Runs from Brooklyn, NY, to Providence, RI, to Dallas, TX?
That surprising question opens this Society member profile, and I hope you will read to the end to discover my answer. You may have followed the Cooperstown Hall of Fame vote last month, which I chose not to address because of my long-standing protest over the current concept. Fame, Fortune, Fallen, Fractured, Failure: 2013 HOF vote gets an “F” – BEST AMERICAN BASEBALL EXPERTS SOCIETY (wordpress.com). But that does not prevent me from touting the outstanding accomplishments of a Society member or his serendipitous connection to baseball greatness, all of which deserves enshrinement somewhere. Why not in B.A.B.E.S. lore?
Charles L. “Chip” Babcock is my law partner and a three-time runner-up in our competition for the James L. Walker Award (2023, 2020, 2018). But as you will read below, Chip is not used to finishing second.
(Chip in Cooperstown in July, 2014, to see Eric Nadel receive the Ford C. Frick Award)
Indeed, Chip has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s top litigators and has garnered many awards from many distinguished trial groups along the way. There are likely more achievements to come as he continues to practice full-time, but the interesting storyline to me is that despite all of his success in a notoriously adversarial profession, Chip remains a down-to-earth, hail-fellow-well-met, in the truest sense of the terms. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/down-to-earth#:~:text=2-,%3A%20unpretentious,down%2Dto%2Dearthness%20noun; Hail-fellow-well-met Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster. That is exceedingly rare in the modern world of Rambo litigation. The Professionalism Crises – The “Z” Words and Other Rambo Tactics: The Conference of Chief Justices’ Solution (sc.edu). For just one example of Chip’s sense of humor and apparent humility, see this picture he sent me for the profile with the reference: “My Cousins”:
(I doubt the familial relationship. These mascots look like they have patronized UberEats more often than the outfield sponsor, UberJets, which is probably one of Chip’s clients. Perhaps that is who he was referring to!)
Interestingly, Chip’s path has paralleled that of another congenial guy, one of my favorite persons to listen to and to write about – Eric Nadel. These two boys from Brooklyn have both made good – hall-of-fame good – in their own likeable style, and their respective professions are much better for their efforts. Most of us know that New York’s drinking water tastes great, Why New York’s tap water is called ‘the champagne of drinking water’ – Curbed, but it must have even more salutary powers in Brooklyn. I have more to say about that mystery below, along with my usual responsive commentary, but first you should read Chip’s answers to my seven-question stretch.
1. Favorite Team: Red Sox since 1967
2. Traitor? Yes. Dodgers 1949-1967
3. Earliest Baseball memory: At Ebbets Field in Brooklyn where my dad allowed me to get a hot dog by myself at age 5. (Wouldn’t happen today in New York I don’t think). I saw Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo and Don Newcombe play from my grandfather’s box seats on the third base line. Hilda Chester, a legendary Brooklyn Dodgers fan, would ring cow bells during the game to the great annoyance of my grandfather who she named “the grouch”.
4. Greatest Baseball Memory: The Hall of Fame game in Cooperstown between the Rangers and Kansas City Royals the year Nolan and George Brett were inducted. Rangers were treating it like the exhibition game that it was and put reserve catcher Geoff Zahn in right field where he made friends with the well served fans in the bleachers. When Zahn, a left handed hitter, came to bat the bleachers started roaring “Call Your Shot”. “Call Your Shot”. Zahn calmly asked for time and stepped out of the box and pointed his bat toward right center. The very next pitch he hit out to right center. Bleachers went wild. After the game the Kansas City pitcher was asked whether he grooved one to Geoff and he denied it, claiming that Zahn hit a nasty slider.
5. Worst Baseball Memory: Bill Buckner, 1986 World Series.
6. Preference For Listening To Game: Radio, especially when my friend, college classmate and fraternity brother Eric Nadel is calling the game. I hired Eric for his first broadcasting job at WBRU in Providence, Rhode Island.
7. Profession and If I Could Call My Shot: Attorney. Is this like a “Damn Yankees” scenario where I have to make a deal with the Devil? In any event, I wouldn’t do it. First, I love my job, but second when you play the game or work in it that’s your work, you can’t really sit back and enjoy it. I felt that when I was a sportswriter before law school. When it’s your job sometimes the romance of the game disappears.
Commissioner’s Commentary:
1. and 2. Well, despite Chip’s admission to being a traitor, my view is that one can hardly make such a judgment on a kid from Brooklyn who transferred his allegiance from the Dodgers to the Red Sox in 1967. First, the Dodgers, as almost any baseball fan knows, were the traitors, or at least their owner Walter O’Malley was. He caused the team to leave Flatbush for Chavez Ravine after the 1957 season, ten years before Chip’s change in allegiance. Of course, the Dodgers’ move west was supported by the typical owner complaint that the ballpark was crumbling and the fan base fickle:
Ebbets Field Draws A Small Crowd – 1952 (stuffnobodycaresabout.com).
(Chip, is that you and your grandfather in the front row behind the third-base coaching box?)
As I am sure Chip knows, there was a ten-year battle between O’Malley and NYC planning czar Robert Moses over the location of a new park. Just why did the Dodgers and Giants move from New York to California? | MLB.com. (Would it have really been the same for Chip and all Dodger fans, anyway, if O’Malley had built the first domed ballpark where the Nets’ Barclay’s Arena now stands?) Ultimately, O’Malley was perfectly happy to be “forced” into a move westward, and to take his cross-borough-rival Giants with him. (O’Malley was nevertheless enshrined in Cooperstown, but not until 2008, thirty years after his death, and over forty years after his GM Branch Rickey was so honored. HOF voters have long memories, and apparently hold grudges….)
Under these circumstances no one should describe as a “traitor” a kid from Brooklyn who not only held onto his Dodger’s allegiance after moving to Florida as a pre-schooler in 1955, but continued to support the Los Angeles Dodgers until 1967 when he moved back up the coast to Providence to attend Brown University. To me, this describes childhood loyalty and a steady maturation process. And it is perfectly understandable that a new Ivy Leaguer with dreams of athletic stardom should choose that time to reevaluate his professional sporting preferences. (It turns out Chip was better at rowing on the water for the crew team than he was at running on the hardwood for the basketball team).
Chip’s early adulthood transformation into a Red Sox fan following his return to the northeast was particularly appropriate when you remember what was happening in Boston in the fall of 1967. 1967 Baseball History – This Great Game. The opposite was happening in the Bronx, 1967 New York Yankees Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com, but I am certain that Chip never even considered supporting NYY after once having been a Dodgers fan. His decision about where to transfer his allegiance was no doubt cemented when Chip moved to Boston for law school in 1973. Subsequently, despite having spent his entire legal career based in Texas, starting out in Dallas but living longer in Houston, Chip has never switched his full allegiance from BOS to either TEX or HOU. So, definitely, no traitor he.
(Speaking of traitors…. Clemens is one of Chip’s many celebrity clients, and one who Chip tells me he truly admires despite Roger turning his back on both the Red Sox and the Astros, as well as other questionable decisions Roger may have made over the course of his career. Chip’s view certainly raises my opinion, but still….”)
3., 4., and 5. This is the first profile in which I get to combine my comments on the member’s “earliest”, “best” and “worst” baseball memories. First, as to Chip’s earliest memory, we can all smile and feel a little nostalgic about the excitement of a 5-year old going to get his own hot dog at the ballpark while his dad continues to watch the game! I agree that no parent or grandparent could permit that to happen today in NYC, or any other park around MLB, which is definitely a cause for nostalgia and a reminder of our lost innocence. But, on the brighter side and more noteworthy, look at that line-up of Hall-of-Famers and Almost-Hall-of-Famers that Chip got to see! And he didn’t even mention a deserving one from my hometown. Carl Erskine Will Receive Hall of Fame’s Buck O’Neil Award – The New York Times (nytimes.com). It is more rewarding, I think, to look back on the stars that you got to see play when you were a child, than it is getting to see star players today that you expect will someday be enshrined in Cooperstown. This is particularly so when you question why certain borderline modern players are in the Hall and many deserving vintage (and some modern) players aren’t. (But I have expressed that complaint in my earlier post, and it does not need to be rehashed here.)
In addition to great players, Chip’s recounting of his childhood visits to Ebbets Field introduced me to a Brooklyn baseball figure I had never heard of – the now obscure Howlin’ Hilda. Hilda Chester (1960) on Dodgers and Baseball – YouTube.
The Enigma of Hilda Chester – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org) Apparently, she was a big deal in her day and in Chip’s childhood, and she even has a statue in Cooperstown!
We should congratulate Chip’s grandfather for getting under Hilda’s skin enough to earn his own place among “Dem Bums”. From the attendance shown in the Ebbets Field photo above, Hilda surely could have been heard calling him “Grouch” throughout the ballpark, and perhaps all around Flatbush.
As to Chip’s best and worst memories, I have to say that I am a bit surprised and a little saddened. I am saddened by his singling out Bill Buckner. Game 6 of the 1986 series was, of course, the focal point of the 86 years between BOS’s world championships, from 1918-2004. Like Chip and all other Red Sox fans (not to mention Buckner himself), I personally wish that the play that ruined the second half of Buckner’s life and prolonged the Curse of the Babe had never happened. Bill Buckner’s baseball legacy took too long to change (nypost.com). But even though it did, I don’t believe it deserves to be singled out from all other hapless plays over 86 years (!) of frustration, even though I understand the fixation that Red Sox fans had on that particular moment. It even makes marginally more sense than Chicago’s hatred for Steve Bartman. What happened to Steve Bartman? The story of 2003 Cubs foul ball incident and where he is now | Sporting News. But, still, it all seems so unfair, if not totally irrational. I guess that is why we embrace the term “fan” – short for “fanatic”. I have been guilty of some of that transference in my own life, I admit.
What I am surprised about, however, and completely delighted by, is that Chip did not pick October 27, 2004, as his greatest baseball memory. That was the night the Babe’s Curse and Buckner’s were vanquished by BOS’s four-game sweep of STL in the World Series. It also ended Chip’s then nearly 40-years of disappointment, as well as that of five generations of Red Sox fans. It surely was a night to remember for all Red Sox Nation, including the now-accomplished lawyer, but instead Chip chooses to commemorate a light-hearted moment that took place in baseball’s mythical Valhalla, in a contest that was played purely for the love of the game, and which mimicked one of the game’s greatest legends, which itself is perhaps a myth. The Babe’s Called Shot | Baseball Hall of Fame.
I can think of only two things in that setting that might be more entertaining than journeyman catcher Gregg Zaun doing a Babe Ruth impersonation (and note that it was Gregg Zaun, not Geoff Zahn, as Chip states in his answers. Chip’s a very busy man and obviously did not have time to fact check his erroneous reference to G. Zahn the pitcher rather than G. Zaun the catcher). My first fantasy would be Nolan Ryan plunking George Brett and Brett charging the mound to receive Ryan’s “Robin Ventura” treatment. 26 year old Robin Ventura fights 46 year old Nolan Ryan, a breakdown short (youtube.com). The second would be Brett hitting a home run off of Ryan only to have it disallowed for having too much pine tar on his bat. George Brett and the pine tar incident (youtube.com). (Nolan might also pummel Brett for his wild protest to the umpires, and the umpires might not stop him. Remember, Ryan was not ejected from the game even after pounding Ventura!) But despite the place those two actual events hold in MLB lore, or as entertaining as my re-imagined versions would be, I still like Chip’s simple story.
The pure joy of the moment for the fans, not to mention for Gregg Zaun, exemplifies why we love sports. I even found a Youtube video featuring Zaun at the game; the fan did not actually capture the Called Shot, which of course is appropriate to a reenactment of Babe’s legend. 1999 Hall of Fame Game. Rangers vs. Royals. Zaun Called Shot Game (youtube.com). My guess is that Gregg has never been back to Cooperstown since then, for any purpose. Gregg Zaun Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com. In classic baseball irony, however, Zaun left the Rangers after the 1999 season and played the next two years for the Royals! I wonder if he caught any games for Jeff Austin, the pitcher who threw the “nasty slider” on his called shot. Austin appeared in 21 games for KCR in 2001. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/austije01.shtml. Interestingly, I found this report of the event and Austin claimed it was a fastball, not a slider. A Measure of fame – Zaun calls his shot — Rangerfans.com. Mystery surrounds this re-enactment of the “called shot” just as it does the historical event. Did Babe Ruth call his shot? (mlb.com).
6. and 7. So, we finally arrive at my answer to the title question. If you were reading carefully, you noted the amazing facts in Chip’s answer to question 6. He not only knows Rangers’ Hall-of-Fame announcer Eric Nadel, but they were fraternity brothers at Brown, and Chip even hired Eric at WBRU in Providence for his first job in sports journalism. I may have known this connection from my nearly twenty years acquaintance with Chip, but I certainly did not recall it before reading Chip’s answers. Of course, I didn’t doubt Chip’s recollection, but it is compelling to see the verification of their connections right here in the People’s Encyclopedia. Charles L. Babcock – Wikipedia. Eric Nadel – Wikipedia. (I believe Chip is the only Society member with a Wiki page, but please correct me if I am mistaken. Don’t be shy.)
What Chip did not mention in his answers but that we learn from Wikipedia is that he and Eric both hail from Brooklyn, the land of the magic tap-water. Add to these facts their subsequent brotherhood at and graduation from Brown and their rise to the top of their professions in Texas, and you can see why I arrived at the conclusion that the road to the Hall of Fame runs through Brooklyn and Providence and Dallas. Eric received the equivalent of a broadcaster’s election into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame in 2014 when he received the Ford C. Frick Award. Chip’s work has been recognized by essentially every professional bar organization in this country and beyond, most notably the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. First Amendment Lawyer Chip Babcock | Home.
Being great at your profession is one thing, but being an ambassador for it is another. (Just ask that other Commissioner, who we now know is a lame duck leader. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2786598-rob-manfred-mlb-cant-market-mike-trout-because-he-wont-help-market-himself. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39533514/rob-manfred-says-retire-mlb-commissioner-2029.) I am struck by Chip’s fulfillment of both roles – “I love my job….” – even as he approaches nearly fifty years of excellence at the bar. With forty years in the profession myself, I am not sure which surprised me more – that Chip still loves the practice or that he can still do it with such vigor.
Clearly, the legal profession is better for his commitment, but I can’t help but wonder what kind of GM Chip would have made. Or even better, what kind of color man he would make alongside his fellow Brooklynite, Brown Bear and fraternity brother, Eric Nadel? No doubt thousands of fans would have been just as engaged by Chip’s commentary on baseball as dozens of juries and judges have been persuaded by his explication of the law. Despite his assertion otherwise, I also think he would have continued to find joy in the sports work he began in the early ‘70s, just as he has in the practice of law in the ‘80’s, 90’s, 00’s, 10’s, and ‘20’s. (I write it like that to underscore the amazing duration of Chip’s career.)
This thought takes me back to 1967, the year Chip arrived at Brown in search of a career in sports journalism. The Red Sox had a pretty good team in the booth that year, as well as on the field. https://sabr.org/journal/article/joe-castiglione-remembering-the-1967-red-sox-broadcast-team/; 1967 Red Sox: Yaz and the Triple Crown – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org) It must have been an exciting year for a young and new BOS fan.
(I wonder if Yaz’s glove is in Cooperstown?)
As lawyers, we don’t have the tools of our trade such as a glove or bat to serve as commemorative objects. We don’t even have gavels that are often used to honor judges. But what we can create as a remembrance is a reputation for skill and integrity and good humor. That is the legal profession’s triple crown, and Chip has surely won it.
© 2024
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