Comments on: Baseball and D-Day

By: dirtyharry1971

dirtyharry1971 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 01:12:00 +0000

italy and canada were the only nations with tanks that had reverse lights on the back of them. USA #1, canada hock Ptooey!!!!!

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:37:45 +0000

aces, you really need to study history. John Wayne did all of that. Ronald Reagan got the coffee for him.

By: deadeyedesign23

deadeyedesign23 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:37:02 +0000

Found the article. The video is about half way down the page on the left.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/sports/baseball/16feller.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

By: themuddychicken

themuddychicken — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:14:50 +0000

My family has been reading Jeff Shaara’s book for years. We find them fascinating and entertaining, and they cover such a wide range of wars. It helps that his father wrote “The Killer Angels,” which later spawned the movie “Gettysburg” with which my family fell in love while I was a young child.

By: sportsdrenched.com

sportsdrenched.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:24:38 +0000

No Doubt. I’m not going to go on some rant about how this generation is a bunch of namby pamby wusses. Each Generation has it’s own issues to deal with.

I’m getting to the upper end of what would be “fighting age” in WWII. However, if something like this were to happen again I hope I, and the rest of my Generation would answer the call like our grandfathers.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:25:43 +0000

backstop, that’s not the point. This is merely to honor those who gave so much to fight for our country in such dark and fearsome times.

My never-ending respect and gratefulness for the men and women who serve and have served.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:21:59 +0000

“The heroes didn’t come back,” said Feller, a chief petty officer who was director of a set of four anti-aircraft guns on the Alabama. “They’re at the bottom of the ocean — 405,000 of them. I’m only telling this now for the young people, who don’t understand what the world and the war was like.”

Unbelievable. I am so grateful.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:15:26 +0000

I wish we could see that kind of class and character in more ballplayers. Hell, more people.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:09:57 +0000

This is another incredible story:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/06/on-68th-anniversary-invasion-102-year-old-army-veteran-recalls-seeing-d-day/

By: aceshigh11

aceshigh11 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:56:09 +0000

Give me a break. I was NOT denigrating WWII veterans.

I was parodying a typical knee-jerk, right-wing reaction to the post above me.

By: skids003

skids003 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:39:07 +0000

Not funny. These people fought and died so people like you could make jokes about them and be free. Not funny at all. They deserve our greatest respect and admiration.

By: cdullnig

cdullnig — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:56:08 +0000

Yes, they were beaten before D-Day, but not by the Russians alone.
The Nazis were crippled by a lack of oil and air power. That was because US and British forces took North Africa from one of Hitlers best generals, Rommel, keeping them from the mid-east oil fields.
Air superiority is most often a numbers game. American and British bombers and their escort destroyed a large portion of the German air force, giving the Red Army that advantage. They also reduced German military production by 25% to 50%, significant, and disrupted and eventually destroyed the syn-fuel capability Germany possessed. The lack of fuel stopped the superior maneuvering capabilities of the Blitzkrieg.
North Africa, Sicily, up the boot of Italy, battle of the Atlantic, raids on Norway, etc. all happened before D-Day.
I am not disputing the heroic efforts of the Soviets, or that they did the bulk of the fighting Europe, but it was a two front war from day one and D-Day was just an important part of it late in the game.

By: nothanksimdriving123

nothanksimdriving123 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:48:25 +0000

dirty, I’ll keep this brief: Juno Beach.

By: mybrunoblog

mybrunoblog — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:29:07 +0000

Years ago I think it was a VFW magazine that had Yogi Berra on the cover and his story/recollections of D-Day. Don’t know where you’d find it but it was a great read.

After reading some of the posts here about D-Day I sometimes forget how ignorant people choose to be. The guy who said the Germans were almost finished by the time we invaded France. Huh???? Pathetic is an understatement.

By: stackers1

stackers1 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:23:23 +0000

Fantastic story about Lefty Brewer. So many great Americans have died so I can sit here in my cubical & read HBT on my lunch hour. We are barely worthy of their sacrafice.

By: steveohho

steveohho — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:35:15 +0000

Of Germany’s 10,000,000 casualties in World War II, over 75% came by fighting the Red Army. The German air force lost most of its planes and pilots on the Eastern Front. Germany was beaten long before D Day.

By: sportsdrenched.com

sportsdrenched.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:07:14 +0000

I just started reading the first of Jeff Shaara’s four books on WWII (his other work is excellent if you’re into the historical fiction. And it keeps you from making comments like above.)

It seems sureal that human beings were capable of inflicting that type of horror on other humans. It’s also sureal to realize what humans had to become to put a stop to it.

I say “were” like it was in the past tense. However, organisms don’t evolve that much over 70 years, so it’s certainly possible that something like WWII could happen again. But I certainly hope not.

Today is D-Day Veterans’ day to be honored. The other theaters & battles have their days as well.

By: jimbo1949

jimbo1949 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:57:25 +0000

You forgot the part about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:31:16 +0000

Harry was not trying to be an ugly American. His comment (along with his numerous anti Blue Jay comments) was a feeble attempt to upset me. We do have a history on the old MSNBC message boards.

By: ugglasforearms

ugglasforearms — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:22:06 +0000

Harry, that is one of the most ignorant things I’ve ever heard. You are proud of being an American??? In my opinion, people like you are part of the reason others around the world HATE America.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:49:23 +0000

You really should read up on American history Harry. While Canada participated in both both WW1 and WW2 from the start, the US was slow to enter both wars. Once you got involved, your country was magnificent; however, it would have been preferable if you could have entered the wars a tad earlier.

By: number42is1

number42is1 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:36:58 +0000

yup. in regard to the Nazi’s

By: amhendrick

amhendrick — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:30:39 +0000

This translates as “May his name be obliterated” ?

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:22:54 +0000

Learn some history, dirtyharry. It really helps you not be a complete and utter jackass:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach/

By: dirtyharry1971

dirtyharry1971 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:14:41 +0000

this is about American History proudly, nobody cares about canada.

By: deadeyedesign23

deadeyedesign23 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:53:36 +0000

When he died the NY Times did an awesome obit with a video of an interview they did with him a few years prior. I can’t remember the exact quote, but they asked him how he wanted to be remembered and said something to the effect of a good man who loved his country first and played a little baseball second.

By: deadeyedesign23

deadeyedesign23 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:51:45 +0000

Ever think that had something to dow with Germany having to fight on 2 fronts? I mean this isn’t Sun Tzu we’re talking about here.

By: number42is1

number42is1 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:41:44 +0000

ימח שמו וזכרו

By: aceshigh11

aceshigh11 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:06:37 +0000

Why do you hate America?

Everyone knows that Ronald Reagan singlehandedly stormed Hitler’s bunker and shot him between the eyes, stopped Stalin’s armies from taking Europe, and then flew halfway around the world to drop both atomic bombs on Japan on nothing but 3 hours sleep and a couple of cups of coffee.

Sell your leftist revisionism elsewhere, Comrade.

By: hep3

hep3 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:59:46 +0000

The Greatest Generation, indeed.

I remember an interview with Bob Feller and he was asked about the almost four years he missed because of WW II and the fact that he probably lost as many as 100 wins from what could have been his career total.

Feller said something to the effect of: “Those wins were not important. We all knew we had to get the big win.”