Lingua Branca
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JOHN HARVARD'S JOURNAL field has lines that clearly separate offen- erates from zero—are especially snappy. lacrosse to play. Harvard, which domi- sive from defensive play, and when a mid- This helps her be first, for example, to nated the Ivies in women’s lacrosse from fielder crosses such a line she switches pounce on a loose ball. Less tangible skills 1980 until 1993, has not captured the from one to the other. The soccer pitch has include leadership ability and the plain league title since then, though under no such hard lines, so offense and defense fact that, as she says, “I’m an intensely Miller the program has moved up from often mingle. Both sports include lots of committed person.” Lisa Miller notes that sixth place to fifth to a tie for third in running, but “you get more long sprints one of Baskind’s assets is “her sense of hu- 2011. (With Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth, as a midfielder in lacrosse,” says Baskind. mor. She can make me laugh at a tough and Harvard ranked in the top 20 in In- “Soccer is more endurance running. You’re spot in a game, and can make her team- side Lacrosse’s preseason poll, the league changing direction a lot—there are more mates laugh, too. That’s probably one rea- is a strong conference.) The Crimson lost turnovers. You might have the ball for only son she was elected captain so early [as a to Princeton, 12-10, in the Ivy tournament a few seconds in soccer; it’s pretty com- junior]. Melanie also has a knack for mak- final last spring, with Baskind making mon to switch back and forth. In general, ing big plays at critical times—like scoring the All-Tournament team. lacrosse has longer possessions.” game-winning goals.” She’d like to graduate as a double cham- Many talents make Baskind a dominant A neurobiology concentrator, Bas- pion. Given her endowment of talent, athlete, though speed is her most obvious kind plans a career in medicine; if given commitment, and competitiveness, and gift. “I’m quicker than I am fast,” she says, the opportunity, she’d like to get to Af- her track record as a teammate, don’t bet meaning that her first steps—as she accel- rica next year. Meanwhile, she has some against it. vcraig lambert Fenway Park’s First Pitch another squad sporting red socks—the arrival from Cincinnati the night before, Harvard Crimson. The brick façade that the Red Sox lineup included most of its Fenway’s first faithful shivered as a greeted ticket-buying fans looked much regulars, including the fabled “Golden wicked wind whipped down Jersey Street. as it does today, but inside, Fenway was a Outfield” of Duffy Lewis and Hall of Fam- Though it was early April, the freezing work in progress. The left-field wall was ers Harry Hooper and Tris Speaker. When temperatures and snow flurries were bet- still being erected, and crews were rivet- the Sox took the soggy field at Fenway for ter suited for football. But nothing could ing wooden seats into the grandstand. the first time, there was no special cere- deter the hard-core baseball fans huddled The clubhouse wasn’t complete either, mony, just enthusiastic cheers for Boston’s outside the ticket windows from getting so players were forced to walk to the ball- new manager/first baseman Jake Stahl and their initial glimpse of the 1912 Boston Red park in uniform after dressing at the Park his squad. Sox and their new, state-of-the-art ball- Riding School on the corner of Ipswich Red Sox management had hoped to sell park. and Lansdowne Streets. The sparkling at least 10,000 tickets for the exhibition, but On April 9, 1912, just 11 days before their green diamond must have been a welcome only 3,000 fans braved the snow and cold to regular-season home opener against the sight for the Harvard varsity, finally re- witness history. According to the Boston Her- New York Highlanders (who became the leased from the indoor cage in which they ald, the fans “rattled around like a squadron Yankees the following year), Boston’s team had practiced for most of the prior month. of lima beans in a number eight hat.” christened Fenway Park with the help of Despite the raw conditions and a late Pitcher Casey Hageman, fighting for a spot in the Red Sox rotation, started for Boston. At 3:30 p.m., third baseman Dana Lewis has clearly gathered notes and Joseph Paine Wingate, A.B. 1914, a Har- Lingua Branca clippings on the subject for some time; vard sophomore, stepped up to the plate he documents these usages with col- and into the history books as Fenway’s The Brooklyn Dodgers All-Star pitcher orful examples from news items, television, first batter. Hageman promptly fanned Ralph Branca, whose name became a syn- and movies. Wingate for the first of his nine strikeouts onym for goat after he gave up a pennant- Rhubarb, for example, means a lively and retired the Crimson in order. losing home run in 1951, might appreciate argument on the ball field, but Gover- Burly Sam Felton, A.B. 1913, a star kicker Baseball as a Second Language: Explaining the nor Arnold Schwarzenegger got into a and end on Harvard’s powerhouse football Game Americans Use to Explain Everything “political rhubarb” in California. A grand team, shed his heavy, full-length fur coat Else, by inveterate sports buff Harry Lewis, slam is a home run hit when all bases are and took the mound. After Hooper led Gordon McKay professor of computer sci- occupied, but a dermatologist has de- off with a fly-out, second baseman Steve ence and former dean of Harvard College. clared that stopping hair loss is a home Yerkes followed with a single to right for In the slim (74 pages) volume Lewis collects run, while “Growing more hair is a grand Fenway’s first hit. The Red Sox loaded classic words and phrases associated with slam.” Newbie investors swing for the fenc- the bases in the bottom of the first but, in the great game, defines them as baseball es—trying for huge financial gains. And what would be a recurring pattern, failed terms, and describes how Americans, even Vladimir Putin can throw a threaten- to score. at least, apply those diamond-tempered ing brushback pitch, not from the mound, After setting down Harvard in order in meanings to describe, well, most anything. but the podium. the second inning, Hageman singled home shortstop Marty Krug to score Fenway’s . For more information, please contact 62 March -Reprinted April 2012 from Harvard Magazine www.gocrimson.com Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746. Harvard’s 1912 squared off at Fenway against the Boston baseball team. Braves, Princeton, and Yale in the 1910s Wingate (front at left, holding cap) and 1920s, and during the past two de- was Fenway’s first cades has played there regularly during the batter. Baseball Beanpot. (The men’s ice hockey team has played at Boston’s baseball cathe- to two runs when dral as well, skating there against Union giving passes at the College in January.) rate of two an in- More recently, the Red Sox have regu- ning. Felton kept larly started their spring-training sched- the Red Sox hits ule by playing against Boston College well scattered and and Northeastern. Perhaps it’s time for a twice retired the rematch with Harvard as well. And this side when the bases year the Red Sox are planning a range of were full.” celebrations for Fenway Park’s centennial, Fenway Park’s a milestone no other major league park has inaugural game was reached. There, on April 9, an event will not the only time commemorate the historic game with Har- first run. In the fifth, the Red Sox starter a Harvard nine has taken to its turf. The vard played a century ago. struck another RBI single to give his team Crimson played exhibitions against the v christopher klein a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Crimson’s bats Red Sox in 1913 and 1916, when they actu- stayed as cold as the weather, giving the ally defeated the reigning world champi- Christopher Klein is a freelance writer and the Harvard fans few opportunities to remove ons 1-0. In 1943 the Sox took revenge, shel- author of The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide their hands from their coat pockets (ex- lacking Harvard 21-0. The Crimson also to Boston (Union Park Press). cept possibly to take surreptitious nips from flasks buried inside). Harvard finally got to Hageman in the ALUMNI fifth when captain Robert Potter, A.B. 1912, struck a well-placed single between short and third, but that would be the team’s only base hit of the afternoon. The A Green Empire closest the Crimson came to scoring oc- curred in the sixth when the centerfielder was cut down at the plate attempting to How Anthony Malkin ’84 engineered the largest “green” retrofit ever reach home on a double steal. By then, dusk was settling in, and the mud-caked ball became more difficult hen it opened in 1931, People tend to focus on vehicle emis- for fielders to pick up through the snow- the Empire State Building sions as a principal source of the heat-trap- flakes. Fans were beginning to leave, and was not only the biggest ping carbon dioxide that propels global Hageman had the Harvard boys at his building in the world, it warming.