Empyreal Environs

I can’t promise this will be an actual weekly thing because most of the readers here respond with comments. But this week in particular I received and sent correspondence that I wanted to share.

Regarding Null, Game 75:

Thanks for the great site. An interesting footnote to Game 75 and the connection between the Cleveland Indians and their Native name: the team was actually named after Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian (Maine) who played for the team in the early days. FMI: http://www.4edrice.com/inside.html

By the way, I was sitting in the right field grandstand and had a great (if unfortunate) view of Trot Nixon’s inadvertent gift to Grady Sizemore. It probably would have hit the base on the wall at the warning track were it not for the change in trajectory.

A reader from Auburn, Maine

Thanks for the compliment and the additional information on Sockalexis, who is listed as Chief Sockalexis, or Louis Francis Sockalexis, on Baseball Reference. He played on the Cleveland Spiders from 1897 to 1899. I found another book entitled Louis Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian by David L. Fleitz, a SABR member who has also written notable books on Shoeless Joe Jackson and the more obscure players in the Hall of Fame.

Regarding Debacle, Game 76:

I have not read much of your blog, but was told to go see it by a friend who Googled my name to see what’s being said of me now that the nation (world?) has seen me in my skivvies.

What I have read of your blog makes me smile, being called personable (maybe? I don’t know if “more personable than Angry Bill, et al...” means personable or something less than that) and having it noted that the fame has not (at least as yet) gotten to my head.

In point of fact, the fame has gotten to my head just slightly -- I am having some delusions of grandeur, most particularly the idea of taking Katie Holmes away from Tom Cruise.

Leo Fitzgerald

The man, the myth, the legend! Judging by Cruise’s comportment of late, Holmes should be having a new man adorning her arm shortly. I wasn’t giving you a backhanded compliment there, Leo, but rather comparing you to previous representatives of Red Sox fandom that have let their personal glory outshine the team’s. I’d say Leo rates at the Michael Chiklis level of the Red Sox Celebrity Fan Coolness Scale (patent pending), which is way above Ben Affleck but slightly below Dennis Leary.

Dear Dale and Michael,

I wanted to alert you to the recent use of a Civil Rights era picture of an African American man being kicked by a white man on the boston.com sponsored website written by Steve Silva called Boston Dirt Dogs. You have most likely heard of this site as it is often touted by the media, including influential baseball writers such as Peter Gammons, as the voice of Red Sox fandom. He used this picture and made it analogous to Terry Francona returning to Philadelphia. Myself and others in the Red Sox blogging community found this to be an inflammatory misuse of a photograph that chronicles the racial strife in our nation and are appalled that the Boston Globe and boston.com continue to give Silva a forum to spread his hateful words and images. For documentation of the picture, please see Tim Rogan’s site.

The picture was eventually pulled, only to be replaced by a picture of a protest in Philadelphia in which a police officer suffered a heart attack and died in the course of a struggle with protesters. This picture can still be found on Silva’s website.

Boston.com also issued an online apology regarding the use of the first picture. However, I have not found their apology to be sufficient, and I will boycott boston.com and its advertisers until Silva’s site is dropped from boston.com.

I e-mailed the letter above this past Tuesday. I have not received any response from Dale Arnold, Michael Holley, or WEEI. I don’t know if they have addressed the Silva issue on their show, so if you hear anything this topic mentioned, please let me know.

Members of the Red Sox blogging community continue to use different means to express our disgust with the boston.com’s continued affiliation with Boston Dirt Dogs. Most recently, Dump the Dog was set up specifically to centralize our efforts and voices against Silva.

Feel free to write me here if you have something you would like to contribute to the mailbox. Be sure to let me know if you would like your identity published.