Thursday, September 9, 2010Opinion

The Brownsville States-Graphic

page 4

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at 42 South Washington, P.O. Box 59, Brownsville

TN 38012

By 28th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Clayburn Peeples

Calvin's Corner

By Calvin Carter, Staff Writer

There’s always been a joke between my bosom buddies and me con-cerning the social online classifi ed site, Craigslist in that if Google is per-ceived to be this type of limitless and infi nite su-per highway, then Craig-slist is the dirty, shady city where you only stop for either gas or essential supplies.

It’s that certain part of town your parents, teach-ers and Christian youth leaders always worried about, the physical mani-festation of every big city ill known to man.

Creepy characters? Check.

Shady dealings? Dou-ble check.

Semi-shielded illegal actions that would make Johnny Law easily frown? That’s a triple, count’em, one, two, three, check.

As one chum said, if you enter Craigslist, you’re either leaving mentally or physically scarred.

Or both.For those that don’t

know what this supposed shady apparition is, Craig-slist is basically an online version of the classifi eds sections. It’s one of the few places—that I know of—where one could purchase a used truck from San Francisco, locate and ap-ply for a job in Dallas, and make plans to meet with a stranger for ice cream in Brownsville, all within the span of afternoon. This is all in theory, of course.

For the most part, Craigslist has seemed to have had this negative so-cial stigma attached with it, making the site come off as a last resort. Part of the reason may have to do with some of these classifi ed offers never re-ally working out.

The web has a plethora of Craigslist horror sto-ries detailing the failures of many posted ads.

Many have answered the ads, thinking that their online purchase or plan will result in a pot of gold.

Instead they’ve only found stones.

“Oh, you know the truck I found on Craig-slist for $500, turns out it was only cheap because the engine was missing.”

“Hey, remember that hot lady I was going to meet for coffee? Oh no the picture she posted was her… just 20 years younger.”

It’s stories like these that have created a spe-cial niche of ridicule in the online word.

However, Craigslist’s negative stigma may also stem from its Adult Services sections, an on-

line link that has easily led to many illegal deals of prostitution, or so au-thority fi gures have been claiming for quite some time.

The fact that Craigslist had this section, isn’t re-ally a shock to me, and shouldn’t come as a shock to you either if you think about it. Many newspa-per classifi eds across the nation have “unknow-ingly” listed such ads.

It’s all in the wording.The term “adult mas-

sage” could serve as a blanket term for all sorts of unprintable acts.

And I’ve seen that term in many classifi ed ads in a variety of news-papers all over this state, alone.

Recently Craigslist decided to censor this section of the website by placing a black bar over the link dubbed Adult Services, completely blocking it.

It seems like a great idea, but is it really effec-tive? I mean people could easily go into the person-als section, use a blanket

term here and vague term there and still offer illegal services for money.

Again, it’s all in the wording.

Another question that hits me is why is Craig-slist just now choosing to do this? They’ve de-fended their section for years, even going so far as to make claims on how many solicitations and ads they’ve rejected—70,000—because they deemed it illegal.

Maybe the recent Craigslist killer case (Phillip Markoff) was the fi nal nail in this sec-tion’s coffi n. Many will remember the sordid tale of Markoff, the medi-cal student who would fi nd his victims through similar ads now offi cially banned.

Markoff was of course arrested, and then found dead via suicide before his trial could start.

So I ask, does this re-ally all change anything?

Or is Craigslist really just barely covering its rear end?

The wrong type of list

Bobby Thomson died the other day, and to my amazement, a surpris-ing number of people no longer knew who he was. Once upon a time nearly everyone in America did. On October 3, 1951, at 3:58 in the afternoon, he provided what was argu-ably the most exciting moment in the history of baseball.

The time, as I said, was 1951, the greatest time in history to live in the greatest town in the world, New York City, the very center of the baseball universe in that era. There were only 16 major league teams back then, and three of them were in New York.

And on the fi nal day of the season, two of them, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Gi-ants, were deadlocked in a tie for the National League Pennant with identical 96-58 records. Which would get to face the American League champs, the mighty New York Yankees, who were waiting uptown?

In that era there were no playoffs as such; when the season ended in a tie it would be extended up to three games which the tied teams would play against each other. The fi rst to win two would take the pennant.

It was next to unbe-lievable that the Giants had been able to come from behind to tie the Dodgers that year. As late as August the 11th, they were 13½-games behind them, but from that day forward they went on a blistering 37-7 run to tie the season up on the fi nal day. Along the way, their Cinderella run captivated the na-tion, and attention to the national pastime was at a fever pitch.

Adding to the excite-ment was the fact that NBC decided to broad-cast game three, coast to coast, the fi rst live tele-cast of a Major League Baseball game ever, and it was broadcast all round the world on Armed Forces Radio. It was a big, big deal.

The stage was set for what was supposed to be a pitcher’s duel in the third, and decid-ing, game. The Giants chose their ace, Sal “The Barber” Maglie, to go against Brooklyn’s gun-slinger, Don Newcombe.

The Giants had won the fi rst game, 3 to 1, at the Polo Grounds, but the Dodgers had trounced them the next day at Ebbets Field, 10-0. So it all came down to game three, again at Ebbets Field, on the af-ternoon of October the third.

In the second inning, Thomson, whose two run homer in the fi rst game had provided the Giants’ winning margin just two days earlier, turned into a goat when he made a run-ning error trying to stretch a single into a double. He redeemed himself, how-ever, in the seventh inning when he hit a sacrifi ce fl y that scored a runner, tying the score, 1-1.

But then in the eighth he let two ground balls get past him at third base during a Dodger rally in which they battered “The Barber” for three runs. Now the Dodgers were up 4-1; Thomson was the goat again, and as the bottom of the ninth began, the clock on the Giant’s Cinderella run for the pennant stood at three outs till midnight.

But the Giants refused to die. They had a po-tential rally going when Thomson came to the plate with one out, one run scored and runners on second and third. On deck stood the Giants’ rookie outfi elder, a kid named Willie Mays, but his days of glory would have to wait on this af-ternoon.

Newcombe was ex-hausted from having pitched too much the past week, and Thomson, who had batted .350 over the last two months of the sea-son, came up, Brooklyn’s manager took Newcombe out and replaced him with the losing pitcher of game one, Ralph Branca, who wore uniform No. 13.

Branca’s fi rst pitch

was a fastball, down the middle for a called strike. The next was another fast ball, high and inside, a setup for his intended third pitch, which was to be a breaking ball, down and away.

But fi ckle fate was blowing in the winds that swept across Ebbets Field that afternoon, and Thomson swung at Branca’s bad second pitch, yanking it down the short leftfi eld line, knocking it over the fence, just under the 315-foot marker sign.

The announcers, so numerous no one knows just how many there were, all went wild, but one in particular, Giants announcer, Russ Hodg-es, captured the exulta-tion of the moment so dramatically he immor-talized the play for the ages. It is impossible, even to this day, for a baseball fan, or anyone who once was one, to listen to his account, or watch the broadcast of the hit, without getting chills.

The next day a report-er for the New York Dai-ly News dubbed it the “shot heard round the Baseball World,” and it was immediately short-ened simply to the ”shot heard round the world.”

And so it has been, ever since. The greatest moment, from what was once the greatest sport, in the greatest city, in the world.

Bobby Thomson died a few days ago at age 86, having lived a long and honorable life, a half cen-tury of which was after he retired from baseball, and with his passing we grieve a little, not just for him, but also for the All-American game which he once made magic on that long ago October af-ternoon.

And more than a little we grieve for the inno-cent, optimistic country in which he played it. Thanks for the memory Bobby. R.I.P.

The Shot Heard Round the World

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BrownsvilleSTATES-GRAPHIC

Scott Whaley,Editor & Publisher

Vicky Fawcett,Offi ce Manager

Terry ThompsonSales Manager

Ceree Peace PostonReceptionist

Calvin Carter,Staff Writer

Julie Pickard,Staff Writer

Matt GarrettGraphic Designer

Calvin Carter,Staff Writer

Julie Pickard,Staff Writer

Matt GarrettGraphic Designer

Jeff PerrySports Writer

A4 Opinion.indd 1A4 Opinion.indd 1 9/8/10 12:28:24 PM9/8/10 12:28:24 PM