April 2012 - Richard M. Langworth

Connie Marrero: Oldest Players

27 April 2012 Comments 1 Comment

¡Ex ligamayorista Marrero cumple 102 años!

“He threw everything toward the plate but the ball.” —Ted Williams

Conrado Eugenio Marrero, the oldest living major league baseball player, celebrated his 102nd birthday in Havana on April 25, 2013 with one of his patented cigars. Connie passed away just short of his 103rd birthday on April 23, 2014.

Connie Marrero pitched 735 innings for the Washington Senators in 1950-54, compiling a W-L record of 39-40. He was named to the 1951 All-Star team but did not play. He left after being scratched from the 1955 roster.…

Why Churchill Shunned Pipes and Cigarettes

10 April 2012 Comments 0 Comments

A friend sent me a Dunhill feature from the Daily Telegraph, stating that Churchill occasionally smoked a pipe as a holiday from cigars: “I can find no reference to him having ever smoked a pipe, can you?”

I think Dunhills are stretching. I can find no testimony to Churchill ever smoking a pipe. There are indications that he deplored pipe smoking (though he tolerated it from Sir Arthur Tedder). Perhaps this arose through his antipathy (which grew in the early 1930s) to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

By looking for Baldwin references, I found a key cigar-and-pipe standoff between Churchill and “SB” in 1924, when they were on better terms, in Martin Gilbert’s Winston S.…