San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Upside to Giants’ gamble in 1994
Items have been culled from The Chronicle’s archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.
1994
July 7: Signing Darryl Strawberry is the shrewdest business move the Giants could have made this season, and as an extra added bonus they get to look like humanitarians — giving the downandout a second chance, and all that. Here’s why it’s good business. The Giants are paying Strawberry the major league minimum, a mere $109,000, which is bubblegum money in the big leagues. They also pay him $7000 for every game he’s on the active roster. Admittedly, you or I would sweat through nine innings for seven grand, maybe even for a trifle less, but for the Giants that figure is no big deal. So the Giants, who desperately need Strawberry’s bat, have enlisted his services by assuming almost no risk. But there are tremendous upsides for the Giants in this triumph of public relations, which once again shows that Peter Magowan knows how to adhere to the bottom line while promoting the image of his club. Think of Strawberry in this context. The Giants have generated almost no interest this season. Their home attendance is something like 170,000 below last year’s. It must make those millionaires who invested in the team queasy to stare at the sea of empty seats at Candlestick.
— Lowell Cohn
1969
July 12: A leading narcotics officer proposed yesterday that California judges refer users of marijuana to threeyear mandatory treatment. They would be examined by physicians to make sure they were abstaining from drug use “and no criminal record would be gained.” The proposal was made by Matthew M. O’Connor of the State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement at a luncheon meeting of the Commonwealth Club in the Palace Hotel. He said young people who claim the drug has no physiological effects are dead wrong. He listed 10 physiological effects, including increased heart rate, dryness of mouth and hunger, particularly for sweets. Marijuana he declared, “Exaggerates moods of depression and humor particularly,” causes “relief of inhibitions,” “experience of floating above reality,” impairs judgment, distorts the sense of time, distance and space, and causes “some mild euphoric inner satisfaction.” In reply to a question about the effects of using LSD, O’Connor told his luncheon audience, “Anyone who continues to use any contraband drug is in my opinion a degenerate.”
— Donovan Bess
1944
July 7: British Minister of Information Brendan Bracken charged today that the Germans are setting up “public slaughterhouses” into which thousands of Jews are being herded to their deaths. “Responsibility rests on the German people,” Bracken said at a memorial luncheon held in honor of the late Brigadier General Frederick Hermann Kisch, a Jewish officer killed in North Africa while serving as the chief engineer in the British Army. “What the Germans are doing,” Bracken said, “is nothing less than setting up abattoirs into which are shepherded thousand of Jews … they are dispatched with the sort of brutal efficiency in which the Prussian people delights … the German people have the responsibility, also the German General Staff, which could have stopped it. These Generals talk of chivalry and the traditions of the German general staff. I never thought much of these traditions, but there is now a tradition of infamy attached to them that will never die so long as there is any decency in life.”
1919
July 7: Joe Pete, a big tame cougar, has come to San Francisco and with him a warning to the canine colony of San Francisco to look out. For Joe is death on dogs, cats, burros and even horses, but for the human species he has a most respectful attitude. Joe Pete is the property of Sergeant G.W. Reed, who spent two years on the Mexican border with the 350th Motor Truck Company, an outfit recruited in San Francisco. Some Mexicans brought a litter of mountain lions across the border and left one that became the mascot of the 350th.
Joe was given his first city airing yesterday to the consternation of pedestrians. At a safe distance a crowd followed Reed and his pet up Van Ness Avenue, with the giant animal as docile as any dog. Reed boarded a streetcar with Joe. But the other passengers were not aware of his friendliness, and in a mad scramble many made hasty exits, unmindful that they had paid fares to more distant destinations. The conductor looked askance at his queer passengers, but accepted a nickel nevertheless, while Joe climbed into a seat and peered through the window as interested as a child.
Joe’s home is with his master at 1625 Polk Street. Six pounds of raw beef make his daily diet. Joe is a sixteenmonth old youngster measuring seven feet from the tip of his pink nose to the end of his tail. He stands five feet six inches in his stocking feet when caressing his master. His favorite diversion is licking Reed’s bald spot. He will kiss him, too, with great warmth, making a face wash unnecessary, if Reed cared to let it go at that.