November 5, 2003
\nColumn 151
\n\u201cDon\u2019t Know Much About H-I-S-T-O-R-Y…\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Back in tenth grade I nearly flunked Western Civilization. This is because I thought the world began in the Wild West, somewhere among the buffalo on the other side of the Mississippi River. John Wayne was in charge.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t care then and I sure as hell don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s ass now to know anything about what happened eons ago near the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers. This is especially so today — now that I\u2019ve learned this confluence is somewhere near Bagdad. Yep, the world began in Iraq. George Bush has blown the \u201ccradle of civilization\u201d into smithereens.<\/p>\n
Like Sam Cooke, I might not know much about history. But it does concern me that in a recent column I may have contributed — inadvertently I assure you — to a misrepresentation of an important historical event.<\/p>\n
So let me correct the error right now…<\/p>\n
It is simply NOT TRUE that the Pilgrims were transvestites.<\/p>\n
Actually, it turns out that some of the information in my column \u201cPhiladelphia Moments\u201d may not have been accurate.<\/p>\n
Part of that story recounted a darts match contested almost thirty years ago between two international teams comprised of the greats of our sport at the time. England and America faced off in New York City. The Americans won. Afterwards, Philadelphia\u2019s Ray Fischer toed-the-line in a major money game against the legendary Alan Evan\u2019s and kicked his ass.<\/p>\n
In the article I suggested that the England team was weak. I wrote that John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Bobby George, Leighton Rees and Jocky Wilson were not there.<\/p>\n
Sounds accurate, but it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
As it has since been put to me: \u201cJohn was still a total unknown and didn\u2019t even make his first major television appearance until the TV Times Pro-Am in December \u201975. Jocky didn\u2019t play county darts until 1976, the year he also first represented Scotland. Bobby was totally unheard of then and Eric was a 16-year old, who, like Jocky, wasn\u2019t destined to represent his county or national team for another two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
England was represented by a very solid assemblage of their top shooters at the time, including Willie Etherington, Paul Gosling, Ken Brown, Cliff Inglis, Alan Glazier and Evans. AND, it turns out that Leighton Rees WAS there. The Americans beat a damn good team.<\/p>\n
I wrote that Philadelphia\u2019s great Al Lippman was not among those shooting for the Americans and that Frank Ennis was. I have received information which suggests I had reality reversed: that Lippman was there (and \u201cbeat Inglis in straight legs\u201d) and Ennis wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Finally, I wrote that the final score of the match was 11-7. I am now told that the score was 9-6.<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say I am embarrassed to know that I may have contributed to an historical record that is not entirely accurate.<\/p>\n
I spoke with several people who were in attendance. But memories fade.<\/p>\n
I uncovered a handful of written accounts, albeit very brief, of the event. Where accounts conflicted I went with the information I could corroborate.<\/p>\n
On balance, I felt that the words I wrote were accurate.<\/p>\n
But these are not excuses.<\/p>\n
My responsibility is to get ALL of the facts right. I did not.<\/p>\n
I apologize.<\/p>\n
From the Field,<\/p>\n
Dartoid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in tenth grade I nearly flunked Western Civilization. This is because I thought the world began in the Wild West, somewhere among the buffalo on the other side of the Mississippi River. John Wayne was in charge.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t care then and I sure as hell don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s ass now to know anything about what happened eons ago near the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers. This is especially so today — now that I\u2019ve learned this confluence is somewhere near Bagdad. Yep, the world began in Iraq. George Bush has blown the \u201ccradle of civilization\u201d into smithereens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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H-I-S-T-O-R-Y...\u201d","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[15],"class_list":["post-6900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dartoid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":2563,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=520%2C311&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=520%2C311&ssl=1",520,311,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=300%2C179&ssl=1",300,179,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=520%2C311&ssl=1",520,311,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=520%2C311&ssl=1",520,311,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=520%2C311&ssl=1",520,311,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?fit=520%2C311&ssl=1",520,311,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-1-1.png?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Dartoid","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/dartoid\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Back in tenth grade I nearly flunked Western Civilization. This is because I thought the world began in the Wild West, somewhere among the buffalo on the other side of the Mississippi River. John Wayne was in charge. I didn\u2019t care then and I sure as hell don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s ass now to know…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":15,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dartoid","display_name":"Dartoid","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2024-02-13-12_01_31-Dartoids-World-_-The-most-widely-read-column-about-darts-in-the-world.png","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2024-02-13-12_01_31-Dartoids-World-_-The-most-widely-read-column-about-darts-in-the-world.png"},"first_name":"Paul","last_name":"Seigel","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"\"Dartoid\" is the pseudonym of Paul Seigel, a prominent chronicler of darts for over 35 years. His columns are celebrated for their wit and insight, often detailing his quest for a game in exotic locales worldwide. His writing offers vibrant commentary on the competitive darts landscape, including players, organizations, tournaments and the sport's unique culture. Dartoid's articles are highly regarded among darts enthusiasts, solidifying his role as a pivotal figure in promoting and documenting darts as both a recreational pastime and professional sport."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6900"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}