The American Spectator

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Leagues of Their Own

8.8.02 @ 12:01AM

HEARN 'ROUND THE WORLD
Re: Wlady Pleszczynski Chickie Babe:

Chick needed no sidekicks. Baseball has so little action, Vin could spin his yarns minutes at a time. The basketball changes hands however every few seconds and the simulcast doesn't allow much time for analysis.

My friends and I used to make fun of Stu Lantz's usual brief summation, "Well, that's right, Chick." Chick would take it from there. KCAL should have never forced the second announcer on him anyway.

Also, the amazing thing about Chick's Laker broadcasts was his realizing that his old lines had become clichés and never repeating them with the same intonation. When Stu (b)egged him to declare the "game in the fridge," Chick toyed with Stu and the listeners by saying it just at the right moment.

These days, one can hear a typical baseball announcer force his way into a third-rate home-run call. But Hearn had a complete command over his terminology.

To use another worn-out cliché, he was a pro's pro.

He will be missed.
-- Dan Leo
Sunny Isles Beach, FL
(Resident of Hollywood, CA -- 1987-2001-- and a long-time Laker hater but a huge fan of Francis Dayle Hearn)

I always enjoy, and nearly always agree with Wlady Pleszczynski's comments, however I must object to his characterization of Vin Scully "as the greatest baseball announcer there ever was and ever will be." Vin Scully is not even the greatest announcer the Dodgers ever had. Don't get me wrong, Scully is one of the greats and he deserves the praise he received from Wlady, The man who defined baseball on the radio is Walter "Red" Barber. When Red was in the cat bird seat, you were at the game. He explained the on-field action as if you were his baseball loving friend suddenly struck blind as you sat in your seat at the game, yet so involved in the national pastime that you refused to seek help until the final out. There, at your side, is Red, setting the stage for every pitch, reminding you of the score, the number of outs, the pitch count and the myriad of factors impacting the situation. Vin Scully is great, Red Barber was the Best Ever.
-- Steve Donohue

LEAK PLUGS
RE: Jed Babbin's Congressional Leakology:

Excellent piece. Excellent.

To not address this issue as Mr. Babbin has so succinctly stated would be a travesty. Thousands upon thousands of American citizens have held security clearances and have with good faith kept the law regarding national security.

To do any less is a crime.

Kudos on the article.
-- R.H. "Tex" Houston
http://www.ranchgazette.com

Jed Babbin may be correct in his oblique assumption that it was Sen. Richard Shelby who leaked the information regarding the NSA-intercepted phone call from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia. Shelby, never camera-shy (well, exactly who in the Senate isn't?), has a well-known animus for CIA director George Tenet, although his disdain for the SIGINT operators at Fort Meade, at least to this reader, has been less well-publicized. If he's guilty of this leak, then indeed he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.

All this being said, the leak undoubtedly led to James Bamford's "Outlook" piece in June 2002 in the Washington Post where he detailed the sorry state of NSA's linguistics sections in the languages of the region. According to Bamford, on September 11, you could "count the Pashto and Dari speakers at NSA on one hand and have fingers left over." It does little good to have a high-volume electronic vacuum sweeper at NSA if you have no one there to read the intercepts and piece together the bits. Just about the only good thing that has come from these leaks is that the public at least now knows just how incapable this country's intelligence operations were and probably still are in fighting a shadowy, disciplined enemy like al Qaeda. Unfortunately, things aren't apt to get any better by creating another elephantine bureaucracy in the guise of the Homeland Security department when we need to get meaner, leaner and smarter.
-- Bill Harrison
Arlington, VA

Letter to the Editor

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