What the Hell Do I Know

Started showing Alex the Burns’ baseball documentary and he’s into it. He really wanted to hear the stories of the old timey baseball, and he is interested in my versions of these stories…or at least he pretends to listen.

Every time I do stuff like this I think of the Saint Crispian’s Day speech from Henry V…not to be confused with Jason X.

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmorland. No, my fair cousin:
If we are marked to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will, I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It ernes me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace, I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more.
Rather proclaim it presently through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart. His passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the Feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a-tiptoe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day and live t'old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian":
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. (IV, iii)



This story shall the good man teach his son.

I’m glad I live in this time where the stories I teach my son have more to do with a game like baseball than war.

I realize this makes me sound like a very modern man, and to some extent – that is what I am.

Alex has shown interest in martial history. I choose the examples carefully. The great generals we have discussed at some length:

Alexander the Great – in part because of his name but also in terms of how he united peoples and encouraged the intermingling of cultures.

U.S. Grant – in whom one can find some of the best and worst elements of modern warfare.

Cyrus the Elder – for some of the same reasons as Grant, only from the ancient perspective. Also Cyrus received a poor, last-minute education from his own father. The real education Cyrus gets is from war and conquest. Cyrus also fails to teach this to his sons and what happens? The brothers’ relationship deteriorates and the empire crumbles. The good man needs to teach their son about the education of Cyrus lest they suffer the fate of the fathers and sons, at least in Xenophon's version. One father fails to teach his conqueror son in the proper time, the conquering son fails to teach anything to his sons and all that was gained is lost. Maybe not to Cyrus, he gets to hold the empire but it dies with him.

Leonides I, King of Sparta – and I do not teach Alex the Frank Miller version…what free men do when dark menaces come from the middle east. Rather, Leonides and his 300 men against Xerxes’ two million (maybe defeating over 20,000 of them) are used by me as a lesson that sometimes a man has to stand up no matter who or how many stand against him. (Interestingly enough, some say that Herodotus really teaches that Leonides sends the other Greeks home because he (Leonides) believes that Xerxes’ army has lost its heart and he wanted to defeat them winning all the glory for Sparta making him a victim of his own pride…come to think of it, in this light Leonides sounds like the less successful version of Harry the King. Herodotus may be right or have the rights to this story more than me & Frank Miller combined, but Herodotus can teach his son that version and I’ll teach mine, mine)

Alex listens to the war stories and is sufficiently interested but he smiles and laughs at the baseball legends. He can’t wait to watch more of Part I tomorrow night. I’m not sure baseball has captured his imagination and I might not be capable of presenting it in its proper light.

Baseball’s story is complicated.

But part of me still believes I can teach it, it is worth teaching and I believe this to be one of the great stories that the good man teaches his son.