Call me Abram. Happy New Year! Welcome to the BAR Concentration, my experiential discipline designed to synthesize Barry Codell’s Baseball, Aging and Religion insights, as I apprehended them during interaction with Barry at my beloved California Home over the past quarter century. My sole goal during that time has been to pass the BAR, which only now am I finally doing. So I hope this result will be beneficial to both of you, Constant and Inconstant Reader. (Now, thanks to Barry, I do not rede or right myself.)
To pass the BAR, of course, I had to know the law. This was of the cardinal college: "to know ledge of knowledge," to "unlearn the secular, to extinguish for the sake of sacred English." I had to become statistician, maieutician, and hermeneutician, to find not only the Truth I sought, but as Barry barely (as always, being the infinitesimalist he is) suggested, if I ever did "then find the Ruth within it!" Indeed, in deed I have found the true Babe of Baseball, the remorseful compassion of Aging, the believing Ruth of Religion, inspired by his work with me, and my work with the others here.
For in my lack of travels, I have met so many at the Home, those "forgetters" who I will in all ways always remember, and most especially one I today shall describe. He called himself Shalom Goodwill and I called him my "adopted father." Shalom passed away on December 25, 2008. He died of natural causes, following the annual Men’s Club celebration of Ricky Henderson’s birthday, killing himself at the unripe age of 107. "Shalom Aloha," as both his friends and enemies called him, claimed to be the "unrecognizable son" of Albert Goodwill Spalding, a legendary founder of both major league baseball and the sporting good industry. Shalom was born in 1901, the first year of our two-league system, "conceived (‘a seminal conception’) in Honolulu, born ("at a very early age") in Hollywood, and blown into Chicago!"
Let me remark, if I must say so, remarkably: In studying Codell’s life (and, in retrospect, perhaps too closely), the Hawaii, Los Angeles, Chicago adventure of Shalom duplicates Codell’s early journey. And is it just just coincidence that the years addressed (1901-2008) in Barry’s Batting Encyclopedia unveiled this past Christmas, coincide with the lifespan of "Mister Shalom?" I believe so, but I digress….
As I, as a self-licensed self-maieutician, brought forth true tales of Shalom’s Life that I, by most graceful God’s grace, will share (how he could, even at the height of his dotage, elucidate the differences between the theosophies of Spalding and Abner Doubleday that he learned in his youth at his beloved California Home, in Lomaland, and how he would regale me with anecdotes of his more famous 106-year-old Cub fan "friend and main competitor," the late Milton Altman, yet always closing his stories with Milton’s sad admonition, "Look homeward angel, and melt with ruth!"), I thought of my first meetings with Barry Codell, when he began to distill my "latent thoughts and memories" (end of that life sentence!). Our very first meeting? Unforgettable: "Call me Bar," Barry said. "Call me Abram!" replied I. He was the activity director of the Home, directing, he told me "the activity of consciousness." And though I did not belong to his "new generation of nonagenarians," I became one of "Barry’s kids."
Twenty-five years ago, through a miraculous combination of podiatry and psychiatry, I began to learn about "the empathy unsympathetic," walking and talking with Barry himself, joining him as an "official Peripatetic." I felt his equal ("Pupil, peer! Illuminator! Ruminator!"). I kept and keep one large picture frame in my one room: it holds a diamond shaped collage of Mr. Codell, gleaned from magazine and newspaper, picturing first the first base—him seated with calculators at his desk, identified simply as "Barry Codell, Father of the BOP." In second base position, a picture of Barry receiving the Governor’s Award for Innovation in Gerontology, for his "maiuetics program which brings forth ‘latent thoughts and memories.’" The third photo, going counterclockwise (in tribute to both baseball and the circumambulation around the Kaaba), advertises an upcoming lecture by Codell in the Bet Hamidrash of Ner Tamid Synagogue—"Entrance to the Utterance" (Readings from the Book of Second Jacob: A Translation)," saying, "Well known Chicago lecturer Barry Codell’s poetic rendition of a gnostic Jewish text brings this fascinating mystery to a discussion of our own history and beliefs, revealing a gnosticism of agnosticism!" God, I would have given anything to hear that one! (My favorite Codell lecture ever heard was his last "Kingdom of Poetry" radio program where, in dedicated deference to Plato, he overthrew the whole Kingdom!")
Standing at home plate in my collage is a photo of Barry and I, Abraham Abramson, smiling through the camera, arms around each other, trying to look like one another. It is my most prized possession.
Now, I do not see Barry. My long and unanswered phone message to him, eventually reduced to "Call me, Abram," were never returned. This is foregone, far gone. The truth lies between dream and dawn. This may be fractional, factional, frictional, anything but fictional. But I regress. That is another story, for another year.
As I rove through Barry’s trove, I unexpurgate Charles Darwin: "I need not enrich myself any further, I am a complete millionaire in odd and curious facts and fictions." Here at my "Maieutic Shop," it is nearly closing time for today. I realize I just have to overcome the mere enormity of my task (as well as the brevity of longevity). "What, if nothing, has my pain meant? Do not enter lightly this entertainment! O, sigh of silence, is this violins or violence? Should I, like Barry, sing? Is this music of muse sick, or just thinking of thin king? Be/set, secrete thy secret! Anoint anon us anonymous, full of fire, full of fuss! To the wind let sail this cautionary tale—a demon’s demonstration of pure defenestration….
Till now,
Abram
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Abramism--"From the God of Abram to the Children of Abraham"
"Only things that one could imagine happening to real people, I guess, remain in a person’s memory." Buster Keaton
"I am master of the Stochastick Art, and by virtue of that, I divine that those Greek Words have crept from the Margin into the Text." Jonathan Swift
Abramism--"From the God of Abram to the Children of Abraham"
(Excerpted from the Encyclopedias Aeternitatis)
Introductory Background – The Abrahamites were a sect of theists in Bohemia in the late 18th century, who professed to be followers of the precircumcised Abraham (Abram). Eventually early Hegelian through a lineage of Basilidian dualism*, they enacted a synthesis of two antithetical and ancient precursors by "thoroughly identifying the scholastic and the stochastic." The first forerunner was "Anti-Abramite," believing Abram was not divinely inspired, and the second was "Abramian," claiming the three faiths stemming from Abram became irretrievably defective when Moses, Paul and Mohammed "defected" from Abram, Jesus and Mani, respectively. Believing in one God, Abrahamites contented themselves with the Decalogue and the Paternoster. Declining to be classified Jewish, Christian or Muslim, they were excluded from the edict of toleration promulgated by Emperor Joseph II in 1781 and were deported to various parts of the country, the men being drafted into frontier regiments. Some became Roman Catholics, and those who retained their "Abrahamite" views were not able to hand them on to the next generation. As a religious sect (by now calling themselves "The Faith Underground"), they disappeared by the end of the century, some leaders purported, in the last years of diaspora, to have tended to a gnostic "Abramism." The second movement expressed a "sacred English," denigrated by remaining Abrahamites as derivative of "Abraham-Men," vagrants feigning insanity in England during Tudor times.
"I am master of the Stochastick Art, and by virtue of that, I divine that those Greek Words have crept from the Margin into the Text." Jonathan Swift
Abramism--"From the God of Abram to the Children of Abraham"
(Excerpted from the Encyclopedias Aeternitatis)
Introductory Background – The Abrahamites were a sect of theists in Bohemia in the late 18th century, who professed to be followers of the precircumcised Abraham (Abram). Eventually early Hegelian through a lineage of Basilidian dualism*, they enacted a synthesis of two antithetical and ancient precursors by "thoroughly identifying the scholastic and the stochastic." The first forerunner was "Anti-Abramite," believing Abram was not divinely inspired, and the second was "Abramian," claiming the three faiths stemming from Abram became irretrievably defective when Moses, Paul and Mohammed "defected" from Abram, Jesus and Mani, respectively. Believing in one God, Abrahamites contented themselves with the Decalogue and the Paternoster. Declining to be classified Jewish, Christian or Muslim, they were excluded from the edict of toleration promulgated by Emperor Joseph II in 1781 and were deported to various parts of the country, the men being drafted into frontier regiments. Some became Roman Catholics, and those who retained their "Abrahamite" views were not able to hand them on to the next generation. As a religious sect (by now calling themselves "The Faith Underground"), they disappeared by the end of the century, some leaders purported, in the last years of diaspora, to have tended to a gnostic "Abramism." The second movement expressed a "sacred English," denigrated by remaining Abrahamites as derivative of "Abraham-Men," vagrants feigning insanity in England during Tudor times.
Recent Development – Today's translations of the Triptych ("Book of Books") throw light on the Abramist effort to both extol and equalize the Children of Abraham. By reducing their three Abrahamic referents from Torah, New Testament and Koran to one book, the Abramists radically give equal volume to the consequent faiths. Further, by the simultaneous credence given the "holy heretics" (Spinoza, Arius, and Avicenna), Abramism forms a gnosticism cleaving the conceptions of the religionists' God beyond reason and the philosophers' God within reason. Abramism is essentialized by a hermeneutic maieutic, bringing forth an "inner text" portraying, for example, St. James ("Second Jacob") as a messiah, Jesus of Nazareth as a "buddha of Judah." Exegetic figures of Melchizedek, Jethro and Thomas emerge from their "Philo-Sophia" with new primacy. Harkening to their "present as past" and "God's imminent immanence," Abramists lastly attained to "penultimate rhymes of unnumbered times."
(See GERSHONITES, GERSHOMITES)
*Undertaking the risk of asterisk to enter that entertainment of the mythic, mystic, base Baal, the "son of Basilides": "Now here (nowhere?) I foment the momentous moment--know these abracadabras to show Abram as Abraxas!"
Aging Notes
Aging Notes
(Found in California Home, 2008 A.B.* – by Abram)
July 6, 1983
Maieutics uncovers what covers, saying this silently: “The hidden parable makes the session apparent. The session, out of turn, phrases the gestic sensorium. Only the paradisiacal is parasitical. Fecal become fetal become fatal. Communion is the incantation of uncommon sharing. Word is tautological, an anticipation of the coming past, an absence of moment.’”
Maieutics covers what uncovers, saying this aurally: “I speak throughout my self, through you. This aphanitic continuum must be broken for the transcendental to cleave together. There are no other sessions, only other parables. The time before or after the session is the same, the space parabolical . . . . We pass this way but twice!”
What is covered or uncovered, the parable, is untouched by maieutics. Current creation is originative repetition.
B.C., A.D.
(Barry Codell, Activity Director)
*A.B.: after birth of James
July 19, 1983
Mediate maiuetics: is not all language a cipher, all cipher a silence, all silence all language? At first, at last, seek conflicting, rather than reproductive peace. The writing of the parable is the unwritten entrustment, generating the maieutic self. We may never deprive language. At most, we are deprived of the language that deprives us of our self. Is speech only thought, non-dimension? Is Abraxas the meeting point for the animistic and anthropomorphic tendencies? Is non-transference the point of death for the projective and introjective certainties?
(Found in California Home, 2008 A.B.* – by Abram)
July 6, 1983
Maieutics uncovers what covers, saying this silently: “The hidden parable makes the session apparent. The session, out of turn, phrases the gestic sensorium. Only the paradisiacal is parasitical. Fecal become fetal become fatal. Communion is the incantation of uncommon sharing. Word is tautological, an anticipation of the coming past, an absence of moment.’”
Maieutics covers what uncovers, saying this aurally: “I speak throughout my self, through you. This aphanitic continuum must be broken for the transcendental to cleave together. There are no other sessions, only other parables. The time before or after the session is the same, the space parabolical . . . . We pass this way but twice!”
What is covered or uncovered, the parable, is untouched by maieutics. Current creation is originative repetition.
B.C., A.D.
(Barry Codell, Activity Director)
*A.B.: after birth of James
July 19, 1983
Mediate maiuetics: is not all language a cipher, all cipher a silence, all silence all language? At first, at last, seek conflicting, rather than reproductive peace. The writing of the parable is the unwritten entrustment, generating the maieutic self. We may never deprive language. At most, we are deprived of the language that deprives us of our self. Is speech only thought, non-dimension? Is Abraxas the meeting point for the animistic and anthropomorphic tendencies? Is non-transference the point of death for the projective and introjective certainties?
Tune That Name (California Home Men's Club Quiz)
California Home Men’s Club Quiz
Tune That Name!
From: “Achieving Coincidence” March 2006
B.C., A.D.
Who is he? A large, right-handed batter (and right-handed thrower), he made an August debut in his debut season at the age of 22. In his first full season, he reached the 30 HR, 100 RBI, .500 SA marks that indicated promise of even greater things to come. He hit over 20 homers in 9 of his first 10 full seasons, with more RBI than Ks during 5 of his 6 full years.
He played in the first of his three All Star games (his team winning one, losing two), in his fourth season. In his fifth full season, he led the league for the only time in sacrifice flies, with 12. He tied for the major league lead in games played in his sixth season.
In his seventh season, he had the only three-homer game of his career (note: the homers were consecutive, on the road). In his tenth full season (as in his first full season), he led his team in HRs, RBI and SA.
He was a selection on the Sporting News’ major league All Star team, as an infielder. He became his team’s single-season home run record-holder (a title he later relinquished). For a short while, he wore #15 . . . .
At the age of 29, he had his only season of exactly 35 homers. He had 109 RBIs the only year he had exactly 65 extra base hits, but never won an RBI crown--one second place finish was his best showing in that category. He was part of his team’s first four-homer innings in club history and multiple three-homer innings. He reached double figures in HP but one time, but by age 35 he had his twelfth season of HR double figures (by that age, he had reached his career HR high).
Although not known for fielding or speed, he did have a 1.000 fielding average and a 100% SB percentage season during his stay in Chicago. He left Chicago for good after his sixteenth season. Sadly, he never got to play in a World Series during those years, although in his last year with his first franchise, he played for a future World Series’ winning manager, in his second full year at the helm. (He did play regularly with a Hall of Fame immortal with that first team.)
Although he did not play a majority of his career games at first base, his best OBP season came at that position.
Hint: At one point, following his most unproductive Chicago season to date, still no other player in baseball history with a last name beginning with a “T” had hit more than his 286 career homers!
Extra hint: He was born a Gemini, during the beleaguered administration of an unpopular, only once-elected president.
Penultimate hint: His full name contains 17 letters (5 for first, 6 for middle, 6 for last)
Final hint: He has the same name as another player who also exactly fits this entire description. (See “Didymas, “A Gnostic Gospel.”)
Answer: Frank Thomas! Question: Which one? Answer, too: Both!!
Tune That Name!
From: “Achieving Coincidence” March 2006
B.C., A.D.
Who is he? A large, right-handed batter (and right-handed thrower), he made an August debut in his debut season at the age of 22. In his first full season, he reached the 30 HR, 100 RBI, .500 SA marks that indicated promise of even greater things to come. He hit over 20 homers in 9 of his first 10 full seasons, with more RBI than Ks during 5 of his 6 full years.
He played in the first of his three All Star games (his team winning one, losing two), in his fourth season. In his fifth full season, he led the league for the only time in sacrifice flies, with 12. He tied for the major league lead in games played in his sixth season.
In his seventh season, he had the only three-homer game of his career (note: the homers were consecutive, on the road). In his tenth full season (as in his first full season), he led his team in HRs, RBI and SA.
He was a selection on the Sporting News’ major league All Star team, as an infielder. He became his team’s single-season home run record-holder (a title he later relinquished). For a short while, he wore #15 . . . .
At the age of 29, he had his only season of exactly 35 homers. He had 109 RBIs the only year he had exactly 65 extra base hits, but never won an RBI crown--one second place finish was his best showing in that category. He was part of his team’s first four-homer innings in club history and multiple three-homer innings. He reached double figures in HP but one time, but by age 35 he had his twelfth season of HR double figures (by that age, he had reached his career HR high).
Although not known for fielding or speed, he did have a 1.000 fielding average and a 100% SB percentage season during his stay in Chicago. He left Chicago for good after his sixteenth season. Sadly, he never got to play in a World Series during those years, although in his last year with his first franchise, he played for a future World Series’ winning manager, in his second full year at the helm. (He did play regularly with a Hall of Fame immortal with that first team.)
Although he did not play a majority of his career games at first base, his best OBP season came at that position.
Hint: At one point, following his most unproductive Chicago season to date, still no other player in baseball history with a last name beginning with a “T” had hit more than his 286 career homers!
Extra hint: He was born a Gemini, during the beleaguered administration of an unpopular, only once-elected president.
Penultimate hint: His full name contains 17 letters (5 for first, 6 for middle, 6 for last)
Final hint: He has the same name as another player who also exactly fits this entire description. (See “Didymas, “A Gnostic Gospel.”)
Answer: Frank Thomas! Question: Which one? Answer, too: Both!!
May Day! (California Home Men's Club Quiz)
California Home Men’s Club Quiz
May Day!
From: “Achieving Coincidence” March 2006
B.C., A.D.
Who is he?
On May 1, 1951, this rookie played his first game at Comiskey Park (he had a three-year minor league career). Four spots below him in the lineup that chilly day was a future Hall of Famer (in the opposing lineup, multiple Hall of Famers). A future A.L. All Star (and Gold Glove) outfielder, he promptly hit his first homer of the year, a 2-run shot, 425 feet into the center field bullpen, off a future A.L. All Star right-hander (who pitched, with a winning record, for the 1947 World Champion Yankees). Eventually, he would hit a Comiskey Park roofshot!
His team would soon be in first place during that ’51 season and would go on to have a winning record for the next 14 years! He had two key hits starting in the A.L. outfield in the 1954 All Star victory (after playing on the losing A.L. stars in ’53) and another in the tight ’57 win.
The first games of the ’59 and ’60 All Star series, he was hitless in losing efforts and started in defeat in 1960’s second All Star game. He did lead a major hitting category, however, in 1960 and lead the League in three straight years in another category. Indeed, be became a historically rare leader in both total bases and reached bases in the same season. His batting average was .298. His 1951 manager would not have a losing record in the team’s city (which had more than one team), until a fine career comeback.
Playing in St. Louis, he hit a road homer in the ‘60s, head consecutive team “triple crown” seasons in the ‘50s. He had one 1.000 Fielding Average and a 100% Stolen Base Percentage during his over-15-year career. A right-handed thrower, he played in the outfield alongside (to his left) a left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing HR and RBI champ.
Offensively versatile, he was a future leader in triples, slugging average and Runs Tallied and would also have four 100 RBI seasons over his career. Possessing power and speed, he had seasons hitting over 20 homers and stealing over 20 bases. He did play a handful of games in the infield for his ball club in a few seasons.
Of course, his uniform number was eventually retired by his team. Serious injuries could not stifle the accomplishments of his great career.
Hint: No pitcher ever gave up more home runs to him than Hall of Famer Early Wynn.
Extra hint: His last full year was played in the 1960s, but he is still remembered by thousands of fans visiting his memorial near his home team’s field.
Penultimate hint: His 12-letter name (6 first, 6 last) has the initials M.M.
Final hint: A famous Disney mouse has the same first name!
Answer: Mickey Mantle! Minnie Minoso! Either one fits the description!!
May Day!
From: “Achieving Coincidence” March 2006
B.C., A.D.
Who is he?
On May 1, 1951, this rookie played his first game at Comiskey Park (he had a three-year minor league career). Four spots below him in the lineup that chilly day was a future Hall of Famer (in the opposing lineup, multiple Hall of Famers). A future A.L. All Star (and Gold Glove) outfielder, he promptly hit his first homer of the year, a 2-run shot, 425 feet into the center field bullpen, off a future A.L. All Star right-hander (who pitched, with a winning record, for the 1947 World Champion Yankees). Eventually, he would hit a Comiskey Park roofshot!
His team would soon be in first place during that ’51 season and would go on to have a winning record for the next 14 years! He had two key hits starting in the A.L. outfield in the 1954 All Star victory (after playing on the losing A.L. stars in ’53) and another in the tight ’57 win.
The first games of the ’59 and ’60 All Star series, he was hitless in losing efforts and started in defeat in 1960’s second All Star game. He did lead a major hitting category, however, in 1960 and lead the League in three straight years in another category. Indeed, be became a historically rare leader in both total bases and reached bases in the same season. His batting average was .298. His 1951 manager would not have a losing record in the team’s city (which had more than one team), until a fine career comeback.
Playing in St. Louis, he hit a road homer in the ‘60s, head consecutive team “triple crown” seasons in the ‘50s. He had one 1.000 Fielding Average and a 100% Stolen Base Percentage during his over-15-year career. A right-handed thrower, he played in the outfield alongside (to his left) a left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing HR and RBI champ.
Offensively versatile, he was a future leader in triples, slugging average and Runs Tallied and would also have four 100 RBI seasons over his career. Possessing power and speed, he had seasons hitting over 20 homers and stealing over 20 bases. He did play a handful of games in the infield for his ball club in a few seasons.
Of course, his uniform number was eventually retired by his team. Serious injuries could not stifle the accomplishments of his great career.
Hint: No pitcher ever gave up more home runs to him than Hall of Famer Early Wynn.
Extra hint: His last full year was played in the 1960s, but he is still remembered by thousands of fans visiting his memorial near his home team’s field.
Penultimate hint: His 12-letter name (6 first, 6 last) has the initials M.M.
Final hint: A famous Disney mouse has the same first name!
Answer: Mickey Mantle! Minnie Minoso! Either one fits the description!!
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