The Defiant Ones is About Bondage & Brotherhood

 

This evening, I ventured to the Coolidge Corner Theatre to take in a special screening of The Defiant Ones starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.

This screening is one of several being shown in homage of Poitier's work along with Lilies in the Field and A Raisin in the Sun.

Following Poitier's passing in 2022, I attended screenings at the Brattle Theatre for Blackboard Jungle and would then spend a weekend watching Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, To Sir, With Love and In the Heat of the Night. 

I had viewed all four films previously in TV, but never on the big screen. Although I have long been aware of The Defiant Ones and its basic premise, I had never seen it before.

For those who are unfamiliar with the basic premise of The Defiant Ones, Poitier and Curtis portray two prisoners (Noah Cullen and John "Joker" Jackson) who manage to escape when their truck is involved in an accident but are handcuffed to one another. Indeed, it was a template The Fugitive would follow just over five years later to great success.

Of course, The Fugitive only had one protagonist. In this case, the two protagonists are black and white and do not care for the other. This might be old hat to some and DEI to others, but in 1958 this was a groundbreaking film. Indeed, perhaps a little too groundbreaking. Although it was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and a Best Director nomination for Stanley Kramer (who later directed Poitier in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), it only won 2 Academy Awards - one for Best Writing for Nedrick Young and Harold J. Smith and Best Cinematography for Sam Leavitt. Gigi, which was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, went 9-for-9 setting a then record for a single film eclipsing Gone with the Wind.

Now, I haven't seen Gigi so I cannot judge it on its merits, but given the subject matter in The Defiant Ones, I suspect most Academy voters thought a light-hearted musical was the safer choice. While Gigi might be a good film in its own right, The Defiant Ones undoubtedly has more staying power.

From where I sit, The Defiant Ones is mainly about bondage and brotherhood. As Cullen and Jackson are chained together, they have no choice but to rely on each other for survival even if they both resent this fact. Yet after their chains are broken, their bond is not. Cullen reluctantly parts ways with Jackson after he forms a romantic bond with a lonely divorcee played by Cara Williams. But when Jackson discovers that the divorcee has sent Cullen to his death by sending him to the swamps, he sacrifices the possibility of freedom and a new life to see that Cullen doesn't meet a fatal fate. It is here that the two become brothers.

Poitier and Curtis would each receive Best Actor nominations but lost out to David Niven for his performance in Separate Tables. Williams earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination but was bested by Wendy Hiller also in Separate Tables. I would be remiss if I did not mention Theodor Bikel also earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of Sheriff Max Muller. Bikel, too, would not come away with Oscar gold which instead went to Burl Ives in The Big Country. 

I would describe Bikel's performance as a lower key version of Rod Steiger's portrayal of Sheriff Bill Gillespie from In the Heat of the Night nearly a decade later. Sheriff Muller is less volatile yet equally determined to find his men. Bikel portrays Muller with a quiet determined dignity. He will do his duty, but he has no thirst for violence.

Speaking of a thirst for violence, perhaps the scene which had the deeply resonance with a 2026 audience was when Cullen and Jackson are caught by residents of a mining town and are nearly lynched by a mob led by a goon played by Claude Akins. Amid this, Jackson demands to know why they would lynch a white man as if to invoke privilege he did not have the luxury of having. However, the mob is stopped singlehandedly by Big Sam played by of all people, horror movie legend Lon Chaney, Jr. Big Sam dares the town folk to lynch the pair by shaming them with a knife, a rope and a torch. With all that has happened in Minneapolis, we need all the Big Sams we can find.

The Defiant Ones is not only an important part of not only Sidney Poitier's legacy, but among the earliest American films to confront the ugliness of racism in a meaningful way.

Mickey Lolich Was The Greatest Pitcher in The History of The Detroit Tigers

 

I was saddened to learn of the passing of former MLB pitcher Mickey Lolich at the age of 85.

Lolich not only spent the bulk of his 16-year big league career with the Detroit Tigers, but I also think one could make the case he was the greatest pitcher to ever wear a Detroit Tigers uniform.

Now the Tigers have had some great pitchers over the year. Tarik Skubal has won back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards in a Tigers uniform though I suspect he won't be pitching in Detroit for that much longer. 

One can certainly make a case for Hal Newhouser who won back-to-back AL MVPs and came within a heartbeat of winning a third during the mid-1940s. Jack Morris was baseball's winningest pitcher in the 1980s. Of more contemporary vintage is Justin Verlander.  Newhouser and Morris have plaques in Cooperstown and Verlander will one day join them. 

Alas, Lolich is not a Hall of Famer but yet I think his tenure with the Tigers tops them all. Now there have certainly been more spectacular pitchers to wear a Tigers uniform. Lolich's teammate Denny McLain won back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards in 1968 and 1969 including a 31-win season in '68, a feat that will never be replicated again. Then there was Mark "The Bird" Fidrych who had a dream rookie campaign half a century ago. As it happened, Lolich did not get to see The Bird's ascension first-hand as he was pitching in a New York Mets uniform having been traded for Rusty Staub. 

Lolich might not have been as flashy as McLain or The Bird, but their time in the sky was short. The Oregon born southpaw pitched for the Tigers from 1963 to 1975 and his numbers in Detroit cannot be ignored. More than 50 years after he last pitched in a Tigers unform, Lolich is the team's all-time leader in games started (508), shutouts (39) and strikeouts (2679).

His 207 wins are third best in Tigers history behind only Hooks Dauss (223) and George Mullin (209). Mullin pitched for the Tigers from 1902-1913 before jumping to the short-lived Federal League following a brief stint with the Washington Senators while Dauss picked up where Mullin left pitching in Detroit his entire MLB career from 1912-1926. 

Lolich also ranks third in Tigers history in innings pitched (3361.2) behind Dauss and Mullin who had 3390.2 and 3394 innings pitched, respectively. Between 1971 and 1975, Lolich pitched more than 300 innings. In the '71 campaign, Lolich pitched an astounding 376 innings as he finished runner up in AL Cy Young balloting to Vida Blue. The following year, Lolich's innings pitched output as topped by Chicago White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood who threw 376.2 innings. Sadly, Wood passed away last month at the age of 84.

To put Lolich's innings output into perspective, Skubal has never pitched 200 innings in a season while Verlander only pitched more than 250 innings in a season once. Lolich threw 200 or more innings in 12 consecutive seasons topping 250 innings a half dozen times.

Where Lolich made his reputation was during the 1968 World Series during which he threw three complete game victories including a Game 7 triumph over Bob Gibson who had struck out 17 batters in Game 1 of that Fall Classic. Lolich also hit a HR in Game 2. Needless to say, Lolich won the World Series MVP. Roger Maris, who finished his big-league career with the Cardinals, tried to warn his teammates about Lolich after many a tough battle against him in a Yankees uniform. "Forget about McLain, the guy we have to worry about is Mickey Lolich," said Maris to no avail.

Last year, Yoshinobu Yamamoto became the first pitcher since Lolich to win 3 games in a World Series as the Los Angeles Dodgers earned back-to-back titles winning his own well-deserved World Series MVP. While Yamamoto's accomplishment is magnificent, his third win came in relief. Yamamoto did pitch the first World Series complete game in 10 years, but Lolich tossed three complete games and bested Gibson in Game 7 on only two days rest.

Lolich would earn the first of his three AL All-Star Team selections in 1969 undoubtedly owing to his success in the 1968 World Series. Back-to-back AL All-Star Team selections would follow in 1971 and in 1972. Aside from those 376 innings pitched during the '71 season, Lolich also led the AL in wins (25), complete games (29) and strikeouts (308). But Vida Blue was a phenomenon who made the cover of Time Magazine. In 1972, Lolich would finish third in AL Cy Young balloting behind the aforementioned Wilbur Wood and Gaylord Perry, who would win the first of his two Cy Youngs. 

Lolich would continue to be durable but would lose 21 games during the 1974 season. After one more season in Detroit and his one season with the Mets, Lolich retired but came back and pitched out of the bullpen for the San Diego Padres in 1978 and 1979 before retiring for good. In 16 MLB seasons, Lolich made 586 appearances (including 496 career starts) and went 217-191 with a 3.44 ERA striking out 2832 against 1099 walks in 3638.1 innings pitched. 

Between 1985 and 1999, Lolich appeared on the BBWAA ballot but never topped 25% of the vote. Had Lolich pitched in 1977 he could have reached 3000 career strikeouts or come very close. The Veterans Committee last considered his candidacy in 2007. 

When he retired, no left-handed pitcher had more strikeouts. Today, only four southpaws have more career strikeouts - Randy Johnson (4875), Steve Carlton (4136), C.C. Sabathia (3093) and Clayton Kershaw (3052). Johnson, Carlton and Sabathia have plaques in Cooperstown while Kershaw will get one in 2031. 

In some ways, it is probably just as well that Lolich isn't in Cooperstown. Why induct him if he isn't around to enjoy it? I felt quite bittersweet about the Classic Era Baseball Committee's induction of Dick Allen and Dave Parker in December 2024. Allen had already passed and I had a bad feeling Parker wouldn't live long enough to see the ceremony and, indeed, he died less a month before the induction ceremony.

Hall of Fame plaque or not, Mickey Lolich had a wonderful career in baseball and a wonderful life. R.I.P.

Gabbard Confirms FBI Raid on Georgia Election Office Was Ordered by Trump

(Vincent Albans/Reuters)

After the FBI raided a Georgia election office situated in Fulton County to seize ballots, I concluded this was a Trump operation:

Although the raid was conducted by the FBI, it was the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard who was personally present for the operation.

Yet none of this happens without President Trump who continues to insist he did not lose the 2020 presidential election much less lose Georgia. After all, more than 5 years ago it was Trump who demanded Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him 11,780 votes. It would seem that Trump has now formally set this search into motion.

Of course, this is more than about 2020. It is about 2026 and, more importantly, 2028.

Trump wishes to federalize our elections and the Constitution be damned. Most likely, this federalization will be limited to blue states or in state which could vote blue (i.e. Georgia). After it was Attorney General Pam Bondi who offered to have ICE leave Minnesota if Governor Walz provided her with their election rolls. 

Today, Gabbard confirmed that Trump had asked her to accompany the FBI on the raid and also arranged for FBI agents conducting the raid to speak directly with Trump by phone. 

So, why Gabbard and not FBI Director Kash Patel? Because Trump probably thinks Gabbard looks better on TV than Patel. The same could have probably been said for Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem if that pair wasn't so toxic. Then again, last July, Trump himself described Gabbard as the "hottest" member of his Administration. Well, at least we know which head Trump thinks with when it comes to Gabbard.

The point here is that there is no FBI raid on the election office in Georgia without Trump. He set the wheels in motion. And because of that, Trump sees fit to pick any cabinet member he likes to go along on the raid. The FBI, like ICE and the Border Patrol, has ceased to be an independent agency and now operates upon Trump's whims and obsessions namely the 2020 election and his desire to federalize the 2028 election.

Had either President Obama or President Biden directed such an operation much less spoken with FBI agents amid a raid Republicans would be up in arms about it and rightly so. But don't expect Republicans to say boo about Trump initiating this raid much less one of his cabinet members confirming that he directed her to be present at the proceedings. They are not even interested in the appearance or pretense of democracy. 

My Thoughts on Recent Comments by JD Vance & Tim Walz About The Holocaust

Both Vice-President JD Vance and his 2024 opponent in the U.S. presidential race, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, made remarks concerning the Holocaust over the past week which warrant some examination.

First, I will focus on Vance's statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day last Tuesday:

Today we remember the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust, the millions of stories of individual bravery and heroism, and one of the enduring lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history: that while humans create beautiful things and are full of compassion, we’re also capable of unspeakable brutality. And we promise never again to go down the darkest path.

Vance makes no mention of Jews or the anti-Semitic ideology of Nazis who sought to exterminate Jews from the face of the Earth. Sadly, this should come as no surprise as Vance has repeatedly sought fit dismiss and minimize the surge of anti-Semitism in the United States since October 7th. Now Vance is hardly the first elected official to omit mentioning the Jews on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. President Trump himself did so in 2017. Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did the same in 2016.

In Vance's case, he has a demonstrated history of dismissing and minimizing anti-Semitism while tolerating those who express anti-Semitic views within MAGA namely his mentor Tucker Carlson and turning a blind eye to his willingness to give Nick Fuentes legitimacy dismissing such concerns as "self-defeating purity tests."

Simply put, there is no way Vance is Trump's running mate without Carlson's blessing. And if he wants to keep Carlson's blessing he cannot condemn either anti-Semitism or Nazis. 

Now let me turn my attention to Vance's 2024 VP rival, Tim Walz. A week ago, following the execution of Alex Pretti, the Minnesota Governor invoked Anne Frank when discussing the ICE surge in his state:

We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank.

Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.

Walz's comment drew a rebuke from the U.S. Holocaust Museum:

Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.

While I am generally inclined to agree that casual comparisons to the Holocaust are wildly inappropriate, let us consider the statement Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, recently appointed by President Trump as his administration's new envoy on anti-Semitism. Kaploun stated, “Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law.” 

This is rubbish. Jews had virtually no legal status in the Netherlands by the time Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the summer 1942. Under Nazi control, Jews were forced to turn in their radios and telephones, were prohibited from nearly all employment and public places with their movements severely restricted. The Frank family went into hiding after Anne's older sister Margot was summoned to report to a German labor camp which meant certain death.

If Governor Walz's comments are out of line, then why have Holocaust survivors living in a Florida retirement home offered to hide their Haitian caregivers from ICE? Why are immigrant families in Minnesota now in hiding? And why exactly are both the White House and DHS using a neo-Nazi song to recruit ICE agents?

Let me put this way. If ICE and Border Patrol agents are prepared to execute U.S. citizens in broad daylight, is it really a stretch of the imagination that they wouldn't do the same to the people they round up to be deported whether they are here legally or not?

This isn't to say the United States is now a modern-day Nazi Germany let alone a totalitarian state. Our democratic institutions (i.e. courts and the press) still have enough strength to free a father and a 5-year-old boy from their unjust detention. But will that still be the case in a year from now? Two years? After the 2028 election, if there is one?

While I am uneasy with Walz's comments, I am uneasy not because I believe he is trivializing the Holocaust. I am uneasy with Walz's comments because he might be proven right. That is unless, ICE leaves Minneapolis and its present form abolished and replaced by a new agency which doesn't wantonly ask people for their papers and execute those who get in their way.

Could Luis Arraez Win His Fourth Batting Title with His Fourth Different Team?

 

Yesterday, infielder Luis Arraez signed a 1-year contract with the San Francisco Giants for $12 million.

The Giants are the Venezuelan born infielder's fourth big league stop. Arraez previously played with the Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins and the San Diego Padres.

With each of these teams, Arraez won a batting title. In fact, Arraez won three consecutive batting titles. In 2022, Arraez won the AL batting title hitting .316. Following that season, the Twins traded Arraez to the Miami Marlins in a deal which included starting pitcher Pablo Lopez. Arraez then hit a career high .354 in 2023 to win his second consecutive batting title and first NL batting crown.

Just over a month into the 2024 season, the Marlins dealt Arraez to the San Diego Padres in exchange for four players including Jakob Marsee who is now the Marlins' centerfielder. Arraez won his third consecutive batting title and back-to-back NL batting crowns hitting .314 while leading the NL with 200 hits.

In 2025, Arraez again led the NL in hits with 181 but his average fell to .292 although that was good enough to rank 4th in the NL as Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner was the only .300 hitter in the Senior Circuit winning his second NL batting title with a .304 mark. The NL came dangerously close to having a batting champion with a sub-.300 average.

What is fascinating to me is that Arraez is so well-travelled. You would think three batting titles would make one a fixture in someone's lineup a la Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs or Tony Gwynn. Alas, Arraez is viewed as a liability for not having sufficient power, drawing few walks and subpar defensive skills despite his three batting titles and rarely striking out. Evidently, MLB frowns upon contact hitters.

So even if Arraez wins his fourth batting title with the Giants, he will likely be on the move albeit with a lucrative free agent contract although that could be jeopardized by a lockout of the 2027 season when the present MLB collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of this year.

Have perennial batting champion will travel.

In the FBI Raid of Georgia Election Office, Trump is Looking for Those 11,780 Votes & A Whole Lot More

Amid all the chaos in Minnesota with ICE, President Trump renewed another front of the war against America on Wednesday with a raid of a Georgia election office situated in Atlanta's Fulton County seeking ballots from the 2020 election.

Although the raid was conducted by the FBI, it was the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard who was personally present for the operation.

Yet none of this happens without President Trump who continues to insist he did not lose the 2020 presidential election much less lose Georgia. After all, more than 5 years ago it was Trump who demanded Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him 11,780 votes. It would seem that Trump has now formally set this search into motion.

Of course, this is more than about 2020. It is about 2026 and, more importantly, 2028.

Trump wishes to federalize our elections and the Constitution be damned. Most likely, this federalization will be limited to blue states or in state which could vote blue (i.e. Georgia). After it was Attorney General Pam Bondi who offered to have ICE leave Minnesota if Governor Walz provided her with their election rolls. 

Where it concerns Georgia, we can expect charges to follow most likely against Fani Willis who launched the Georgia election interference case after Trump's call to Raffensperger came to light in 2021. At present, Trump is seeking in excess of $6 million in legal fees from the Fulton County DA after Willis was removed from the case due to personal misconduct although several of Trump's co-defendants had plead guilty in the charges she brought against them.

Trump plays for keeps and this is part of his retribution. These are the acts of man who does not intend to leave the White House in January 2029.

In setting these events into motion, Trump and his cohorts are seeing to it that we are not free to choose who see fit to represent us in the White House and elsewhere - unless, of course, we choose him.

That is no choice at all.

ICE Officer Who Pointed Gun at Observer in St. Peter, MN: "I'm Not Getting into The Legality of Everything"

 

On Thursday, White House Border Czar Tom Homan claimed the Trump Administration would "draw down" operations by ICE and CBP in Minnesota noting, "Members of the community are not the targets of our operations." 

Evidently, the ICE and CBP agents in the field did not get Homan's memo or perhaps they simply disregarded it. The same day Homan spoke, an incident took place in St. Peter, Minnesota - about 70 miles southwest of Minneapolis:

The resident, a woman, had been observing and recording video of immigration enforcement actions from her car Thursday afternoon when agents took her into custody.

The woman, who did not want to be identified because she fears for her safety, is a U.S. citizen and a resident of St. Peter. She told MPR News in an interview that she was out in the community in her car, tracking the movements of federal agents, and recording them on a dash cam.

She shared that video with us. Agents in three vehicles began chasing her and trying to force her to pull over. Eventually they box her in, three agents get out of the car in front of her, with their guns drawn and they try to force her out of her vehicle.

“Get out of the car! Get out of the car,” the agents scream at her repeatedly, while she calmly responds, “No. I will not get out of the car.”

While she's alone in the car, the woman can be heard talking with other observers on speaker phone and she tells them to call 911. The agents open the door, which unlocked automatically when she put the gearshift in park, they drag her out and force her to the ground. She said the agents were overly aggressive and physical as they pinned her down and handcuffed her, leaving her with multiple cuts, scrapes and bruises.

The woman’s husband eventually arrives and tries to intervene, and he made a separate recording of the interaction on his phone. He tells the agents not to search her car because they don't have a warrant and it would be an illegal search. The agents appear dismissive of his constitutional concerns.

"I'm not getting into the legality of everything," one agent responds tersely.

MPR News interviewed the woman and her husband, who also doesn't want to be identified, fearing retaliation.

So only hours after Honan publicly assures that members of the community are not the target of ICE operations, ICE agents pull their guns on a woman observing them from their car, forcibly remove her from her vehicle and place her under arrest. When the woman's husband tells them not to search the car without a warrant, one of the ICE officers replies, "I'm not getting into the legality of everything."

What this statement tells me is that ICE continues to operate in Minnesota with impunity. The fact one of their officers feels comfortable saying he will not get into "the legality of everything" means that they have been told they are not bound by the law and that Honan's statement is meant only for public consumption and has no bearing on policy and procedures.

All things considered, this woman is quite lucky as the husband got hold of the St. Peter chief of police who evidently intervened because ICE turned her over to him shortly after her arrest. Under other circumstances, however, she could have easily become another Renee Good or Alex Pretti.

If the incident in St. Peter is any indication; ICE will continue to rough up members of the community who see fit to scrutinize their actions.  

In which case, it is only matter of time before ICE executes another U.S. citizen in Minnesota.