Eyewitness to History

I like tapintoamerica's Easter Sunday pick.

I'd add being on the scene for the Sermon on the Mount. The impact of Jesus cannot be overstated, not even thousands of years later, and to imagine being a contemporary, and, hopefully, realizing the import and privilege of that at the time...well...I'd just hope that was the case.

I'd also have put myself on the Enola Gay, flying over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, if I could -- not for revenge but just because of the enormity of the event, and the responsibility that I imagine that plane's crew felt, particularly after seeing what they'd done.

On a smaller scale, if I could sing -- and I can, a little bit -- I'd also have loved to have participated in the "We Are The World" anthem alongside all those amazing recording artists.

 

1932 World Series - Yankees vs. Cubs - did Babe Ruth really call his shot.

 

Greedo.

 

Seeing the French fleet off the coast of Yorktown surrounding Cornwallis. I visited Yorktown, saw Redoubt No. 10 where the Brits surrendered. A truly amazing place to stand. I do wonder though - when these monumental things happen, I'm fairly certain they don't appear THAT monumental. Rosa Parks on the bus. The Watergate break-in, Revere's Midnight Ride. Even the Boston Tea Party or the Massacre...

 

Visiting the Being John Malkovich Portal would be interesting.

 

Not sure if you're referring to my last eyewitness-participation thing, in general, or my singing ability compared to the other recording artists -- maybe both? -- but, well, I do apparently live life on the smaller scale, so I thought I'd throw that little, relatively humble thing out there as it popped into my head...

 

I was thinking the Merkle game too, both to see how close he came to touching second base, and to see the riot afterward.

Others:


* Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

* A special viewing of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater on one night in mid-April 1865.

* VE Day and VJ Day in 1945. I'd have to think that those days must have been pure joy if you were an American. Also, to be at the Polo Grounds to watch the Football Giants play the Football Dodgers when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Must have been surreal.

* The Boston Tea Party. Maybe I would even throw in a chest or two of tea into the harbor for giggles and shits.

* Jackie Robinson's debut with the Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

* Be in the locker room to see Bret Hart confront Vince McMahon after the Montreal Screwjob.

* As also mentioned, Game 6 of the 1986 World Series

* MSG in 1983 to see Superfly Snuka's leap off the top of the steel cage and land on the Magnificent Muraco.

I'm sure others will come to mind.

 

I FTFY Messter Son Of Beetch.

 

Casual observer in the corner of the locker room after this:

 

I don't think Merkle came anywhere near touching second base. The thing is, what he did had been allowed in MLB up to that point, kind of like the old neighborhood play. The Cubs tried the same thing against Pittsburgh a week or two before that, and the league turned down their appeal.

Prior to the Merkle appeal, a force was never called in that situation. Then, they arbitrarily change what had been permissible into something that wasn't, with about a week to go in the season. Sort of like the NHL in the 1998 playoffs, allowing Hull's OT goal on a play that was against the rules all season.

 

The Easter stuff interests me - I think the part of the Gospels that most fascinates me is when Pontius Pilot is asking the crowd who they want to "pardon" and they choose a lowlife over Jesus. Was it a dumb decision? Was it all part of "the plan"? If Jesus was freed then, Christianity doesn't happen?