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The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University. The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers. |
Fay Vincent '63LLB Another baseball season has drawn to a close, but after the discussions of how particular teams and players fared are over, fans of the national pastime will find plenty of fuel for the “hot stove league” fires in Fay Vincent’s account of his turbulent years as commissioner of baseball. “Mostly, I’ve been lucky,” admits Vincent, a Law School graduate who was president of Columbia Pictures when he met A. Bartlett Giamatti, Yale’s new President, in 1978. They became friends, and when Bart was named commissioner of the sport in 1986, he persuaded Vincent to join him as his deputy. Whether or not you follow the game, the account of their years together, as they wrestled with what to do about Pete Rose, the stellar player and manager whom an investigation determined had gambled on baseball, makes compelling reading. On August 24, 1989, Giamatti would expel Rose for life; a week later, Bart suffered a fatal heart attack, and Vincent became commissioner. He was in for a rough ride, through an earthquake that temporarily stopped the World Series, pitched battles with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and tectonic upheavals in labor relations—a situation that led to Vincent’s resignation three years later. Despite it all, however, the author retains his abiding love for the game and its characters, a number of whom, from Negro League outfielder Alfred “Slick” Surratt to baseball writer Claire Smith, from Cardinal Stan Musial to ironman umpire Bill McGowan, are presented in delightful portraits. Perhaps most memorable of all is his account of the several hours he spent talking about the sport with Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, two of the greatest hitters in history. “The title [of commissioner] came with remarkable privileges,” says Vincent wryly about his ability to arrange such an epic meeting. It is a touching moment, one of many in this “valentine” filled with hope and hard-nosed advice about the future of the sport. “Baseball has a special place in the American soul,” he notes. “The business is awful and ugly, but the game itself is so magical and lyrical that it keeps bringing you back … A steady drizzle, an undercooked hot dog, a bad seat, they can’t diminish the joy of seeing DiMaggio hit a homer, Lou Brock steal a base, Derek Jeter field one deep in the hole.”
Alexandra
Robbins '98 Two years ago, after Alexandra Robbins provided readers of the Atlantic Monthly with a look inside Skull and Bones, she received an ominous call. When she wouldn’t reveal her sources for the story, she heard, “There are a lot of us at newspapers and at political journalism institutions. Good luck with your career.” With the publication of this book-length expansion of her Atlantic article, Robbins’s career appears to be flourishing. Bonesman apparently don’t control everything—at least, not yet. And, maybe, not quite ever. To be sure, some of the most powerful people on the planet have at one time sworn allegiance to “322” and Eulogia, the goddess of eloquence (the significance of the number and the deity are two of the many secrets revealed in this book). Although Bonesmen, and, since 1992 when the Society went co-ed, Boneswomen, are supposedly loath to reveal their membership in the group, the current U.S. president, his father, grandfather, and many Bush relatives are all known to have spent their senior years in the forbidding tomb on High Street. So have, Robbins says, a plethora of well-known and influential leaders. In the aggregate, Bonespeople have been accused of being part of a sinister shadow government that really runs the world. But in this entertaining look at the history and role, along with the interior architecture, of Bones, as well as other secret societies at Yale and elsewhere, Robbins shows that much is smoke and mirrors. “The rumors and conspiracy theories about Skull and Bones are widespread and deep-rooted,” says Robbins. “Probably the most fascinating thing that I learned through my interviews with members of Skull and Bones is that the majority of those rumors were carefully planted by the Bonesmen themselves.” No doubt these mysteries, carefully cultivated since the organization was founded at Yale in 1832, help preserve the privacy of the 15 seniors who will, over the course of a year, reveal their personal secrets in a series of bonding rituals that are perhaps as powerful as those experienced by soldiers in combat. And, since Bones gives seniors, most of whom are already accomplished leaders, access to a self-perpetuating international network of people in power, it can also prove useful (to say nothing of quite pleasant, what with lobster dinners at the tomb and access to an island retreat). But ultimately, there may be less there than meets the eye. “Skull and Bones is, at its core, equivalent to the Wizard of Oz,” maintains Robbins. Still, when this reviewer ventures down High Street, he can’t quite pay no attention to that man behind the screen. Such is the enduring power of myth.
Steven
Hill '82 Between capricious voting machines and the corrupting influence of campaign gifts, the American electoral system is not enjoying its finest hour. But these problems are not what bothers Steven Hill, a cofounder of the Center for Voting and Democracy (a think tank led by former presidential candidate John Anderson). In this tireless jeremiad, Hill maintains that the true threat to our democracy is “Winner Take All,” the voting system that reduces an election to a crude all-or-nothing contest that is often decided by special-interest groups. It will surprise some former U.S. civics students to learn just how many voting systems exist. “As political scientist Robert Dahl and others have pointed out,” Hill says, “the Winner Take All voting system was pretty much all that the Framers knew, since other voting systems like cumulative voting, choice voting, limited voting, proportional representation, instant runoff voting, and the like had not yet been invented. [so] we can hardly blame the Framers.” Somewhat sweeping in his judgments, Hill blames this culprit for ills ranging from poor voter turnout to self-protective redistricting, from ruthless partisanship to the power of lobbies to subvert the popular will. Yet, despite the repetition, his explanations are well worth following. For one thing, he is a true scholar of the electoral process, illuminating state assembly votes and presidential campaigns alike, and able to tell you exactly what voting system has been used—and when—in nearly every precinct in the country. Hill’s tour of the U.S. political landscape today gets the book off to a lively start, and anyone who stays with him through the mountains of evidence may well agree that some of our sacred cows are ready to be put out to pasture.
Brief Reviews Lori Gottlieb '89 and Jesse Jacobs Two years ago, Lori Gottlieb left medical school to join a dot-com dubbed “Yahoo! for Gen Y, with an estrogen slant.” Like many other endeavors of that ilk, it dot-bombed. The authors celebrate this failure and many others.
Michael Mandelbaum '68 Despite the terrorist attacks of September 11, three ideas continue their march across a sometimes reluctant planet. Foreign affairs professor Mandelbaum shows how and why.
Carlo Rotella '94PhD Female boxers, NYC cops, Buddy Guy, and urban renewal—Rust Belt native Rotella explores the impact of sweeping changes in places once defined by their factories.
David M. Scobey '78, ‘89PhD New York constantly reinvents itself, but the result has been “a mosaic of grand improvement, dynamic change, and environmental disorder.” Architecture professor Scobey charts what went wrong and right.
Stephen M. Shapiro '68, ’71JD, Robert L. Stern, Eugene Gressman, and Kenneth S. Geller For a lawyer, arguing a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court is perhaps the ultimate experience. Here’s the latest edition of the definitive guide.
Russell Sullivan '48
Michele Mckay Aynesworth 1972MA, Translator Carol Baicker-McKee 1980 Joel Bernstein 1967PhD Jeff Diamant 1994 Peter X Feng 1988 Peter H. Gleick 1978BS, Writer and Editor Paul Edward Gottfried 1967PhD Gregory Hays 1991, Translator John R. Knott 1959 James Lengel 1971 Brian Lepard 1989JD Florencia E. Mallon 1980PhD, Editor and Translator Leonard S. Marcus 1972 J. D. McClatchy 1974PhD, Editor David F. Musto, 1961MA, Professor of the History of Medicine, and Professor of Child Psychiatry, and Pamela Korsmeyer Benjamin Nathans 1984 Jim Ostheimer 1955 Eileen Pollack 1978BS Francesca Polletta 1994PhD Elizabeth A. Povinelli 1991PhD Martha Sandweiss 1985PhD Joan Sullivan 1995 Mark Taylor 1961 Jessica Warner 1991PhD Stacy Wolf 1983 |
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