1878: Pro baseball started in Cuba

On this day in 1878,  professional baseball started in Cuba.    

The first game was between Habana and Almendares, the two teams that would be great rivals until Castro dissolved the league after the 1960-61 season.    

The league had four teams in the 1950s:   Habana, Almendares, Marianao, and Cienfuegos.   

It was great and very passionate baseball.

Along the way, many major leaguers played winter ball in Cuba, from Willie Mays to Brooks Robinson.   

During the summer, Havana was also a AAA franchise, the Havana Sugar Kings in the Cincinnati organization.    Havana played in The International League with other teams in Montreal and Toronto.

For more on Cuban baseball history, check out "The pride of Havana".

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

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We remember Scotty Moore (1931-2009)

In 1954, fate put Elvis and Scotty Moore in the same studio.    And the rest is musical history and some of rock's most famous recordings.   

He was born Winfield Scott Moore III on this day in 1931 in Tennessee.    

He is # 29 in Rolling Stone's Top 100 guitarists.  You can hear him in those great Elvis' songs.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

 

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We remember Fred Foy (1921-2010) the man who used to say "a fiery horse with the speed of light"...

Back in 2010, our friend Bill Katz, of Urgent Agenda, wrote a wonderful post about the passing of a radio legend:

"Fred Foy announced "The Lone Ranger," one of the greatest, and longest-running, radio adventure shows ever. My, how we would sit at those old Emerson and Philco radios and wait for Fred to tell us that the Ranger, and his trusty native-American sidekick, Tonto, were galloping our way.
These days, the show would be considered politically incorrect. But to us, the Lone Ranger and Tonto were heroes, moral and otherwise."

I grew up watching The Lone Ranger.  Didn't everybody love Silver, the beautiful white horse?

More recently, my sons became real fans too! 

RIP Mr Foy!  Thanks for:

""A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo, Silver! ...""

Great show.....great voice!

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

Happy # 71 to AG Jeff Sessions

We say happy birthday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions who was born on this in Selma, Alabama.    

No ‘Feliz Navidad’ for Jorge Ramos, or so we hear

Our friend Jorge Ramos just made an incredible statement, as I saw in this report:  

Nearly a year into the Trump presidency, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos says he’s experiencing “the worst moment I’ve had in the 34 years I’ve been living in the United States.”

“With Donald Trump there, I have never been treated so badly. I have never been insulted so much. We’ve never been attacked so much. They have never tried to run us out as much as now,” Ramos vented in an interview with the Spanish radio network Cadena SER.

Ramos, who proclaimed himself “if not an enemy, an opponent” of Trump in the interview, complained about the massive blowback he has received since deciding to use his media platforms to openly oppose the choice of over 62 million American voters in last year’s U.S. presidential election.  

It’s a free country and Jorge Ramos can choose to spend his “Navidad” any way he wants. However, Jorge should consider a couple of things:

First, if the Democrats had won, then he’d be angry writing articles about Democrats never keeping their promises. Let’s remember this one from a previous “Obama Navidad”:    

“When he had a hold on Congress, when he had 60 votes in the Senate, he could have done it,” Ramos says. “And he didn’t. He chose other issues. And that’s why Latinos are so frustrated.”

“Muy correcto Jorge.” The Democrats didn’t because they know that you, and most of your colleagues, will support the Democrats no matter how many promises they make and break. As I have said on Univision & Telemundo, Hispanics will never be powerful until they hold parties accountable for promises.

Second, you could be back in Mexico calling Trump names but earning “pesos.” That would be  really misery!

Cheer up. Trump’s presidency will mean more book sales, more appearances on “Hannity” and living the good life in the U.S.  Plus, Univision will pay lower taxes next year!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

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1975: A big Christmas for major league baseball players

It was Christmas 1975, and Santa Claus dressed up as Peter Seitz, an arbitrator called into action to settle an argument between the players and the owners. Seitz came down the chimney and left baseball a decision that would change the game forever.

The decision involved a couple of veterans fighting to survive in the majors: Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith. McNally was one of the game’s premiere pitchers with the Orioles but was traded after the 1974 season. He retired after the decision. Messersmith had pitched for the Braves and felt underpaid, and he was probably right.   

Neither man benefited much from free agency, but they did challenge the rule and won in the courts.   

For almost a hundred years, baseball had operated under what they called “the reserve clause:”    

Until Peter Seitz came along, Major League Baseball interpreted the reserve clause to renew itself “for the period of one year” indefinitely, since even the renewed contract contained the clause.  

This effectively bound a player to a team until the front office decided otherwise. Once a player signed his first professional contract, he could not negotiate with another team until his original team let him go. This system gave teams little incentive to pay competitive wages, and so they didn’t. 

In 1930, Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for $80,000 per season (adjusted for inflation, the contract would be worth $1.1 million today). 

Ruth’s salary was a record at the time and, in today’s dollars, would remain so for more than forty years. 

Yes, in today’s dollars, players like Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays were all paid less than Ruth in 1930.

The owners said that the “clause” provided payroll stability. The players said that it limited their ability to earn money and look out for their interests. 

Both sides were right. However, there is no question that major leaguers had zero negotiating options, other than sit out spring training like Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax used to do.   

The rules were so arbitrary. Tony Oliva had to win three batting titles to earn $100,000, what they used to call “superstar status.” Three batting titles to earn superstar money?

The real free agent class came after the 1976 season, when Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Don Baylor and others negotiated their own contracts. Over time, Nolan Ryan became the first $1 million player, Rickey Henderson the first $3 million, Albert Belle the first $10 million and so on.

Where are we now on the another anniversary of that fateful decision? The game is doing well and the players can’t complain. At the same time, big payrolls have not necessarily bought pennants, as the Astros proved in 2017 and the Cubs and Indians showed with player development in 2016.

On the other hand, big payrolls have made the game too dependent on TV revenues. Baseball is not a good TV game and there is too much time between pitches, dragging out games over three hours!

Merry Christmas, baseball. I hope that every player remembers Curt Flood (the man who sat out a season to protest free agency) and the veterans like McNally and Messersmith who fought for what they enjoy now.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Remembering Maurice Gibb (1949-2003)

Maurice Gibb was born on this day in 1949.   His sudden death in 2003 was quite a shock, as we read in news reports:

"The 53-year old Gibb was rushed to Mount Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday after experiencing intense abdominal pain. Doctors discovered the pain was due to a twisted section in his small intestine. Before the operation Gibb reportedly went into cardiac arrest, which weakened his condition. After surgery to remove the damaged section of intestine, Gibb was listed in critical but stable condition. He passed away at 1AM Sunday morning."

His twin brother Robin died in 2012 but he battled cancer for over a year.  Robin's death was anticipated.  Maurice was sudden.

Maurice was the 3rd voice in all of the group's great harmonies. He also co-wrote most of the group's big hits, along with Barry & Robin.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

We remember Ellie Hendricks (1940-2005)

The wonderful Elrod Hendricks did not put up big numbers but was the kind of player that everyone wanted on his team.   

We remember that Hendricks was born in the US Virgin Islands on this day in 1940.  He died in 2005.

Hendricks joined the Orioles in the late 1960's and shared catching duties with Andy Etchebarren. 

Over time, Ellie enjoyed a long major league career because he was a first class professional with a very positive attitude.

On the field, he was remembered as Mike Cuellar's catcher. Off the field, he was one of the most popular players in Oriole history. Everybody loved Ellie Hendricks!

Between 1968-76, Hendricks caught 20-game winners Cuellar, McNally and Palmer.   He hit .273 in 9 post season series.   

In 1977, Ellie became a player/coach and a valuable piece in the development of young arms like Dennis Martinez, Scott McGregor and Mike Flannagan.   Later, he was the wise veteran in a clubhouse that included youngsters like Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken.

Ellie was a great PR ambassador for the team and active in various community organizations.    Super guy!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

A word about the death of Vaclav Havel

We learned in 2011 that Vaclav Havel died in the Czech Republic.  He was one of my Eastern European heroes because he stood up to communism:

"Born in 1936, the son of a rich building contractor, Havel was denied a good education after the communists seized power in 1948 and stripped the family of its wealth.
Despite having no higher degree, he began writing literary criticism in 1955. The first of his absurdist plays, whose characters often struggled to communicate in the empty language of communist-era rhetoric, debuted in 1963 in a more liberal era that was crushed by tanks in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion.
Havel's plays then disappeared in censors' vaults, and the author was forced into menial jobs such as rolling beer barrels."

It takes a lot of courage to stand up to a repressive communist state.  Yet, he did it and we appreciate that.  He was also one of the few Europeans who criticized Castro.  He was a true friend of anti-Castro Cubans, as Jorge Ponce wrote today.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

 

Did you know that the Brothers Gibb wrote these tunes?

Over the years, we've followed the amazing career of The Bee Gees. 

The brothers started performing at a very young age and eventually became international superstars in the late 1960's.

Today, we recall some of their songs recorded by other artists.   It's a long list and this is just a sample:

1)  "Sweetheart" by Engelbert Humperdinck, one of the big male vocalists of our generation.

2)  "Come on over" by Olivia Newton-John.

3)  "Islands in the stream", a huge hit for Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton.

4)  "Heartbreaker" by Dionne Warwick. 

The great Brothers Gibb and their songs.    You can hear a medley of some of these songs on the "One night only" concert CD.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

December 2010: What will we talk about in 2011?

A post from December 2010:

It's always tough to predict in politics.  Nevertheless, I think that 2011 will be a very dangerous year here and abroad.

Bottom line:  It won't be a very easy year for Pres BO.

Let's look at some potential challenges.

First, we face serious "state budget" problems. 

California may have to enter into some kind of bankruptcy or rearrangement of contracts with public sector unions.

California's problems are not new but the stuff will probably hit the fan in 2011.

The once great Golden State has very high sales and income taxes, lavish entitlements, bad public schools based on federal test scores, and an out of control illegal immigration problem.

It also  has over regulated private sector, a shrinking manufacturing base, and public sector unions that turn out in huge numbers to protect the Dems who feed them.

My guess is that reality will finally hit California in 2011!

Who is going to bail out California?  Nobody!

I can't wait for Gov Brown and Sen Boxer to tell the unions that the fantasy is finally over!

On the foreign policy side, I am concerned with Iran, Venezuela and Mexico.

Iran, as the Wikileaks cables, confirm has everyone in the region scared to death. 

When do you think that Iran's neighbors will call for a US "preemptive" attack without a UN resolution or their public support?

Down in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has turned that democracy into a farce.  He is ruling now by decree and expropriating private property in an alarming fashion.

Last, but not least, I am very concerned with the deterioration of Mexico.

We learned in the Wikileaks cables that there is a huge pessimism in Mexico about Pres Calderon's war.

Beyond that,  how much longer can the US tolerate a border with a lawless nation?

The cartels are now dangerously close to running huge portions of the border.

When will we have to defend our borders and place troops there? 

My guess is that we are closer to having US troops on the border than anyone would have believed months ago.

Overall, 2011 will be very tough.  Let's hope that Pres BO surrounds himself with people concerned about country rather than those who pander to ethnic groups.

P.S. We looked ahead to 2011 with Bill Katz of Urgent Agenda.

Click here for the interview!

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

1839: Young Abraham Lincoln became a lawyer

We know him as The Great Emancipator, perhaps the greatest president and the man who delivered The Gettysburg Address in the middle of the Civil War.   

Before any of that, he was a young lawyer in Illinois:

"On this day in 1839, future President Abraham Lincoln advances to another stage in his legal career when he is admitted to practice law in the U.S. Circuit Court. It was during his years practicing law that Lincoln honed his now famous oratorical skills."

Lincoln was elected to the US House later and then president in 1860.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

We remember Alexander Haig (1924-2010) and how he tried to deal with Castro

We remember former Secretary of State Alexander Haig who was born on this in 1924 and died in 2010.   He lived a very consequential life in the military and later in government.

Mr Haig was a soldier, a diplomat and dedicated public servant. He was also a "straight shooter" by all accounts.

He served the country as a soldier in Korea and rose to become a 4-star general.

Later, he was a key player in managing the White House during President Nixon's resignation and the transition to President Ford.

In 1981, he was named Secretary of State by President Reagan.    I remember being very happy about the selection.

In the summer of 1981, the US and Cuba had talks in Mexico City, as James Chace wrote in a review of Secretary Haig's memoirs.     

President Reagan was hoping to persuade the Castro regime to take back some of the criminals that sailed into Florida during the Mariel Boatlift in the spring of 1980.    

This is the account of those meetings:    

At one point in early 1981 the National Security Council even tried to arrange a meeting with Fidel Castro through the good offices of the columnist Jack Anderson. 
Naturally when Mr. Haig got word of this, he was upset at seeing such a maneuver undermine his military efforts to put ''fear into the hearts of the Cubans.'' 
Though he was reluctant to ease the pressure at so early a date, Mr. Haig felt it necessary to follow up on a suggestion from the Mexican President to mediate between Havana and Washington. 
It is hard to see what Mr. Haig hoped to gain by this, since ''there could be no talk about normalization, no relief of the pressure, no conversations on any subject except the return to Havana of the Cuban criminals (in the United States) and the termination of Cuba's interventionism.'' 
Indeed, he may well have gone ahead because of the President's desire to see if Cuba would receive the some 4,000 criminals who had left Cuba along with 120,000 other refugees in the 1980 Mariel boatlift who were now in American prisons. 
Deciding to test the waters, as he puts it, he met in November 1981 in Mexico City with Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, the vice premier and the man who, after Fidel Castro, is the most authoritative spokesman of Cuban foreign policy. 
The conversations were amiable. The Cuban denied that Havana was sending arms to El Salvador but did not want a confrontation with the United States.
Mr. Haig did not appear eager for another meeting, but, at the President's request, he dispatched Gen. Vernon Walters to meet with Mr. Castro and Mr. Rodriguez in March 1982. 
At this meeting, Mr. Castro said that the return of the Cuban criminals was ''a solvable problem''; nor did he deny Cuban involvement in Central America. 
Although the President continued to press for a solution to the criminal question, Mr. Haig recommended that Mr. Castro be given an ultimatum to receive the criminals or ''we would simply load them aboard an expendable ship, sail it into a Cuban anchorage under escort of the U.S. Navy and inform Castro that we had returned his citizens to him.'' 
At this point, Mr. Haig's report over possible negotiations with Havana breaks off.   

And so another round of talks with Cuba failed.    My guess is that Secretary Haig never put a lot of faith on these talks, specially after the Cubans gave confusing signals about their involvement in Central America.

Unfortunately, Secretary Haig will always be associated with the day that President Reagan was shot.

Secretary Haig said that "I'm in charge here" during a press conference.

He also said that he was in touch with VP Bush and in contact with him. (VP Bush was out of town and on his way back to Washington DC)

Sec Haig did not mean to say that he was the "acting president". However, a lot of people read it that way, specially in the Reagan team.

It clearly hurt his image with a lot of Americans and led to his removal as Secretary of State in June 1982.

We remember Alexander Haig as a great American!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, click send drop a dime here.

 

 

2015 post: Let’s ice skate on the Thames like we did in 1715!

(My new American Thinker post)

The climate change conversation took a chilly turn this weekend. In other words, we are going get cold, really cold in the near future. This is from London:

A team of European researchers have unveiled a scientific model showing that the Earth is likely to experience a “mini ice age” from 2030 to 2040 as a result of decreased solar activity.

Their findings will infuriate environmental campaigners who argue by 2030 we could be facing increased sea levels and flooding due to glacial melt at the poles.

However, at the National Astronomy Meeting in Wales, Northumbria University professor Valentina Zharkova said fluctuations an 11-year cycle of solar activity the sun goes through would be responsible for a freeze, the like of which has not been experienced since the 1600s.

From 1645 to 1715 global temperatures dropped due to low solar activity so much that the planet experienced a 70-year ice age known as Maunder Minimum which saw the River Thames in London completely frozen. 

So let’s party like it’s 1715?     

it amazes me that people can be so certain about this and that in 20 years. I say this because I remember when we were warned about another ice age in our lifetime. I should have saved that Time issue!

So let’s protect ourselves against global cooling and warming. No matter what, we should all build domed stadia so that fans can watch games when it’s too hot or too cold!

And let’s buy some new ice skates just in case that the Thames freezes again!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

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A 2015 Thanksgiving message for our friends and listeners

A 2015 Thanksgiving message for our friends and listeners......Listen in now at https://t.co/mRVnog4aKq. #BlogTalkRadio

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) November 26, 2015

A president, a turkey pardon, and talk of amnesty?

For the record, I like the "turkey pardon" tradition.  It's a fun moment in a much too darn serious town.

This year, President Obama tried to make a connection between the "turkey pardon" and the executive order that he signed.  It went like this:

"I know some will call this amnesty," Obama said, "but don't worry, there's plenty of turkey to go around."

Frankly, it was not funny.

First, President Obama has the authority to pardon.  It's in black and white in the U.S. Constitution.  Every president has done it going back to President Washington.  It's not an issue, unless President Clinton pardons a man like Marc Rich and people scream a little.  The other controversial pardon was the Nixon pardon from 1974 but most historians credit President Ford for making the right callafter Watergate.

Second, the executive order to stop deportations is not a presidential power.  It is an overreach, even if some of us agree that "DREAMers," or others who've worked here for many years, should be provided a path to legalization after meeting certain conditions.   

The difference is rather clear.  He has the authority to pardon – even a turkey.  He does not have the authority to change or make law, as he told us for several years when he addressed Hispanic audiences on immigration.

Finally, why would he use a "turkey pardon" moment to take a shot at his critics?   The answer is that President Obama is very thin-skinned and does not take criticism well.  He seems unable to understand that some people have honest differences of opinion.

The other answer is that he is angry and bitter that the next two years will not be any fun.  After all, even Dana Milbank now writes that "Obama is turning into Bush."  It won't be any fun sending ground troops back to Iraq or watching Obamacare implode.

P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here.

Happy Thanksgiving: Go Cowboys & thanks to all of the mothers for making the turkey!

We take a day off from the politics to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving holiday.

As we've posted, Thanksgiving is a unique US holiday. 

I can still recall our first Thanksgiving in the US in 1964.  It was a wonderful moment.  It was a treat to read about it in school and to enjoy the meaning of the holiday with everyone.

Of course, our first Thanksgiving was truly a moment to say "thanks" for the opportunity to leave communist Cuba and live in the US.

So enjoy the day.  We will do the same.

Of course, it will be a perfect day if Dallas wins today.

So go Cowboys!

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Why all of the turkey posters? My first Thanksgiving in the U.S.

Back in 1941, President Roosevelt made it official:

Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga.

In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution.

However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally. 

With a few deviations, Lincoln's precedent was followed annually by every subsequent president--until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day. Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some Americans refused to honor Roosevelt's declaration.

For the next two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into law officially making the fourth Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.

In my case, I did not know a thing about Thanksgiving when our family settled in Wisconsin in the fall of 1964.  I began to detect that something was coming when the kids in school started putting "turkey posters" about the upcoming holiday.  

Finally, Miss Jones, that wonderful 6th-grade teacher I was blessed with, sat me down and explained the story, from the ship crossing the ocean, to the landing at Plymouth Rock, to the terrible first winter and eventually a day to say thanks for everything.

It did not take long for me to get into the Thanksgiving mood.  

Today, it's my favorite American holiday for two reasons:

1) It demonstrates the role of faith in the early days of what would become the United States.

2) It confirms that this land was settled by self-reliant people who faced adversity and grew stronger.

As I told a friend years ago, you cannot understand American exceptionalism unless you get familiar with the Thanksgiving story. 

P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

President Kennedy: It happened in 1963!

     
Back in 2013, Dallas remembered the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.  We had large crowds, parades, speeches and personal recollections of that awful day when Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy.

It was probably the last big remembrance of the assassination in Dallas.   I'm not saying that people will forget what happened in Dallas.   What I'm saying is that more and more people will remember it as a historical footnote rather than something that they lived through.   It happened in 1963 after all.  Most people today have no personal recollection of that day.

On the morning that President Lincoln died, someone said that "now he belongs to ages".  Today, we say that President Kennedy now belongs to historians.  They will analyze his brief presidency and speculate about what would have happened if he had survived or not killed that day.

Would Vietnam have been different?   Would President Kennedy had passed the civil rights legislation that President Johnson successfully completed?   Would VP Johnson have been on the 1964 reelection ticket?  

Historians will take it from here because there are less and less people who remember what they were doing when they got the news that President Kennedy was killed in Dallas.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

 

A communist shot JFK in Dallas

As a kid in Cuba, I sat with my father and watched Fidel Castro on Cuban TV talk about the Kennedy assassination.  I don't remember what he said but my dad told me later that Castro was very nervous.  I guess that he felt that President Johnson would use the assassination to correct the mistake of The Bay of Pigs.  A few days later, I heard my father and some of his friends say the same thing over a little Cuban coffee and cigars.   

It was a very tense time in Cuba because the Castro regime was locking up dissidents, such as my father's cousin Dr. Ignacio Segurola who spent 14 years in prison without a trial.   My mother told me recently that she was afraid that my own father would be picked up because he refused to take a job with the newly created national bank that replaced all of the privately owned banks expropriated (or as they say "nationalized") during that time.

Over time, I've heard all of the conspiracy theories, watched a few documentaries and even that idiotic Oliver Stone JFK movie that came out in 1991.   

Can we finally call it?  President JFK was killed by a crazy guy who was hanging around with communists and supporting the Castro dictatorship in Cuba.

Yes, there were angry right-wingers in Dallas.  Some of them behaved poorly.  However, do you think that one of these groups would have "contracted" a head case like Oswald to kill anybody?.  My guess is that most of these right wing groups would have given Oswald a bloody lip for his communist ideas if they ever had a chance to run into him. 

A few years ago, James Piereson put the nail in all of the conspiracies, especially the nonsense that right wingers in Dallas or the "let's get into Vietnam" military industrial complex.

Mr Piereson tells us about Oswald, the communist who killed the president of the US:

"The facts are that President Kennedy was a martyr in the Cold War struggle against communism. The assassin was a communist and not a bigot or a right-winger. Oswald defected from the U.S. to the Soviet Union in 1959, vowing when he did so that he could no longer live under a capitalist system. He returned to the U.S. with his Russian wife in 1962, disappointed with life under Soviet communism but without giving up his Marxist beliefs or his hatred of the U.S. By 1963, Oswald had transferred his political allegiance to Castro's communist regime in Cuba.  

In April 1963, Oswald attempted to shoot Edwin Walker, a retired U.S. Army general, as he sat at a desk in his dining room. Walker was the head of the Dallas chapter of the John Birch Society and a figure then in the news because of his opposition to school integration and his demand that the Castro regime be overthrown. The rifle Oswald used in the attempt at Walker's life was the one he used to shoot Kennedy.  

Dallas police would not identify Oswald as Walker's would-be assassin until after the assassination of Kennedy, but Oswald, fearful that he would be identified for the Walker shooting, fled Dallas for New Orleans. 

In June 1963 he established a local chapter of Fair Play for Cuba, a national organization dedicated to gaining diplomatic recognition for Castro's regime. Oswald was filmed by a local television station in New Orleans circulating leaflets on behalf of the Castro government and was jailed briefly following a street altercation with anti-Castro Cubans. Soon thereafter he appeared on a local television program to debate U.S. policy toward Cuba.  

In late September, Oswald left New Orleans to travel to Mexico City in pursuit of a visa that would permit him to travel to Cuba and then to the Soviet Union. As documented in the Warren Commission Report, he took along a dossier of news clippings on his pro-Castro activities to establish his revolutionary bona fides with personnel at the Cuban and Soviet embassies in the city. 

Oswald returned to Dallas empty-handed after being told that his application would take months to process. He was still waiting on his application six weeks later when he read that President Kennedy's forthcoming visit to Texas would include a motorcade through downtown Dallas and past the building where he worked.  

The assassin's motives for shooting Kennedy were undoubtedly linked to a wish to interfere with the president's campaign to overthrow Castro's government. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy pledged to abandon efforts to overthrow Castro's regime by force. But the war of words between the two governments continued, and so did clandestine plots by the Kennedy administration to eliminate Castro by assassination."

Last, but not least, I have spoken to Cubans living in New Orleans in 1962-63 who got into heated arguments with Oswald over Cuba.  They will attest to the fact that Oswald was a "Castro loving communist," or exactly the kind of jerk who would kill the president of the US.

The right did not kill JFK.  The bloody communist did!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

1957: Aaron NL MVP

On this day in 1957, Hank Aaron won the NL MVP award.   It was a great year for Aaron:  .322 average, 44 HR & 137 RBI.  Two months earlier, the Braves beat the Yankees in the World Series.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.