MECHANICVILLE – Dominick F. Zappone, 91, of Saratoga Ave., died Tuesday evening at St. Mary’s Hospital, after a brief illness.
A native and lifelong resident of Mechanicville, born July 7, 1921, son of the late Michael and Mary Veraldi Zappone, and was a 1941 graduate of Mechanicville High School. After high school, Dom enlisted during WWII in the US Army Air Corps and served in the Azores.
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THIS MONTH IN THE CIVIL WAR - JANUARY 1863
News of the victory at Stones River was greeted with a sigh of relief by President Abraham Lincoln. He wired General William Rosecrans “I can never forget, whilst I remember anything, that you gave us a hard earned victory which, had there been a defeat instead, the nation could hardly have lived over.”
The president had been under increasing criticism for the failures in the war, and many northerners were grumbling that it should be given up. The victory in Tennessee gave Lincoln a small measure of support in his determination to save the Union.
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The 30th year of the Arms Fair sponsored by the New East Coast Arms Collectors Associates (NEACA) and David Petronis, owner of Hudson River Trading Company, located in Mechanicville NY, drew a larger than ever crowd this year as the topic of gun control continues to spark national controversy. Thousands flocked to the Saratoga Springs City Center at 522 Broadway on Saturday and Sunday to be a part of the action in Saratoga. People in support of and in opposition to the Fair and gun control in general, came out this weekend. Some came to attend the Arms Fair that offers a host of collectibles including memorabilia, guns, knives and antiques, while others came out to support or participate in the peaceful demonstrations held outside the city center.
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BALLSTON SPA, Jan. 9 ñ The crowd was much smaller that a recent public meeting, but the voices were as strong, for a public hearing before the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors in advance of their scheduled vote this Tuesday on the transfer of Maplewood Manor to a Local Development Corporation (LDC) that will manage its intended sale to a private operator.
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MECHANICVILLE – Abel F. Aldrich, longtime resident died Thursday evening at Saratoga Hospital Hospice, after a brief illness.
Born in Troy, January 17, 1954, son of John and Margaret Butterfield Aldrich, Abel attended local schools.
A woodworker and painter and handyman, Abe worked for a number of contractors and for himself over the years.
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When the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) vote was counted last week and nobody was elected to the Hall of Fame this year, it signaled a tipping point in the ongoing debate about performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in baseball. With Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens appearing on the ballot for the first time, and receiving just 36.2% and 37.6% of the vote, respectively (it takes 75% for enshrinement), the writers have made a statement. It can’t be argued, based on numbers alone, that Bonds isn’t in the top 5 position players of all time and Clemens isn’t a top 5 pitcher. Absent suspicion of PED abuse, each would have been a first ballot lock. Remember, neither has admitted (wink, wink) to knowingly using PEDs, despite mountains of evidence. They’ve been convicted, and rightfully so in my eyes, in only the court of public opinion. More interesting to me is the case of Mike Piazza, who received 57.8% of the vote in his first time on the ballot. Other than rumors and innuendo, Piazza has never been formally linked to PED use. His numbers at the catcher position certainly make him Hall of Fame worthy, but suspicions in the PED era cast a wide net.
There has been so much debate about how to handle the PED era in documenting the history of baseball. More than any other sport, baseball is anchored by its history and its numbers. Both have been severely tainted by the widespread use of PEDs from the mid- to late-1990s through the early 2000s. The culpability is widespread: Bud Selig and the owners turned a blind eye; the players’ association worked far harder to protect the dirty players than they did the clean ones; and fans and baseball media alike ignored obvious evidence of PED use, such as Brady Anderson going from 15 homeruns to 50 homeruns overnight, and Bonds’s head doubling in size. It is for this last reason that I think the BBWAA is taking the stance it is now. They missed the boat on this completely. They were in these locker rooms, covering these teams coast to coast, and they somehow either missed the rampant PED abuse or chose to ignore it. From a journalistic standpoint, it is inexcusable. They are collectively tainted by the stain as well. This is the writer’s chance to exert some measure of revenge.
The debate has raged since the vote as to whether no one getting into the Hall of Fame this year is a good thing or a bad thing for baseball. My opinion is that it is a good thing. I don’t agree that you should “just put everyone in and tell the story on the plaque”. The Hall of Fame is, at its core, a museum of baseball history, and artifacts from Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Sosa, et al., are prevalently displayed - Including the ball that Bonds hit for his 756th homerun, breaking Hank Aaron’s record, that is now emblazoned with a large asterisk (placed there by the ball’s eventual owner, fashion designer Mark Ecko). This history of the PED era can be told in other parts of the museum, but to honor those individuals either implicated in or strongly suspected of using PEDs with a bronze bust and induction ceremony would be wrong. Are there cheaters already enshrined? Undoubtedly so. And if a player such as Piazza never did anything wrong and is being wrongly persecuted, that is too bad. But the clean players had their chance to stand up during this period to clean up the game and did nothing.
So I applaud the BBWAA for sending this message. I hope Bonds and Clemens are never enshrined. Because if they are awarded the honor, knowing what we know, what kind of message would that be sending?
It has been said that “war is hell”. The American Civil War certainly was, but it did have its lighthearted moments, too.
In the closing days of December, 1862, Union General William Rosecrans with his 40,000-man Army of the Cumberland was approaching Murfreesboro, Tennessee with a plan to drive Confederate General Braxton Bragg and his 35,000-man Army of Tennessee out of the state. Bragg’s forces were encamped just north of Murfreesboro astride Stones River. On December 30, even though his advancing troops and supply wagons were under continual raiding from Confederate cavalry units who swept around their rear, Rosecrans, whose army had marched from Nashville, had closed to within two miles of Murfreesboro. He halted his army to make camp just a few hundred yards from the rebel camps.
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