Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Ceremonial "First Pitch" - Opening Day 1962

This is a very cool photo combining two of my interests, politics and baseball.  The photo was taken at RFK Stadium in DC as the President was throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to kick off the 1962 baseball season.  I was age 14.

This is a great photo for identifying Washington power brokers of the day.  I can name 8. See if you know any more.

From left to right: In white raincoat and fedora, the President's very close friend and Navy pal, Paul Fey (he was Secretary of the Navy for a short time), Abe Ribicoff, U. S Senator from Connecticut, Larry O'Brien, JFK Chief of Staff and current, long-time NBA commissioner, Arthur Goldberg, U. S. UN Ambassador, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, House Speaker Hale Boggs, Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, and Treasury Secretary, Douglas Dillon (lower right corner).

It was quite an time in Washington, albeit short-lived, the era of "Camelot", it was said.

(Correction:  After seeing blog, friend Tom Huston, high-level aide in the Nixon White House, indicates that, actually, Arthur Goldberg was Secretary of Labor and subsequently an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court during JFK's administration. LBJ named him UN Ambassador in 1965, three years after this photograph of him in the President's entourage`, to get him off the court to make way for Abe Fortas).

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive

Followers