This week, The Extraordinary Times caught up with writer John Kiesewetter. Kiesewetter grew up in Middletown, where his favorite Reds player was pitcher Joe Nuxhall from Hamilton. He started his journalism career as a Middletown Journal summer intern while attending Ohio University. After he graduated from OU, the Cincinnati Enquirer hired him for a 13-week summer internship which he parlayed into a forty-year career, the last thirty as TV/Radio columnist. He has covered TV/media for WVXU-FM and WMUB-FM since 2015. Kiesewetter just published his first book, Joe Nuxhall: The Old Lefthander & Me—My Conversations with Joe Nuxhall about the Reds, Baseball & Broadcasting. Note: Join the author for a free public talk on Joe Nuxhall at Miami University’s Middletown campus, 6pm Tuesday November 9. The Old Lefthander & Me is available at Kiesewetter’s website, tvkiese.com, and at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, and Amazon. *What was your personal connection to the Old Lefthander? Being a lefthander, Joe Nuxhall has been my favorite Reds baseball player since I was 9, in 1962, when Nuxhall came up from the minors to go 5-0 for the Reds. I thought he was some young stud pitcher, but my Dad explained to me that Joe was the youngest Major League Baseball player at age 15 in 1944, then spent seven years in the minors before making the team in 1952. He was one of the Reds best pitchers in the 1950s. I put Joe Nuxhall's 1963 Topps baseball card in a frame, and placed it on my dresser. It's still on my dresser today. As the Enquirer's TV columnist, I got to meet Nuxhall and interview him many times. I always recorded those interviews, and they are the basis for my new book, Joe Nuxhall: The Old Lefthander & Me – My Conversations with Joe Nuxhall about the Reds, Baseball & Broadcasting. We talked about his 1950s and '60 teammates; his partnership (and off-air pranks) with Marty Brennaman; his achievements as a pitcher and batter; his "Star of the Game" interviews; and even his Kroger TV commercials. *What were Nuxhall's greatest attributes as a player? Joe Nuxhall loved to tell funny stories about his misadventures as a pitcher for the Reds in the 1950s and '60s – falling down trying to field balls on wet grass, losing his temper over umpires' calls, etc. But he was no joke as a player. He was an All-Star in 1955 and 1956. In 15 seasons with the Reds, he won 130 games, lost 109, with 1,289 strikeouts, 82 complete games, 20 shutouts and a 3.80 earned run average. Although he retired at the end of the 1966 season, he still holds the Reds record for pitching 15 seasons with the club. He was very popular with his teammates for his enthusiasm and love of the game. At the plate, he hit 15 home runs, and batted over .250 in seven of his 16 Major League seasons – including hitting .292 for the old Kansas City Athletics in 1961, which frequently used Joe to pinch hit. (As Nux loved to say, "If you swing the bat, you're dangerous.") I must add that Joe's attributes as a person – cheerfully chatting with fans, signing autographs, generously supporting charities, frequently speaking to groups throughout the Tristate – made him the most beloved Reds ever. *How was Nuxhall able to transition from the ball field to the broadcast booth? Joe Nuxhall was a gifted storyteller. He seemed to know everyone in the game, and could tell a story about them for hours -- without notes. I loved hearing him tell stories to groups or organizations, yet he didn't include them his 2004 book, Joe: Rounding Third and Heading for Home. That was the original impetus for writing a book. I wanted his stories preserved, prized and passed on to generations of Reds fans to keep his memory alive. Nuxhall began preparing for a possible broadcasting career by doing commentary on Miami University basketball games on Hamilton's WMOH-AM in the off season in the 1960s. Once when Miami had the ball, with the score tied and time running out, Nuxy yelled, "Shoot the damn thing!" The player threw up a shot, it went in, and Miami won. *Briefly summarize Nuxhall's legacy to this region. Nearly 15 years after his death, Joe Nuxhall remains a gentle giant of charity in Butler County. The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields in Fairfield allows developmentally challenged people of all ages play the game Joe loved. They also can ride a merry-go-round and play miniature golf at the complex. Joe Nuxhall is the namesake of the character education program created by his son, Kim. College students play baseball in a wood bat league at Hamilton Foundation Field for a team named after Nux, the Hamilton Joes. Nuxhall chaired the 1994 committee for the bond issue to build Fairfield High School. You see streets named for Joe Nuxhall in Hamilton and Fairfield; a mural in Hamilton; and Marty & Joe Field and a Nuxhall statue in Fairfield's Waterworks Park. Another life-size statue depicts Nuxhall pitching outside Great American Ball Park on Joe Nuxhall Way in downtown Cincinnati. Next door is the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, which houses the Marty and Joe Broadcast Exhibit. And there's my favorite Nuxhall legacy: The Joe Nuxhall Scholarships. More than $900,000 has been distributed to Butler County high school seniors in 36 years in the name of Joe Nuxhall, who never attended a day of college classes. And that's why $1 from every copy of The Old Lefthander & Me will be given to the Nuxhall Foundation for the scholarships fund.
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This week The Extraordinary Times caught up with Nancy Brown Diggs, author of the recently-published In Search of Appalachia (Hamilton/Rowman and Littlefield). An avid traveler who has visited every continent, Nancy has lived in France, participated in language immersion/ homestay programs in Japan and Mexico, and volunteered in Ecuador, Romania, and Haiti. Her long interest in other cultures is reflected by her PhD in East Asian Studies, by her language skills—for many years she translated French, Spanish, and German for Ohio companies—and by her many books. In addition to her latest study of Appalachia, Nancy has written: Breaking the Cycle: How Schools Can Overcome Urban Challenges (Rowman and Littlefield), Hidden in the Heartland: The New Wave of Immigrants and the Challenge to America (Michigan State University Press), Looking Beyond the Mask: When American Woman Marry Japanese Men (State University of New York Press), and Steel Butterflies: Japanese Women and the American Experience (State University of New York Press). She co-authored A Look at Life in Northern Ireland, with Tanya Higgins, and My Century, with Evangeline Lindsley.
*What drew you to explore Appalachia as a subject? Having written several books that touched on other cultures, I decided to look at one closer to my own, geographically, that is. In spite of my Kentucky roots, I never dreamed that the culture was my own. I suppose I had bought into the stereotypes that the media promoted. But the people I met were more like The Waltons than The Dukes of Hazard, more Sgt. York than Pvt. Gomer Pyle, and it’s a culture to be proud of. * You describe in your recent book discovering your “inner Appalachian.” On reflection, what are your connections to the region and its culture? I have deep family roots in Kentucky, and I discovered that I share so many of the values: humility, honesty, self-reliance, a strong sense of family, and, I hope, neighborliness. One reason I wanted to write the book was to counteract the stereotypes that J. D. Vance perpetuates in his book Hillbilly Elegy. I came to realize that one reason I so dislike the book is that I feel he is disloyal to his family. * How did you go about identifying and interviewing the various Appalachian voices reflected in your book? The experts in Appalachian Studies at Sinclair Community College were very helpful. I also contacted churches with Appalachian congregations and put an ad in The Kentucky Explorer, a monthly publication. Mostly, though, there were a lot of lucky coincidences. For example, I learned that someone from my church had taught at a college in eastern Kentucky. She was eager to visit old friends, so she and I traveled to Hindman, Kentucky, where she introduced me to some fascinating people. When an Orkin inspector came to check for termites at my house, we talked about the forthcoming book, and she suggested I speak to her father, a World War II veteran from Kentucky. He gave me the names of several others of his generation who were willing to tell their stories. At a French conversation group, I met someone who put me in touch with a friend from West Virginia. A chief master sergeant in the Air Force, he had given a great deal of thought to the cultural conflicts he was experiencing with his family back in the hills. One of my best interviews! While I was taking an adult education class on country music taught by Fred Bartenstein, the University of Dayton’s expert on the genre, I learned that Ricky Skaggs would be performing not far away. I used Fred’s contacts to arrange an interview. I think it was Fred who also had the contact information for Japan’s expert on country music. Michael Furmanovsky, who was born in Zimbabwe of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, grew up in England, and now teaches at a university in Kyoto. People never cease to amaze me! * Amid all the challenges faced by Appalachians today (economic uncertainty, health inequality, the opioid epidemic) is there cause for optimism about the future? There are challenges indeed, but the experts I talked to were generally optimistic. With the closing of the coal mines, people are putting their trust in the “new economy,” and governments are investing funds in technology and training. In the meantime, communities are promoting small projects; there’s “not a silver bullet, but rather a lot of silver beebees.” Some believe that the Appalachian people themselves are the best asset, “unmined beautiful diamonds,” as Ricky Skaggs puts it. According to one political leader, “Their work ethic is second to none. These people will crawl into the side of a mountain and never see the light of day to feed their family. Imagine what they could do for a company with good working conditions.” Even Robin Harris, who holds the unenviable job of directing the Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board for Ohio’s Appalachian counties, sees a ray of hope. “We are incredibly resilient in coming together and problem solving,” she says, as she sees the emergence of young leaders in the area. As for the drug problems, new treatments, new ways of dealing with addicts, and concentrating on prevention are bringing results, as state governments confer and learn from one another. Law enforcement, too, is making inroads, according to Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine, who praises Ohio’s “bulk task forces.” This week, The Extraordinary Times catches up with Dr. Chad Berry, Vice President for Alumni, Communications and Philanthropy, Goode Professor of Appalachian Studies, and Professor of History at Berea College, in Kentucky. Dr. Berry has authored, edited, or co-edited four books, notably Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles (University of Illinois Press, 2000), which examines the migration of millions of white southerners to the Midwest during the twentieth century. The book was inspired by his paternal grandparents, who left Tennessee in the 1940s, going first to Akron, Ohio, and ultimately settling in Mishawaka, Indiana. He edited and contributed to the PBS documentary companion volume The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance (Illinois, 2008). He co-edited, with Deandra Little and Peter Felten, Looking and Learning: Visual Literacy across the Disciplines (Jossey-Bass, 2015), and he co-edited, with Phillip J. Obermiller and Shaunna L. Scott, Studying Appalachian Studies: Making the Path by Walking (University of Illinois Press, 2015). Southern Spaces has done a feature on this book, which won the 2015 Weatherford Award for nonfiction.
* In your book, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles you describe the phenomenon of the “divided heart.” What do you mean by this? By divided heart, I mean ambivalence about having to leave a place that many people knew communally as home in order most often to find employment. Millions of white southerners, Black southerners, and native-born Latinos and Hispanics moved northward and westward to find work in the 20th century, one of this country’s largest internal migrations. The people I spoke with, for example, made meaning of their migration experience near the end of their lives as positive from an economic standpoint—they found the economic opportunity they were searching for—but they also often said that they paid a high price for having to leave home to find it. There were divisions in families, for example, between those who left and those who stayed. And, of course, for those who migrated but returned home, they often believed life in the North wasn’t worth that cost. And then, some solved this ambivalence by sticking out life away from home, working hard in their job, then retiring and moving back to their home community, taking their Social Security and any pension payments with them. The main point here is that migration often involves this “divided heart” about that experience. * You dedicated the book to your grandparents, Ruby and Alvin Berry, "and the hundreds of thousands who came with them." How did Ruby and Alvin shape the way you understand Appalachian migration? My grandparents were just beyond ARC [Appalachian Regional Commission] Appalachia, as my family moved to, through, and then slightly beyond Appalachia over the course of generations. They certainly helped me understand the human cost and benefits of migration, whether from the perspective of white lowlanders or white highlanders, as there were similarities, and also some differences between these groups. It was they who taught me from a very early age about how migration often made one an exile in a new land. * How has the field of Appalachian studies changed in the last twenty years? Goodness! This is a huge question. One important way the field is changing is to be more inclusive of different perspectives and groups, particularly in terms of race, gender, sexuality, citizenship, and other areas. I think the field has also striven to try to transcend stereotype battles—certainly fighting them when they emerge but also not being reductive/essentialist that battling stereotypes is the main focus of the Appalachian studies inquiry. Finally, I think it has also welcomed younger people for their insights, perspectives, and commitments. All these are good things. I think the field can continue to learn from other mountain cultures and experiences around the country and especially around the globe. * How is Berea College facing the unique challenges of this new academic year? Since early March 2020, when the College was among the first to end in-person instruction in the interest of public health and safety, we’ve approached the pandemic on a weekly and often daily basis, striving always to be as responsive to new data and the latest science. We also are deeply aware of the low-wealth status of all the students we serve, and we therefore have tried to be as mindful and supportive of the disruptive effects of the pandemic and the digital divide that exists in our country as possible. Our students have been great at following new policies and practices in place to protect the College community, and we are grateful to them. As it has for many folks, the pandemic has been hard on everyone, including our students, staff, and faculty. |
AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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