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Published on 09/07/1998 All articles from this issue

Presidential historian offers timely views, and baseball, too

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By Clyde Noel

Special to the Town Crier

Doris Kearns Goodwin's appearance at the Foothill Celebrity Forum last Friday couldn't have been more timely. The presidential historian and the nation's best-known female baseball fan said it will be a week that will go down in history.

"When McGwire hit 62 home runs, everyone in baseball behaved with class. All the players were brothers that day," Goodwin said. "Sadly, in the second drama there wasn't the same feeling, because (President Bill) Clinton destroyed his legacy over a lack of moral fiber. The day will come when a person of dignity will again return to the oval office, and we will feel good about our political leaders just like we feel about McGwire hitting 62 home runs.

"We don't understand how we got here so quickly (Kenneth Starr's report)," Goodwin said, "but the frenzy is going to take us down a path we may not wish to go. Some of the language of impeachment is reminiscent of the Nixon (resignation) and will depend on how the public feels about impeachment - but there must be some form of censure.

"Take a deep breath and ask: Is this really where we want to go or is it that Clinton can no longer govern? Clinton will not resign. It is not in his temperament. He has two years left in office and it will be a long dragged out process if there is impeachment."

Goodwin said not all our presidents had affairs, but those who did were not in office.

"I can understand the situation very well because I was a 24-year-old White House intern during the LBJ administration," she mentioned in jest.

Goodwin has acquired a sterling reputation and a Pulitzer Prize for writing about Lyndon Johnson, the Kennedys, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Now she is receiving accolades for her latest book, "Wait Till Next Year," a memoir about her growing up in the 1950s and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Her love affair with the Dodgers began in 1949 when she was 6 years old and her father gave her a baseball scorebook.

In a rapid delivery, Goodwin told about growing up in Rockville Center, Long Island, a middle-class enclave where the residents were devoted to three values: family, faith and baseball. Neighborhood households differed because of different loyalties.

As a 7-year-old Brooklyn Dodger fan, Goodwin made a confession to her Catholic priest that she prayed Allie Reynolds, the Yankee pitcher, would break his arm. She also prayed that Enos Slaughter of the Cards would break his ankle and Phil Rizzuto would fracture a rib. All the injuries would go away after the baseball season ended, of course.

The Catholic priest was also a Dodger fan with a sense of humor and told her to just say a couple of "Hail Mary's."

Writing her memoirs made her feel closer to her parents than she had in a long time. Her mother died when Doris was a teen-ager, and her father died in 1972.

"It's like they're back again. In some ways the greatest impulse to write history is to tell the stories of the people in the past. You really feel like they're still here," Goodwin said.

Goodwin now lives in Concord, Mass. and the family has season tickets to the Boston Red Sox.

"Rooting for the Red Sox is an emotional thing. I want them to take the wild-card playoff spot and then win the World Series. But the Yankees this year are so incredible - I hope they can't keep it up," Goodwin said.

But as a longtime baseball fan, she knows she better not get her hopes too high on the Red Sox. And if they don't make it this year, she is used to waiting till next year.

The next Celebrity Forum speaker will be Bill Bradley. For more information about the forum, call 949-7176.