David Davis is still punching the clock

It was Friday, April 29, 1954 when Carlisle, MA resident David Davis pulled his Dad's 1948 Studebaker into the Concord Auto Auction. The origins of the Studebaker Corporation date back to 1852, when brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker opened a blacksmith shop in South Bend, Indiana. Studebaker eventually became a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn wagons and supplied wagons to the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Around the turn of the century, the company entered America’s burgeoning auto industry, launching an electric car in 1902 and a gas-powered vehicle two years later that was marketed under the name Studebaker-Garford. After partnering with other automakers, Studebaker began selling gas-powered cars under its own name in 1913, while continuing to make wagons until 1920.

It was the first day of work for the 16 year old Davis. David was always interested in the automobile industry, having driven without a drivers' license through the streets of Concord and many of the dirt roads in Carlisle since he was 12. With a population of only 876, it was easy to avoid the only part time volunteer police officer.

David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 – February 13, 1891) was a United States Navy admiral and a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the U.S. Navy. Promoted as the second U.S. Navy officer ever to attain the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War.

Porter began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 years under his father, Commodore David Porter, on the frigate USS John Adams. For the remainder of his life, he was associated with the sea. Porter served in the Mexican War in the attack on the fort at the City of Vera Cruz. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was part of a plan to hold Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, Florida, for the Union; its execution disrupted the effort to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumter, leading to its fall. In the early days of President Ulysses S. Grant's administration, Porter was de facto Secretary of the Navy.

Born June 8, 1813
Chester, Pennsylvania
Died - February 13, 1891 (aged 77)
Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia
United States Navy
Years of service (1829–1891)
Rank - United States Navy Admiral

David Davis was a Concord-Carlisle High School sophomore who played sparingly as an offensive lineman for the powerhouse Patriots. The 1946 team – which was named Massachusetts Class D champs – launched the Concord 59 game consecutive undefeated streak (there was one tie during the streak), still a state record (Acton-Boxborough holds the state consecutive “win” streak at 52). Davis was on the squad that suffered its first loss in eight years.

Bernie Megin was the coach throughout that era of Concord-Carlisle dominance. Under head coach Megin, who played quarterback at Notre Dame, the Patriots ran a superbly orchestrated and creative "Delaware Wing-T" attack (the basic set that Concord-Carlisle uses more than 60 years later). It also used a full-house backfield that constituted of a quarterback and three running backs.

The lessons learned on the gridiron carried over the kid from Carlisle. Other than the two years that he spent in the United States Army, Davis has worked at the Concord Auto Auction every Friday since 1954. David will be starting his 63rd year on the job on Friday.

Admiral David Dixon Porter has the dining hall at Great Lakes Naval Station named in his honor. The guard shack at the Concord Auto Auction was finally painted in Dark Blue(New York Giants team colors)in honor of David A. Davis.

"Still Crazy after all these years."


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Harriet Tubman's front portrait is noteworthy

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman's image will appear on a new series of $20 bills, becoming the first African-American to appear on U.S. paper currency and the first woman in more than a century, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.

In replacing replace President Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill, the Treasury Department abandoned a previous plan to have a woman replace founding father Alexander Hamilton on the $10. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the about-face came in response to an unexpected show of support for Hamilton in the weeks after he announced that plan last June — a response fueled, in part, by the popularity of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical based on Hamilton's life by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

President Grover Cleveland appeared on the front of the $20 note in 1914. Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. President (1829–37), has been featured on the front side of the bill since 1928, which is why the twenty-dollar bill is often called a "Jackson." The twenty-dollar bill in the past was referred to as a "double-sawbuck" because it is twice the value of a ten-dollar bill.

To make room for Tubman on the front of the $20 bill, Jackson will be moved to the back where he'll be incorporated into the existing image of the White House. Lew said that image could depict the statue of Jackson riding horseback in Lafayette Square across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin had personally lobbied Treasury Secretary Lew to put Eleanor Roosevelt on the note. Goodwin was heartened that the process generated such passion about American history on all sides. She hopes more and more women will be added to currency "such that a century from now Americans will begin to ask, 'Where are the men?'”

Grover Cleveland got 14 years on the $20 bill. Andrew Jackson lasted for 88. Here's hoping that Harriet Tubman, the former Union spy, can have a longer run than Jackson.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

The Queen should checkmate the Knight

Lady Melinda Rose Woodward - known as Linda - who was married to the music star Tom Jones for 59 years, died on Sunday morning at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. "Surrounded by her husband and loved ones, she passed away peacefully," a statement on 75-year-old Sir Tom's website said.

Tom Jones married Linda Trenchard in 1957 at age 17, and together they had a son, Mark, born the same year.

In 1974 Jones moved his family to the United States due to resentment of Britain's high taxes. He bought Dean Martin's house in California's posh Bel-Air area.

Though he remained married to Trenchard, Jones was well known for his infidelities. During his career heyday he admitted to sleeping with more than 250 groupies a year. In 1987, he fathered a son through a four-day fling with model Katherine Berkery. Though for over 20 years Jones denied paternity, a DNA test in 2008 proved he was the boy's father.

They had wanted more children, but the singer revealed in his 2015 autobiography, Over The Top And Back, that a miscarriage had left his wife infertile. Over the years, Lady Woodward had to face allegations of Sir Tom's numerous affairs and he said she once hit him: "And I took it because I knew I was wrong."

She also became reclusive in later years, rarely leaving their Beverly Hills home, where he said she battled emphysema and had depression. However, Sir Tom said she remained the most important person in his life.
"We love one another," he told the BBC."I think love conquers all and it's the truth. And a sense of humour... because we grew up together, we're both Welsh. You know, growing up in south Wales, there's a certain sense of humour there."

Charlotte knew that his wife was the love of your life': The mistress who had a three-year affair with Sir Tom Jones sends a message of condolence to singer after the death of his wife Linda. Charlotte Laws, now 55, says she had a three-year affair with the singer. She lost her virginity to the superstar in 1979 when she was 18. Sir Tom's wife Linda died on Sunday after 'short but fierce' cancer battle.

Sir Tom Jones' former mistress speaks out following his wife's death https://t.co/UTTsoATKnB pic.twitter.com/W2StmhPotm

— Mirror Celeb (@MirrorCeleb) April 12, 2016

For his musical accomplishments, Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on Jones the honor of Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1995 and knighted him as part of the Queen’s New Year’s Honours in 2005. Other highlights included a performance for U.S. President Bill Clinton at the White House Millennium Celebration and for Britain’s monarchy for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Jones also won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

Marjorie Wallace was stripped of her Miss World crown, and when Sir Tom realized Linda was going to learn about the infidelity, he told the beauty queen it was over.

Devastated, Marjorie took an overdose of sleeping pills and ended up in a coma but survived.

Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday celebration on April 21 will be one of the highlights of 2016. Knight-A man holding a nonhereditary title conferred by a sovereign in recognition of personal merit or service to the country. She can make it more memorable by removing the crown from the head of Tom Jones. What a joke!


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

A six day march into hell lasted three years

The day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, the 75,000 Filipino and American troops captured on the Bataan Peninsula begin a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. During this infamous trek, known as the “Bataan Death March,” the prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days, with only one meal of rice during the entire journey. By the end of the march, which was punctuated with atrocities committed by the Japanese guards, hundreds of Americans and many more Filipinos had died.

The day after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. Within a month, the Japanese had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the U.S. and Filipino defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. For the next three months, the combined U.S.-Filipino army, under the command of U.S. General Jonathan Wainwright, held out impressively despite a lack of naval and air support. Finally, on April 7, with his army crippled by starvation and disease, Wainwright began withdrawing as many troops as possible to the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay. However, two days later, 75,000 Allied troops were trapped by the Japanese and forced to surrender. The next day, the Bataan Death March began. Of those who survived to reach the Japanese prison camp near Cabanatuan, few lived to celebrate U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s liberation of Luzon in 1945.

America avenged its defeat in the Philippines with the invasion of the island of Leyte in October 1944. General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), who in 1942 had famously promised to return to the Philippines, made good on his word. In February 1945, U.S.-Filipino forces recaptured the Bataan Peninsula, and Manila was liberated in early March. General MacArthur wanted to personally stay and fight at Bataan, but was ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to evacuate. "He might still be there."

After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946. The Japanese had attempted to cover up the event by having the local newspaper report that the prisoners were well treated. The truth about the march came out when escaped prisoners told their story.

In a 2001 commemorative speech in front of the United States House of Representatives, Representative Dana Rohrabacher stated:

"They were beaten, and they were starved as they marched. Those who fell were bayoneted. Some of those who fell were beheaded by Japanese officers who were practicing with their samurai swords from horseback. The Japanese culture at that time reflected the view that any warrior who surrendered had no honor; thus was not to be treated like a human being. Thus they were not committing crimes against human beings.The Japanese soldiers at that time felt they were dealing with subhumans and animals."

About 400 men had survived the journey. Fewer than 100 are still alive.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Mike Wallace always had the upper hand

Broadcast journalist Mike Wallace, a full-time correspondent for the pioneering TV newsmagazine “60 Minutes” from its debut in 1968 until 2006, dies at age 93 in New Canaan, Connecticut in 2012. During his career, Wallace interviewed everyone from world leaders to Hollywood celebrities to scam artists, and was well-known for his hard-nosed style of questioning.

In the 1950s, Wallace worked on TV talk shows and game shows in New York City, and also appeared in commercials and acted on Broadway. He developed his style as a tenacious interrogator on the TV interview show “Night Beat,” which aired from 1956 to 1957. In 1962, the eldest of Wallace’s two sons died at age 19 in a hiking accident in Greece, a tragedy that inspired Wallace to focus his career on serious journalism. In 1963, he became a correspondent for CBS News, and went on to report about the Vietnam War, among other stories.

“60 Minutes” premiered on CBS on September 24, 1968, and was co-hosted by Wallace and Harry Reasoner. The show, with its trademark opening sequence featuring a ticking stopwatch, became hugely popular and influential, spawning a slew of other newsmagazine programs, such as “20/20″ and “Primetime Live,” and ranking among the top 10 programs in the United States from 1977 to 2000. Wallace became known for investigative pieces in which he used ambush interviews and hidden cameras to uncover corruption and scams. He also conducted scores of memorable interviews with newsmakers ranging from Clint Hill, the former U.S. Secret Service agent who was in President John Kennedy’s motorcade when he was assassinated, to Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini during the 1979 American hostage crisis.

At the 1978 commencement at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Mike Wallace was the keynote speaker. Before Mike was scheduled to speak to the graduates, all of the teachers onstage walked off in protest. The teachers were embroiled in a salary battle with Governor Mike Dukakis. Both Wallace and Dukakis were from
Brookline, Massachusetts. The governor was speechless, but he was bailed out by Wallace who grabbed the microphone, and said "who needs them, anyway?"

Some of Wallace’s reporting proved controversial. In the 1980s, he and CBS were embroiled in a $120 million libel lawsuit brought against them by General William Westmoreland for the way he was portrayed in a 1982 documentary about the Vietnam War. The general dropped the lawsuit in 1985, but Wallace later revealed that the pressure of the situation caused him to suffer a deep depression and attempt suicide. His final piece aired in 2008–an interview with baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, who was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

The teammate of Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees appeared on "60 Minutes" on January 12, 2014. "One click of night cream at night, one cohete at night, one click of night cream in the morning, one gummy in the a.m., four clicks of day cream before leaving the field, one cohete in a.m., pink cream before the game, any oral pills in the a.m." Alex had a great game. He doubled; he scored twice. Mike Wallace would have eaten A-Rod for lunch.

The 1993 hit song by R.EM. refers to an incident in New York City in 1986, where news anchor Dan Rather and 60 minutes correspondent, was the victim of an apparently unprovoked attack by two then-unknown assailants who, between beatings, would ask, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

It is too bad they didn't try that with Mike Wallace. They would not have gotten away unharmed.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

"Godfather of Soul' saves the day

On the morning after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., city officials in Boston, Massachusetts, were scrambling to prepare for an expected second straight night of violent unrest. Similar preparations were being made in cities across America, including in the nation’s capital, where armed units of the regular Army patrolled outside the White House and U.S. Capitol following President Johnson’s state-of-emergency declaration. But Boston would be nearly alone among America’s major cities in remaining quiet and calm that turbulent Friday night, thanks in large part to one of the least quiet and calm musical performers of all time. On the night of April 5, 1968, James Brown kept the peace in Boston by the sheer force of his music and his personal charisma.

Brown’s appearance that night at the Boston Garden had been scheduled for months, but it nearly didn’t happen. Following a long night of riots and fires in the predominantly black Roxbury and South End sections of the city, Boston’s young mayor, Kevin White, gave serious consideration to canceling an event that some feared would bring the same kind of violence into the city’s center. The racial component of those fears was very much on the surface of a city in which school integration and mandatory busing had played a major role in the recent mayoral election.

Mayor White faced a politically impossible choice: anger black Bostonians by canceling Brown’s concert over transparently racial fears, or antagonize the law-and-order crowd by simply ignoring those fears. The idea that resolved the mayor’s dilemma came from a young, African American city councilman name Tom Atkins, who proposed going on with the concert, but finding a way to mount a free, live broadcast of the show in the hopes of keeping most Bostonians at home in front of their TV sets rather than on the streets.

Atkins and White convinced public television station WGBH to carry the concert on short notice, but convincing James Brown took some doing. Due to a non-compete agreement relating to an upcoming televised concert, Brown stood to lose roughly $60,000 if his Boston show were televised. Ever the savvy businessman, James Brown made his financial needs known to Mayor White, who made the very wise decision to meet them.

The broadcast of Brown’s concert had the exact effect it was intended to, as Boston saw less crime that night than would be expected on a perfectly normal Friday in April. There was a moment, however, when it appeared that the plan might backfire. As a handful of young, male fans—most, but not all of them black—began climbing on stage mid-concert, white Boston policemen began forcefully pushing them back. Sensing the volatility of the situation, Brown urged the cops to back away from the stage, then addressed the crowd. “Wait a minute, wait a minute now WAIT!” Brown said. “Step down, now, be a gentleman….Now I asked the police to step back, because I think I can get some respect from my own people.”

Brown successfully restored order while keeping the police away from the crowd, and continued the successful peacekeeping concert in honor of the slain Dr. King on this day in 1968.

When James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006, he left behind a fortune worth tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of dollars. The problem is, he also left behind fourteen children, sixteen grandchildren, eight mothers of his children, several mistresses, thirty lawyers, a former manager, an aging dancer, a longtime valet, and a sister who's really not a sister but calls herself the Godsister of Soul anyway. All of whom want a piece of his legacy.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Jason Benetti is replacing a legend and won't miss a beat

Jason Benetti (born September 9, 1983) acts as a play-by-play broadcaster for ESPN, Fox Sports, Westwood One, and Time Warner covering football, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, and basketball. Beginning in 2016, he will also be the television play-by-play announcer for Chicago White Sox home games.

Benetti is a unique individual in the sports broadcasting world as he happens to be born with cerebral palsy. Benetti was born 10 weeks prematurely and hospitalized for three months. During the three months in the hospital, Benetti had a respiratory illness while in intensive care that deprived his blood of oxygen. It is believed that caused his cerebral palsy, which was diagnosed when Benetti was a toddler. He underwent years of physical therapy and two surgeries to improve his ability to walk.

Neither the wheelchair he needed for a time in elementary school nor the braces he once wore on his legs kept Benetti from developing a passion for sports. He played catch with his father and basketball in the driveway. He studied statistics, memorized team nicknames and pretended to call the action while playing Nintendo games or watching sports on TV when he was 8 and 9 years old. In Junior High, Benetti ran his school's NCAA tournament pool, and in High School he joined the radio broadcasters.

While the cerebral palsy didn't prevent him from playing tuba in High School, it did prevent him from playing tuba during marching band season. Not wanting to exclude Benetti, the band director asked him to serve as the Halftime broadcast for their marching events.

In the mid-2000s Benetti became a student at Syracuse University where he called lacrosse and women's basketball. After graduating Benetti enrolled at Wake Forest University where he attended for three years. Benetti would graduate Wake Forest with a law degree, but most nights would be spent calling sports instead of studying. While at Wake Forest, Benetti acted as the voice of High Point Panthers basketball games, Syracuse Chiefs baseball games, and high school football for Time Warner Cable Sports Channel.

In 2011, Benetti would join the ranks of ESPN, and his broadcasting career would move onto television, a medium he wanted to avoid when he was a kid. Benetti would call select college basketball games for ESPN3 and then move onto ESPN2 and ESPNU. In 2013, Benetti called his first football game for AAC Network.

While Benetti continues to grow in his sports broadcast career, he finds a higher purpose in serving with CHAT, also known as the Communication Hope through Assistive Technology, camp at Syracuse University. Today most people are shocked to learn that Benetti has cerebral palsy; Benetti continues to be grateful and thankful to all who allow him to grow and learn.

It is a tough act to follow for Benetti in replacing Ken “Hawk” Harrelson as the television play-by-play announcer for Chicago White Sox home games. Harrelson said he was going to cut back on broadcasts of Chicago White Sox games after 31 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award, given to broadcasters for major contributions to baseball. Ken was famous for his “hawkisms” like: You can put it on the board...Yes!, Sacks packed with Sox, You can cancel the post-game show, or You can book it, Dan-O. All his sayings would inform the fans the fate of his beloved White Sox if they just tuned in to the broadcast.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

The David Ortiz victory tour is going to be painful

David Ortiz hates it when you bring up that he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 (a fact confirmed by the union). The latest target of his ire: MLB Network hosts who declared he has received a "free pass" for his transgression.

"What pisses me off is the whole thing about, why does my name got to be mentioned in that? What did I have to do with that? I saw on MLB the guys talking about it, and then they brought my name up, and one of the guys said that I got a free pass on that. And to be honest with you, in this country, nobody gets a "free pass."

Who can forget the night Ortiz threw Red Sox manager Terry Francona's post-game press conference off key when he barged in to cry over an RBI he felt he should have gotten. Francona looked like he'd just been punched in the stomach. Just shut up, will ya, Big Papi, Joe Torre said. "Official scorers should never give any benefit of the doubt to the home team." Torre, MLB executive vice-president for baseball operations, changed a scoring in Ortiz's favor earlier in the year in a game against the Texas Rangers.

David Ortiz announced his retirement from the Boston Red Sox prior to the 2016 season. He has been part of three World Championship teams and has reached his personal goal of 500 home runs. This will be his 20th season in major league baseball.

Ortiz in particular was one of the Boston sports stars who lifted the city's spirits the most in the wake of the 2013 Marathon Day bombings by declaring in an unforgettably emotional speech following the Boston manhunt, "This is our [expletive] city."

The Gold Watch

Apparently, the tradition of giving gold watches originated back to the 1940s and The Pepsi Co. The concept of “you gave us your time, now we are giving you ours,” made sense when people stayed with a company for three or four decades and the price of gold was about $34 an ounce. Today, the average length of job tenure is roughly five years and the price of gold hovers near $1,600 an ounce, a pricey change that would either put more companies out of business or see more watches end up in a pawn shop.

We will miss his clutch performances. His production will remain strong until the end. If the team plans on another last place finish, let's give David the gold watch on opening day.

The Boston Red Sox blamed last year's poor television ratings on popular announcer Don Orsillo, and fired him. A sacrificial lamb is a metaphorical reference to a person or animal sacrificed (killed or discounted in some way) for the common good. Even the great David Ortiz won't be able to mask that 162 game snoozefest.

The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case began in July 2003 when the news media reported that the sheriff's office in Eagle, Colorado had arrested professional basketball player Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, a hotel in Edwards, Colorado, on June 30 in advance of having surgery near there on July 2 under Dr. Richard Steadman. The woman accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room on July 1, the night before the surgery. Bryant admitted to an adulterous sexual encounter with his accuser, but denied the assault allegation. The case was dropped after Bryant's accuser refused to testify in the case. A separate civil suit was later filed against Bryant by the woman. This was settled out of court and included Bryant's publicly apologizing to his accuser, though admitting no guilt on his part.

Kobe Bryant says Colorado sexual assault case was “turning point” in career. "Was I afraid of going to jail"? Yes. It was twenty-five to life, man. I was terrified. The one thing that really helped me during that process — I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic — was talking to a priest. It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ‘Did you do it?’ And I say, ‘Of course not.’ Then he asks, ‘Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ‘Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now.

How polarizing is Kobe? On basketball-reference, there is a fan index that measures a player's popularity. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Lebron James, Hakeem Olajuwon, John Stockton, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Patrick Ewing, Chris Paul and Charles Barkley are all in the top 20. Kobe Bryant is Number 348, trailing Cuttino Mobley of the Houston Rockerts who averaged 13.4 points per game for his 11 year career. Bryant is third alltime in regular season scoring with over 33, 000 points as well as third place in playoff scoring with 5,640.

Kobe Bryant's final game against the Boston Celtics was on Sunday night. Bryant shot 11 for 28 from the field and four for 11 from three point range. He contributed one assist. His Los Angeles Lakers fell to 16 wins, 60 losses for the season.

The roller coaster ride is nearly at an end. The basketball world has been forced to watch Kobe Bryant accumulate records that will be nearly impossible to break. Kobe has taken the most shot attempts in NBA history, and has missed over 14, 000 shots. He will finish with an average of 25 points per game, 4.77 assists per game and one MVP after 20 years.

I think God shut the TV off, too.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy