1 - Robert Russell Bennett: A Grandson's Victory Remembrance

Summary

George has asked me to write a short piece about my grandfather, and of course I am happy to do so given all that George has done to honor Robert Russell Bennett's musical heritage. I’ll get to the heritage aspect in a moment, and particularly Victory at Sea, but I’d like to start out by talking about Grandpa's love of sports and games.

He loved baseball. Perhaps the love went back to when he played ball for a Kansas semi-pro team. At first, I didn't know whether to believe him about his baseball career because, you see, he contracted polio as a young boy, and lost considerable muscle and strength in both legs as a lifelong condition. Why the initial doubt? He told me he played catcher.

He loved the New York Giants; he disliked the Dodgers and hated the Yankees. He applauded the Dodgers’ “scram” to Los Angeles and was saddened by the Giants’ move to San Francisco. He disliked changes to the game that were meant to broaden the sport's appeal, and on occasion when I would rhapsodize about such-and-so's home-run prowess, he would correct me by saying that in the era of shortened fences and lighter balls, there were no more home runs, only home “trots.” In my teens I’d dismiss this kind of remark as the older generation defending their ways from encroachments by the younger generation, but I came to see them as the reflection of his artistry, his devotion to true accomplishment as distinguished from showy gambits, no matter how popular. The idea that a ball should fly over a fielder's head to be a home run, rather than have the player stop at the fence and see the ball just make it over the fence has more force with me now.

He loved tennis and played well into his seventies. He played doubles, being unable to cover the court well in singles. He could hold his own against an average player in singles, but that was not his game. He was formidable in doubles against excellent players because of good ground strokes and a formidable serve. With his tall stature, long arms, big hands, and sinewy strength he could hit it. I heard veterans on several occasions warn newbies to ignore Grandpa's limp getting to the service line. As with all things, but especially tennis, he played to win.