Whittier College opens Institute for Baseball Studies.

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by sirjamesm, Jan 16, 2015.

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  1. sirjamesm

    sirjamesm New Member

  2. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Interesting project . . . but what an odd assortment of speakers at the opening ceremony. The world of baseball was represented by the founder of the Eddie Gaedel Institute (I trust he kept it short), Casey Stengel's grandniece, and the head of the Baseball Reliquary.
     
  3. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Wasn't Whittier Dick Nixon's alma mater?
     
  4. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Nixon earned a bachelor's degree from Whittier College, and a law degree from Duke University. However, neither school seems particularly anxious to advertise the connection today..

    Nixon played on the football team at Whittier, and was supposedly a lifelong baseball fan.
     
  5. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Dick Nixon's birthday was January 9th. Were he still alive, he would have been 102 years old, but he died in 1994 at the age of 81 years old.
     
  6. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Less than 48 hours after Millard Fillmore. Do we need any more proof that astrology works?!
     
  7. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Yes, Millard Filmore was born January 7, 1800, the first president born in theb 1800s.
     
  8. sirjamesm

    sirjamesm New Member

    He also had his first law office about 3 blocks away from Whittier College. They don't overly advertise him as an alumnus but they do include him in the literature and they do take pride in him. He was also one of the co-founders of one of the Whittier College Societies (local fraternities and sororities). There is a story that goes around that when it was time to start planning for his presidential library he contacted Whittier College as his first choice, but the faculty, who had a lot of power back then, voted against it. According to the accounts Nixon was deeply saddened by this and said that he had no friends left.

    Looking back from a revisionist perspective, I can't believe they passed up on an opportunity that would of led to a lot of positive financial and research opportunities for the college.

    As for the grand opening, they also had the local congresswoman present for it.
     
  9. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Is no one going to notice my clever (well, at least I thought so) Eddie Gaedel reference?
     

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