Comments on: True lies http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/01/08/true-lies/ A multilog with NJJN Editor-in-Chief Andrew Silow-Carroll Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:44:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Andrew Silow-Carroll http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/01/08/true-lies/comment-page-1/#comment-10217 Andrew Silow-Carroll Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:12:19 +0000 http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/?p=740#comment-10217 There's a difference in effects and implications, I agree. I don't think the Moose and Rosenblat will occupy the same circle of Hell. (Okay, neither deserves Hell -- it's a metaphor.) But I'm asking if their stories spring from the same phenomenon, and is it a real one? Can you repeat a story often enough that you convince yourself, or your mind convinces you, that it is reality? I shook Chris Chambliss' hand at a father-son sports night in 1977 or thereabouts. Doesn't that count for something? There’s a difference in effects and implications, I agree. I don’t think the Moose and Rosenblat will occupy the same circle of Hell. (Okay, neither deserves Hell — it’s a metaphor.) But I’m asking if their stories spring from the same phenomenon, and is it a real one? Can you repeat a story often enough that you convince yourself, or your mind convinces you, that it is reality?

I shook Chris Chambliss’ hand at a father-son sports night in 1977 or thereabouts. Doesn’t that count for something?

]]> By: Jonathan Tobin http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/01/08/true-lies/comment-page-1/#comment-10214 Jonathan Tobin Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:29:03 +0000 http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/?p=740#comment-10214 Memory can play tricks on all of us but there is a big difference between plagiarism and a guy who played well over 100 games a year for nearly two decades getting some of his anecdotes mixed up. And there is also a big difference between someone falsifying their past in terms of the Holocaust the time-honored American tradition of the "tall tale" in which the exploits of extraordinary people get inflated into larger than life stories told to make a point. Old ballplayers always exaggerate their past deeds but we find it charming because their tall tales are the fabric from which the myths of baseball tradition are created. And by the way, though I bow to no one in my respect and admiration for the author of this blog, I am shocked by his ignorance about Moose Skowron. I suppose like his fellow Mets fans, he thinks baseball history began in 1962. Memory can play tricks on all of us but there is a big difference between plagiarism and a guy who played well over 100 games a year for nearly two decades getting some of his anecdotes mixed up.

And there is also a big difference between someone falsifying their past in terms of the Holocaust the time-honored American tradition of the “tall tale” in which the exploits of extraordinary people get inflated into larger than life stories told to make a point. Old ballplayers always exaggerate their past deeds but we find it charming because their tall tales are the fabric from which the myths of baseball tradition are created.

And by the way, though I bow to no one in my respect and admiration for the author of this blog, I am shocked by his ignorance about Moose Skowron. I suppose like his fellow Mets fans, he thinks baseball history began in 1962.

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