A week ago, at this moment, I was closing in on Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, for the first time. My 90-odd hours—some markedly odder than others—were a blast with my brother Andy.
On the surface, we promoted his podcast on the late baseball phenom Mark Fidrych, The Bird: The Spirit of ’76.1 We did so wherever we went, including at a fan fest and outside Citizens Bank Park, where Major League Baseball held its home run derby Monday night, followed by the All-Star Game the next night.
But on a deeper level, what we did was create a mound of memories:
Navigating around city blocks made inaccessible because of downed trees—a big storm hit just as we were arriving.
Watching World Cup soccer in a sports-mad city, then enjoying our first karaoke session in many years. In addition to joining in on other patrons’ songs, we took the microphones to belt out “Gimme Three Steps” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The perfect level of blurriness, given our amateur but heartfelt musical abilities. Visiting the Liberty Bell, which is just about as cool as it’s cracked up to be.2
In another photo, I “box out” Andy as if readying for a rebound in basketball. I mean, how often will I get a chance to do that?
Making a pilgrimage to a former FBI branch office that was the site of remarkable civil resistance in 1971. I posted a YouTube video clip here, and it’s also embedded below. More details available in this footnote.3
Paying tribute to another touchstone of 1976 culture, the Rocky Balboa statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Meeting Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers after I posed a few 1976-centric questions to him, as shown in this clip:
Of his exceedingly short and, ultimately, aborted stint with the Boston Red Sox in 1976, Fingers concluded: “I was with the Red Sox for three days. Best three days of my life--I got away from (unpopular and notoriously stingy A’s owner) Charlie Finley for three days.”
Fingers has kept his famous handlebar mustache for nearly 55 years--and as he approaches his 80th birthday next month, he’s maintained an entertaining storytelling panache.
It was all an extraordinary 58th birthday gift, a few days early.
On Wednesday, I spent that sun-circling anniversary driving back from Philadelphia to Chicago…and between returning to work these past two days and surviving the world’s worst air quality as I naively bicycled to and from the gym on Thursday, I’m still somewhat in a fog. I need more time to get my head around it all.
Sometime soon, I’ll take a swing at more detailed takeaways from the adventure. For now, these blurbs will have to suffice.
Twenty-six months back
I wrote a haiku column4
Time for a brief one again…
Ode to This Reign of Error (two days early)
If you know, you know
18 down, 30 to go
Keep faith, keep fighting
One of the cool things to come out of Andy’s podcast, so far, was its appearance last week in Podcast News Daily’s “The Weekly Download: What’s New in Podcasts This Week.” It appears right after one by baseball star (and all-around cool human being) Mookie Betts and right before a star-studded series on Peacock.
I couldn’t resist making that crack. If you still don’t get it, that’s OK. Try Google.
Did you see the video clip we shot at the former FBI branch office in Media, Pa.? For those more inclined to read, here’s the description I included with the video clip on YouTube:
Matt Baron shares about a fascinating, pivotal chapter in U.S. history that played out at 1 Veterans Square in Media, Pa. in 1971---and in the aftermath of that burglary committed by a group called the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI. The story is splendidly told in "The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI," by Betty Medsger. On March 8, 1971, timed to coincide with the night that Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had a title boxing bout--when security details would be distracted from their duties--a group of intrepid U.S. citizens burglarized the FBI branch office in Media, Pennsylvania to find files that eventually blew the lid off the FBI's longstanding practice of committing illegal domestic surveillance on numerous citizens. J. Edgar Hoover was at the end of a half-century reign as FBI director and the fallout from this burglary was the beginning of the end for Hoover. "The Burglary" is an outstanding account with elements that include bringing accountability to people in power, fighting injustice and the impact that people can make when they apply creativity and resourcefulness to address a problem.
By the way, and particularly for longtime readers of The Inside Edge, I invite you to take a look at some of the haikus from May 18, 2024. One is about my other brother, Phil, during a most difficult time in our relationship. It concludes this way:
At least he’s alive
One day at a time, they say
Hit bottom soon, bro.
So grateful, some 800 days later, that we’re in a much better place as he nears the two-year anniversary of being alcohol- and drug-free.
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