Saturday, January 12, 2019

If Johnnie Johnson Were As Famous As The New York Yankees ...

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Then
Alvin Bennett would be
as famous as 
Wally Pipp

According to legend 
on June 2, 1925
a painful headache caused
New York Yankee first baseman,  
Wally Pipp, to be replaced by
a relatively inexperienced
baseball player named
*************************************************



Mr. Gehrig then proceeded to set
the record books on fire
and helped make the New York Yankees 
the most famous ball club
in the universe

Wally Pipp became famous
for getting benched

His name became a verb:
You've been Wally Pipped
means you lost your job to someone who is
much better at it than you are
all because of something 
as inconsequential as
a headache
 

BUT
Alvin Bennett did not swing a bat:
he was a musician in
Johnny Johnson's Trio

No one would ever mistake
the Cosmopolitan Club
in East St. Louis, Missouri
for Yankee Stadium
in the Bronx

AND
The Cosmopolitan Club
was Johnnie Johnson's
playing field  
 
In the middle of the 20th Century, 
if music—instead of baseball—
had been our national past time,
everyone would know
the rest of this story:

According to fact,
On December 31, 1951,
Alvin Bennett was too ill
to play with Jonnie Johnson's trio.

He was replaced by
a relatively inexperienced
musician named
Chuck Berry
 
************************************************* 
Mr. Berry then proceeded to set
the world of recorded music
on fire

He helped make
the most popular
music in the world

According to the hyperlink
in his name,
Chuck Berry paid homage
to Johnnie Johnson
in a song entitled
Johnny B. Goode

Both Chuck Berry
(1986)
and Lou Gehrig
(1939)
are charter members,
respectively,
of the Rock n'Roll
and Baseball
HALL OF FAME


It is virtually impossible
to find an image of Alvin Bennett
but an image of Wally Pipp
plus his baseball stats
is available
here 
 
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