Recta Ratio

For Boston sports fans, this year reminds us how the British public felt in 1759, when their armies and fleets chalked up victory after victory in the war against France and its allies. Clive triumphant in India at Plassey, Wolfe victorious, though killed, at Quebec, Amherst making good progress along the line of the Hudson, Admiral Hawke giving the French fleet a jolly good thumping at Quiberon Bay, and the army in Germany under Ferdinand of Brunswick routing the numerically superior French at Minden. It was such a year of victories that a hugely powerful first-rate ship laid down that year was christened HMS Victory, and she went on to achieve great fame and victory herself, most notably as Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805.

So this year has been for Boston sports fans. The Red Sox put us back in the spotlight with a World Series Championship, their second in 4 years, and Red Sox fans can never get enough of those after the long 86 year drought we suffered through. Then the Patriots ran the string to 18-0 in the regular season and playoffs, though they choked in the Super Bowl. Boston College looked like a contender for the National Championship for a while this year, though they ended up winning just a minor bowl. But the hockey team went all the way, bringing an NCAA national title to the Heights. The Bruins, those perpetually underfunded blue-collar guys, even gave us a thrill when it took Montreal 7 games to dispatch them in the first round of the playoffs.

And now, the Celtics. After 22 years without a title, 22 long years in which the promise of two stars who should have lead the team to new heights was cut off when they died suddenly, 22 years in which draft picks that would have helped were denied because of the bizarre lottery rules of the NBA draft, 22 years of mediocre play, poor coaching, and tickets being given away, finally, the Celtics reign supreme this morning.

Now I am not a big basketball fan. Baseball is my game, with football a distinct second. Even in the days of Larry Bird and Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish, with Johnny Most on the radio, and Red Auerbach in the General Manager's seat, I only paid limited attention to that sport. And I can honestly say that I have not watched a single moment of a single game this year. However, the whole City of Boston was alive and electrified last night. I saw hundreds of folks, mostly young, walking about in Celtics gear, and having a good time. In some cases, too much of a good time. I saw hundreds of cops in riot gear with very long batons patrolling about in groups as big as the groups of revellers. I didn't see anything really bad happen, but I was happy to be safe behind a couple of locked security doors by 11pm.

Of course, it won't last. Runs of luck like this never do. The bad times will come back. But right now, Boston is basking in the glow of a year of victory that I think is unprecedented. A World Series Championship, and an NBA title in the same year, with a Super Bowl Championship just missed by a few inches. I would say that the closest we have been was 1986, when the Celtics last won the NBA title, and the Red Sox went to, but lost, the World Series, and the Patriots went to, but lost the Super Bowl.

So here's to the Celtics, the new NBA Champions. Long and happily may they reign!

Here's to the Red Sox, the defending World Series Champions. May they repeat again and again!

Here's to the Patriots, who have won 3 of the last 8 Super Bowls, and are the defending AFC Champs. Better luck in the Super Bowl this year!

Here's to the Bruins. May they finally get ownership that desperately cares about, and will pay whatevr it costs to bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston after 35 years!

And here's to Boston College. May many more fine young athletes grace the programs, and bring new honors to my alma mater!

Labels: Hub of the Universe

This is the anniversary of the bloodiest single battle of the American War of Independence. It happened quite early in the war, and its outcome colored British tactics for the next 8 years.

Penned up inside the town of Boston after the retreat from Concord, the British under General Gage and the newly arrived Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne planned to make their position more secure by seizing the heights of Charlestown and Dorchester, and then converging on the main rebel force at Cambridge. The New England rebels pre-empted this plan by secretly fortifying Breed's Hill in Charlestown on the night of June 16-17.

The next day, with frigates and shore batteries bombarding the rebel positions and burning Charlestown, General Howe landed on the Charlestown shore with an eventual force of 2,500 redcoats. The New England rebels under Massachusetts' Colonel William Prescott, New Hampshire's Colonel John Stark, and Connecticut's General Israel Putnam were not impressed and held their ground atop Breed's Hill.

The British plan was not to launch a a frontal assault, but have the fast-moving light infantry strike quickly along the Mystic River beach, get up behind the rebel fortifications, and attack from the rear, while the rest of the assault force kept them pinned in front. Efforts to land troops in the rear of the rebel works were impossible because of the tide. By the time the troops were landed, and General Howe had a chance to see how things looked on the ground, the rebels had fortified the beach that the light infantry was to use. The emphasis of the first attack was still trying to get a column of light infantry to hammer a way through the hastily-constructed stone wall on the beach. But the cost proved too high, and the light infantry recoiled after company after company had been decimated.

Two frontal assaults were driven back with huge British losses. Howe's third assault only succeeded when the rebel defenders ran out of ammunition. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting erupted in the redoubt as the Massachusetts men there withdrew. Doctor Joseph Warren, the leading figure of the Massachusetts rebel government was killed at the end of the battle as he and other volunteers tried to cover the retreat.

Howe, who had lost 1,054 killed and wounded, including 10 of his 12 aides, found his troops too decimated and exhausted to pursue. The plan to sweep from Charlestown on to Cambridge and Roxbury was abandoned. The rebels lost some 300 killed and prisoners and a few hundred wounded. Recriminations followed in the Rebel camp, with courts martial the order of the day. Not all the New England troops or leaders had behaved as well in the fighting as had Prescott, Putnam, and Stark. Troops atop Bunker Hill behind the battle scene had refused Putnam's orders to join the battle, and had cowered from the cannon fire in droves. Other troops sent to reinforce the rebel positions refused to cross Charlestown Neck, the narrow strip of land connecting Charlestown to the mainland of Massachusetts, as British naval cannons swept the Neck.

Howe, who succeeded Gage in the supreme command later in the year, was transformed by the bloody experience. He would win a knighthood and much praise for his handling of the army, driving Washington from position after position in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Never again, even when his subordinates told him that all he need do was press an attack on a dispirited American force crouching behind makeshift entrenchments to finish Washington off, would he commit his forces to a direct frontal attack. He would use flanking movements, coups de main, amphibious landings. But never again would he hurl his army against defended positions. Because of that, the Continental Army would live to fight another day, again and again.

Today, the battlefield, except for the block-sized area where the monument is located- the site of the redoubt- is covered over by highways and row houses. Authentic re-enactments of the battle on the site are impossible because of this, and because of National Park Service regulations.

But a perversion of the spirit of Bunker Hill is perhaps the battle's most enduring living legacy. Many state workers and city workers in Suffolk County have long had the day off as a result of union contracts. So Bunker Hill Day is primarily comemmorated in Massachusetts as a Hack High Holy Day. It is most unfortunate that this is the most we do to remember the bravery of those Yankee rebels and the intrepid redcoats, whose descendants are now our staunchest allies.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has an exhibit on the battle on-line.

Labels: Hub of the Universe

Boston lost a very good radio talk show host today, as Paul Sullivan, former columnist for the Lowell Sun, and former WBZ Radio host lost his battle with cancer at age 50. Sullivan was a sensible man, moderately conservative, which made him seem like Attila the Hun in this benighted state. He was a refreshing chance from the increasingly shrill libertarian David Brudnoy, who he replaced when the later died of AIDS (I guess we know why he was a libertarian: self-interest, just like blogger Andrew Sullivan). Sullivan was far too young, and his death is a startling reminder of mortality. Requiescat in pace.

Labels: Hub of the Universe

Two Boston firefighters were killed last night while fighting a fire in West Roxbury. Twelve more are injured. Please, pray for the dead, and the living. Requiescant in pace.

Labels: Hub of the Universe