Melbourne, Australia

by Mae Lee Sun

In 1947, an old friend Howard Frederick, who was six at the time, was diagnosed with bronchial asthma. Doctors told his parents, then living off the coast of Maine, that the best remedy for the boy was to move to a hot, dry, climate.  Shortly thereafter, Howard said his family packed up their their old Hudson Terraplane and headed West, landing in southern Arizona where he could play outdoors unencumbered.  The vacant dusty lots, with scattered brush and chain-link fencing in his mid-town Tucson neighborhood sufficed for spring and summer baseball games. Whatever kid was around, was good enough to play on a team.  Two teams loosely formed becoming daily entertainment for Howard as his family hadn’t yet owned a television.  His interest in baseball grew on afternoons his father had the radio on, with Vin Scully announcing every play of the then Brooklyn Dodgers, turning Howard into a lifelong Scully/Dodgers fan.

He envisioned the game through the airwaves, through Scully’s calls of the game, such as occurred when Sandy Koufax pitched ‘the perfect game” against the Cubs in 1965, sending Scully into radio broadcasting history for his mastery in painting the essence of baseball.

“0 and 1 the count to Chris Krug.  Out on deck to pinch-hit is one of

the men we mentioned earlier as a possible, Joey Amaltifano. Here’s

the strike 1 pitch to Krug: fastball, swung on and missed, strike 2. And

you can almost taste the pressure now. Koufax lifted his cap, ran his

fingers through his black hair, then pulled the cap back down, fussing at

the bill.  Krug must feel it too as he backs out, heaves a sigh, took off

his helmet, put it back on and steps back up to the plate.

Chase Field, Phoenix, D'backs vs Dodgers - Mae Lee Sun

But it wasn’t only Howard.  Scully’s name kept surfacing as ‘the voice of baseball”- the standard by which all other radio announcers are judged, the guy who’s responsible for cultivating baseball and Dodgers’ fans like Howard’s Father, Howard himself and his now nearly 40 year old son, that spans the generations.  Scully’s the guy whose voice even Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, credits for making him feel better although Howard attributes it to baseball’s being a better game on radio which Scully’s ability to tell a good story only enhanced.

“Vin Scully has trained me to be a better spectator.  He knows the rule book by heart and is aware of everything going on in the field and reports on it so the listener can see the whole picture.  There’s no editorializing or predictions coming from him like on television where there’s a camera behind the catcher, first base, trying to get all the angles which instantly get replayed.  It gets hyped too much.  Scully is able to stay in the moment and give his best judgment about a play without getting involved in one side or the other.”

I look over at Howard.  The sparkle in his eyes remain through the top of the 6^th inning at a Spring Training game we’ve attended in 2007 between the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals in Tucson.  Passing through the press box, reporters are picking up the phone, calling in updates to their papers.  I can’t quite make out what’s being said although I hear things like “1^st base outfielder throws a foul back into the stands” and “Player on 1^st steals 2^nd and is safe”, “Bases loaded, Sox on deck.”

Cotton candy - Mae Lee Sun

Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton, former Major League players turned Chicago White Sox announcers, are the closest comparison I can make to Scully.  Opening the door, there’s five men with their backs toward me looking forward onto the field. I don’t know who’s who  although its obvious Farmer and Singleton are the two guys in the seats in front of the window wearing microphones and headsets.  The guy on the left is older, looking something like a lanky, overgrown teenager in blue jeans, black lace-up Adidas sneakers w/white stripes.  He’s not wearing any socks and has on a purple shirt, looking dated with his graying, longish, unkempt hair.  I assume it’s Farmer, thinking of the 2005 USA Today poll, naming him and his former partner John Rooney as the number one baseball radio broadcasters of the American League and the team of Vin Scully, Charlie Steiner, Rick Monday and Al Downing as number one for the National League. To be number one, most likely you’d been around.  Looking over at the other announcer, an attractive, African American man, Farmer says “Did you ever get picked off at 2^nd Chris Singleton?”

“No, no I haven’t”

“Do you remember Dennis Eckerly giving up that shot?”

Singleton continues his commentary on what is happening on the field. I can sense his and Farmer’s intense focus even as they banter back and forth, multitasking with keeping score on the sheets laid out on the desk. Farmer’s media tag is swung around behind him facing backwards.  He asks Singleton

“Do you have any tattoos?”

“No…but I wanted to get a ghost buster one that said death before disco…8 to 5 Royals at the top of the 9^th…Whoa Nelly, isn’t that what they said?”  The song playing is Staying Alive and Farmer says, “His name oughtta be John REVOLTA”.   I can’t help but feel I came in at the middle of a conversation I wasn’t privileged to be part of.  They’re announcing live, yet talking to each other like two friends who knew the inside story yet leaving the rest of us to guess.  But I think that is perhaps the motivation to become a fan, to become part of the baseball scene by knowing the quirks, patterns and personalities of the game announcers.  It’s the thing you can talk about to other fans, something to share with your baseball friends or even something to complain about.

Mark Zerang, the radio booth sound tech, senses my puzzlement, most likely from my furrowed brow. He hands me a set of headphones, “Put these on, you can hear the broadcast on the radio in Chicago, W-S-C-R”.  I wiggle them over my ears, giving him the thumbs up as he mouths the word “VOLUME,” pointing his finger up and down to see if I’m good to go.  The sounds and voices of Farmer and Singleton actually, are different with them on. I’m in the room, but not in the room, almost out of body because I know I’m in the room but all the sounds are isolated- the roar of the crowd, the crack of bats, guys hocking ice cold beer and peanuts.  It’s a world within a world with the headphones on- containing the game both within my head and through my sight onto the field. It’s now all about the game.

I close my eyes just long enough to imagine a younger Howard rocking his baby boy to sleep but I hear Farmer and Singleton. The ball is halfway to second base as the relief pitcher for the Royals is warming up in the bull pen.  The 8^th batter for the Sox is up.  The conversation between Farmer and Singleton largely consists of interpretations and analysis of what’s going on. They slide their headphones off. I do the same. Farmer spins his chair around, saying “Where you from?”

“Tucson” I respond, handing him my business card.  “I’m a freelance writer doing a story on baseball announcers. Do you mind my sitting in here with you for a few games?”

“No.” Farmer says looking down and reading my name, then back up at me “Korean?”

“Yes, and Irish.” I reply.

“Well, there you go” he says and stands up to stretch along with Singleton.  As Farmer moves, it’s hard not to notice he’s got a problem with his legs. He’s a tall man, over six-feet, well proportioned although his knees touch when he moves as if one leg is partially lame and needing the other for support.  He makes his way over to the door, walking with a slight limp. Farmer played in the majors between 1971 to 1983 and broke into announcing the White Sox games full-time in 1992 after a kidney transplant in 1991 and has been doing so ever since.

It’s become more common for ball clubs to choose ex-players like Farmer, to better represent their interests where the old school broadcasters like Scully and his mentor Red Barber, Harry Caray, announcer for the Cubs, Mel Allen, announcer for the Yankees and Jack Buck, announcer for the Cardinals had all chosen radio broadcasting as a lifelong career.   Johnny Bench, catcher for the Reds, Bill White, first baseman for the Giants, Phillies and Cardinals, Jose Mota, second baseman for the Padres, Royals and White Sox, Bob Uecker, for the Braves, Cardinals and Phillies, Jerry Coleman, second baseman for the Yankees, Ray Fosse, catcher for the Indians, A’s, Mariners and Brewers, on the other hand, all became baseball radio broadcasters, along with numerous other players, after they retired from the game like Farmer.   But it obviously takes more than retirement from the sport to have qualified these guys for one of the most important positions outside of playing, otherwise Farmer never would have been ranked the top ABL announcer and quite possibly, there’d be a surplus of wanna be announcers/players to choose from.

Scott Reifert, Vice President of Communications for the White Sox agreed to meet me in the press box at the end of the third inning of the second Sox/Brewers game to explain how Farmer and Singleton were chosen as the voice of the Sox.  I had hoped Bob Uecker, aka ‘Mr. Belvedere’ and ‘Mr Baseball’ would also be at TEP broadcasting the game back to Milwaukee so I could interview him as well.   However, a call to the Brewer’s public relations office shut down the possibility of even a phone interview.  They said the popularity of  Uecker, a former baseball and acting personality, led to his having to “decline all requests for interviews.”    So just before Reifert and I chatted in the press box amidst journalists pounding away at their laptops, Farmer and Singleton were in the radio booth spontaneously joking on and off the air about Singleton’s trip to Maui to play winter ball several years back.   They sounded like college roomates- a style that’s become their schtick in the two years they’ve been broadcasting partners after Rooney left over a salary dispute.

“I went deep sea fishing during winter ball…ate spaghetti prior to going out on a fishing expedition..the spaghetti was up and out but I still caught a fish..got bit by a jelly fish too …but played that night.”

“Must have been hard to be in Maui.” Farmer says

“Someone had to do it” Singleton replies in a youthful voice, Gatorade cup in hand, sunglasses, yellow sport phone, binoculars, sun visor, calculator and bag of chips in an arc around his mic stand.  Farmer brings up a story he’s already told several games ago “Would you have taken that helicopter ride back to Tucson?” he says looking at Singleton and referring to a player who had done so when the Sox were playing the Mariners in Peoria, Arizona, but then goes into a commentary about a play involving Perez, the Sox first baseman  “You’ve got a job to do for three and a half hours, you go do it.”

“These guys are looking at someone else instead of the base coach who’s trying to give the runner a signal” Singleton adds, dropping the repartee as Farmer continues with “Pitch to Germain, inside and high, ball one…”  Farmer, Singleton, Zerang and I stand up to stretch.  Farmer carries on about a dust storm they drove through while this player flies back in the helicopter.  Hugh, the stadium organ player starts blasting the organ from the p.a. booth marking the break between innings and I remember that Reifert’s waiting in press box.  Singleton glances back “Did you bring a win today? If you didn’t, you can’t stay” he jokingly says to me. The Sox, now midway through Spring training, have won only five out of fifteen games.

Despite that, Farmer and Singleton maintain their composure on the air, blending play by play with color and comedy, making one broadcast indistinquishable from the next when it comes to wins and losses for the Sox.  It prompts me to get in one last question before meeting Reifert, the Sox leading eight to three, “Is any of your broadcast rehearsed?”   Singleton and Farmer look at one another and smirk. Singleton responds “No, no, it wouldn’t be fresh if we did.” He’d come to tease me for asking that question over the next few games.

Reifert on the other hand, seemed well rehearsed in answering questions from the press, but I wasn’t like I was asking him to address some scandalous issue involving a player, it was simply “Farmer and his former partner John Rooney were voted the number one radio broadcasters in the American League in 2005.  Why?  What is it about Farmer that people like?”

“Well, for one, he’s a Chicagoan.  He grew up on the southside and understands the fans, the culture and the players. He’s someone they can relate to.”

“I know, I’ve been sitting in the booth with them. He’s pretty funny but is that why did you chose him to represent the team?”

“He does have a wry sense of humor and he’s comfortable to listen to because there’s a familiar nature to him.  Fan’s build relationships around that but in every case, the different teams choose a broadcaster who becomes a partner between the ball club and the station.”

“I can see that with Farmer, since he’s a native, although when Rooney left, did you just pick Singleton or did he just want to become a broadcaster or what?”

“The broadcasting department reviewed the tapes of candidates and there was a cost benefit to hiring Chris. He was right from the field, he was a teammate with some of the guys, and he’s a player from today.  He can address the constantly changing culture in the clubhouse.”

“But what did the fans think since Farmer and Rooney were the one’s rated number one? Do you think that will change in the next poll?”

“Chris has improved over the course of last year. The difference in era’s from Ed to Chris means there’ll be a nice mix the kind of stories you’re going to tell.  The feedback we’ve gotten from the fans and the media has been skeptical but he’s been doing more play by plays and we’re hoping to appeal to more people…you know, you grow up with these voices and it builds a relationship.  Ten years from now, Chris will be working with the next generation.”

“Do you think listening to the games on the radio will lose it’s popularity, especially with t.v. and if the few old timers left, like Scully, retire?”

“No, theres’s a tradition to it and history of passing it down from generation to generation, season to season.  In the summer, it becomes part of your life. There’s nothing like working in the garage and listening to baseball.  It’s not like listening to basketball where there’s no playing out and no drama.  The feel of baseball is just different, there’s something special about it. “

“Ed is certainly different from Scully though.  Everyone mentions Scully.”

“Jack Buck, Vin Scully, John Miller.  These guys had that voice that felt like you knew them.  Vin had the national stage for years too.  Ed’s humor though, it sometimes goes over your head on the radio but if you’re in the booth and you see his expressions, he’s funny.”

Before I can take up any more of his time, Reifert motions to leave as the fourth inning is underway. The next time I see Farmer and Singleton is when the Sox face the Angels.  The Sox had won the game against the Brewers and then the Cubs prior to that.  I had also cornered Jerry Coleman, when he was broadcasting for the Padres, two days before the Sox played the Brewers, going so far as to plant myself firmly in the Padres dugout up to the point the players entered the field to warm up.  Someone had said Coleman routinely hung out there.  Long, blue duffle bags, scattered bats, a few gloves and pairs of cleats to my right, two water/bat boys to my left with a wide slice of horizon approximately five feet above the dirt straight ahead, accessed by a short stub of stairs.  The magic I feel sitting on the bench eyeing a diamond of dirt and grass, the smell of sweat and the energy of muscle and finesse is what I imagine this radio game is all about.  This is the story of baseball and something the 82-year-old, former second baseman, Coleman ought to know how to tell. He’s the oldest of the baseball broadcasters.

There’s no sign of Coleman as random players file into the dugout,.  “Now that’s a hat” comes out of the mouth of a player who looks about 20-years-old and speaks with a Texas drawl.  “Yeah, well, that’s what we wear for the sun here in Tucson” I respond confidently back in my wide-brimmed cowboy hat.  These guys are a bit intimidating. A bit larger than life, especially in person, and I’m in their territory, behind the scenes, hoping to get behind one of the voices that has kept this magic going for the millions of fans who have remained in the radio game’s grip since the very first game of baseball was heard on the air in 1921 out of station KDKA in Pittsburgh for a game between the Pirates and the Phillies.

Coleman, born only a few years later in 1924, played exclusively for the Yankees from 1949 to 1957, retiring on an injury before he called games for the Yankees in 1963, the Angels in 1970 and the Padres since 1972.  “I think he head up to the press box” a player said, tossing his head in that direction, leaving me to wonder how I could have missed him.  The walk through the tunnel up to the stadium occupies my whole attention. It’s where the players enter and exit so they can do so in private, away from hecklers and fans.  A woman with a Padres press pass is pacing the corridor outside the locker room at the top of the stairs.

“Do you know where I can find Jerry Coleman?” I ask.

“Yeah, he just went up to the press box” she says pointing to the elevator around the corner.

Coleman is walking toward the Padres radio booth which is the room next to the White Sox radio booth. I know it’s him- he’s the only white-haired guy up there.  “Mr. Coleman? Do you have time for an interview, I’m doing a story on baseball radio announcers?”

He responds as enthusiastically as the White Sox P.R. people had said he would. “Sure, let’s go in this room here where we can talk.”  Coleman, also known as the ‘Colonel’ for his time spent as a marine pilot in WWII and Korea, opens the door to allow me to enter first.  We take the two chairs by the window and have a chat.

“How did you get into broadcasting?”

“I was lookin for a job when I left the Yankees.  I met Bill McPhale of CBS and that opened the door.  I didn’t know why or how to do it. It was just a sink or swim thing.”

“What is it about baseball and radio? Why do you think you’ve become so popular?”  Coleman was ranked tenth in popularity of National League announcers.

“If people accept you in a town, you become part of their community. San Diego is a military town and I was in the military, went to WWII after high school and never regretted it for an instant. People can relate to me, I’m comfortable there.”

“Why is listening to the game so popular though?”

“Well, we’ve all stood at home plate one time or another.  It’s 90 feet to first base and it’s hard to get there.  It’s a game that’s been built around fathers and sons and their growth. It’s a way to mesh together as a family. There’s been a lot of great ones to listen to as well like Red Barber. He was a good preacher. Cosell, it was the style, Dizzy Dean, John Rooney, Vin Scully…these new guys …they haven’t found their voice yet.”

“Do you see any of these new guys becoming the next Scully?”

“Anyone who tries to be the next Vin Scully is nuts! There’s no one like him.  Not even me and I’m older than he is! I broadcast more losing games than any announcer in history,” he chuckles, leaning back in his chair.

“Yeah, and what about these things I’ve read about you called ‘Colemanism’s?” I say, referring to the long list of malaprops I have in my hand, downloaded from the internet “It’s off the leg and into the left field of Doug Rader”, “All the Padres need is a fly ball into the air”, “Hector Torrez, how can you communicate with Enzo Hernandez when he speaks Spanish and you speak Mexican?”, “Ozzie Smith just made another play that I’ve never seen anyone else make before, and I’ve seen him make it more often than anyone else ever has.”

Coleman, basking in the interview, smiling and leaning back in his chair, responds with “In this business, you can’t be sensitive to criticism and I’ve outlasted them. Believe me, the fans let me know when I do something wrong. During one broadcast, I had announced the wrong pitcher and kept doing it until I noticed it wasn’t him in the fourth inning.  Then they say I said “Rich Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen” and I actually said something different.  I think they’re all wrong!  When you lose a lot, you get a little careless…I deny everything.”

It’s easy to see why Coleman is so popular.  He’s easy to be around and very candid about his love of the game and the respect he has for the fans and military community in San Diego.  His longevity is a testament to that.  He’s also as close to Scully as I can get in terms of interviewing baseball broadcasting legends.  I also asked two, thirty-something sportswriters if there really is that much of a difference between, and if they had preference for, older or younger broadcasters, traditionally schooled or former players.  Joe Cowley, in Tucson covering the Sox for the Chicago Sun-Times and Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune.

“So, what do people say about Farmer and Singleton? I’m sure you guys hear it all the time from your readers.”

“Ha. They either love em’ or hate em’.  There’s no middle ground with Chicago. If you accept them, you take the whole package.” Cowley says.

“What do you mean they love em’ or hate em’? Why?” I respond.

“Well, Sox fans like whoever is signed to a contract.  With Farmer, he goes out of the box and relays stories about baseball. “

“People like that Farmer’s a former player too but we get readers too who complain that he’s condescending.”

“Do you feel any of the younger guys have the potential of the Scully, Coleman, Barber… the guys who made listening to games on the radio popular?” I say.

Gonzales replies  “The new guys try to be creative and cutting edge, but they’re not the legends. They might try to emulate them…” before he finishes, Cowley interrupts to add “I’ve heard of more people now watching the game on t.v. and muting the sound so they can listen to it on the radio”, verifying what I read on a few baseball blogs:

I usually mute the t.v. when I’m watching White Sox games. Actually there aren’t any announcers that I like.

and

I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and I saw a book written by Tim McCarver with a special foreword by Joe Buck. I couldn’t run away fast enough…I was   envisioning it becoming an audiobook and thinking about my ears bleeding.

It inspires me to ask Farmer what he thinks of himself as an announcer.  The opportunity arose during breaks when the Sox faced the Angels in game seventeen of the training schedule.  There’s three civilians inside the booth in addition to the usual suspects. They don’t stay for long and Farmer addresses them with language clearly marked for friends, “How are you’re kids?”

“Oh, just fine” the man says.  Farmer’s attention turns on a dime back to the game. He and Singleton are wearing bright green shirts and baseball hats with the Sox logo standing out in white.  I look onto the field and the players for the Sox are also wearing bright green baseball caps and matching green socks.  The Angels wear the standard red jerseys and hats with grey pants.  It dawns on me that it’s St. Patricks day, I’m half Irish and completely forgot.  Farmer pokes fun at the singer for the National Anthem who hits a high note that sends the lot of us cringing, “Don’t hurt yourself there…” he remarks and we all giggle.  A staff member asks what Farmer and Singleton want for lunch and Farmer says “Why don’t you get some barbeque” then rehashes one of his stories about Singleton again, only this time about a pulled-pork sandwich.

“There he goes again. The story gets better every time he tells its.  Everytime Ed tells it, it gets bigger and bigger” Singleton laughs.  The schtick is beginning to show.  The game begins and Farmer mumbles  “The only surfing I’ve done is on a boogie board” and with barely a gap, Single carries on behind his dark, hip sunglasses, with “It’s been dismal for the White Sox coming in. Even though it’s Spring Training, you still want to win.”  Then Farmer “That’s high, one ball and one strike” following shortly thereafter with “One, two, three go the Angels.  At the end of the inning, the Angels fail to score and the White Sox coming up.” Farmer then spins his chair around, telling me he had said the work FUCK on the air.

“You’re joking right?” I say.

“No…I’m not kiddin’.. there was one time I said “The fucking Tigers beat the Sox.”

“So what’d you do?”

“We never draw attention to mistakes as they’re happening.  If we make one and want the other guys attention, we just do this, we wave our hands or tap it on the desk.” Farmer and Singleton rib each other about the last names of players, saying you wouldn’t want to have a name like ‘Fiasco’ or ‘Balfour’ etc., they’d be bad omens.  The sound tech, a sub today,  says Farmer and Rooney, were like Abbot and Costello, they never stopped, which seems is what Farmer is grooming Singleton for.  Even off the air Farmer’s on a run of one-liners.

Why do they call it 7-11 if it’s open 24 hours a day?

Why do they call it an escalator when you’re going down?

How can you call it a building when it’s already erect?

Why do they call it cargo when it’s on a ship and a shipment when it’s on a truck?

As funny as it was in the moment, I can’t help blurt out “Why do people like you?”  Farmer stops the joking to answer with a semi-straight face “I’m from the southside and I’m Irish.  I tell the Catholics to eat fish on Fridays and they listen to me. I haven’t asked them for any money yet though” he finishes, putting his headphones back on and sitting back in the chair.  Singleton seems tentative about engaging me.  He never looks at me for more than a glance and I wonder, who are these guys really?  I want to know more.  I want to know what fans like Howard seem to know, the guys who tune in season after season to hear these guys call the game no matter what mood they’re in, what’s happened in their personal life or where their team is in the standings.  I want to know what’s so special about listening to Farmer call the top of the third inning “Third strike out for Contreras. Sox and Halo’s 0 and 0.” He’s doesn’t say things like “My arthritis sucks today, I should never have played ball so long.” Or  “Man I’m sure glad they make percoset!” or ask deep, political questions like “Can you believe the war in Iraq is still going on?”  He’s announcing baseball.  And Singleton is too, but they aren’t just any guys off the street talking about the game. And neither is Scully.

“Chris, do you live in Chicago too?”

“Yeah, my wife and I have a home in Chicago and Atlanta.”

“Any kids?”

“8, 4 and a 2 year old.  They’re here in Tucson for three weeks.”

I nod approvingly. Singleton doesn’t give me much more than what I ask for directly.  Careful and measured in his responses, I defer back to the gregarious Farmer.

“Ed, I heard you mention you had a daughter.  Is your family here at training with you?”

“They’re back in California. That’s where my wife and daughter live.”

“ What do you do when your not broadcasting then? Do you go home?”

“Well, I work out at the gym, then I golf for a couple hours..”

I leave some space. Farmer doesn’t need prompting to talk. He’s got plenty to say and if he doesn’t, he makes it up anyway.

“My wife isn’t a good traveler. She said that she’d go anywhere if we had a motor home though” he says, lifting his eyebrows and cocking his head.  The enunciation of some of his words get garbled when he’s on a roll with the jokes, like he’s got a few marbles stored in his cheeks.

“That would be cool to do…travel around like that.”

“My mother-in-law lives with us though and she has alzheimers…makes it hard for my wife to leave.”

“Oh. I understand. That would be hard.” I say, feeling Farmer’s slightly unpolished edge is nothing more than his being openly human, his jokes a matter of keeping folks entertained and perhaps distracting us all from lives we face outside the container of the game.

The last day of Spring Training, the green diamond of grass is cut in swirls instead of stripes and the wind is coming in from the west at 8 miles an hour.  No fans are waiting by the catwalk to get autographs, and the players who walk by, wear no name jerseys.  The press box however is full and I’m ready to say goodbye to Farmer and Singleton as Number #5, Matt Holiday, hits a home run.   But no one, including me knows if it was a grand slam or if other players were brought in. I overhear “This is like a little league game with the minor league”, referring to a string of dropped catches and bungled plays.  It occurs to me to check the game schedule.  Yes, the Sox are playing, however, the last broadcasted game from TEP was the day before. “Shit.” I open the door of the radio booth with trepidation and the three guys I’ve been accustomed to seeing through a month of Spring Training aren’t there. The room is silent, empty.  The giant glass windows we had ducked under from occasional stray balls, were locked closed, the crowd, thinned.

I sit in Farmer’s chair, crossing my arms on the desk, leaning forward like he did, imagining what I would say, wondering what I had learned about the game from the nine I had heard he and Singleton call.  “Batting for the Sox is number 8, Pedro Lopez” is announced overhead but no plays are called by the stadium announcer.   I can see that Lopez is out by the umpires’ gesture and watch Lopez jog back to the dugout.  “Now batting for the White Sox is number twenty-five, designated hitter, Jim Tomei.”  It felt like a different game and I felt like a late bloomer for not having had a team and an announcer to follow with the regular season starting in a matter of days.  My homestate team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, I barely knew.  They weren’t the White Sox who I did and Gregg Shulte and Tom Candiotti, the D’backs announcers weren’t Farmer and Singleton who I had surprisingly developed a fondness for.  But the D’backs were playing the Dodgers in a two game series at Chase Field in Phoenix, with Vin Scully in town to announce the game.  So off I went.

Turning the corner of the hallway toward the press box, I had the choice of opening one of two doors.  The one clearly marked “Press Box” on the right and the unmarked door just several inches away that a man had just exited from. I thought the two doors were connected so I chose the unmarked door on the left.  An older gentleman in a beige sport coat, tan pants, sky blue dress shirt and strawberry blond hair was leaning against the wall, slightly bent over, talking on his cell phone. It would not have been a memorable encounter had I not grazed him in my haste and if we were not the only ones present in this narrow, isolated space.  I had the sense enough to pause, noticing his rosy cheeks, as I tried to make eye contact as an apology when in an instant it hit me. I knew who this man was.  I knew it from a photograph I had seen and the sound of his voice as he spoke on phone.  It wasn’t the specific words but the steady, unrushed and confident manner in which he spoke that stopped me.   A manner that had been cultivated over fifty-seven years on the radio.  The voice that made the game of baseball different to listen to than football, basketball, hockey and every other sport on the planet- it was Vin Scully himself.

I was so excited I could barely move.  He continued to talk on the phone while pacing in short strides across from the room signed ‘Visiting Television.’  As he looked up, we exchanged smiles, sending me into a panic as I pondered how I might approach him.  The Dodgers P.R. reps however forbid any Scully interviews for the same reason Euecker declined them- too many requests, so they unanimously say “No.”  So as Scully exited the hallway into the Dodgers broadcast booth with his cell phone, I exited toward the press box, disappointed although hoping for another auspicious coincidence.

The Diamondbacks took the field first as I claimed my seat in the upper level, looking over the shoulders of sportswriters for the L.A. Daily News, MLB.com and over twenty other local and visiting journalists.  My sense of joy in literally running into Scully, the broadcaster of all broadcasters, turns into a series of text messages sent and received between Howard and I who I know will be living vicariously through me until I meet Scully. He’s having dinner with his wife Pat at a microbrew pub in Tucson, expecting to watch the game while there.  When he finds out it’s not being broadcast locally, he sends me a message at 8pm to get an update on the score. I answer ‘ 3 & 3’ when it occurs to me to sit in the D’backs booth with Greg Shulte and Tom Candiotti where more information can be had-on announcers and the game.  It’s a warm, desert night and the roof of the stadium is opened, allowing the heat from the blaring lights and the 25,735 people in attendance, to exit as a cool breeze sweeps in.

As I approach the door to the D’backs booth,  it’s also propped open, exposing the backs of the two announcers, the sound tech and a fourth man.  “Is it ok if I listen in?”  I say, feeling a sense of déjà vu  from the time I spent with Farmer and Singleton. A hefty man with glasses named ‘Leo’, who was not unlike the White Sox sound tech Mark, nods an OK while the fourth man, the pre and post game commentator Jeff Munn, hands me a set of headphones out of which comes “…Eric Brown singles sharply to left…Burns with 5 stolen bases, 5 attempts…”  and the voice switches to Candiotti saying “..So he’s got a career to fall back on if he wants to..”  Immediately I know he’s the color guy.  Even if Howard hadn’t text that to me earlier.  Candiotti, an attractive man with dark brown hair and a weathered, tanned face was sitting to the right of Schulte who was obviously much older and similar in his familiarity and articulation of the game as Farmer. “A 2 out walk..that gives Tracey a chance”

“Early in the game..also, you question, Am I going to get that ball?”

I’m surprised at how similar Schulte and Candiotti are to Farmer and Singleton, making it hard to distinquish when closing my eyes, if the voices I’m hearing are here or am I back in the booth with the White Sox at TEP?  Shultes’ focus however is clearer and there’s less joking between he and Candiotti.  Candiotti seems fairly laid back although unmoved by the information he’s speaking. “When things aren’t going that well for you, you hit that line ball” sounds like he could have said “I’m going to the store to get a gallon a milk,” his voice becoming more animated as the game wore on. Candiotti, like Singleton, is new to this side of the game and doesn’t have nearly the years or experience or history that could put him in a league with Scully.  According to sportswriter Tony Jackson, nobody does because Scully, whom we both catch a glimpse of through the window of the booth to our left simulcasting the game, is in a league of his own.  Jackson turns to me and says,

“Besides Scully’s sing songy voice, he’s romanticized baseball in a way that makes people want to watch the game.  The park becomes a magical place, more than thrown bats, balls, hits and outs when you’re not there, which is different than when you are. And he’s been at it so long, way before streaming and video, when it was him you followed, like he was having a conversation with you.  It says something when even Marty Brennaman, the Reds announcer, said that Vin was the greatest broadcaster there ever was, because when Brennaman said it , it was when he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame.”

“Did you ever hear anything negative about Scully?”

“Never. He’s one of the classiest people I’ve ever known.”

There wasn’t much to say after that. I had covered all the angles, confirming the same response over and over again.  No conversation including the words baseball and radio could go on for long without the name Vin Scully coming about, no matter what the topic.  At this point, I just wanted to meet the man and had to figure out how. It was as if I were on an epic journey, akin to novelist Peter Matthiessen, in search of the endangered and magnificent snow leopard, guided not to the far reaches of the Kanjiroba Range in the Himalayas by a brown-skinned, young  sherpa named Tukten, but rather to the upper reaches of the press box at Chase Stadium in Phoenix inspired by the enthusiasm of a sixty-five year-old white man named Howard and thousands of fans like him.  In many ways, Howard’s enthusiasm for baseball, the Dodgers and Scully is the reason that I’m here. He is the fan of fans, listening to Scully for the past 55 years, just two years short of Scully’s epic career with the Dodgers.   I almost had to meet Scully for him and those who would never get the opportunity.  The only way I could see it happening was through the D’backs booth, hanging out with Leo, Shulte and Candiotti.

Jeff Munn and a colleague whose name I’ve forgotten but remember as Bill, stop me along the way.  Munn says “You know this form of radio broadcast won’t die because baseball broadcasts aren’t like McDonalds where you get the same thing wherever you tune in.  The announcer has to link the fans with the team and sell the game to the public.  They do it by loving the game.”

“But don’t you feel that the era is gone with having one announcer like Scully telling a story versus two guys doing an ongoing analysis?” I ask.

“To a certain degree the radio game will suffer because no one has Scully’s talent.  But the game is in good hands with guys like Schulte and Candiotti for instance.  If you put the love of the game first, you’re going to do it the right way.” Munn responds before getting called away with his laptop to prepare for the post-game broadcast.  The door to the D’backs booth is still open.  Actually, it opens across from the mens room and several guys from the visiting television booth enter and exit as I stand just out of the way.  The Dodgers are leading six to four at the end of the seventh and I’m feeling a sense of nostalgia for sitting in the stands or imagining myself as a kid on a Sunday, washing the car with my Dad, possibly listening to a game. I find myself not caring who wins, the D’backs or the Dodgers. I know it’s been a good one regardless. I slip the headphones back over my ears as Schulte rattles off another play “Last chance for the Diamondbacks at the bottom of the 9^th with the Dodgers on top 6 to 4….here’s the 3, 2 pitch to Callaspo and he’s out!….one away and here comes Hudson…” and it feels like the last chance for me as the game ends and the score remains Dodgers 6, D’backs 4.

I turn toward the door and step outside in the hallway where Shulte’s wife and another woman is waiting.  I prepare to say my goodbyes as Shulte and Candiotti wrap up the game when a man passes around to my left, crossing in front of me to enter the men’s room and it’s Scully, leaving me speechless.  I do nothing but stand there, frozen, until he comes out a few minutes later when as he passes by me again, face to face this time, I stick my hand out to shake his and barely utter “Mr. Scully, it’s a pleasure to meet you.  I’ve only heard wonderful things about you…”  and Scully smiling warmly, his face aglow and cheerful, wraps his other hand around mine as well.

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing because I don’t know what they’ve said!” he chuckles, slowly letting my hand fall free and giving me a short wave as he walks away and back into the t.v. booth.

It seems impossible that that’s all I could muster. That this sweet, eighty-year-old man’s reputation had become so much larger than life that it rendered me incapable of asking him anything pertinent, like “Mr. Scully, what was it like to be broadcasting baseball in the 1950s?” or “You’ve had the opportunity to call plays for some of baseballs greatest players of all time-Kofax, Robinson, Drysdale, Aaron, yet people consider you as important as the game itself.  What do you think about that?” But I couldn’t find the words.  Vin Scully had them all, and they were perfect, and through the radio, and they told the story of baseball which essentially, told the meaning of his life so there was really nothing left to say.  And so I listened. I listened as I waited, alone, for the elevator down from the press box to the parking garage after the game and heard thousands of people shuffling out of the stadium, kids screaming and cars honking.  Then I heard the voice.  It was Scully, who showed up thirty seconds later with his bodyguard / driver/ very large and intimidating man in a dark suit, to wait for the elevator with me.  “Hi again” I said.

“Hello there,” he replied.

“Good game.”

“Yes, it was.”

By Mae Lee Sun, special for Inside Tucson Business
Published on Monday, March 22, 2010

In the early 1960s, Gerry Detty’s dad had an idea. As head athletic trainer for the Philadelphia Eagles, G.E. “Moose” Detty discovered neoprene was the perfect material to help promote healing and prevent injury.

The synthetic rubber had excellent insulating properties and helped to retain heat, which increased circulation.  Moose had his wife sew the prototypes of ankle braces, knee braces, thigh supports in a makeshift shop in their garage.

When one of the players was traded, they took their neoprene support or brace with them, leaving the door wide open for Detty to launch a business in professional orthopedics as the custom-made devices needed to be replaced. Thus was born Pro Orthopedic Devices Inc.

Gerry Detty, chief executive officer of Pro Orthopedic Devices. Patrick McArdle photo ADVERTISEMENT

Gerry Detty has since taken the company over and succeeded his father as chief executive officer. The company has thrived in a south Tucson warehouse for nearly 40 years. For all of his contributions to the health and well-being of professional athletes from the NFL, he was awarded honorary membership into the Professional Football Athletic Trainer’s Society at the NFL Combines last month in Indianapolis.

Success and recognition for Detty and Pro Orthopedics hasn’t been easy. Especially in the past few years, says Detty, who has had to make some major changes in how he does business. Even as the top U.S. supplier of orthopedic neoprene products for professional athletes, the equine industry and retail sales.

“Our competition has been importing product for some time. We were holding out and manufacturing everything in the U.S., which is what we prided ourselves on because of quality. My product engineer, however, said if we did it right, we could create a significant savings by moving manufacturing overseas,” says Detty.

“That was about two years ago and he was right. The duty on mostly assembled products is only 4 or 5 percent compared to 18 percent for sheet goods or raw materials. To have good quality assurance, we had to install a QA Program and convince the Chinese that even if it costs us a little more, the quality of the product would remain at a high level and would equal what we were doing here. The challenge was that they (Chinese) were so used to being asked by everyone (other countries and importers) to cut corners to make things as cheaply as possible,” he said.

Apparently, Detty’s business decisions have paid off. Japan remains one of his company’s biggest markets and has been so for the past 30 years.

Alan Cohen, partner in the Philadelphia-based firm of Isdaner & Company LLC., also Detty’s business accountant for the past 30 years, attributes much of this to managing the company with an open mind and keeping the bar high.

“Pro Orthopedics was always the best at what they did. They’ve maintained their market share over the years because Gerry and his father were continually open to talking to us and getting wisdom from those around them.  We’ve been able to advise them about their options: how to structure their manufacturing Process, tax savings and banking.  It’s also due to Gerry’s leadership over the past seven or eight years that’s really helped them during these challenging times,” Cohen said.

Domestically, Pro Orthopedics continues to dominate the professional sports market by 85 percent as the number one supplier to the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, along with colleges, high schools and Olympic teams around the world. That’s a 3 percent rise from 2008 numbers.

Big 5 Sporting Goods is the company’s largest domestic retail client. Detty is working on expanding to the general public by placing products in drug stores and pharmacies. Even in a recession, Detty feels confidant things can only get better, especially when it comes to the sports industry.

“My dad always told me that during the Great Depression, no matter how hard things got, people would always be able to find a nickel to go to the movies or a dime to go to a game. Sports are an outlet during recessionary times.  Even today, softball teams are on the rise and basketball and volleyball teams are running record numbers across the country. It’s a real opportunity for us to develop new materials and designs. We’ve already got three new products we’re introducing for back, knee and ankle support,” Detty said.

“As long as I’m able to keep cash flow up, inventories reduced and forecasting needs more accurately, we should remain viable.  We’re already seeing the effects of the recession shifting so that’s encouraging,” he said.

Copyright © 2010 Inside Tucson Business

Auckland, New Zealand

By Mae Lee Sun

Sunset at Piha beach, New Zealand- photo by Mae Lee Sun

“Find joy in doing what is good.” – H.H. Dalai Lama

Although Madyamika is often divided into various schools which were founded by a number of teachers, it is Nagarjuna who set forth a systematic method called ‘madyamika’ or middle way, to refer to things as they really are- avoiding falling into the extremes of existence and non-existence.  Buddhist scholar Paul Williams asserts that the Madyamikas (those who subscribe to this methodology) do not put forth the inherent existence of anything and they set out to refute the reasoning of those who believe there is.  However, it is not to infer that Madyamikas are nihilistic.  The methodology is used to understand emptiness, which allows one to cut through emotional obscurations of ego clinging and the conceptualizing activity of mind that creates dualism.

In Shantideva’s Bodhycharavatara, an understanding of the notion of emptiness is necessary for one to take and keep the bodhisattva vows.  Otherwise, we’d believe the “I” that we call ourselves is real inside of us and exists separately from everything else and subject to being affected by the aggregates (skandhas).  If that were true, we would not act from a place of purified heart.  The source of suffering and confusion will continue without being able to discriminate between the relative and the absolute (gross and subtle) nor comprehend dependent co-arising.

New Zealand Fern frond, a symbol of new life and growth- photo by Mae Lee Sun

Believing in existence simply because we experience certain emotions, feelings, sensations and relationship with the world of form never gets us beyond conceptual mind- the cause of our suffering, because we grasp onto the five skandhas as real.  Consequently, if we do not practice and understand this technique offered by Madyamika, we can easily fall into wrong view, which is nihilism, not bodhicitta.  When there is no distinction from self and other phenomenon, one is able to open fully to situations of suffering.  So what then is suffering if phenomena are empty?

If we hold the view of non-existence, as if nothing is there at all, we ignore the fact that without form, there would be no emptiness and thus continue to miss the point.  Whether or not phenomena exist and are empty, suffering still occurs and the bodhisattva aspires to work toward alleviating it on the relative level because they understand the absolute nature of it and see that it can also change on that level.  Once one commits to the bodhisattva path however, one must believe that it is a practice not to be taken lightly.  The way of the bodhisattva is a process of knowing you will more than likely fail, yet you continue on with an attitude of openness, courage and compassion despite the hopelessness of situations.  The possibilities of liberation from suffering lie in the emptiness of them because you have trained in the skills enabling you to experience impermanence, no-self and even liberating the antidote as Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche said.

Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them

Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them

Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to master them

The Buddha Way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it

Heart in Action- photo by Mae Lee Sun

With this virtuous understanding one is ready – or not- to embark on the bodhisattva path.  Our tendencies as conditioned beings is to move full steam ahead, full of emotion and self centered agendas, so efforts do need to be made to arouse, protect, maintain and intensify bodhicitta toward direct realization of emptiness.  If we do not pay attention to ego patterns, which can actually be quite valuable, and work with them through study, contemplations and meditation, obstacles arising out of ego will prevent us from understanding the teachings. Sensei Jan Chozen Bays cautioned that the worst thing that could happen is that we might actually become intoxicated with ourselves and how the world should be which she asserts is far worse than consuming alcohol or drugs. Examples of this include fixating on what makes sense to us and rejecting the rest, clinging to what we have discovered and finding others to confirm this without inquiring further, mistaking it for direct experience.

The bodhisattva vow itself is about the quality of awakened heart which is taking a great leap of faith in seeing the interconnectedness between ourselves and all other beings, etc. and transforming the path from the solution to the willingness to embrace the chaos (Hinayana to Mahayana).  We begin to realize in entering the Mahayana via taking the Bodhisattva vows, that what other choice do we have but to rely on ourselves and to ripen our practice so it becomes strong?  As we grasp this sense of emptiness so to speak, all possibilities are available for us to generate fearlessness and employ skillful means to situations of suffering.

Training our mind, we can change our way of seeing and our behavior resulting in less harm.  This is the first of the three disciplines in training the bodhisattva.  The second aspect of the path is adopting virtuous actions and the third is working for the benefit of beings, thus reaching Buddhahood- although the emphasis is not on fruition.  Within the scope of these are more exact instructions or paramitas of action (generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation and prajna) that point to particular responses that work in service to a situation in a direct way that is not based in ego.

Aitken Roshi protesting the war in Iraq on a street corner in Hawaii- photo provided by Palolo Zen Center, Oahu

May bodhichitta, precious and sublime,

Arise where it has not yet come to be;

And where it has arisen may it never fail

But grown and flourish ever more

- Nagarjuna

The Bodhicharyavatara is divided similarly, communicating not only the necessity and positive virtue of bodhicitta but includes the horrifying reality of suffering in general and the courage it takes to stay with it despite our own predicament.  The challenge I have consistently faced is knowing how to prevent the attitude of bodhicitta from becoming dissipated as well as fully understanding what the point is in continually putting myself in situations of suffering, i.e. there’s endless work to do in the world when it comes to addressing environmental devastation, animal welfare and human rights issues, etc.  The Buddha asserted that every being wants to be free from suffering and pain, doesn’t want to live a life of confusion and simultaneously has the potential to become enlightened without exception.  If our true mind is bodhicitta, we are capable of helping other beings beside ourselves through compassionate action and prajna once bodhicitta dawns in our mind.  The key is knowing how to work with this as Path even if it is inconvenient and our heart is bruised.

As when a flash of lightening rends the night,

And in its glare shows all the dark black clouds had hid,

Likewise rarely, through the Buddha’s power,

Virtuous thoughts rise, brief and transient, in the world.

Perhaps my expectation is that the struggle will disappear.  If it does not, what resolve must I come to in order to protect and maintain bodhicitta?  In the ‘Awareness’ chapter, Shantideva speaks to one’s decision to take the vows and then considers retraction after having done so.  He says it quite harmful because of the possible karmic fall to lower states for the person taking the vow and the place it leaves those who were to be the recipients of the bodhisattvas work.   We need to be appreciative as well, of the fact that as humans, we are in the unique position to free beings from other realms.  Will we not regret this if we do not do this while we have the chance?  It is our own minds that create discord and separation.  We must be able to recognize this as such and come to realize the lack of substantiality to our fear and not give in to this empty affliction.

Fearless- photo by Mae Lee Sun

In one way or another, much of my life has been spent working with defiled emotions.  Sometimes, they have been indulged- especially in the realm of activism.  As a matter of course, it rarely works for the benefit of others and can often make existing problems worse.  In the sixth chapter of the Bodhicharyavatara, Patience is most important in staying on the path.  The doubt in itself then is not necessarily an obstacle, nor is the questions and feelings.  Shantideva points to anger that can arise out of the doubt as something that requires our attention and patience.  As important as this paramita is to the path, it has personally been the most challenging for me- especially in situations that are emotionally charged like witnessing another person or an animal or child being harmed.

Pain, humiliation, insults or rebukes-

We do not want them

Either for those whom we love or ourselves.

For those we do not like, it’s quite the opposite!

Acting reflexively to situations with anger creates obstacles since we are short on prajna and upaya.  The workability comes out of the patience generated through sitting when we see that there is no ‘other’ to blame.  ‘Driving all blames into one’ as Chogyam Trungpa said allows for the space in which we can transform the suffering and can see that what is happening is destructive to everyone.  A direct way to know this through the practice of tonglen- the practice of sending and taking.   Tonglen has helped me to cut klesa activity and develop patience because the exchange of sending and taking digs up our own sensitivity to suffering.  It points out our own ‘self’ centeredness and attachment.

Lobsang Gyatso asserts that grasping to self is one of the most obscuring factors that prevent the attainment of wisdom.  To safeguard against this is to vigilantly and heroically persevere in developing qualities of “other cherishing” mind, lifetime after lifetime so we eventually engage spontaneously in altruistic action.  Shantideva says, “There is nothing which familiarity does not make easier.”  As frightened as we may be in taking on all of this responsibility, it is crucial that we remain committed or we will continue wandering in samsara in ignorance and helping no one, not even ourselves.  This is not an easy task considering the fact that we have been conditioned for lifetimes to react compulsively, aggressively and contrary to compassion.  In the Greater Stages of the Path, Je Tsongkhapa says:

Attachment to self has engendered self-centeredness, and it is this, which has in a beginningless process of cyclic existence up to the present day created all forms of everything undesirable.

If this is all we know and share, it is no wonder we are unable to overcome the problems we face and discount both others and ourselves by trying to safeguard this logic.  To mention emptiness, we somehow think we won’t exist and can fall into despondency and nihilism, carried away by attacks of the skandhas.  To understand it, we cannot merely conceptualize, we must do as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, which is:

“Anyone who would like to arrive at that kind of emancipation will have to look deeply in order to penetrate the true nature of emptiness.”

Absolutely Empty- photo by Mae Lee Sun

Penetrating phenomenal reality will free us from pain since we recognize its illusory nature.  Form is empty of a single independent point of origination and, emptiness is in essence, the containment of everything, the interbeing of entire existence.  Without it, how could anything exist and not exist as is expounded in the Prajnaparamita Sutra?  If we make distinctions between good and bad elements, this and that, we stay subject to samsara, birth, old age, sickness and death and fail to see the transformative quality of the Dharma and our teachers.  Reciting the Heart Sutra with the intent of a bodhisattva, the object of “I” cannot maintain itself as separate or intrinsically existent.  Therefore, we must not be disenchanted when confusion arises on the path so these realizations can come and bodhicitta can be realized.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama states in his book Flash of Lightning, that one must practice according to individual capacity.  If we are mindful of those moments of not acting in accord with the highest good, and we approach endeavoring towards awakening with joy, then we will not be disheartened. According to Chogyam Trungpa, this sense of cheerfulness has a lot of guts:

“You maintain a sense of cheerfulness because you are on the path; you are actually doing something about yourself.  While most sentient beings have no idea what should be done with themselves, at least you have some lead on it, which is fantastic.  That joy seems to be the beginning of compassion.  This kind of cheerfulness has a lot of guts.”

The path is actually quite practical.  Many teachers have stated that if you master even one of the precepts, you’ve mastered them all.  It doesn’t mean we don’t get angry or gossip ever again.  Sensei Bays suggests that when you’ve broken them, you can do something about it- apologize, and start over again.  We can also enlist the aid of others- our friends, sangha or teacher.  For example, “I’m really trying to do this as part of my spiritual practice and I really need help from all quarters so could you help me to not gossip?”  If that approach doesn’t work, Bays says to be quiet or say the opposite- say something nice about the person.

At the same time, scholar and Buddhist teacher, Sara Harding said joy is hard to come by.  We think somehow there is some sort of final solution to end suffering.  Shantideva gives us clear instructions however on how to not only come to a greater understanding on an intellectual level, but affirms that practical actions will support virtuous progress along the path, thus freeing us to experience a flash of lightening rather than becoming a flash in the pan.

By Mae Lee Sun

“When Chogyam Trungpa taught in the West, he made a distinction between Buddhism and Buddhadarma.  Preconceptions behind calling things Buddhism is about studying a philosophical system as a religion with basic principles to be learned and categorized in an understandable and intelligent way.  Trungpa emphasized this was not a complete understanding of what the Buddha taught which was ‘Buddhadarma’- awake to the truth of things as they are…

“Bodhicitta is the essence of the Dharma, everything that arises is Bodhicitta and comes from our ’soft spot’ like anger- as a wound where we are helpless.  It’s what the human condition is and we are vulnerable to this experience.  The discipline is to be able to recognize this soft spot under the anger and we can feel our own suffering so we can see others suffering more clearly.”  -  Frank Berliner, Religious Studies Faculty, Naropa University

“The desire for enlightenment is the mind which performs the function of seeking that unsurpassed state for the sake of releasing all sentient beings from suffering.  This desire for the welfare of others is in essence a form of great compassion.” – Venerable Lobsang Gyatso, excerpt, Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment

Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand- Photo by Mae Lee Sun

From the above statements, we can surmise that the word of the Buddha is promoting the notion of a spirituality that directs one toward service to all forms of life.  Embracing such an approach is obviously not a path that one would potentially embark on without good intention and seeing the value of enduring and also transforming one’s own pain and suffering in the process of bearing witness to other beings.   What it does not imply is that although no one can clearly define what it means to live the true model of the Buddha, the means to achieve this awareness of awakened heart lies beyond the societal and spiritual identification of being ‘Buddhist.’

There are many historical and contemporary spiritual warriors from non-Buddhist traditions who have been able to transcend any obscuring spiritual distinctions to access the word of the Buddha in ways that embody the Bodhisattva ideal: St Francis, Chief Joseph, Ghandi, Albert Schweitzer, Thomas Merton, Victor Frankel, Maya Angelou, Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela, and countless others.  In the past, personal dialogue with other Buddhists around this universal outlook has not always been met with the openness and equanimity I expected my practitioner friends to embody.  Perhaps by now however, their views have changed.

The subject initially arose, and came to be debated, out of a passage written by Chogyam Trungpa in his book, Training the Mind:

“Theistic traditions tend to build up an individual substance of some kind, so that you can then step out and do your own version of so-called bodhisattvic actions.  But in the nontheistic Buddhist tradition, we talk in terms of having no being, no characteristics of egohood, and therefore being able to perform a much broader version of bodhisattva activity altogether.”

This is not to say that Trungpa necessarily meant this literally.  It raises an interesting question for me however, as a practitioner and person who has worked on behalf of animal welfare, the environment, for social justice and as a spiritual caregiver in the emergency room of a Level I trauma hospital. Most of these roles required an interfaith perspective as we who choose these vocations are offering our presence to people with diverse spiritual backgrounds.

It seems essential to have an understanding of and reflect on the diversity of spirituality in this context both to avoid the trap of spiritual materialism and also to ensure alternative sacred ways of knowing are honored.  Otherwise, we alienate people, especially those confronting the experience of death and dying (a major focus of work in Engaged Buddhism).

There are certainly many non-Buddhist Bodhisattvas free of ego, who have been spoken of as such by Buddhist teachers, who manifest a broad spectrum of Bodhisattva activity and who need not be discounted.  There are also many Buddhists who operate out of what Sulak Sivaraksa referred to as the “goody goody” place of ego to prove what great Buddhists they are, and do more harm as a result.  Perhaps this exploration will be too short to comprehensively explain such an understanding of Dharma, Bodhicitta and so many extraordinary traditions and lives.

At the core, what makes such an exploration challenging is the inexpressible nature of experience that comes through deep connection to spirit, and the limitation of language and conditioned mind to accurately convey that which motivates and opens the heart.

In my observation and experience, the manifestation of what I understand as Bodhicitta does take place across spiritual and religious traditions.  What is key to understanding this may best be approached by dropping the the identification as ‘Buddhist’ and looking at what His Holiness the Dalai Lama refers to as “the authentication of all religion- the realization of a ‘good heart’, a human being’s innate qualities of compassion and tolerance.”  In other words, there is no single way to the TRUTH.  There are universal values and beliefs uniquely  embodied in each tradition and the differences do not have to mean divisions or subordination.

It is more pragmatic to discuss the notion of a good heart and Bodhicitta through comparing Buddhist and non-Buddhist spiritual models of social action who engaged the world along the lines of ‘interbeing’ rather than to challenge the merits of the respective traditions themselves.  I’d like to being with reflection on two Native American warriors of peace- Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and Eagle Cruz of the Lakota.

Eagle Cruz, a Sundancer and Pipe Holder for the Lakota, was a teacher of Native American Studies at Naropa University.  He is no longer there.  It’s been years since he left or was asked to resign. I’m not quite sure what the legal details were.   Eagle was accused of engaging in cultural genocide by a non-native student (who was married to a Native American) and some Lakota people for introducing native teachings to the non-native community at Naropa.  An important aspect of this condemnation of Eagle teaching was that some felt native culture was being appropriated by whites, resulting in the assimilation and ultimate demise of it.  The real time issues of poverty, broken treaty agreements, etc., were said to be unconsidered and even swept under the rug.  Vine Deloria Jr., a Native American professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, called this oversight ’skimming’- the act of whites taking only the cream of Native culture and discarding the rest of Native life.  It became a very politically and legally sensitive situation for myriad reasons.

One of the main reasons is that some tribal elders in this particular case, felt that any impartation of this knowledge was a violation of sacred precepts.  Other tribal elders, according to Eagle, gave Eagle permission to present the curriculum he taught at Naropa while concurrently insisting he not reveal other teachings.  In dealing with this, he said to me at the time that ‘everything begins within- creating discrimination, introspection and finding a place where we’re willing to consider other possibilities.

According to Eagle, being a ’spiritual’ being doesn’t exist conceptually in native culture.  There are no words to define or explain it as something separate from daily life.  To look at someone as ’spiritual’ for engaging in prayer but not for being on the front lines of activism is to not properly value everyone’s contribution.

Eagle stated that it was easy to go through life and be ’spiritual’ by staying in ceremony all day, and that the challenge for him as an activist was coming to terms with what we refer to in Buddhism as ‘walking the razor’s edge.’  He found himself continually having to decide whether or not to continue on with the commitments he’s made and seeing the obstacles as food to help him along the Way.  In the 1800s, Chief Joseph did this as well, continually and non-violently, even after the U.S. government banned him from the land of his ancestors.  With treaty after broken treaty with the U.S., the result was near genocide of the Nez Perce Nation.  Sulak Sivaraksa’s response to this statement, referring to Eagle, was that a Bodhisattva would confront anything and any criticism to overcome suffering in society.

“It is resting like a tiger, then when the time comes, you go out to get the prey, only non-violently.”  -  Sulak Sivaraksa

Faced with the dilemma of  having to move from the sacred land of his ancestors and the burial ground of his father or face war, Chief Joseph broke the promise he made to his father of never giving up the Wallowa Valley in order to save the Nez Perce from genocide.  What is interesting to note in this action is that native people’s relationship to land was central to both their identity and connection to ‘Great Spirit’.  To be separated from it was tantamount to the death of the their own soul because of the deep responsibility and identification they felt to it, the creatures, and the plants who inhabited it.  Yet Chief Joseph seemed to have felt a unique responsibility to both his people and whites to not allow the sacredness of place to be denigrated by  violence, even at the cost of losing it- and in spite of the extreme hardship his people would face in the process of moving to a reservation.

The sacred view which Chief Joseph held appears no different than that which Thich Nhat Hanh states in Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism:

“To be in touch with the reality of the world means to be in touch with everything that is around us in the animal, vegetal and mineral realms.  If we want to be in touch, we have to get out of our shell and look clearly and deeply at the wonders of life..and also the suffering..once we get in touch with the source of understanding and compassion, all our actions will naturally protect and enhance life..without calm and peaceful mind, our actions will only create more trouble and destruction in the world.”

The historical account of Chief Joseph’s actions are really an expression of the notion of Interbeing and I would argue, is inclusive of all 14 precepts put forth by the Order of Interbeing.  Without going into great detail, the most obvious ones include finding whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war, being open to receive other’s viewpoints, living simply and sharing resources with those in need.  The Charter of the Order of Interbeing includes four principles as the foundation of the Order which I believe Chief Joseph embodied:

1. Non-attachment from views- to be free from dogma, prejudices and habits- Chief Joseph was familiar with and practiced both Christian and Native spirituality.
2. Direct experimentation- direct experience of reality, not speculative philosophy as an instrument through which we experiment with truth- Chief Joseph lived as he believed and worked with Anglos according to each situation and adjusted his view where necessary.
3. Appropriateness- a teaching, in order to bring about understanding and compassion,  must reflect the needs of people and the realities of society- Chief Joseph  gave up the land he promised to hold and was able to integrate that into native view.
4. Skillful means- images and methods created by intelligent teachers to guide people in their efforts to practice the Way in their own particular circumstances- Chief Joseph wanted to avoid genocide and to maintain peace and did this through flight over treacherous yet well known territory, to ensure that the Nez Perce people and anglos would survive.

Chief Joseph was able to penetrate the intent while anticipating the outcome of the white man’s words, yet continued in negotiations despite the hopelessness of the situation.  One might ask “Why pursue it then?”  I can surmise from my own practice and insight, that it is not the futility or apparent success of a situation or cause that motivates the spiritual warrior.  As one of my former Naropa teachers Dale Asriel said, “It is the dawn of Bodhicitta in us, the awakened heart of clear seeing, gentleness and willingness to allow enough room for everything (wisdom, compassion, emptiness), our soft spot of wanting to make sense of confusion.

Peace activist Robert Aitken Roshi at 91 years old- photo provided by the Diamond Sangha

It is a greater aspiration that calls to us in life.  The pain of this process- if it becomes a source of discovery rather than despair- is what enables us to feel connected to other beings and to embrace the world as we find it.  Who could dispute the fact that Chief Joseph was willing to do this, and from the ground of Bodhicitta?

One of my all time favorite Bodhisattavas has been St. Francis of Assisi.  As a Christian monk, he was able to touch upon the essence of Bodhicitta in ways that recognizably indicate the unity of Interbeing between the natural world, self and spirit:

“Once when Francis was offered a large fish which had just been caught in Lake Piediluco, he simply looked at it, called it “brother” and then put it back in the water near the boat. And it did not swim away until Francis had given it leave and a blessing.”                                                                                                          -Bonaventure IX, 8

St. Francis worked to unite and protect all elements of the creation of the spirit.  He was connected to the wisdom aspect of the Bible, where the earth was looked upon not merely as lifeless matter, but rather alive with sensitivity to feelings of pain and suffering.  So that he could alleviate the suffering, Francis, who came from a wealthy family like Siddhartha Gautama, subscribed to a life of poverty, simplicity and meditation in serving the Spirit.

As he roamed around the countryside and taught, he did so with regard to all of creation in mind, including the lowly worm.  I imagine him to be more of a Thich Nhat Hanh kinda guy and Bodhisattva, possessing a gentleness of presence and telling stories filled with references about nature.  Many people however, during his time, thought of him as ‘God’s fool’ for his extraordinary enthusiasm in communing with the natural world of plants and animals.  There is the noteworthy Canticle of Brother Sun, Sister Moon, where Francis speaks to the notion of Interbeing:

“All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made, And first my Lord Brother Sun who brings the day: and light you give to us through him.  How beautiful he is, how radiant in all his splendor.  Of you, most high, he bears the likeness.  And praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and stars.  In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.  And praise be yours my Lord, through Sister Earth, Our Mother, who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces fruits and colored flowers and herbs.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama asserts that this type of thought in Christianity relates to recognition of Buddha-nature in everything.  If St. Francis was able to notice this in simple forms of creation, one could surmise that he was also able to dissolve the barrier between self and other, and see the quality of Interbeing from his awakened heart, like so many other Bodhisattvas were able to do.

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche wrote that:

“all creatures seek happiness; they are seeking it day and night…those birds living in bushes and also the butterflies…they are all the same- desiring happiness, not desiring suffering.”

Clearly, the aforementioned Bodhisattvas understood this and lived in ways to benefit the beings experiencing this.  Perhaps they had spiritual practices that we may not agree with or understand.  However, they clearly participated in life from a place of awakened heart.  The path that creates the opening is any one’s guess.  Nelson Mandela’s path ran the gamut- from embracing non-violent protest against apartheid to advocating guerrilla warfare, spending 27 years in prison as a result, then receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, becoming president of South Africa while continuously being surrounded by controversy yet is held in high esteem around the world.

Dr. Reginald Ray, a former teacher of mine at Naropa and spiritual director of Dharma Ocean Foundation in Crestone, Colorado, said to me on our first meeting at Naropa that sometimes Bodhisattva’s are born in hell realms so that they can better help those beings that are there.  At the time, I certainly didn’t have the clarity or compassion with which to accept his insight.  What I do have is a strong meditation practice and incredible teachers both Buddhist and non-Buddhist who constantly challenge the notion of “I”, “Me” and “Mine”.  With that, I’ve discovered that there is no ground, no security which I can grasp onto.   Every moment is ever more precious, raw and we all face them in very different ways.  On the Bodhisattva path, we are reduced to nothing.  And from there, we become very real, very human, without labels and often open, broken hearts.

The Sun Spot

On October 27, 2009 I interviewed my former creative nonfiction writing teacher, Lee Gutkind, Founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction Magazine, on his research with robots.

Lee, who is now at ASU, has a very long title behind his name: the Distinguished Writer in Residence, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes Professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University.

Gutkind’s book “Almost Human: Making Robots Think”, has just been released in paperback.  Enamored with all things robot, I asked him to comment on a recent New York Times visual article on the robot recession currently underway in Japan.  His initial response was ” It goes to show the way in which interest in robots goes far beyond technology and into public understanding, consumption and acceptance that the ‘idea’ of AI (artificial intelligence) is no longer the stuff of science fiction.”  I agreed.

LG: The robot recession in Japan is a reflection of the economic recession in Japan and isn’t impacting us in a big way since robots are more a part of life in Japan.  In the U.S., robots are seen as of  part of pop culture and they’re involved in industry and medicine but we’re not used to interacting with them daily like the Japanese.

MLS: Why do you think that’s the case since we’re so technology dependent it seems in the West?

LG: The Japanese look at robots as answers to problems in life- like who will take care of the elderly.  In the U.S. we don’t want to think about a robot taking care of us. Although if you look at it, there is a decrease in funding in certain areas of research that robot technology is getting, like with aerospace.

MLS: Do you mean with space travel and lunar landings, etc?

LG: Yes, if you look at what has been going on with NASA in the past four or five years, the idea that was taking hold was that we didn’t need manned space travel because robots could do the job because the focus was on places where man couldn’t travel like Mars.  Mars was more important with the Clinton and Bush administration but now we’re focusing on going to the moon again and not Mars so robots are becoming less significant because men have been and can be on the moon and walk around.  Do you remember the two robots are on Mars?

MLS: You mean Spirit and Opportunity?

LG: Yes..they were supposed to be there for 3 months and now they’ve been there for three years.  We couldn’t do that with humans.  In that sense, we don’t know where space exploration will go let alone robots…Although the only place robots are still finding job security is in military applications.

MLS: That seems clear with predator drones and computer guided technology. It reminds me of the movie Transformers.

LG: Robots can go around the corner and look for the enemy…and it’s really not far from Sci Fi when robots control the weapons.  In 25 years or less, robots will be fighting the wars…until robots turn against their controllers.  That’s something that is difficult to balance in whole world of science.

MLS: If they take over?

LG:  Well, sometimes research gallops ahead of scientists ability to understand and control it.  We don’t want to stop research however and turn into a police state although I don’t know of any conferences that have taken place where these issues are being discussed.

MLS: What do you make of smart homes, smart cars and phones that do just about everything for you.  I keep thinking of the old cartoon show, the Jetsons.  Would you consider those things robots, except for Rosie who was a robot?

LG: People in the robotics world say smart cars and phones are robots.  What about robo calls? Artificial voices sometimes, not all the time, allow for no human connection.  Could they become dangerous? I don’t know.  What about the robot nurses that skulk around a patients room giving them medicine or a surgeon doing a procedure from one city on a patient in another by means of robotics?  What if there is a glitch in the system?

ML: Doesn’t that speak to the difference between a robot and a machine?

LG: Robotics people make a distinction between robots and machines.  Machines don’t think.  Robotics people also have trouble establishing a distance between the robots they create and themselves because they get attached. They give their robot creations a name and sexual orientation and they treat them like they treat a pet.

MLS: It reminds me of a Star Trek Next Generation episode with Data called The Measure of A Man.  They actually have to take the issue to council to determine if Data can think and feel independently and beyond being a programmed machine or creation.

LG: Scientists do become so involved in what they do that the moral and ethical issues aren’t considered until afterward.  There aren’t science policy scholars who devote time to thinking about these issues.

MLS: Any last words?

LG:  I still have an interest in following robots although I’m currently working on a book on personalized medicine.  That should be of great interest to Arizona.

Lee Gutkind conducted most of his research on robots at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, the NASA research center in California and in the Atacama desert in Chile- the place on planet earth said to be most like Mars.

For more information on Lee Gutkind’s work go to www.leegutkind.com or www.therobotbook.com

By Mae Lee Sun
TNAZ Regional Correspondent

Training Bible coach, Tom Manzi, of Tubac & New Jersey, conducts an open water swim clinic for Tucson TriGirls triathlon club, at Lake Patagonia.
Credit: Mae Lee Sun

Floyd Landis, (seated far left) and his cycling team, Team Ouch, visited TriSports.com earlier this year to market the team products the store carries.
Credit: Mae Lee Sun

Nutritional performance products like XOOD and Clif are continually tested in the field by competitive triathletes like Tom Manzi (smiling), sponsored by both companies.
Credit: Mae Lee Sun