, who stood to lose $140,000 because of the suspension (his 1986 base salary is $800,000 and his guaranteed deferred money was not affected by the suspension), will be reimbursed--except for $25,000 that he will donate to the San Diego Ronald McDonald House charity. But after taxes, he stands to lose just $11,000 total.

Lent is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations that begins on Ash Wednesday and covers a period of approximately six weeks before Easter Sunday. Goose may want to stop in to see if any help is available for a 64 year old cranky old man.

"It worked once. It should work, again. "

Paul Murphy

WWII POW returns to plane crash site and finds answers

The speakers program for March at the Smyth Public Library in Candia, NH featured WWII POW Gerry Smith from Durham, NH. The former University of New Hampshire professor kept his promise to speak for the allotted 50 minutes. The sellout crowd would have allowed for longer, if necessary.

Gerry was a UNH freshman when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. His first instinct was to join the armed services. Time would not allow for all volunteers to join at once so he entered the Army Air Corps in 1942 after having been part of the Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He attended flight schools in New York, North Carolina and Louisiana in two month intervals, earning his wings before his 21st birthday.

All of Gerry’s 25 missions were daytime bombing runs or frag bombing runs to support ground troops. These were mainly from Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy. He said his first mission over southern France shortly after the D-Day invasion at Normandy was a real eye-opening experience. On November 4, 1944, Gerry was to be granted a three-day pass to Rome, Italy. His squadron was shorthanded so his Captain had asked if “he would delay his time off” so he could participate in a special mission on Sunday, November 5.

Flying in a group of nine B-26’s, Gerry’s plane was hit by German fighters and his plane was shot down over Italy. He was forced to parachute to safety from his Martin B-26 Marauder bomber. He landed in a field surrounded by 12 German soldiers. He was actually glad to see them.

"The civilians would have done me in. They came at me with clubs and pitchforks," the Durham man said.
Much to his surprise, the German soldiers stationed at an .88 millimeter anti-aircraft gun station protected him from certain death. They also provided him with very good medical care. "I was on the operating table probably within a half-hour after I landed," Smith recalled.

Smith, a second lieutenant with the 320th Bomber Group of the 444rth Squadron, was also wounded by German shrapnel in his left arm and German doctors had few medical supplies.

Smith said they didn't have any sulfur or cloth bandages and used chloroform for anesthesia.
"I expected they would cut my arm off, but when I came to and saw it was in a cast, I was amazed," said Smith.

Gerry would spend time in a German hospital in Merano, Italy until being moved to a POW camp in February to Spittal, Austria. After just 10 days, Smith said he and five other POWs along with two German soldiers and a German under officer headed to a second Germany POW camp in Frankfurt am Mein, and later to a third POW camp in Nuremberg, Germany, which was Stalag XIIID.

On Easter Sunday in April, Smith said 30,000 POWs were marched to another POW camp in Nuremburg to Moosburg, Germany. His weight had dropped from 180 pounds to 100 pounds by the time General Patton's army liberated them on April 29, 1945.

Soldiers were flown to the United States in an orderly fashion, based on need and rank. Gerry returned to Mitchell Field in New York in late May. The base is now the home of Hofstra University. The pilot had given the returning soldiers a treat by flying past the Statue of Liberty twice so they would know they were home.

Smith spent 18 months at Cushing Hospital in Framingham, MA recovering from his injuries. He would be discharged in January, 1947. He had achieved the rank of captain, and was also awarded an Air Medal, Purple Heart, the European Theater of Operations Medal, the Mediterranean Theater of Operations Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and a Prisoner of War Medal.

Gerry returned to his alma mater to finish his studies and spent 35 years at UNH as a professor in Animal Science. With his wife, Gerry returned to Italy and Germany in 1979 to visit the place where he was shot down in Italy. They rented a car and drove from Rome to Merano, Italy, then to Spittal, Austria, and to Frankfurt am Mein, Nuremberg and Moosburg.

In a second trip in 2012 with the entire family, one of the 12 year old Italian boys, who was playing soccer in the field when Gerry’s plane was shot down in 1944, met the family. He had remembered Gerry and hugged him, after having checked his left arm to be sure.

Mr. Smith is a hero from the Greatest Generation. He is a marvelous speaker who brought great knowledge and joy to his presentation. I am happy to call him my friend.

http://youtu.be/UnOnvff7UXc

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Turn Out the Lights

Genovese Syndrome – indifferent or too frightened, too alienated, too self-absorbed to get involved.

It was on March 13, 1964 that Kitty Genovese pulled her Red Fiat into her apartment parking lot in Queens, NY. She was coming home from her night shift as a Bar Manager at a local saloon. She needed to walk only 100 feet from her car to the front door of her apartment. She noticed a man walking toward her and she quickened her pace, but she was attacked only steps from the building. Her screams were heard by many, but nobody came to her rescue. Some shouted to” keep the noise down because they were trying to sleep” and others got up from bed and ”just pulled down the shades.”

Kitty Genovese was stabbed twice as she crawled to her apartment building. Her assailant would return a second time to stab her again. She shouted “I’m dying “and he ran away. When nobody bothered to help her, he came back a third time and killed her. There were 38 witnesses, yet none of them called the police. When the Police were finally alerted, they arrived on the scene in two minutes.

It would take the Police six days to capture the killer, Winston Moseley. He was to be sentenced to death in the electric chair. "I don't believe in capital punishment, but when I see a monster like this, I wouldn't hesitate to pull the switch myself", said Judge Irwin Shapiro. The State of New York would outlaw the death penalty in 1967 and Winston stills sits in a cell in Sing Sing.

On March 18, 1968, Moseley escaped from custody while being transported back to prison from Meyer Memorial Hospital in Buffalo, New York, where he had undergone minor surgery for a self-inflicted injury. Moseley hit the transporting correctional officer, stole his weapon, and then fled to a nearby residence. Moseley stayed undetected for three days. On March 21, the Kulagas went to check on their house, where they encountered Moseley. He held the couple hostage for more than an hour, during which he bound and gagged Matthew Kulaga and raped his wife. Moseley made his way to Grand Island where, on March 22, he broke into another house and took a woman and her daughter hostage, holding them for two hours before releasing them unharmed. Moseley surrendered to police shortly thereafter. He was later charged with escape and kidnapping, to which he pleaded guilty. Moseley was given two additional fifteen-year sentences concurrent with his life sentence.

Moseley participated in the Attica Prison riot on September 9, 1971. Following four days of riots, in which 10 hostages and 29 inmates were killed, and eighty-nine others seriously injured, New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller called in the National Guard to help quell the uprising.

In 1974, lawyers representing the 1,281 inmates filed a $2.8 billion class-action lawsuit against prison and state officials. In January 2000, New York State and the former and current inmates settled for $8 million, which was divided unevenly among about 500 inmates. Moseley may have been part of the settlement. He has been denied parole 18 times, and remains in prison at age 81. He has a chance to break the record for longest serving inmate in the New York State prison system history.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Tom Brady is not smarter than an eighth grader

For the eighth grade students at Emerson Junior High School(named for Ralph Waldo Emerson) in Concord, MA, it was routine to travel to Emerson Playground(named for Ralph Waldo Emerson) twice, daily. The distance was 440 yards(one lap on the track) between the two, and the address was Thoreau Street(named for Henry David Thoreau). One trip was for morning recess, and the second one was during lunch hour.

Emerson Playground had been used by the Boston Patriots in 1960 and 1961. The new American Football League franchise held practices in the summer. The grounds had their usual spectacular look, even though the football being played was not. Fans were encouraged to view the workouts, and many youngsters even shagged footballs for the kickers.

The English Teacher, Miss Lois Keiger, was performing her duties as hall monitor(hall monitors typically check hall passes; maintain overall good conduct in the corridors; and ensure that students are punctual in attending, and are posted to a school's doors in order to prevent unauthorized exit or entry during recess). On this particular Friday, Miss Keiger was on the lookout for Donald Keagan. He had been late in turning in an assignment, and she wanted a signed note from his mother on this matter.

"I will bring it to you after recess," Donald informed the teacher. Time was running short as Donald and his friends schemed over at the playground. A forgery was out of the question, but a blank sheet of paper was not. Gathering dirt from the batter's box and water from the fountain, the white sheet was stomped on several times.

With Miss Keiger at her desk and class about to begin, Donald approached her desk with his soaking, wet, stained, unwritten note. She told him "to throw it in the trash' and get in his seat. Score one for the good guys.

Attorney Ted Wells defended his investigation into the New England Patriots' underinflated footballs and quarterback Tom Brady, saying he was taking the uncharacteristic step of speaking out publicly because his independence was questioned. Wells also said Brady was very cooperative during the process, but refused to let his phone or any information from it be used in the investigation.

Brady refused to permit us to review electronic data from his telephone or other instruments. Most of the key evidence in this case, as in most cases, come from people's cell phones. I want to be crystal clear -- I told Mr. Brady and his agents I was willing to not take possession of the phone. I said 'I don't want to see any private information. You keep the phone.

The problem for Ted Wells was that the phone was unavailable. The data was gone because the phone was in a puddle, somewhere. Brady was questioned extensively at his appeal hearing on the crucial four-month period about the gap in text messages. Tom also asserted that it had always been his practice to have his cell phones destroyed every so often.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's decision upholding Tom Brady’s four-game suspension was that Brady’s cell phone was destroyed shortly before meeting with Ted Wells and his investigators. Ted Wells said he bills by the hour and the investigation was "no question" in the "millions of dollars."

The three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit signaled from the outset that, rather than focusing on the question of Goodell’s authority, they were more interested in the details of Deflategate, including why Brady destroyed a cellphone the N.F.L. wanted to see and whether a four-game suspension was appropriate for tampering with how much air was in a football.

The goat is noted for its lively and frisky behavior. Tom Brady, the so called G.O.A.T., tried to play cute, and he will be forced to sit out the first four games of the 2016 NFL season.

Eighth graders have a problem. They take 15 minutes to diagram the play in the dirt, and execute it.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Peyton Place is in the Back Bay

Leo Durocher witnessed a great deal of social, political, and international change, some of which he helped bring about. Durocher played an important supporting role in the integration of major-league baseball. His frank assessment of African American baseball talent remains a simple, if coarse, endorsement of the American belief in meritocracy. He stood in the third-base coach’s box for one of baseball’s most memorable home runs, Bobby Thomson’s 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” off Ralph Branca. He led the New York Giants to a surprising World Series victory in 1954.

Durocher found success in both playing and managing, winning World Series titles while playing shortstop for the 1928 Yankees and 1934 Cardinals. Durocher’s time with the Yankees was volcanic. He quickly made enemies with his incessant yapping, extravagant living, and antagonizing Yankees stars like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Ruth nicknamed Durocher the “All-American Out” for his diminutive batting average.

Along the way Durocher kept company with movie stars, entertainers, and an entire retinue of shady underworld characters. He had legal difficulties, four divorces, and fights with fans, jilted women, and angered husbands, fathers, and boyfriends. He married Ruby Hartley in 1930 and fathered a child. The marriage quickly fell apart, and the couple divorced in 1934. Durocher quickly remarried, this time to Grace Dozier, a prominent St. Louis businesswoman and fashion designer who paid off Leo’s substantial debts.

The next fiasco was Leo's third marriage to actress, Laraine Day. The Utah-born Day was already married to Ray Hendricks. Day divorced Hendricks in Mexico in 1946, then married Durocher the next day. Durocher and Day, who still had a year to wait before her California divorce from Hendricks was final, had to plead before a judge so she could avoid conviction for bigamy.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Albert B. “Happy” Chandler suspended Durocher from baseball for the 1947 season. Chandler claimed that Durocher had once again associated with known gamblers. His real reason may have been because a local Catholic priest declared that attending Dodgers games was a venial sin.

According to Roman Catholicism, a venial sin (meaning "forgivable" sin) is a lesser sin that does not result in a complete separation from God and eternal damnation in Hell as an unrepented mortal sin would.

Supported by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy, the Brooklyn Diocese had presented Brooklyn Dodgers' General Manager Branch Rickey with the ultimatum: fire Durocher for his moral turpitude or face a boycott.

Durocher’s suspension solved the boycott issue.

Comcast SportsNet New England reporter Jessica Moran resigned from the network after seven years on the job, she confirmed to the Boston Globe’s Mark Shanahan Friday. Shanahan cited rumors that alleged a relationship between Moran and Red Sox manager John Farrell was at the center of her sudden departure.

Farrell declined comment on the rumors, and all Moran revealed was that it was in her “personal and professional interest” to leave CSN. Farrell missed the second half of 2015 battling cancer. With the disease in remission, he was hoping to return to the dugout as manager. The Red Sox 2016 media guide also listed Farrell as single, which “raised questions.”

The extracurricular activity by Boston Red Sox personnel is nothing new. There were rumors that manager Terry Francona was involved with NESN’s Hazel Mae. Franconia was replaced in 2011 by Bobby Valentine who lasted one season before giving way to John Farrell. Heidi Watney, a NESN sideline reporter, was rumored to have had relationships with just-divorced catcher Jason Varitek and infielder Nick Green. Watney denied it vehemently, and Varitek remarried somebody else in 2011.

Leo Durocher was forced to sit out the 1947 season because he was caught in the cross-hairs of a squabble between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees. The Yankees were secretly trying to lure Durocher away from the Dodgers. The Commissioner sided with the Yankees. The charge against Durocher for associating with gamblers quieted the masses.

Following two last place finishes, Red Sox manager John Farrell's job was in jeopardy. It appears to be only a matter of time before he will be replaced by last year's interim manager, Torey Lovullo. The headline will read that "John Farrell is stepping down due to health reasons."

Leo Durocher’s posthumous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame occurred in 1994. The selection was attributed to his 2,008 victories in 24 seasons of managing. He was best remembered for his famous quote, "nice guys finish last."

The quote by Leo Durocher was used in 1946 to needle the last place New York Giants. It fits John Farrell "to a tee."

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Why can't we all just get along?

At 12:45 a.m. on March 3, 1991, robbery parolee Rodney G. King stops his car after leading police on a nearly 8-mile pursuit through the streets of Los Angeles, California. The chase began after King, who was intoxicated, was caught speeding on a freeway by a California Highway Patrol cruiser but refused to pull over. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) cruisers and a police helicopter joined the pursuit, and when King was finally stopped by Hansen Dam Park, several police cars descended on his white Hyundai.

A group of Los Angeles police officers, led by Sergeant Stacey Koon ordered King and the other two occupants of the car to exit the vehicle and lie flat on the ground. King’s two friends complied, but King himself was slower to respond, getting on his hands and knees rather than lying flat. Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Ted Briseno, and Roland Solano tried to force King down, but he resisted, and the officers stepped back and shot King twice with an electric stun gun known as a Taser, which fires darts carrying a charge of 50,000 volts.

George Holliday, standing on a balcony in an apartment complex across the street, focused the lens of his new video camera on the commotion unfolding by Hansen Dam Park. In the first few seconds of what would become a very famous 89-second video, King is seen rising after the Taser shots and running in the direction of Officer Powell. Holliday sold his video of the beating to the local television station, KTLA, which broadcast the footage and sold it to the national Cable News Network (CNN). The widely broadcast video caused outrage around the country and triggered a national debate on police brutality.

Rodney King was released without charges, and on March 15 Sergeant Koon and officers Powell, Wind, and Briseno were indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in connection with the beating. On April 29, 1992, the 12-person jury, which included 10 whites and no African Americans, issued its verdicts: not guilty on all counts, except for one assault charge against Powell that ended in a hung jury. The acquittals touched off rioting and looting in Los Angeles that grew into the most destructive U.S. civil disturbance of the 20th century. In three days of violence, more than 50 people were killed, more than 2,000 were injured, and nearly $1 billion in property was destroyed. On May 1, President George H.W. Bush ordered military troops and riot-trained federal officers to Los Angeles to quell the riot.

The outrage over the Rodney King beating set the stage three years later, for the acquittal of double murderer, O.J. Simpson. Defense Attorney Johnnie Cochrane deftly played the jury, once again charging the LAPD with underhanded tactics.

“Something happens between the weddings and the birthday parties—it’s called the rest of your life.” For Rodney King, the video contained: three officers in particular, as part of a group of 15, kick him seven times, and hit him with nightsticks between 53 and 56 times in less than a minute. “Please stop, please stop.”

The beating stopped for Rodney King on June 17, 2012.
The day was made famous in history 18 years prior when: Arnold Palmer played his final round at the U.S. Open.
The commencement of the FIFA World Cup.
The New York Rangers celebrated their first Stanley Cup Finals win in 54 years with a ticker-tape parade on Broadway.
Ken Griffey, Jr. tied Babe Ruth's record of the most home runs (30) before June 30th.

Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks was interrupted by the slow "white bronco chase" with Al Cowlings at the wheel, and fugitive from justice O.J. Simpson in the back seat.

Rodney King changed America. Reality show skeptics often argue that these TV series must be staged, as much of the content is often pretty outrageous, but the producer says, this is really not the case. There was nothing staged in the "89 seconds" series starring Rodney King. We haven't turned the tv off, since.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Gerry Smith WWII POW Presentation 3-1-2016

On the evening of Tuesday March 1st, World War II POW Gerry Smith spoke to a full house at the Candia Public Library in Candia, New Hampshire. Gerry was shot down in Italy on November 5th, 1944 after parachuting out of his down aircraft, B-26. He was then taken by the Germans to a hospital. Over the course of this hour discussion Gerry recounts harrowing details of his capture and liberation. He also recounts his trip in 2012 with his entire family to the scene of the downed aircraft in the Italian village. Enjoy and thank you for listening.
The Presentation begins at the 0:11 mark in the video.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

May I have another

Cherry Starr, wife of 82-year-old Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr, recently outlined severe hazing her husband underwent while at the University of Alabama.

"He was hospitalized at one point in traction," she told Joseph Goodman of AL.com. "That was in the days when they were initiated into the A-Club, and they had severe beatings and paddling. From all the members of the A-Club, they lined up with a big paddle with holes drilled in it, and it actually injured his back."

She added, "His back was never right after that. It was horrible. It was not a football injury. It was an injury sustained from hazing. His whole back all the way up to his rib cage looked like a piece of raw meat. The bruising went all the way up his back. It was red and black and awful looking. It was so brutal."

The Starrs hadn't disclosed the injury until now, as the former quarterback always maintained he had injured his back in a punting exercise.

"It was hell," Starr's teammate and former Alabama tight end Nick Germanos said of the beatings from the A-Club. "Lord have mercy, it was a rough initiation."

Starr possibly got the worst of it because he not only eloped before his junior year—schools would remove or reduce scholarships for players who married in those days, according to Goodman—but he also did so with an Auburn student, Cherry.

His back injuries, which would hound him for the rest of his career and most of his life, cost him a major chunk of his junior season before he was inexplicably benched for much of his senior year.

Bart Starr graduated from the University of Alabama in 1956 and started his professional career with the Green Bay Packers. Paul "Bear" Bryant replaced head coach,Jennings B. Whitworth for the Crimson Tide of Alabama following a 0-10 record. Bryant was famous for his barbaric tactics and the hazing continued.

In 1954, Bryant had been the head coach of Texas A&M. His first season produced a mark of 1-9 which led to the training camp battle in the summer of 1955 held in Junction, Texas. Bear took his squad out onto the scorched plains to see who would survive.The "survivors" were given the name "Junction Boys".

Shortly before his death, Bear Bryant met with evangelist Robert Schuller on a plane flight and the two talked extensively about religion, which apparently had a considerable impression on the coach, who felt considerable guilt over his mistreatment of the Junction Boys and hiding his smoking and drinking habits from his mother.

Starr, who’s now 82, is unable to discuss the matter after suffering two strokes in 2014. According to Cherry, he never wanted the hazing injury to become public because “it would make him look bad.” Only now do she and her husband feel comfortable talking about an injury that required spine adjustments and epidurals until the 1980s, when famed orthopedist James Andrews discovered a nearly invisible crack in one of Starr’s vertebra.

In a weird twist, the back injury is indirectly responsible for Starr’s standout NFL career. After his rookie season in 1956, Starr was called to active duty in the Air Force. But his back was so badly injured that he failed his physical and was deemed unfit for military service. He ended up playing 15 seasons in Green Bay, helping lead the Packers to five NFL titles, including victories in Super Bowl I and II. Starr is only one of five players to capture multiple Super Bowl MVP's. In 1977, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy