I have a request, you guys, all the way from Hhhhhhavvvaaaahhhhhd, as if you needed further confirmation that I am in fact a great big deal. A graduate student is seeking information about the Reds temporarily changing the team name to the Redlegs in the 1950’s. He was researching local reaction to the issue, which led of course to Ruth Lyons. He stumbled upon this post here in our gentle flyover state site.
He says that our Miss Lyons objected to the name change, and wanted to know what I knew about that. Apparently Ruth Lyons and The 50/50 Club attracted the attention of the Ohio Un-American Activities Committee by doing so.
Do you any of you remember any of this? Speak up in the comments if so, comrades.
Bob Braun and Bob Braun’s hair, undercover Communists. I would imagine that if there actually was such an investigation, it took precisely five minutes, because there was no better representation of big bouncy American capitalism in the history of Cincinnati than Ruth Lyons.
I sent our Boston guest a 2500 word reply telling him that no, this was the first I’d heard about such an event. What I did in the other 2499 words was discuss the fact that Ruth Lyons kept her mouth shut about nothing else on her planet but her personal politics. Imagine a talk show host pulling an outrageous stunt like this in 2019. She’d be destroyed in a single Twitter news cycle. She’d be run right out of the local entertainment business on a cheese coney.
From what I know of Ruth Lyons, if she thought that temporarily renaming the Reds as the Redlegs was stupid, she said so for no other reason than she thought it was stupid. She probably would have joined Marty Brennaman in his categorization of Hamilton County’s stance regarding “And this one belongs to the Reds” placed on the side of GABP as “ridiculous.”
“My definition of honesty,” she wrote in a three-page letter to a disgruntled viewer demanding that she out herself as either a Democrat or Republican, “includes the importance of preserving the dignity of the individual, in regard to political interpretation, religious belief, the right to a personal approach to solve one’s own problems, and assist those less fortunate than oneself; in short, to live as much as possible by the ‘Golden Rule,’ not spasmodically, but daily.” In other words: Step off.
If mic-dropping were a thing in 1952, she would have clattered her bouquet-covered one to the floor with that. Ruth Lyons’ diligence in trusting the intelligence of “her ladies,” as she called them, is what helped her build a sterling reputation as a no-nonsense dispenser of Opinions, but Opinions which were independently formed.
This is the kind of reputation Ruth Lyons earned and weilded– a sterling one. A hard-won one which she applied in charitable and civic causes as she saw fit.
And to everyone’s everlasting benefit. Ruth Lyons drew on her public credit to help save the Reds in the 1960s. As one of the founding members of the Rosie Reds, she helped rescue the team from a fate worse than last place; rumor had it the franchise was on the move. We all know how that turned out.
I wish I had this woman’s self-discipline. I wish most of the population did. Imagine how much less we’d despise each other. We’d have so much more energy for more important things, like making pudding, and ridding the world of JarJar Binks merchandise. Bless this woman’s memory.
Bless her occasionally pursed lips.
At the time, I thought Redlegs was a good appellation since it directly referred back to the original Cincinnati baseball franchise of the Red Stockings.
I think so too!
My Grandma, who had an unabashed THING for Big Klu back in the day, used to jokingly say that their official name was The Redlegs because, as she put it, “Some ‘people’ think having a preference for a color makes you a Commie.”
Grandma never minced her words.
Her daughters – my mom and her 5 sisters, all of whom had an unabashed THING for John Franco’s hindquarters (not John Franco his owneself. Just his hindquarters) – all remember her having said the same thing, and that the idea was stupid.
No one can corroborate anything, though. Mostly because they have a THING for Joey Votto now.
Grandma may never have minced her words, but that doesn’t mean you can quote them here. No cursing.
It’s strange that I can’t find anyone to collaborate what Miss Lyons may or may not have said on the air. She was unnerved by Paul Dixon’s posthumous reruns, though, and very few recordings of her show survive.
There’s no difference between a sprain and a tear. A sprain is a tear. A sprain involves ligaments. A strain, which often gets used in place of the word sprain (and the other way around), is a stretching/tearing of a muscle or tendon. They are similar, but they are also different.
I understand the linking and what you were attempting to do. But I think we both understand the road that it could lead down, and I just don’t want to have to worry about that one.
I recall (barely) that, in Dayton, this “Reds v. Redlegs” conspiracy seemed to be linked with the belief that Yellow Springs was Ground Zero in the coming Communist takeover. I remember my Dad taking the family on a Sunday drive out to Antioch and concluding that there wasn’t anything to worry about. I felt safer. 🙂
Antioch looks like a cute little town– I’ve only driven through it. I was forbidden to so much as apply to the college there, though, because “that place is crazy.” Worked out for me!
Whhhhhhhhhhhy would you want to stay amongst so much polyester?
I actually just looked up Bob Braun’s Wikipedia article to see if there was some sinister side of him (or his hair) that I didn’t know about.
That man did not age. That was the sinister part.
I was still a child at the time, but I do remember Bob Braun when I lived in Cincinnati during my grad school days. Bob was certainly no communist but his hair might have been.
MBE, I enjoy your writing tremendously, I hate to pay to read websites but I might just have to do it this time.
I appreciate the kind sentiment. I have a vague memory of Bob Braun and his hair coming out from a grey curtain on his afternoon TV show, but that’s about it.
Thank you very much for considering visiting me at Game Day Therapy. And thank you for supporting Doug’s important work.
As to paying to read websites, I’ll just repeat my earlier comment to Seat…
The only reason I began Game Day Therapy is that the kind and encouraging people here mentioned they would buy my second book and that I should pass the hat so I can concentrate on my writing more. So I’m honestly shocked at the negative reaction, because it’s what people told me they wanted.
We writers at RN are not paid. We all work day jobs. The small ads you see here pay for the maintenance of the site alone.
I have earned a grand total of $64.00 at BlondeChampagne.com over a course of four years via advertising. I can’t afford to spend much time on it. For a site to make money, it needs monster numbers and a rush of popup and in-text ads. Your nearest news or major network site is more ads than copy. Patreon is a way for us creators to concentrate on our work, and even then, very few make a full-time living on it.
I understand completely
Thanks for sharing that. I enjoy hearing what the reaction was at the time.
She was an independent voice to be treasured. I’m sad I missed her.
Hello, Seat. I missed your original comment, but I take it that you objected to me mentioning and linking to a paywalled site.
First, thank you very much for supporting Doug’s important work. The only reason I began Game Day Therapy is that the kind and encouraging people here mentioned they would buy my second book and that I should pass the hat so I can concentrate on my writing more. So I’m honestly shocked at the negative reaction here, because it’s what people told me they wanted.
We writers at RN are not paid for our work here. We all have day jobs. The ads you see pay for the maintenance of the site alone.
I have earned a grand total of $64.00 at BlondeChampagne.com over a course of four years via advertising. I can’t afford to spend much time on it. For a site to make money, it needs monster numbers and a rush of popup and in-text ads. Your nearest news or major network site is more ads than copy for a reason. Patreon is a way for us creators to concentrate on our work and work freely without worrying about sponsor influence or threats– and even then, very few users make a full-time living on it.
Thanks for reading.
We never stopped being friends! No offense taken at all, just offering some background.
Yes, PayPal is an option: https://www.patreon.com/join/gamedaytherapy?
Either select a tier and choose PayPal as a payment option, or scroll down to “Make a Custom Pledge” and follow the prompts from there. If you make a custom pledge, please message me an address where I can (gently) throw my first book at you.
I greatly appreciate your kind words and presence here, whether you join us at Game Day Therapy or not. Go Reds.
Perhaps it has a function to only directly address competent adults.