Goldberg Street Read Free

pommel and the hilt significant . . . that cross . . . ( Pause. )
    I will take it up. I will protect that which was given to my keeping . . . with my life. So help me God. And so find happiness. Thank you.
    Pierce sits amidst applause. The M.C. rises .
    M.C.: And now a . . . ( Aside .) Did we do the . . . ?
    Assistant ( Aside ): Yes.
    M.C. ( To the hall ): A Friend of our Friends, a friend of ours, and, in this time, a man who, as the Gen'ral said, is not afraid to make allegiance known: Joe Brown.
    Amidst applause Joe Brown goes to the podium, assembles his notes.
    Joe: Thank you. Thank you all. Esteemed hosts, Brothers, Pals . . . I am reminded of a guy in Europe, a ballplayer as it happens. In the War, he's in Pigalle in Paris. He sees this hooker. A gorgeous . . . piece of ass . . . legs up to . . . young, alright? The . . . goes up to her—three words of French—he goes, “Combien?” She answers him, this rapid stream, he don't know what she, “blagadelablahbegela . . . ” He says, “Lentement! Lentement!” . . . and she says, “Oui!” But I'll try to be brief.
    Nineteen-nineteen Arnold Rothstein, “A.R.” to his friends, Hotel Ansonia, New York. Dad was in, I believe, the Rag Trade . . . many of them were . . . son of a devout man, son . . . of course, a disappointment to him. Saw the movie? Bit the father says “kaddish,” his son is dead? A dead son. Not that bad, but almost . . . ( Pause .)
    A multi -millionaire, I'm talking nineteen-ten, nineteen-fifteen, in there, no, or small income tax.
    Here's the thing:
    Comiskey, as we know, perhaps the finest team ever seen in professional baseball; what's the average? Six, five or six thousand bucks a year he's paying to men who, they went elsewhere could start at three times that. Ballplayers getting twice that, mediocre men, easily, he's starving them.
    Days of the Reserve Clause. Means you work for me or you don't work. Virtual indentureship. The men were riled. Eddie Cicotte, Shoeless Joe Jackson, legends in their time.
    Men up against the . . . wives, et cetera . . . up against the wall. National Pastime. On the one hand, everything for show, nothing for the . . . but nothing for the Boys.
    Team riled, unhappy . . . tried an abortive strike, which didn't . . . Rothstein comes to them. Our largest Gambler. “Put it in the Tank,” he goes. “You lay down for the Cincinnati Reds . . . ”
    Someone brings him water .
    Thank you . . .
    The . . . what is this?
    Waterbearer: Water.
    Joe: Thank you. Rothstein. “You throw the Series and you'll never have to work ag . . . ” ( Drinks water .) Now. Okay. The time the series comes about it's seven-to-five Sox, six-to-five and pick ‘em, even money, seven-to-five Reds, eight- to-five Reds. The word is, Cincinnati players calling out the Sox: “Is it true that you threw the game?” The rest is history.
    Now: whence this seemingly new concept of advocacy for athletes? You might say nineteen-nineteen Blacksocks. You might say . . . in that same year, the Actors Union, faced with a . . . another strike. That same year. You . . . faced with a trans . . . faced with a transitional, I think we might say . . . between, on the one, concepts of serfdom . . . (let's not balk at . . . ) the idea that a man may indenture others, may, in effect, own that work; and, on the other hand, let's say, a Socialist State eschewing property entire . . . where . . . the work of the individual . . . we understand . . . what have . . . ? What have we . . . ? Between the . . . ? Between the two: A Free Market. Which, al . . . ? redounds to the benefit of . . . ? Well:
    The Blacksocks said what? Abso . . . ? Ridden by guilt, nonetheless . . .
    The in . . .
    But could not: Chuck Comiskey (field bears his name today) “I . . . I'm the owner. They belong to me. I'll pay ‘em what I want. That's what I'll pay ‘em.” ( Pause .)
    What I would like you for tomorrow to:
    Rationalize the . . . so we do not say, because I know that this is . .