Flag Day - June 14, 2011

Today is Flag Day 2011!

A common question we get as vexillologists is who responsible for designing the American Flag? The simple answer is Betsy Ross. No matter your view on Betsy Ross - she sewed US Flags for the government with plenty of records. She was one of many common men and women to create flags for the revolution.

Some people say it was all Francis Hopkinson's doing. Really? Can you believe that one man alone had total input for the nation's flag? Can you imagine there being no debate and all the congressional leaders listening to one man alone - congress gives a wink and nod to one man?

Francis Hopkinson
1737-1791

If this were the case Hopkinson would have written the whole process down in detail. Maybe he did, and its hidden and locked away by some super secret patriotic group? But how come nobody in his family continued the telling of Hopkinson's Bold design as a key player in our nation's flag? If you had a family member that was responsible for making something great wouldn't you want to know?

Anyhow, the design of the American Flag is certainly a continuum - and certain congresses can claim legal credit for having their hand in its design. But there are a few individuals who played essential roles as proverbial 'Heir's of Betsy Ross.'

Uncle Sam Reid (1783-1861)
Chief Architect of the US Flag

But the core architect who can be legally called an authentic designer of the American American Flag is Samuel Chester Reid. Mr. Reid set the base code of the US Flag.

Good old Chuck's idea was that the flag should return to the original design of 13 stripes instead of 15 - and that a star should be added for each new state. It may seem like a simple, logical and obvious choice. But really was a revolutionary and paradoxical design.

Thus the US flag is permanently retro while at the same time being perpetually modern. Thank You very much Uncle Sam of Connecticut.

Samuel Reid lived in the Cherry Blossom Era - the period after the Revolution and before the War Between the States. Captain Reid was born just after the American Revolution ended in 1783 and died just before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.

Battle in the Azores - War of 1812

And during the War of 1812 Reid was captain of the General Armstrong and engaged the enemy at the Azores. It was during his service that the Star Spangled Banner was created. It had 15 stripes and 15 stars. But the Union had 18 states.

In 1812 there were flags with 18 stripes and 18 stars but they were unofficial. Also, the US Flag during the War of 1812 was made official on May Day 1795. Thus May 1 should be a Flag Day for the Star Spangled Banner.

Bottom line is that a Navy Man from the Nutmegger State is the paramount designer of our American Flag. But Captain Samuel Reid can not claim total credit. Several persons from distant generations have had small and big parts to play.

Link to an earlier post about Reid
with modern adaptations of his flag designs

Reid's sketches of the US flag with other designs that were rejected

Baseball Team Symmetry - Reds vs Browns, part 8

The Reds vs the Browns!? How is this possible!?

Somewhere in Time on a solemn enchanted Field of Dreams the yesteryear dreamers and legends play ball.

The partner of the Cincinnati Reds is the forlorn St. Louis Browns. They match because both their team totems are colours - red & brown. The St. Louis Brown are a team no more, they left St. Louis for Baltimore and underwent metamorphosis to become the Oriels.

The Logo of the Browns is a fascinating icon. It features a throw back to heraldry - a shield with a pattern taken from the American flag but uses the colours brown, orange, and white. In the chief and crest position is a holy man on horseback holding a cross in his hand. There is also a baseball with the teams name written on it - BROWNS -that takes up most of the shield.

On the other hand the term REDS by simple accident became pejorative term for politicians who seemed to operate on socialist principals, was an atheist, or non-conformist during the Cold War.

The St. Louis Browns are perhaps best remembered as the first runner up in the genesis of the MVP award. One hundred and one years ago the Chalmers Automoblie Company announced the player with the highest batting average in Major League Baseball was to get a free car - a Chalmer's Model 30.

1910 Chalmers Model 30
Ty Cobb & Nap Lajoie

As the season went on, two contenders swung their way to top - Ty Cobb with the Detroit Tigers and Nap Lajoie with the Cleveland Indians. But this rivalry turned into something more than just a race for a free car. Perhaps they knew they were laying a foundation of something bigger than themselves. They were in a neck in neck race, up till the end of the season. This award for best batting average, eventually evolved into Major League's Baseballs Writer's Association of America's Most Valuable Player in 1931.

Red and Brown

Ty Cobb was something of passionate player from the Deep South, Georgia to be more specific. Mr. Cobb was loved by some and hated by others for his eye of the tiger like play. While Nap Lajoie was a well mannered man from the North via good old fashioned 'Yankee Pie Country' - Rhode Island.

On October 9, 1910 the Cleveland Indians were scheduled to play the St. Louis Browns in a doubleheader. Nap Lajoie had an opportunity to pull ahead of Ty Cobb and Nap had the sympathy of the other players and coaches of the St. Louis Browns.

The Browns were suffering from a dismal season: 47 wins and 107 losses. It seemed that Nap Lajoie had an home heart advantage. Nap made it on base every all eight times at bat. But on Nap's at last bat there was a wild throw to first base and it was counted as error rather than a hit. The Brown's manager and player-coach Jack O'Conner and Harry Howell tired to bribe the official to count it as hit rather than an error. But she refused, and word eventually got out and O'Conner and Howell were subtly banned from professional baseball.

Famous Ty Cobb Photo Sliding to Safety

However more than eighty years later in 1981 Pete Palmer took a second look at the 1910 batting data for Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie and saw that Cobb's numbers were inflated - either by accident or on purpose. In reality Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians had the higher batting average.

The foundation of baseball's MVP award is shrouded in a enchanting controversy, several players were banned and the St. Louis Browns took a lot of heat. Eventually their name was lost to the annals of baseball history & trivia.

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This video explains the idea of 'flag symmetry' or in this case baseball team totem symmetry.
It features clips from Field of Dreams, Northern Exposure, and Deepak Chopra. Today it's called synchronicity but before Dr. Carl Jung it was known as Providence. Carl essentially put this semi-superstitious idea into modern terms that 'rationalista academics' wouldn't have a hissy fit over - since they loathe the term providence.

Somewhere in Time on a solemn enchanted Field of Dreams the yesteryear dreamers and legends play ball.

Baseball Team Symmetry - Nationals & Mets, part 7

Mets Logo

The Mets and Nationals are linked as baseball partners. Why? The Mets are a resurrected name that stems from the original Metropolitans that played baseball in the late 1800s. Coincidentally in the 1800s there was another team called the Washington Nationals (who are now the Twins). The original Washington Nationals played in the National league form 1886 to 1889. One of its most famous players was Connie Mack whose Major League Baseball career began on September 11, 1889. But soon the original Nationals folded - Mr. Mack later gained fame as longest serving manager in baseball history, with the most wins with the Philadelphia A's.

DC Logo
Note DC was originally shaped like a baseball field!

The original Metropolitans played from 1880-1887. They played in Jersey and Brooklyn like many leagues did in Baseball's golden era. But the Metropolitans were the first to play professional b-ball in Manhattan at Polo Grounds.

Who knew 99 years after the 'original Mets' that a post-modern Mets would win the world series in 1986?

The totem of a National and a Met is rather intangible. It's not an animal, vegetable, mineral, place, or thing. Essentially they are political states of mind in a category of ones community. If you live in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area then you are a LA Met. Thus every large city has its own Metropolitan Community. There are LA Mets, Savannah Mets, Buffalo Mets, Tokyo Mets, and belive it or not...Jerusalem Mets! Basically the people who live around a large city that has sky scrapers or million plus population with a surrounding business community that commutes downtown is a metropolitan zone.


On the other hand there is the nation. Usually only one city - the capital city is allowed to adopt this totem as a title. Thus for Canada it would be Ottawa Nationals - other examples could be Tokyo Nationals, Berlin Nationals, Rome Nationals, Tehran Nationals, Moscow Nationals, or my favorite capital city name - the Ouagadougou Nationals.

But the most harmonious link between these 'geographic political-totems' are that all capital cities come with a metropolitan community. Thus the Mets are an appropriate baseball team partner as the shadow of the Nationals.


On top of that, NYC was the first National Capital of the United States - under the Constitution. Before Washington DC was a twinkle in the eye of America - the first official president of the USA was inaugurated in downtown Manhattan.

So back in 1788, Washington was a bonna fide resident of NYC. You can also extrapolate that G.W. would always pick the Mets over the Nationals, why? G.W. was a humble man, and he'd be uncomfortable rooting for a team with his own name.

Link to NY Mets^
Link to Washington Nationals^

Link to Part 8 - on the quantum baseball field of imagination!