May 26, 2025 • 50 mins
Today we're stepping up to the plate with a unique blend of ritual and resilience with Bro. Nathan Tweedie, a dedicated Freemason and passionate baseball enthusiast. We'll discuss the intriguing parallels between the Craft and the clubhouse; talking about the shared values of teamwork, discipline, and the pursuit of excellence - how these principles manifest both on the diamond and within the Lodge.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Commons. Opinions and views shared during this program are
of those individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official
position of a Grand Lodge, concordant Body, a pendant Body,
Masonic authority, or Craftsman Online dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only Masonic
podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge of New York. I'm
your host, wright, Worshipful Brother Michael Arsa. We're a few
weeks into the baseball season, but just allow me. We're
going to try to not work in all the baseball
references here, but we had a delayed start to our
opening day. That was the date that we caught up
with Brother Nathan Tweety. You've joined us for an episode
(00:54):
on the Craft and the Clubhouse. I've always told people
Brother Nathan had the best job all time. Yeah, he
got to work at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
New York. And today he's going to be sharing some
of the highlights from his presentation as an earlier Masonic
talk on Craftsman Online dot Com about the Craft and
the Clubhouse. Brother Nathan Tweety, Welcome back to the Craftsman
(01:14):
Online Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thank you so much, right workshop. Brother Michael, it's a
pleasure to be here and thank you for all the
work you've been doing over the years of Craftsman Online.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, thank you. You were one of the early guys
that jumped on. We were just talking. Nathan has some
great articles. We're gonna have the links for it and
the notes for this episode. Piano Legs, you had a
piece on that, and then one of our original Masonic
talks from way back in the COVID days on baseball
and the craft, which is what we're going to dive
into on this one. But I would not be doing
(01:45):
anyone any favors if I didn't start with the absolute
obvious opening day for baseball is we're recording this on
March twenty seven, so opening day is today, Yes, so
we should be queuing up these enter field song that
plays every year at this time. But one of us
(02:06):
came on camera prepared to support their team, and I joked,
I'm like, are you up in the broadcasters booth yet,
mister met I like this, tell us about the orange
blazer and the tie.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, Opening day always got to always gotta up the team.
So wearing my my orange blazer, my my blue new
York Mets tie. Where my thirty one for lapel Pin,
here for Michael Piazza. Mike Piazza's retirement number retirement ceremony,
got that the game there, So yeah, here a flop
Mets and.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Not just a Mets fan, but a baseball fan.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But as we talk about the Mets, your favorite Met
all time player is.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Not a common choice here, but ari A. Dickey only
with the Mets for a few years, saw young award
winner knuckleballer.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Do you ever get the chance to read his memoir?
Highly recommend?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Okay, I will add that to my list of summer reading.
I would have not I would have thought you would
have gone with somebody from the Amazons or the Miracle
met Wow. All right, all right, Dickney, nice you had
before we get into baseball and the craft in the clubhouse.
I always tell people I know a brother that got
to have the best job of all time. Brag a
(03:18):
little bit about it, working at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So, from two thousand and fifteen up until early twenty twenty,
I worked as the manager of on site learning at
the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. Actually, I got
my petition to join because one day I was walking
into work and one of the maintenance staff was out
there shoveling or putting down salt. I forget was winter,
(03:43):
and he was wearing a beanie with the square encompasses
on it. So I asked him about it, and lo
and behold there comes my petition.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So no way, I did not know that. That's awesome.
So if it hadn't been for baseball, you wouldn't have
been a brother, well at least this early.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, probably not even cooler little connection is that brother
who gave me my petition. His son in law is
actually a current Major leaguer, Tommy Kinley. So really cool connection.
Bringing it all together, dude, I am loving.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
We are off to a great start on this episode
as we talked baseball and at the time that we're
recording this opening day and brother Nate has got I
love that orange blazer. Man. You must get so many
comments in the office at work. They must know you
have opening Day circled on your calendar. Sure do.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And I always got to have my mug too. Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Then that's bug. Yeah, love it, love it. So you
have a deep background in baseball at least professionally. But
when did the interest start? When you were a kid?
I know that you grew up near the Cooperstown area.
Is everybody that lives in Cooperstown a big baseball fan.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
So ironically know a good chunk of folks who grow
up in Cooperstown have the exact opposite reaction. But I
was very lucky. I grew up about a little under
an hour's drive from Cooperstown. My grandfather was not only
my Masonic connection, very active Mason, but also he as
a young man, played in the Army on the baseball
(05:08):
teams in the fifties and was offered a contract by
the Yankees for a minor league contract pitch. So he
loved baseball. He turned down saying, I'm playing for Brooklyn
or I'm playing for nobody. Keep in mind this is
after the relocation to LA, so he wasn't playing for
Brooklyn no matter what they were in LA. But yeah,
(05:28):
so I grew up just surrounded by baseball, especially with
my grandfather. My dad likes baseball, but Grandpo's really where
that love came from. And my older brother also really
reinforced that. Being the younger brother, you have boot your
older brother does right so a lot of a lot
of one on one baseball, which anyone who grew up
with a single sibling who will play with them understands
(05:48):
how that works. Basically, one person pitches, the other person
just runs around the bases and then why are you
taking so long? But yeah, super fun.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
And there's also I think every and I hope you
know for our especially if you grew up a young
man in America, Like everybody basically plays baseball at some
point as a kid in life. And I think maybe
when you're in first grade or second grade and somebody says, hey,
what do you want to be when you grew up,
You're like, I want to be a baseball player. And
for me it was like I grew up in San Diego,
so I'd be just like Tony Gwinn. He was my
(06:18):
favorite la. And then you get to a certain point,
you know, for some of us, it's junior high school
for others, and maybe it's high school or you know,
getting into the college where you realize that that dream
is not going to become a reality for you, or
you do get a chance to play, maybe in the minors,
and it just doesn't don't get the chance to go
to be a big leaguer, but the love, the passion
for the sport like remains there in you. And that's
(06:42):
the thing that I dig about your story because in
your talk that you did with us back in twenty
twenty one on the craft in the Clubhouse for our
Masonic Talks with Craftsman Online, one of the concepts that
you really got into and I never really thought about
it is the idea of brothers have the same bond
as teammates do in the clubhouse. Can you expand a
(07:03):
little bit on that, Not to say they're the same,
They're absolutely different, right, but there's still that commonality that brotherhood. Right,
anyone who's been a part of freemasonry or been a
part of a team kind of understands that connection. The differences, however,
are right that with Freemasonry have the initiatic experience, right,
we have the preliminal, subliminal or postliminals are experience of
(07:25):
becoming a Mason, whereas with baseball you're just kind of
there now. Granted, you know some organizations do have some
some hazing things that kind of tie in, but I
think that kind of came from that not say need,
but that lack of that initiative experience, we get freemasonry.
But yeah, I mean, let's talk professionally, right, These guys
play one hundred and eighty two games year or one
hundred and sixty two games a year, eighty one games home,
(07:46):
eighty one on the road, and you're working with them,
you're living with them, you're traveling with them. How can
you not form a bond for those guys? Right?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And so so different experiences. I'm very doing in my
approach to education. And he's all about, you know, Dewey's
all about the experience. And I think the experience is
really what binds teammates together, but also what binds what
also what binds binds us together as Masons, we've all
gone through that common experience of the degree system.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
All right, we're going to try to step into that
esoteric portal here. Try to make some parallel connections here.
While you're talking about this, I'm thinking, you know, we
use terms in masonry like ritual that to some people
are I mean, like you are sacrificing things wearing long
black cloaks. I'm like no, but they also players have ritual.
(08:37):
Can you get into a little bit of baseball ritual
that maybe us profane fans don't really understand. Oh sure.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
When ritual comes into mind with baseball, the first thing
I always think of as the chalk line. Anyone who's
played baseball seriously knows you don't step on the chalk line.
So watch the opening of a game and you'll see
or between innings, you'll see players going out of their
way to jump over or do something to avoid, to
change up their their their cadence of their stride to
make sure they don't step on the chalk line in play.
(09:06):
Totally fine, acceptable, but yeah, you don't step on the line.
But we don't see as much of this next one
with the changes to baseball, with the pitch clock and
stuff like that coming in. But a lot of players
have their ritual when they go to bat, right, adjust
the bat and gloves and go in. And you know,
you know, some guys are known as is human rein
delays because they just take so long getting ready. And
(09:30):
then one of my personal favorites, of course, the first pitch,
the ceremonial first pitch. Famously, fifty cent had one a
few years back that I think barely Yeah, the roller,
the warm burner, it's sixty feet six inches from the
pitcher's rubber to the home plate and our picture's plate.
(09:52):
And I'm pretty sure he threw it like eighty feet
to the side. It was further left and tender ground.
But yeah, it's always fun to see see how that
first pitch.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Goes mm hmm. Interesting. And so we've got a little
bit of ritual. We definitely have a bond when it
comes to the things that happen in the clubhouse and
the experience, so we have we also have ritual and
like the spoken word, the catechism that we learn as
Mason's is there is there any kind of code that
(10:23):
exists between players in the game.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So yeah, so I who want to talk more more
like in encoded messaging, then yeah, absolutely, You've got the
coaches messaging players. First base coach, third base coach are
always communicating with the batter between every pitch. Part of
that whole reason that routine of step out is just
your gloves and stuff that we see with batters is
to give them the opportunity to communicate or receive communication
(10:48):
from the base coaches. But also you have communication going
from coaches to the catcher catcher then to the pitcher.
We don't see that as much anymore with the communication
device and the hats kind of cool. They have like
buzzing that happens in the hat to let them know
what itch they're supposed to be throwing. Used to just
be hand signals, but the Met's opponent this evening for
(11:08):
the season opener, it's the Astros, and after the whole
at the old cheating scandal few years back, hand signals
and stuff like that have altered a bit. But yeah,
so we have plenty of of of communication that is
in a encoded or secure format, which is pretty cool.
But then also you have the lingo, right. I think
(11:29):
most famously, hockey's got the hockey chat right, you know,
snipe SELLI score right sally. But with baseball there's plenty
of that too, right. Dave knee House, the broadcaster for
the for the Seattle Mariners, and his famous grand Salame
line right bust out the Rye Breddit's Grand Salami time.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
So so right, like, if you don't know baseball, you
don't know what a grand slam is. That makes zero sense,
but plenty of that slightly changed language that's become a
synonymous with baseball or the case. That's a big one
that always comes up in playoff time, especially when when
more people are paying attention to baseball that normally wouldn't. So, yeah,
a strikeout in a box score for baseball at the K.
(12:08):
So usually fans will track the strikeouts. They'll start hanging
k's on the railing, and so you can imagine when
you get to three strikeouts, usually that causes some eyebrows
to raise as you look out onto the railing and
see three k's hanging up. But obviously no no ill
intentment there, simply came in strikeout backwards backwards K struck
(12:28):
out looking And.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It's interesting as we talk about some of the parallels
early on here that just exists between you know, baseball
the sport, and freemasonry, the fraternity. You have guys, and
I love watching this takes me back to a kid
going to watch games and people that would actually keep
score in the stands back in the day, and it's
like their own little code. It's kind of like to
our Masonic pigpit in cipher of how they're keeping track
(12:53):
of the game that's going on. But then you just
have like casual fans that are just like turning it
on or maybe having a beer or just there to
enjoy some sunshine and a good time in the park.
That kind of correlates with masonry. T You have these
guys that are really deep into it, they can quote
you line after word for our ritual and then brothers
that are just there for the social connection aspect.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Absolutely, that's one of the beautiful things about baseball and
freemasonry is you have that wide range of interest and
wide range of engagement. Just like how in your lodge
you've got the ritualist, You've got the guy who's the
social activities guy, or he's the guy who plans it all,
and the guy who just shows up and is that good,
that good social brotherho will do whatever you need. Same
thing with the baseball players and the fans right you
(13:33):
go there. You have your personalities in the crowd, which
is really cool.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Interesting. Every time I think about Opening Day, I get
excited about it, even though I would not consider myself
really a big baseball fan anymore. You know, personally, I
grew up in San Diego, the Padres m For a
lot of the time when I was a kid, they
had that World Series appearance or at World Series they
got to the National League Game loss to the Ubs
(14:01):
in eighty four. I want to say, after that, never
were that great. And then it was years later when
I had moved to upstate New York. There now in
the World Series against the New York Yankees, and you know,
as a New Yorker, you're either a Yankees fan, You're
a Mets fan. I hate to say, sometimes you get
Red Sox fans in New York, or you're a nothing,
(14:21):
and you don't want to be a nothing and not
have anyone that you can associate with, So you find yourself, like,
you know, jumping on with the team. And I famously
told my friends, I'm like, hey, whatever team wins, I
will become a fan of for the rest of my life.
And the Yankees famously swept the Podres that series, and
for a while I honored that, and then kind of
lost touch with baseball as Derek Jeter and some of
(14:44):
the other players started retiring. I just I wasn't keeping
up with the game anymore. So I guess the question
I'm asking is, you know, freemasonry is facing the same
problem as well. Baseball is America's national pastime. You're seeing
the attendance at least the viewership, you know, a little
bit of a dip, a little bit of decline. It's
always been thought of as a thinking man's sports. Freemasonry
(15:05):
has that same issue as well. How do you see
that in the unique position of being a fan and
a brother.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, and not necessarily a connection you want to see
between two things that you care about, right, the decline,
the all them. But yeah, so with baseball, the commissioner
rod Manfredge just kind of struck out at ESPN saying
they're not meeting their contractual obligations, they're not showing baseball enough.
So at least someone's taken a stance there of like, hey,
(15:33):
this isn't right when you need a little bit more attention.
But I think that's one of the biggest things when
I think of freemasonry and baseball is that both of
them don't promote themselves as well as they could. And
I know promotion is a dirty word for freemasonry, don't
get me wrong, well aware of that, but there's a
difference between promotion for brand recognition and promotion for recruitment
(15:53):
and that kind of promotion. So again my opinion here,
but I think as a whole, the craft can do
a far better job of advertising itself, just like baseball's
trying to and especially with Shoheyo Tani, huge talent in
MLB right now, right the first really big two way player.
A lot of people compare him to Babe Ruth, but
(16:14):
to be honest, Babirth really wasn't a two way player.
For most of his career. He pitched and played the
outfielder first base, but that that the pitching part didn't
really last very long. So sho Heyo Tani really is
a unique player, and baseball is trying to promote him
doing a great job right now with having him opening
the season. A few a while ago, the Cubs and
(16:36):
the Dodgers played in Japan and play into that base.
Really get the Japanese fan base, I don't want to
say riled up in a bad way, but really get
them engaged with the with MLB. Then Napon League is fantastic,
but the mlbcs that as a place to expand. So
so I guess the relation back to freemasonry there is
(16:56):
where's are Napon League?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Where can we? Where are those places? Push in? Where
I last saw you? Actually a Masonic con in New
York City. The theme was oh geez, Freemasonry in the
twenty first century or and really looking at the issues
men are facing today. The isolation is the lack of
good solid friend base and how Freemasonry fills that voight.
(17:18):
So it's I see that as as in a pen
league that we have right are our big group that
we can attach to and hopefully fill some needs and
get ourselves a little more, a little more.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
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(17:52):
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(18:32):
where's our in Nepal League? And I'm sitting here going well,
where's our superstar. I don't know how to say his name.
You said it perfectly, but I'm well aware that he
is the highest paid baseball player of like all time,
and is this amazing stud that just rockets home runs
all the time and is also a pitcher. And you're
like you would think, and this is I mean, we
can get a little sidetracked here. But I've always argued, like,
(18:54):
don't you think pictures would be the best hitters? They
know how to throw.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
The ball, Yeah, they should be right, and uh yeah, yeah,
I also argue catcher should be hitting the ball super absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yes, well your lapel pin with Mike Piazza, he knew
how to see the ball when he was standing from
that angle. But no, to your point, it's like we
don't really have that anymore. We had the George Washington's,
we had you know, the Lafayettes, we Benjamin Franklin's, the
Paul Revers. But in modern times like we looked at like, oh, well,
who was the last president who was a freemason, But
(19:27):
today in twenty twenty five, like we don't have a
national figure. And I guess my other question is like
do we really need one? Is it Okay, if freemasonry,
like baseball, just stays important and made to me, that's
the meaning of esoteric. There's value of it to the
people who see the value in it and love it
(19:47):
for the beauty of what it provides.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Oh. Absolutely. But to your point, though, Yeah, we haven't
had any huge names really associated a random person here there.
But part of what got me down the whole rabbit
of presenting and those who watched the craft in the
clubhouse on Craftman online. When I did that presentation, there
were I think three hundred and thirty three members of
the Hall of Fame at that point, of which sixty
(20:12):
two sixty one I think at that time were confirmed
to be Freemasons. That's around eighteen percent, Like eighteen percent
of all the best people associated with professional baseball were freemasons.
I can't tell you the last time we had a
major leaguer that's been confirmed to be a Freemason. The
most recent kind of player range I can think of
(20:32):
our owners in the seventies. I don't even know if
we have any players in the seventies. Charlie Finley is
one of my favorite baseball icons. I know, controversial figure.
There a guy who moved the A's from Kansas City
to Oakland and brought in those bright green and yellow
uniforms and just even wanted to have an orange baseball,
so it's better for fans to see it. Really an innovator,
(20:54):
he pushed the boundaries and not.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
A lot of it stuck.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But that time frame, though, that's really where we see
the last kind of tail off of Major leaguers and
Baseball affiliated people. Also, coincidentally, is the same time we
see a rise in night games where now most games
are played at night and win our most launch meetings.
So I don't know if that's a direct connection or not, but.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's why we're missing brothers between the months of March
until what October.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
That's the solution. Listen to all your grandmasters any more
daylight lodges, that's the solution, or.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Just day games. Although living here in DC just a
side note, every year the company is like, Hey, we're
going to do a company outing and we're going to
go watch a Nationals game. I'm like, no, thanks. You
know how hot it gets here in the summertime. I
no way am I going to pay to sit there
and sweat in the stands. Not when I can watch
it on TV at a bar with their conditioning here,
(21:50):
and I think that that also kind of speaks to
it as well as like the commitment, as I joke
there running through my neighborhood here in Northern Virginia. You
definitely it also helps when your team in recent years
has won a national championship. Oh, we start to see
banners and bumper stickers and flags out in front of
people's homes. But people like to be a part or
(22:11):
associated with something that's winning and something that's positive. And
to that point, when you talk about promoting Freemasonry, I
kind of equate that to guys who have the emblems
on the back of their car or wear a Masonic
ring or my favorites the ones that have the polo
shirts and the hats with the ring and the tattoos,
and that's how they go out in public every day.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, I admit I'm much more at the latter of those.
I'm usually wearing my hat, my ring, usually some sort
of Masonic shirt or jersey. Yeah that's totally me. But yeah,
it's funny when teams want to win the World Series,
not so much because of winning, right, Don't get me wrong,
Everyone wants to win, but the financial ramifications of winning,
(22:54):
just un merchandise sales is huge, and so to affiliate
with a win organization is such an important part for
so many fans. And like you say, with Freemasonry, yeah,
guys who are out there just showing I'm so proud
of a Mason, Like, yeah, that's fantastic, that's helping. But
then I also counter with if you're wearing all that stuff,
(23:14):
are you out there cutting people off in traffic with
that night on a plumper sticker?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right, I'm laughing because I think about every day when
I drive like a jerk on three ninety five or
four ninety five the Beltway loop to try to get
the work. We are going to ask Brother Tweety at
the Hall of Fame who his favorite player and brother
combination is of all time. But first we were talking
about merchandising, and this is a perfect avenue for us
to talk about two Pillar apparel. And this is what
(23:40):
blew me away was getting to see you at the
New York Masonic Con and Brother Tweety stepped up, as
our Grandmaster likes to say, and helped out with setting
up all the vendors. And I'm like here he is
a vendor himself. Tell us about these cool jerseys and
also the cool charity work that you're doing with the
New York York Right.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
So last year I was the assistant Grand Lecturer for
my capitular district and I was High Priest of my
Royal Arch chapter, and we had our official visit from
the Grand King now Grand High Priest, Mark Pearson, and
he's like, you know, I had a great time. Let's
you know, let's let's do something. Let's let's tie in
this baseball connection with masonry. And later on he realized
(24:23):
that I was the guy who owns two pillars. Apparently,
he's like perfect venue. So yeah, we worked together and
designed the Royal Arch I think it's called the Royal
Arch Fashion jersey because I have a previous Royal Arch jersey.
But it's it's black, it's got red sleeves and has
the two Pillars of Parel exclusive design on the side.
(24:44):
It's very fashion forward. It's not so much a classic
uniformulcy on the field, but very familiar to all Royal
Arch masons, I'm sure. And the proceeds from that, so
seventy five percent of the gross proceeds are going straight
to Royal Arch Charity. This year, the Grand High Priest
has designated the Masonica Medical Research Institute in Utica specifically
(25:08):
targeting there are specifically funding I should say their autism
research seventy five percent minimum. I say minimum because if
I can, I'm going to give one hundred percent, but
got to keep the lights on, you know, so, but
giving at least seventy five percent of the proceeds back
to that, and that also goes towards the hockey jersey
that we have on there as well, Royal Arge hockey jersey.
(25:30):
So yeah, do you want to help roil Arge charities
and be that Mason who's wearing the baseball jersey around
like we just talked about.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Go for it. Yeah, well, I do want to talk
about two Pillars apparel, but just a quick side note,
like it's one of the things I love. And I'm
glad that you brought up the York Right. We've talked
about the York Right. I'm sure some of our listeners
might be familiar with it if they're brothers, but those
that just have an interest in freemasonry, you know, this
podcast is also for you and the amount of charity
(26:00):
work that Mason's do is just wide and various, and
the lives that we make an impact with our people
in the community and our jurisdictions, as we say, in
our states, but also across the country. And I'm just
so thankful that you talked about this specific door Right
charity and the angle of which they take and how
(26:21):
people can be involved with it. I hope that you
sell these jerseys out because they look really cool and
it is something I don't see a lot I see,
like I said, a lot of the polo shirts or
T shirts or the hats. You also serve as the model.
I'll give that away for those that go to the
website two Pillarsapparel dot com. That's brother tweety and the
(26:42):
dugout you know, sporting all of these and it's not
just baseball jerseys. As you pointed out, you're also a
big hockey fan and some of those are pretty sweet
as well. Do you come up with these ideas on
your own? Do you sketch them out? Do you have
a team? How do you pull all this together? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Good question. So lately it's been more of the pull.
I love uniforms, I love sports aesthetics, right, So I
love to just kind of pull in different aspects of
uniforms I like and create something new. At least with
the baseball jerseys. Hockey hockey is a much more You
haven't seen innovation pushing as much in the hockey side.
(27:16):
If you look at an NHL sweater or jersey today,
it's going to look pretty similar to what you would
have seen one hundred years oh, fifty years ago, sixty
years ago, right, maybe not one hundred, but baseball definitely
we've seen innovation, so I'm pulling in more of the
fashion aspects there. So with the hockey jersey, the Royal
Arts jersey, I'll be it honest here, I'm a I'm
a New Jersey Devils fan, and that is a That
(27:39):
is the new Jersey. Devil's third jersey famously called the
Jersey jersey. It just nice. Yeah, it just has jersey
on it. Yeah, so get it.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Even though I'm not a big hockey fan, I understand
that sport about as much as I do soccer. Well,
it's the double line passing all the panel. I'm like,
I grew up in the middle of the desert. So
wort's on ice are already foreign to me, and the
rules make it even more complicated. But yeah, those jerseys,
the hockey jerseys are my literal favorite. I'm a football fan.
I love a good football jersey, but nothing beats a
(28:11):
hockey jersey in the wintertime. Man, they just feel cool
and they look so warm. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
There, it's my usual go to when it's not quite
hoodie weather but not quite you know, winter parka type
weather that in between, hockey jersey is the way to go.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
All right, So if we've piqued your interests, you're like, ooh,
a gift idea for a brother, my partner, my friend.
They even make Masonic and you also have one of
the cool jerseys for baseball. It literally just as freemasonry
across the front, and it takes me back to like
the old what was a dead ball era kind of uniforms.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah. So that was actually the first jersey we ever produced,
and the idea behind it was it's gray because traditionally
road uniforms are gray, and so the thought was, let's
have a traveling uniform for traveling men, and so so
it's great. It's it's based off of the old the
old Milwaukee Brewers slash Seattle. Pilots write that so very
(29:09):
early on in that franchise history, based off one of
those uniform sets. It is sublimated, so it's not going
to have that nice, you know, flannel look like the
actual jerseys would have had back in the day. But
but no, it's a pretty pretty accurate representation of the
jerseys from that time with a modern, modern material twist.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Nice, dig It, dig it. Two perils apparel dot com
is the website two Pillars apparel dot com. I struggled
at trying to thank God for spell check these days.
Apparel screwed me up with the two l's and then
the two p spellcheck. Thank gosh. But yeah, appreciate any
traffic we can get there, and honestly, great gift idea
(29:50):
for yourself or someone you know. We talked about the
Hall of Fame. Brother Nate luckily had the best job
in the entire world. If you love what you do,
that makes every day feel like you're just getting up
and having fun. Before we get into your favorite Masonic
Brothers who also played. What was it like getting to
walk into the Hall of Fame for work every day?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah, it was definitely a unique experience, unlike any other.
And one of my favorite parts of working there is
no matter how bad of a day you were having,
you knew that you'd interact with someone who was checking
off a bucket list item that day. And how cool
is that. Yeah, So it wasn't uncommon for me when
I was just really stressed out with you know, school
(30:34):
groups and you know, just constantly running back and forth
to when I had a moment. Normally, I feel like
I would just kind of like need a little moment
to recollect myself. But there I wouldn't do that. I
would just go out on the floor and just start
interacting with some people out on the museum floor and
always just recentered me and recharged the batteries, because how
can you not be excited for someone who's having that
(30:55):
like I've waited fifty years to come here moment, right,
and so so just kind of that refreshing moment with humanity,
which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I got to say I fell into the earlier part
of that. It was a bucket list thing for me,
but something in my when I was thirty years old
and was living in the Albany area, I was like, oh, yeah,
that's like two hours from here, like we could get
to Cooperstown and there's all kinds of restaurants and it is.
I don't want to say it's like the Disneyland for baseball,
because it's the Baseball for baseball. It's it's a city
(31:28):
that's the streets you walk down, like all the themes
for the restaurants, the beer even like it just it's
at all the community. It all ties together. You see
Abner Doubleday Field and you know, you immediately start having
twinges and flashbacks. I mean, I know it's not the
movie that the Field that they use for a Field
of Dreams, but all the movies that you like Eight
(31:50):
Men Out, like all the stories that you would have heard,
all those great baseball movies. Like it starts to build up.
And then once you are walking through all of this,
like yeah, you hear about players or we'll see the
news coverage oe the latest person to be enshrined and
inducted into the Hall of Fame, or hey that you
know players cleats or bat or ball is going to
the Hall of Fame. But when you start to see
all of these items, you're like wow, and it just
(32:12):
could go on and on and on forever. Was there
a certain section for folks that you know, this summer
or maybe this fall, they're planning on making the trip
to Central to New York, to Upstate New York to
check all of this out. What are some areas of
the museum You're like, you've got to go see this.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Oh, that's a tough one. It's tough because baseball is
such a diverse sport, and I mean that in you
can love the aesthetics of the game. I'm a huge
Jersey guy. Like I said, I love the visuals of
the game. And so if you're like me and you
love that, there's we literally have an art I say,
we haven't worked there in five years, but there's an
art gallery there, and not just oh look some baseball paintings,
(32:49):
like there's a rock well, several rockwells. Actually they have
in their collection to Tom sever paintings by Andy Warhol,
so I mean Warhols, Neenan's. I mean, there's huge names
in the art world who have worked there. So if
you're an art fan, great prilace to go. Also, there's
the Feedemore Art Museum in town too.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Don't forget that.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I would say most fans probably will like the locker room.
So there's a room. Each team has a locker and
they try to have items from the last five or
so years. It might be a little bit later if
you have some cool story in your team's history as
of late. It's going to be players, you know, players
who recognize if you're a fan of game today. The
second floor really runs as like a timeline, so it
(33:32):
really depends on what your period is that you're interested in.
The most recent period from like the nineteen seventies today
is a bright, vibrant exhibit. It really reflects the change
in color coming into the game, going back to Charlie Finley,
who's really the first owner to be like, we're having
bright uniforms and now we'll get it today. I mean
those City connect jerseys, I mean they are some of
them are quite bright. And then up on the third
(33:56):
floor is all about the records and stuff like that,
but also small card exhibit, so I know a lot
of the boomers and Gen xers out there, you're going
to see some cards that you're like, I used to
have that and.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Then my mom threw it away when I moved to
college exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
But also there's the ring exhibit, So the World Series rings,
And I mean, who doesn't love that?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Dude? That was the I was hoping you'd mentioned that,
because I just stood there for what felt like hours
just staring at it. Because one there's the history of it.
You know, it's all real now in front of you,
like it always amazes me and still to this day.
Like people that are like baseball trivia geniuses, you know,
they just are reponse when it comes to this. So
who in the World Series in nineteen thirty two they
(34:42):
say it, You're like, wow, that's crazy, and so and
so I led the league in this. But when you
start to see all of that and just how it's
kind of reflective of also the games like popularity. Over
the years, the rings got bigger and bigger and more ornate,
kind of like ar Masonic rings to be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Oh absolutely. And the Marlins when they won their second
World Series, I mean, this thing is it's gaudy. Actually
had the pleasure of meeting one of the ring recipients
when main end Well, which is now by Binghamton, won
the Little League World Series while I was working there.
They came and took a tour of Baseball Hall of
(35:18):
Fame and one of the fathers was a batting coach,
and so he's like, yeah, I don't wear that thing
very often. It's huge, which I can't say I blame him.
You can't put your hand in your pocket. But no,
the rings definitely have gotten bigger and more ornate. But
speaking of trivia, though, this is for all the Yankee
fans out there. Once you listen closely, you do not
(35:38):
have twenty seven World Series rings. You have twenty five
World Series rings, a wristwatch and a pocket watch.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
What team's got the wristwatch in the pocket watch?
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Now you're asking me for stuff I can't pull out.
You know what the answer is. You have to go
to Coopers Down and find out yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
There you go. We do run a disclaimer, and I
(36:24):
didn't think I would have to like repeat it actually
during a show about baseball. But the opinions that we
share on this podcast are those of ours and not
reflective of anybody else, because this is this is a
tough one and it's a really recent and when did
Pete Rose do a reality show? Like Oh my gosh,
like and then of course the whole baseball world still
(36:46):
mourning his passing, and the question ever since I was
a kid when he got in trouble, and it's still
relevant now and then to some it's an easy yes no,
and others there might be a little bit more explanation.
I think you know where I'm going with this. Should
he be in the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah, that's that is probably the single most hot topic
you could ask. It's a tough one, and I say
it's tough because my opinions are starting to change. Usually
my answer to that would be a simple absolute not.
And the reason for that's based in history. I keep
in mind, I said, my opinion is starting to change.
So if you're a keep rose, die hard, then stay
(37:25):
with me. But baseball, organized baseball almost disappeared several times
because of gambling and the scandals associated with that, most
famously the the Chicago White Sox, also is the Chicago
Black Sox from as you mentioned earlier, eight men out
right of that that film fame, Shula Sho Jackson being
one of those players. And those players are not allowed.
(37:48):
They're all on a it's called the Lifetime Ineligible List,
but really it's the MLB in active list, and they're
not able to be active in a game. Obviously, they're
all long dead. But if you're on that list, can't
be a Hall of Famer. So shoeless Show Jackson, as
long as that rules in place and he is on
that list, he will never be a Hall of Famer.
And so by the same rule, Pete Rose also cannot
(38:08):
be a Hall of Famer. And also gambling in ball. Now,
you can argue, sure he bet on his team, never against,
but baseball's a marathon. And until someone can say for
sure that the actions Pete Rose had as a manager
didn't impact the play the next game, you know, using
a pitcher to win the game and then potentially losing
(38:30):
the next which you can't guarantee that, I argue that, yeah,
he should not be in the Hall of Fame. Now,
I said, my opinions are starting to change, and that
is Major League Baseball has gambling you know, sports books
and stuff like that as sponsors now. But it's really
hard to keep that line solid. And then with the
(38:50):
whole show heo Tani incidant last year where his translator
was was gambling on the games and it was coming
out of his account, it gets messy. And again personal
opinion here, but I don't like baseball getting involved with
gambling and still having that strong rule for players either
allow things and then let things kind of play up
the way they are, or stay away from it. You
(39:11):
get into that great area and things just get buddy.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I approached this as like a man and also as
a mason, and I think the book has pretty much
been written on the gambling part of Pete Rose. The
things that kind of disturbed me later in life are
the other personal problems that he had. And that's the
part to me where it's like, you know, I think,
what's the saying you never meet your heroes because you'll
(39:37):
be disappointed, you know, something to that extent. You know.
Then also to kind of bring it back into that
Masonic lane, it's like nobody's perfect, you know, everybody's you know,
working every day to get better. But then there are
decisions that he made that you knew that you know,
he was very well aware of this, and yeah, it's
a it's a very tough thing. I am so glad
that I am not what is it a baseball writer.
(39:57):
Those are the ones that get to Yeah, I don't
have to with the campaigns and the thought I can
just kind of have, you know, my opinions as a
personal fan. I do think you know, the one thing,
you know, going back to that silly reality show that
he did, where at the end of his life he
became aware of his legacy and the points that he
was making about his grandkids not knowing you know, what
(40:18):
he had done and who he was when you strip
away all the personal pride issues that were you know,
kind of connected to that, but also just that fact
that like he was, you know, absconded from being able
to be a part of the history of the game,
even though he is the all time hitking. You know that.
You can't dispute that. So, yeah, it's a very it's
a very interesting one and probably a great discussion for
(40:40):
a Masonic parking lot. I think after a lot, do
you ever want to try out rhetoric. It's a great,
great example, right, Yeah, it's a great lodge of discussion topic. Actually,
I'm going to write that one down for a future
one of those. All right. So we had teased our
listener that you know, as someone who has a love
of baseball was at the Hall of Fame for a
(41:00):
significant amount of time. He gave us a great tour
and a reason at least two reasons to go visit
it this summer. Who's your all time favorite player who
was also a brother? Ah yeah, so that's a tough one,
all right. So some of the Hall of Famers, I mean,
the greatest hitting righty and greatest hitting lefty of all
time are both Hall of Famers obviously, and they're both Masons,
(41:22):
right so Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby And actually ironically
they're also both not ironically but they're both also Shriners
and their shrine fezzes are in the Hall of Fames collection,
which is really cool. Actually, rogers Hornsby also has his
Sciats s c IoT S, which is a smaller Masonic body.
There's a couple of New Jersey couple in California. He
(41:45):
has his hat from there as well, So it's really cool. Also,
since I'm on the topic, taik or yeah, ty Cobb's
picture from the Valley Detroit when he joined the Scottish
wrote they have that collection. I have to give a
shout out, even though he's not my favorite Hall of
Famer that's a brother, but a huge shout out to
(42:05):
branch Rickey, the player and then executive who famously was
the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who brought in Jackie Robinson to
brick the color barrier. So that's another big one. I
already said my Charlie Finley one of my favorites, also
a Mason, but no, my favorite Hall of Famer Finley's
not a Hall of Famer, by the way, but my
(42:27):
favorite Hall of Famer that's a Freemason is Charles Chief Bender.
So Charles Bender was a Native American ballplayer. He spent
most of his career playing in the city of Philadelphia
between the American and National League teams, and he was
inducted in nineteen fifty three to Hall of Fame by committee,
(42:48):
so he wasn't voted in by the sports writers. But
he really was one of the first big name Native
American ball players, and he faced a ton of discriminator
very similar to the kind of stuff that so famously
known about Jackie Robinson when he came through. But I mean,
this gentleman went to the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
(43:13):
which notorious school, and early in his career he literally
didn't get paid his wages because he was Native American,
and he did fall into a couple of stereotypes.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
Right. He did have He did have issues with alcohol,
He did have issues managing his money. Is actually non
dropped for non payment of dues for a while, got
back in good graces and as far as I know,
was in good standing when he passed. But the fact
that he faced so many issues was such a great
(43:47):
pitcher and still did such a great job on the
field and was able to I feel really work on
that Ashlar during the course of his life, right, he
really became a much better person. He was an okay
guy earlier on in life. He endured a lot, but
I think towards the end he really became one of
those men who really became quite reflective, very much like
(44:08):
to the rows, where very aware of his legacy, very
aware of what his impact was on the world, and
so ton of respect to brother Bender.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I love about baseball that it is so deeply rooted
in history, just like in masonry. I always joke like,
if you're interested or have an interest in freemasonry, it
always helps if you're a little bit of a history nerd,
because you're really going to dig some of the whether
it's American history or just world history. Baseball's kind of
the same way, they can always point back the things.
(44:40):
And then the other big thing is both organizations are deeply,
deeply held traditions. And I think baseball has tried to modernize.
You mentioned it was we talked about changing the game
the clock for the pitchers. I remember when that came out.
I was like, oh, good luck with that. See how
long that had lasts for I remember the commercials last
(45:02):
year here in DC now with larger bases, like for
the kids to run around. And I saw something this
year about a safety base now at first base. And
I just see the irony here that when brothers try
to talk about modernizing or bringing some change to our lodges,
they are often met with these sames differ resistance that
(45:23):
the game has faced. And you talk about this, there's
a serious need I think promotion for one of them.
How can we address some of these challenges when it
comes to modernizing this thing we love so much called freemason? Yeah,
And I guess the quick answer is I know it
all and I'm just going to keep it right here,
and grand lodges can pay me for that knowledge, right,
But No, in all seriousness, Yeah, the changes in baseball
(45:48):
will start there right. So the changes in baseball, especially
the block and the larger bases and now with the
safety base. Right, there's a lot of pushback from fans,
but I think if you look at the bottom line
for baseball at the business, their bottom line is the
money coming in. They're not seeing that much of an impact.
If anything, it's getting better, right, Like I said, pushing
into the Japanese markets with the big capitalize where you can, right,
(46:12):
So they're capitalizing on showho Tony, and I think you're
seeing positive overall. Right, fans are coming around to the
idea of the pitch clock. Baseball is the sport that
doesn't have a clock. Well now it does. It's not
really that I don't see. The few games that I've
gone to in person, I was like, oh, yeah, that's
what that thing in the outfit is. That's a football fan.
(46:33):
I'm so used to a play clock that they have anyways,
But in baseball, it didn't really feel like it was
picking up the speed of the game anything, because there's
still all of those decisions that happens. There's the checks,
there's the substitutions, there's the fun things that get to
happen in between the innings that don't happen in other sports.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yeah, and it doesn't change any of that, right, All
doing is speeding up the pitcher interaction with the mound,
So you're not getting the pitcher out there shaken off
fifteen pitches and the kind of step off the rubber
walking around coming back. It speeds that part of the
game up. It also keeps the batters more accountable as well.
It forces them to get into the batter's box and
get ready for a pitch. So so yeah, that's hasn't
(47:11):
really had the big of an impact. And I think
a lot of fans, whether they care to admit it
or not, kind of like it.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
It's not like when they decided to like move the
fences or add inches to the pitching mount, or to
change the physical part of the game so to speak,
that I think had more of an impact than a
clock in my opinion, just my opinion.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Oh yeah, look at the pitching stats when the mound
got changed. So that's uh, you want to bring up
a hot debate, Bring that up in a in a
saber meeting or some other you know, baseball academic type setting,
and yeah, you're going to get pretty heated debate almost
like mentioning, you know, women in masonry on a watch?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
How dare you?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
No?
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I'll save that one for the next hot stove dinner
that I go to.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
But but yeah, I mean, as far as masonry goes,
innovation isn't necessarily something that we need to have free masonry,
but changes are. I think we can all see the
writings on the wall all right. John Ruark from Down
your Way famously said twenty forty is the year where
masonry will no longer exist as we know it if
membership trends continue. Using using MSA data, he's updated that number.
(48:15):
I forget the year, he said now, but it's not
that far off. So what are we doing to adapt?
And people who say, you know, freemasonry can't change, well,
look at freemasonry between your jurisdiction and your neighboring jurisdictions.
It's different.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Now.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
Compare that to you know, the emulation work done in
England versus the work done in Scotland, which even in
Scotland doesn't have a sub ritual right. It varies from
lodge to lodge. So if the original players right, the
Big three original right, the Ireland, Scotland in England all
have different working ritual, then why can't we take a
look at ours and wonder how we can update things.
(48:52):
I'm not saying massive changes to the ritual, but if
their rituals different, fundamental aspect of freemasonry is different from
each other, then there's things we can do to modernize.
I'm not saying we need to modernize the ritual, but
we can modernize our codes. We can modernize the way
things work. I mean, I know, wording can be really important.
(49:14):
We're moving away from a society as a whole that
you know, really focuses on a set religious belief and
more towards a spiritual belief. Right, according to most jurisdictions,
that's still fine, But how many of your petitions specifically
go with a very rigid definition of what a Mason
can believe. Some jurisdictions are quite loo on it, some
are quite stiff. So what is yours? I know, in
(49:37):
New York, if you get a petition from the Grand Lodge,
you know the wording is to be believe in one true,
ever living God. Well, I know for a fact that
that's not how we interpret that in New York State, right,
I know, Buddhist Masons. I knew Hindu Masons right, who
don't necessarily believe in one true God. So what can
we do to make it sound more inclusive, to actually
reflect what we're doing. I shouldn't say it's not more,
but reflect what we're actually doing already and what changes
(50:00):
can we make to make it more appealing to younger men,
men who are lonely and are crying out for what
brimasonry offers. What can we do to engage them?
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Thanks again to Brother Nathan Tweety our guests this week
for stepping up to the plate and sharing his knowledge
of baseball and freemasonry. If you've enjoyed The Craftsman Online podcast,
you can follow us on Spotify or click subscribe on
Apple Podcasts. That's a surefireway to get the latest episodes
every Monday morning. You can also support us, whether you
want to take that free seven day trial to get
(50:32):
access to some of our bonus episodes or the full
catalog of our podcast, or just want to chip in
five bucks to help with what we're doing here. We
appreciate you supporting the show any way possible. I'm right, worshipful,
Brother Michael Arsay. I look forward to next time. Until then,
let peace and harmony prevail
The Commons. Opinions and views shared during this program are
of those individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official
position of a Grand Lodge, concordant Body, a pendant Body,
Masonic authority, or Craftsman Online dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only Masonic
podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge of New York. I'm
your host, wright, Worshipful Brother Michael Arsa. We're a few
weeks into the baseball season, but just allow me. We're
going to try to not work in all the baseball
references here, but we had a delayed start to our
opening day. That was the date that we caught up
with Brother Nathan Tweety. You've joined us for an episode
(00:54):
on the Craft and the Clubhouse. I've always told people
Brother Nathan had the best job all time. Yeah, he
got to work at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
New York. And today he's going to be sharing some
of the highlights from his presentation as an earlier Masonic
talk on Craftsman Online dot Com about the Craft and
the Clubhouse. Brother Nathan Tweety, Welcome back to the Craftsman
(01:14):
Online Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thank you so much, right workshop. Brother Michael, it's a
pleasure to be here and thank you for all the
work you've been doing over the years of Craftsman Online.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, thank you. You were one of the early guys
that jumped on. We were just talking. Nathan has some
great articles. We're gonna have the links for it and
the notes for this episode. Piano Legs, you had a
piece on that, and then one of our original Masonic
talks from way back in the COVID days on baseball
and the craft, which is what we're going to dive
into on this one. But I would not be doing
(01:45):
anyone any favors if I didn't start with the absolute
obvious opening day for baseball is we're recording this on
March twenty seven, so opening day is today, Yes, so
we should be queuing up these enter field song that
plays every year at this time. But one of us
(02:06):
came on camera prepared to support their team, and I joked,
I'm like, are you up in the broadcasters booth yet,
mister met I like this, tell us about the orange
blazer and the tie.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, Opening day always got to always gotta up the team.
So wearing my my orange blazer, my my blue new
York Mets tie. Where my thirty one for lapel Pin,
here for Michael Piazza. Mike Piazza's retirement number retirement ceremony,
got that the game there, So yeah, here a flop
Mets and.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Not just a Mets fan, but a baseball fan.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But as we talk about the Mets, your favorite Met
all time player is.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Not a common choice here, but ari A. Dickey only
with the Mets for a few years, saw young award
winner knuckleballer.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Do you ever get the chance to read his memoir?
Highly recommend?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Okay, I will add that to my list of summer reading.
I would have not I would have thought you would
have gone with somebody from the Amazons or the Miracle
met Wow. All right, all right, Dickney, nice you had
before we get into baseball and the craft in the clubhouse.
I always tell people I know a brother that got
to have the best job of all time. Brag a
(03:18):
little bit about it, working at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So, from two thousand and fifteen up until early twenty twenty,
I worked as the manager of on site learning at
the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. Actually, I got
my petition to join because one day I was walking
into work and one of the maintenance staff was out
there shoveling or putting down salt. I forget was winter,
(03:43):
and he was wearing a beanie with the square encompasses
on it. So I asked him about it, and lo
and behold there comes my petition.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So no way, I did not know that. That's awesome.
So if it hadn't been for baseball, you wouldn't have
been a brother, well at least this early.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, probably not even cooler little connection is that brother
who gave me my petition. His son in law is
actually a current Major leaguer, Tommy Kinley. So really cool connection.
Bringing it all together, dude, I am loving.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
We are off to a great start on this episode
as we talked baseball and at the time that we're
recording this opening day and brother Nate has got I
love that orange blazer. Man. You must get so many
comments in the office at work. They must know you
have opening Day circled on your calendar. Sure do.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And I always got to have my mug too. Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Then that's bug. Yeah, love it, love it. So you
have a deep background in baseball at least professionally. But
when did the interest start? When you were a kid?
I know that you grew up near the Cooperstown area.
Is everybody that lives in Cooperstown a big baseball fan.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
So ironically know a good chunk of folks who grow
up in Cooperstown have the exact opposite reaction. But I
was very lucky. I grew up about a little under
an hour's drive from Cooperstown. My grandfather was not only
my Masonic connection, very active Mason, but also he as
a young man, played in the Army on the baseball
(05:08):
teams in the fifties and was offered a contract by
the Yankees for a minor league contract pitch. So he
loved baseball. He turned down saying, I'm playing for Brooklyn
or I'm playing for nobody. Keep in mind this is
after the relocation to LA, so he wasn't playing for
Brooklyn no matter what they were in LA. But yeah,
(05:28):
so I grew up just surrounded by baseball, especially with
my grandfather. My dad likes baseball, but Grandpo's really where
that love came from. And my older brother also really
reinforced that. Being the younger brother, you have boot your
older brother does right so a lot of a lot
of one on one baseball, which anyone who grew up
with a single sibling who will play with them understands
(05:48):
how that works. Basically, one person pitches, the other person
just runs around the bases and then why are you
taking so long? But yeah, super fun.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
And there's also I think every and I hope you
know for our especially if you grew up a young
man in America, Like everybody basically plays baseball at some
point as a kid in life. And I think maybe
when you're in first grade or second grade and somebody says, hey,
what do you want to be when you grew up,
You're like, I want to be a baseball player. And
for me it was like I grew up in San Diego,
so I'd be just like Tony Gwinn. He was my
(06:18):
favorite la. And then you get to a certain point,
you know, for some of us, it's junior high school
for others, and maybe it's high school or you know,
getting into the college where you realize that that dream
is not going to become a reality for you, or
you do get a chance to play, maybe in the minors,
and it just doesn't don't get the chance to go
to be a big leaguer, but the love, the passion
for the sport like remains there in you. And that's
(06:42):
the thing that I dig about your story because in
your talk that you did with us back in twenty
twenty one on the craft in the Clubhouse for our
Masonic Talks with Craftsman Online, one of the concepts that
you really got into and I never really thought about
it is the idea of brothers have the same bond
as teammates do in the clubhouse. Can you expand a
(07:03):
little bit on that, Not to say they're the same,
They're absolutely different, right, but there's still that commonality that brotherhood. Right,
anyone who's been a part of freemasonry or been a
part of a team kind of understands that connection. The differences, however,
are right that with Freemasonry have the initiatic experience, right,
we have the preliminal, subliminal or postliminals are experience of
(07:25):
becoming a Mason, whereas with baseball you're just kind of
there now. Granted, you know some organizations do have some
some hazing things that kind of tie in, but I
think that kind of came from that not say need,
but that lack of that initiative experience, we get freemasonry.
But yeah, I mean, let's talk professionally, right, These guys
play one hundred and eighty two games year or one
hundred and sixty two games a year, eighty one games home,
(07:46):
eighty one on the road, and you're working with them,
you're living with them, you're traveling with them. How can
you not form a bond for those guys? Right?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And so so different experiences. I'm very doing in my
approach to education. And he's all about, you know, Dewey's
all about the experience. And I think the experience is
really what binds teammates together, but also what binds what
also what binds binds us together as Masons, we've all
gone through that common experience of the degree system.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
All right, we're going to try to step into that
esoteric portal here. Try to make some parallel connections here.
While you're talking about this, I'm thinking, you know, we
use terms in masonry like ritual that to some people
are I mean, like you are sacrificing things wearing long
black cloaks. I'm like no, but they also players have ritual.
(08:37):
Can you get into a little bit of baseball ritual
that maybe us profane fans don't really understand. Oh sure.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
When ritual comes into mind with baseball, the first thing
I always think of as the chalk line. Anyone who's
played baseball seriously knows you don't step on the chalk line.
So watch the opening of a game and you'll see
or between innings, you'll see players going out of their
way to jump over or do something to avoid, to
change up their their their cadence of their stride to
make sure they don't step on the chalk line in play.
(09:06):
Totally fine, acceptable, but yeah, you don't step on the line.
But we don't see as much of this next one
with the changes to baseball, with the pitch clock and
stuff like that coming in. But a lot of players
have their ritual when they go to bat, right, adjust
the bat and gloves and go in. And you know,
you know, some guys are known as is human rein
delays because they just take so long getting ready. And
(09:30):
then one of my personal favorites, of course, the first pitch,
the ceremonial first pitch. Famously, fifty cent had one a
few years back that I think barely Yeah, the roller,
the warm burner, it's sixty feet six inches from the
pitcher's rubber to the home plate and our picture's plate.
(09:52):
And I'm pretty sure he threw it like eighty feet
to the side. It was further left and tender ground.
But yeah, it's always fun to see see how that
first pitch.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Goes mm hmm. Interesting. And so we've got a little
bit of ritual. We definitely have a bond when it
comes to the things that happen in the clubhouse and
the experience, so we have we also have ritual and
like the spoken word, the catechism that we learn as
Mason's is there is there any kind of code that
(10:23):
exists between players in the game.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So yeah, so I who want to talk more more
like in encoded messaging, then yeah, absolutely, You've got the
coaches messaging players. First base coach, third base coach are
always communicating with the batter between every pitch. Part of
that whole reason that routine of step out is just
your gloves and stuff that we see with batters is
to give them the opportunity to communicate or receive communication
(10:48):
from the base coaches. But also you have communication going
from coaches to the catcher catcher then to the pitcher.
We don't see that as much anymore with the communication
device and the hats kind of cool. They have like
buzzing that happens in the hat to let them know
what itch they're supposed to be throwing. Used to just
be hand signals, but the Met's opponent this evening for
(11:08):
the season opener, it's the Astros, and after the whole
at the old cheating scandal few years back, hand signals
and stuff like that have altered a bit. But yeah,
so we have plenty of of of communication that is
in a encoded or secure format, which is pretty cool.
But then also you have the lingo, right. I think
(11:29):
most famously, hockey's got the hockey chat right, you know,
snipe SELLI score right sally. But with baseball there's plenty
of that too, right. Dave knee House, the broadcaster for
the for the Seattle Mariners, and his famous grand Salame
line right bust out the Rye Breddit's Grand Salami time.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
So so right, like, if you don't know baseball, you
don't know what a grand slam is. That makes zero sense,
but plenty of that slightly changed language that's become a
synonymous with baseball or the case. That's a big one
that always comes up in playoff time, especially when when
more people are paying attention to baseball that normally wouldn't. So, yeah,
a strikeout in a box score for baseball at the K.
(12:08):
So usually fans will track the strikeouts. They'll start hanging
k's on the railing, and so you can imagine when
you get to three strikeouts, usually that causes some eyebrows
to raise as you look out onto the railing and
see three k's hanging up. But obviously no no ill
intentment there, simply came in strikeout backwards backwards K struck
(12:28):
out looking And.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It's interesting as we talk about some of the parallels
early on here that just exists between you know, baseball
the sport, and freemasonry, the fraternity. You have guys, and
I love watching this takes me back to a kid
going to watch games and people that would actually keep
score in the stands back in the day, and it's
like their own little code. It's kind of like to
our Masonic pigpit in cipher of how they're keeping track
(12:53):
of the game that's going on. But then you just
have like casual fans that are just like turning it
on or maybe having a beer or just there to
enjoy some sunshine and a good time in the park.
That kind of correlates with masonry. T You have these
guys that are really deep into it, they can quote
you line after word for our ritual and then brothers
that are just there for the social connection aspect.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Absolutely, that's one of the beautiful things about baseball and
freemasonry is you have that wide range of interest and
wide range of engagement. Just like how in your lodge
you've got the ritualist, You've got the guy who's the
social activities guy, or he's the guy who plans it all,
and the guy who just shows up and is that good,
that good social brotherho will do whatever you need. Same
thing with the baseball players and the fans right you
(13:33):
go there. You have your personalities in the crowd, which
is really cool.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Interesting. Every time I think about Opening Day, I get
excited about it, even though I would not consider myself
really a big baseball fan anymore. You know, personally, I
grew up in San Diego, the Padres m For a
lot of the time when I was a kid, they
had that World Series appearance or at World Series they
got to the National League Game loss to the Ubs
(14:01):
in eighty four. I want to say, after that, never
were that great. And then it was years later when
I had moved to upstate New York. There now in
the World Series against the New York Yankees, and you know,
as a New Yorker, you're either a Yankees fan, You're
a Mets fan. I hate to say, sometimes you get
Red Sox fans in New York, or you're a nothing,
(14:21):
and you don't want to be a nothing and not
have anyone that you can associate with, So you find yourself, like,
you know, jumping on with the team. And I famously
told my friends, I'm like, hey, whatever team wins, I
will become a fan of for the rest of my life.
And the Yankees famously swept the Podres that series, and
for a while I honored that, and then kind of
lost touch with baseball as Derek Jeter and some of
(14:44):
the other players started retiring. I just I wasn't keeping
up with the game anymore. So I guess the question
I'm asking is, you know, freemasonry is facing the same
problem as well. Baseball is America's national pastime. You're seeing
the attendance at least the viewership, you know, a little
bit of a dip, a little bit of decline. It's
always been thought of as a thinking man's sports. Freemasonry
(15:05):
has that same issue as well. How do you see
that in the unique position of being a fan and
a brother.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, and not necessarily a connection you want to see
between two things that you care about, right, the decline,
the all them. But yeah, so with baseball, the commissioner
rod Manfredge just kind of struck out at ESPN saying
they're not meeting their contractual obligations, they're not showing baseball enough.
So at least someone's taken a stance there of like, hey,
(15:33):
this isn't right when you need a little bit more attention.
But I think that's one of the biggest things when
I think of freemasonry and baseball is that both of
them don't promote themselves as well as they could. And
I know promotion is a dirty word for freemasonry, don't
get me wrong, well aware of that, but there's a
difference between promotion for brand recognition and promotion for recruitment
(15:53):
and that kind of promotion. So again my opinion here,
but I think as a whole, the craft can do
a far better job of advertising itself, just like baseball's
trying to and especially with Shoheyo Tani, huge talent in
MLB right now, right the first really big two way player.
A lot of people compare him to Babe Ruth, but
(16:14):
to be honest, Babirth really wasn't a two way player.
For most of his career. He pitched and played the
outfielder first base, but that that the pitching part didn't
really last very long. So sho Heyo Tani really is
a unique player, and baseball is trying to promote him
doing a great job right now with having him opening
the season. A few a while ago, the Cubs and
(16:36):
the Dodgers played in Japan and play into that base.
Really get the Japanese fan base, I don't want to
say riled up in a bad way, but really get
them engaged with the with MLB. Then Napon League is fantastic,
but the mlbcs that as a place to expand. So
so I guess the relation back to freemasonry there is
(16:56):
where's are Napon League?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Where can we? Where are those places? Push in? Where
I last saw you? Actually a Masonic con in New
York City. The theme was oh geez, Freemasonry in the
twenty first century or and really looking at the issues
men are facing today. The isolation is the lack of
good solid friend base and how Freemasonry fills that voight.
(17:18):
So it's I see that as as in a pen
league that we have right are our big group that
we can attach to and hopefully fill some needs and
get ourselves a little more, a little more.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Membership, suns out, guns out, and most importantly at Bricksmasons
dot com, twenty percent off baseball caps right now. Oh yeah,
we got parades, we got outdoor events and brothers. This
is the best way to show your Masonic pride in
(17:52):
a very comfortable and casual baseball hat with the variety
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or something more more, they've got the style just for you.
Starting at thirteen dollars and ninety nine cents plus, you
get twenty percent off automatically, no need for a code.
As soon as you drop your hat into your shopping cart.
That price is applied. At Bricksmasons dot com. You're asking like,
(18:32):
where's our in Nepal League? And I'm sitting here going well,
where's our superstar. I don't know how to say his name.
You said it perfectly, but I'm well aware that he
is the highest paid baseball player of like all time,
and is this amazing stud that just rockets home runs
all the time and is also a pitcher. And you're
like you would think, and this is I mean, we
can get a little sidetracked here. But I've always argued, like,
(18:54):
don't you think pictures would be the best hitters? They
know how to throw.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
The ball, Yeah, they should be right, and uh yeah, yeah,
I also argue catcher should be hitting the ball super absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yes, well your lapel pin with Mike Piazza, he knew
how to see the ball when he was standing from
that angle. But no, to your point, it's like we
don't really have that anymore. We had the George Washington's,
we had you know, the Lafayettes, we Benjamin Franklin's, the
Paul Revers. But in modern times like we looked at like, oh, well,
who was the last president who was a freemason, But
(19:27):
today in twenty twenty five, like we don't have a
national figure. And I guess my other question is like
do we really need one? Is it Okay, if freemasonry,
like baseball, just stays important and made to me, that's
the meaning of esoteric. There's value of it to the
people who see the value in it and love it
(19:47):
for the beauty of what it provides.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Oh. Absolutely. But to your point, though, Yeah, we haven't
had any huge names really associated a random person here there.
But part of what got me down the whole rabbit
of presenting and those who watched the craft in the
clubhouse on Craftman online. When I did that presentation, there
were I think three hundred and thirty three members of
the Hall of Fame at that point, of which sixty
(20:12):
two sixty one I think at that time were confirmed
to be Freemasons. That's around eighteen percent, Like eighteen percent
of all the best people associated with professional baseball were freemasons.
I can't tell you the last time we had a
major leaguer that's been confirmed to be a Freemason. The
most recent kind of player range I can think of
(20:32):
our owners in the seventies. I don't even know if
we have any players in the seventies. Charlie Finley is
one of my favorite baseball icons. I know, controversial figure.
There a guy who moved the A's from Kansas City
to Oakland and brought in those bright green and yellow
uniforms and just even wanted to have an orange baseball,
so it's better for fans to see it. Really an innovator,
(20:54):
he pushed the boundaries and not.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
A lot of it stuck.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But that time frame, though, that's really where we see
the last kind of tail off of Major leaguers and
Baseball affiliated people. Also, coincidentally, is the same time we
see a rise in night games where now most games
are played at night and win our most launch meetings.
So I don't know if that's a direct connection or not, but.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's why we're missing brothers between the months of March
until what October.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
That's the solution. Listen to all your grandmasters any more
daylight lodges, that's the solution, or.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Just day games. Although living here in DC just a
side note, every year the company is like, Hey, we're
going to do a company outing and we're going to
go watch a Nationals game. I'm like, no, thanks. You
know how hot it gets here in the summertime. I
no way am I going to pay to sit there
and sweat in the stands. Not when I can watch
it on TV at a bar with their conditioning here,
(21:50):
and I think that that also kind of speaks to
it as well as like the commitment, as I joke
there running through my neighborhood here in Northern Virginia. You
definitely it also helps when your team in recent years
has won a national championship. Oh, we start to see
banners and bumper stickers and flags out in front of
people's homes. But people like to be a part or
(22:11):
associated with something that's winning and something that's positive. And
to that point, when you talk about promoting Freemasonry, I
kind of equate that to guys who have the emblems
on the back of their car or wear a Masonic
ring or my favorites the ones that have the polo
shirts and the hats with the ring and the tattoos,
and that's how they go out in public every day.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, I admit I'm much more at the latter of those.
I'm usually wearing my hat, my ring, usually some sort
of Masonic shirt or jersey. Yeah that's totally me. But yeah,
it's funny when teams want to win the World Series,
not so much because of winning, right, Don't get me wrong,
Everyone wants to win, but the financial ramifications of winning,
(22:54):
just un merchandise sales is huge, and so to affiliate
with a win organization is such an important part for
so many fans. And like you say, with Freemasonry, yeah,
guys who are out there just showing I'm so proud
of a Mason, Like, yeah, that's fantastic, that's helping. But
then I also counter with if you're wearing all that stuff,
(23:14):
are you out there cutting people off in traffic with
that night on a plumper sticker?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right, I'm laughing because I think about every day when
I drive like a jerk on three ninety five or
four ninety five the Beltway loop to try to get
the work. We are going to ask Brother Tweety at
the Hall of Fame who his favorite player and brother
combination is of all time. But first we were talking
about merchandising, and this is a perfect avenue for us
to talk about two Pillar apparel. And this is what
(23:40):
blew me away was getting to see you at the
New York Masonic Con and Brother Tweety stepped up, as
our Grandmaster likes to say, and helped out with setting
up all the vendors. And I'm like here he is
a vendor himself. Tell us about these cool jerseys and
also the cool charity work that you're doing with the
New York York Right.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
So last year I was the assistant Grand Lecturer for
my capitular district and I was High Priest of my
Royal Arch chapter, and we had our official visit from
the Grand King now Grand High Priest, Mark Pearson, and
he's like, you know, I had a great time. Let's
you know, let's let's do something. Let's let's tie in
this baseball connection with masonry. And later on he realized
(24:23):
that I was the guy who owns two pillars. Apparently,
he's like perfect venue. So yeah, we worked together and
designed the Royal Arch I think it's called the Royal
Arch Fashion jersey because I have a previous Royal Arch jersey.
But it's it's black, it's got red sleeves and has
the two Pillars of Parel exclusive design on the side.
(24:44):
It's very fashion forward. It's not so much a classic
uniformulcy on the field, but very familiar to all Royal
Arch masons, I'm sure. And the proceeds from that, so
seventy five percent of the gross proceeds are going straight
to Royal Arch Charity. This year, the Grand High Priest
has designated the Masonica Medical Research Institute in Utica specifically
(25:08):
targeting there are specifically funding I should say their autism
research seventy five percent minimum. I say minimum because if
I can, I'm going to give one hundred percent, but
got to keep the lights on, you know, so, but
giving at least seventy five percent of the proceeds back
to that, and that also goes towards the hockey jersey
that we have on there as well, Royal Arge hockey jersey.
(25:30):
So yeah, do you want to help roil Arge charities
and be that Mason who's wearing the baseball jersey around
like we just talked about.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Go for it. Yeah, well, I do want to talk
about two Pillars apparel, but just a quick side note,
like it's one of the things I love. And I'm
glad that you brought up the York Right. We've talked
about the York Right. I'm sure some of our listeners
might be familiar with it if they're brothers, but those
that just have an interest in freemasonry, you know, this
podcast is also for you and the amount of charity
(26:00):
work that Mason's do is just wide and various, and
the lives that we make an impact with our people
in the community and our jurisdictions, as we say, in
our states, but also across the country. And I'm just
so thankful that you talked about this specific door Right
charity and the angle of which they take and how
(26:21):
people can be involved with it. I hope that you
sell these jerseys out because they look really cool and
it is something I don't see a lot I see,
like I said, a lot of the polo shirts or
T shirts or the hats. You also serve as the model.
I'll give that away for those that go to the
website two Pillarsapparel dot com. That's brother tweety and the
(26:42):
dugout you know, sporting all of these and it's not
just baseball jerseys. As you pointed out, you're also a
big hockey fan and some of those are pretty sweet
as well. Do you come up with these ideas on
your own? Do you sketch them out? Do you have
a team? How do you pull all this together? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Good question. So lately it's been more of the pull.
I love uniforms, I love sports aesthetics, right, So I
love to just kind of pull in different aspects of
uniforms I like and create something new. At least with
the baseball jerseys. Hockey hockey is a much more You
haven't seen innovation pushing as much in the hockey side.
(27:16):
If you look at an NHL sweater or jersey today,
it's going to look pretty similar to what you would
have seen one hundred years oh, fifty years ago, sixty
years ago, right, maybe not one hundred, but baseball definitely
we've seen innovation, so I'm pulling in more of the
fashion aspects there. So with the hockey jersey, the Royal
Arts jersey, I'll be it honest here, I'm a I'm
a New Jersey Devils fan, and that is a That
(27:39):
is the new Jersey. Devil's third jersey famously called the
Jersey jersey. It just nice. Yeah, it just has jersey
on it. Yeah, so get it.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Even though I'm not a big hockey fan, I understand
that sport about as much as I do soccer. Well,
it's the double line passing all the panel. I'm like,
I grew up in the middle of the desert. So
wort's on ice are already foreign to me, and the
rules make it even more complicated. But yeah, those jerseys,
the hockey jerseys are my literal favorite. I'm a football fan.
I love a good football jersey, but nothing beats a
(28:11):
hockey jersey in the wintertime. Man, they just feel cool
and they look so warm. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
There, it's my usual go to when it's not quite
hoodie weather but not quite you know, winter parka type
weather that in between, hockey jersey is the way to go.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
All right, So if we've piqued your interests, you're like, ooh,
a gift idea for a brother, my partner, my friend.
They even make Masonic and you also have one of
the cool jerseys for baseball. It literally just as freemasonry
across the front, and it takes me back to like
the old what was a dead ball era kind of uniforms.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah. So that was actually the first jersey we ever produced,
and the idea behind it was it's gray because traditionally
road uniforms are gray, and so the thought was, let's
have a traveling uniform for traveling men, and so so
it's great. It's it's based off of the old the
old Milwaukee Brewers slash Seattle. Pilots write that so very
(29:09):
early on in that franchise history, based off one of
those uniform sets. It is sublimated, so it's not going
to have that nice, you know, flannel look like the
actual jerseys would have had back in the day. But
but no, it's a pretty pretty accurate representation of the
jerseys from that time with a modern, modern material twist.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Nice, dig It, dig it. Two perils apparel dot com
is the website two Pillars apparel dot com. I struggled
at trying to thank God for spell check these days.
Apparel screwed me up with the two l's and then
the two p spellcheck. Thank gosh. But yeah, appreciate any
traffic we can get there, and honestly, great gift idea
(29:50):
for yourself or someone you know. We talked about the
Hall of Fame. Brother Nate luckily had the best job
in the entire world. If you love what you do,
that makes every day feel like you're just getting up
and having fun. Before we get into your favorite Masonic
Brothers who also played. What was it like getting to
walk into the Hall of Fame for work every day?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah, it was definitely a unique experience, unlike any other.
And one of my favorite parts of working there is
no matter how bad of a day you were having,
you knew that you'd interact with someone who was checking
off a bucket list item that day. And how cool
is that. Yeah, So it wasn't uncommon for me when
I was just really stressed out with you know, school
(30:34):
groups and you know, just constantly running back and forth
to when I had a moment. Normally, I feel like
I would just kind of like need a little moment
to recollect myself. But there I wouldn't do that. I
would just go out on the floor and just start
interacting with some people out on the museum floor and
always just recentered me and recharged the batteries, because how
can you not be excited for someone who's having that
(30:55):
like I've waited fifty years to come here moment, right,
and so so just kind of that refreshing moment with humanity,
which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I got to say I fell into the earlier part
of that. It was a bucket list thing for me,
but something in my when I was thirty years old
and was living in the Albany area, I was like, oh, yeah,
that's like two hours from here, like we could get
to Cooperstown and there's all kinds of restaurants and it is.
I don't want to say it's like the Disneyland for baseball,
because it's the Baseball for baseball. It's it's a city
(31:28):
that's the streets you walk down, like all the themes
for the restaurants, the beer even like it just it's
at all the community. It all ties together. You see
Abner Doubleday Field and you know, you immediately start having
twinges and flashbacks. I mean, I know it's not the
movie that the Field that they use for a Field
of Dreams, but all the movies that you like Eight
(31:50):
Men Out, like all the stories that you would have heard,
all those great baseball movies. Like it starts to build up.
And then once you are walking through all of this,
like yeah, you hear about players or we'll see the
news coverage oe the latest person to be enshrined and
inducted into the Hall of Fame, or hey that you
know players cleats or bat or ball is going to
the Hall of Fame. But when you start to see
all of these items, you're like wow, and it just
(32:12):
could go on and on and on forever. Was there
a certain section for folks that you know, this summer
or maybe this fall, they're planning on making the trip
to Central to New York, to Upstate New York to
check all of this out. What are some areas of
the museum You're like, you've got to go see this.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Oh, that's a tough one. It's tough because baseball is
such a diverse sport, and I mean that in you
can love the aesthetics of the game. I'm a huge
Jersey guy. Like I said, I love the visuals of
the game. And so if you're like me and you
love that, there's we literally have an art I say,
we haven't worked there in five years, but there's an
art gallery there, and not just oh look some baseball paintings,
(32:49):
like there's a rock well, several rockwells. Actually they have
in their collection to Tom sever paintings by Andy Warhol,
so I mean Warhols, Neenan's. I mean, there's huge names
in the art world who have worked there. So if
you're an art fan, great prilace to go. Also, there's
the Feedemore Art Museum in town too.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Don't forget that.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I would say most fans probably will like the locker room.
So there's a room. Each team has a locker and
they try to have items from the last five or
so years. It might be a little bit later if
you have some cool story in your team's history as
of late. It's going to be players, you know, players
who recognize if you're a fan of game today. The
second floor really runs as like a timeline, so it
(33:32):
really depends on what your period is that you're interested in.
The most recent period from like the nineteen seventies today
is a bright, vibrant exhibit. It really reflects the change
in color coming into the game, going back to Charlie Finley,
who's really the first owner to be like, we're having
bright uniforms and now we'll get it today. I mean
those City connect jerseys, I mean they are some of
them are quite bright. And then up on the third
(33:56):
floor is all about the records and stuff like that,
but also small card exhibit, so I know a lot
of the boomers and Gen xers out there, you're going
to see some cards that you're like, I used to
have that and.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Then my mom threw it away when I moved to
college exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
But also there's the ring exhibit, So the World Series rings,
And I mean, who doesn't love that?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Dude? That was the I was hoping you'd mentioned that,
because I just stood there for what felt like hours
just staring at it. Because one there's the history of it.
You know, it's all real now in front of you,
like it always amazes me and still to this day.
Like people that are like baseball trivia geniuses, you know,
they just are reponse when it comes to this. So
who in the World Series in nineteen thirty two they
(34:42):
say it, You're like, wow, that's crazy, and so and
so I led the league in this. But when you
start to see all of that and just how it's
kind of reflective of also the games like popularity. Over
the years, the rings got bigger and bigger and more ornate,
kind of like ar Masonic rings to be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Oh absolutely. And the Marlins when they won their second
World Series, I mean, this thing is it's gaudy. Actually
had the pleasure of meeting one of the ring recipients
when main end Well, which is now by Binghamton, won
the Little League World Series while I was working there.
They came and took a tour of Baseball Hall of
(35:18):
Fame and one of the fathers was a batting coach,
and so he's like, yeah, I don't wear that thing
very often. It's huge, which I can't say I blame him.
You can't put your hand in your pocket. But no,
the rings definitely have gotten bigger and more ornate. But
speaking of trivia, though, this is for all the Yankee
fans out there. Once you listen closely, you do not
(35:38):
have twenty seven World Series rings. You have twenty five
World Series rings, a wristwatch and a pocket watch.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
What team's got the wristwatch in the pocket watch?
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Now you're asking me for stuff I can't pull out.
You know what the answer is. You have to go
to Coopers Down and find out yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
There you go. We do run a disclaimer, and I
(36:24):
didn't think I would have to like repeat it actually
during a show about baseball. But the opinions that we
share on this podcast are those of ours and not
reflective of anybody else, because this is this is a
tough one and it's a really recent and when did
Pete Rose do a reality show? Like Oh my gosh,
like and then of course the whole baseball world still
(36:46):
mourning his passing, and the question ever since I was
a kid when he got in trouble, and it's still
relevant now and then to some it's an easy yes no,
and others there might be a little bit more explanation.
I think you know where I'm going with this. Should
he be in the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah, that's that is probably the single most hot topic
you could ask. It's a tough one, and I say
it's tough because my opinions are starting to change. Usually
my answer to that would be a simple absolute not.
And the reason for that's based in history. I keep
in mind, I said, my opinion is starting to change.
So if you're a keep rose, die hard, then stay
(37:25):
with me. But baseball, organized baseball almost disappeared several times
because of gambling and the scandals associated with that, most
famously the the Chicago White Sox, also is the Chicago
Black Sox from as you mentioned earlier, eight men out
right of that that film fame, Shula Sho Jackson being
one of those players. And those players are not allowed.
(37:48):
They're all on a it's called the Lifetime Ineligible List,
but really it's the MLB in active list, and they're
not able to be active in a game. Obviously, they're
all long dead. But if you're on that list, can't
be a Hall of Famer. So shoeless Show Jackson, as
long as that rules in place and he is on
that list, he will never be a Hall of Famer.
And so by the same rule, Pete Rose also cannot
(38:08):
be a Hall of Famer. And also gambling in ball. Now,
you can argue, sure he bet on his team, never against,
but baseball's a marathon. And until someone can say for
sure that the actions Pete Rose had as a manager
didn't impact the play the next game, you know, using
a pitcher to win the game and then potentially losing
(38:30):
the next which you can't guarantee that, I argue that, yeah,
he should not be in the Hall of Fame. Now,
I said, my opinions are starting to change, and that
is Major League Baseball has gambling you know, sports books
and stuff like that as sponsors now. But it's really
hard to keep that line solid. And then with the
(38:50):
whole show heo Tani incidant last year where his translator
was was gambling on the games and it was coming
out of his account, it gets messy. And again personal
opinion here, but I don't like baseball getting involved with
gambling and still having that strong rule for players either
allow things and then let things kind of play up
the way they are, or stay away from it. You
(39:11):
get into that great area and things just get buddy.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I approached this as like a man and also as
a mason, and I think the book has pretty much
been written on the gambling part of Pete Rose. The
things that kind of disturbed me later in life are
the other personal problems that he had. And that's the
part to me where it's like, you know, I think,
what's the saying you never meet your heroes because you'll
(39:37):
be disappointed, you know, something to that extent. You know.
Then also to kind of bring it back into that
Masonic lane, it's like nobody's perfect, you know, everybody's you know,
working every day to get better. But then there are
decisions that he made that you knew that you know,
he was very well aware of this, and yeah, it's
a it's a very tough thing. I am so glad
that I am not what is it a baseball writer.
(39:57):
Those are the ones that get to Yeah, I don't
have to with the campaigns and the thought I can
just kind of have, you know, my opinions as a
personal fan. I do think you know, the one thing,
you know, going back to that silly reality show that
he did, where at the end of his life he
became aware of his legacy and the points that he
was making about his grandkids not knowing you know, what
(40:18):
he had done and who he was when you strip
away all the personal pride issues that were you know,
kind of connected to that, but also just that fact
that like he was, you know, absconded from being able
to be a part of the history of the game,
even though he is the all time hitking. You know that.
You can't dispute that. So, yeah, it's a very it's
a very interesting one and probably a great discussion for
(40:40):
a Masonic parking lot. I think after a lot, do
you ever want to try out rhetoric. It's a great,
great example, right, Yeah, it's a great lodge of discussion topic. Actually,
I'm going to write that one down for a future
one of those. All right. So we had teased our
listener that you know, as someone who has a love
of baseball was at the Hall of Fame for a
(41:00):
significant amount of time. He gave us a great tour
and a reason at least two reasons to go visit
it this summer. Who's your all time favorite player who
was also a brother? Ah yeah, so that's a tough one,
all right. So some of the Hall of Famers, I mean,
the greatest hitting righty and greatest hitting lefty of all
time are both Hall of Famers obviously, and they're both Masons,
(41:22):
right so Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby And actually ironically
they're also both not ironically but they're both also Shriners
and their shrine fezzes are in the Hall of Fames collection,
which is really cool. Actually, rogers Hornsby also has his
Sciats s c IoT S, which is a smaller Masonic body.
There's a couple of New Jersey couple in California. He
(41:45):
has his hat from there as well, So it's really cool. Also,
since I'm on the topic, taik or yeah, ty Cobb's
picture from the Valley Detroit when he joined the Scottish
wrote they have that collection. I have to give a
shout out, even though he's not my favorite Hall of
Famer that's a brother, but a huge shout out to
(42:05):
branch Rickey, the player and then executive who famously was
the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who brought in Jackie Robinson to
brick the color barrier. So that's another big one. I
already said my Charlie Finley one of my favorites, also
a Mason, but no, my favorite Hall of Famer Finley's
not a Hall of Famer, by the way, but my
(42:27):
favorite Hall of Famer that's a Freemason is Charles Chief Bender.
So Charles Bender was a Native American ballplayer. He spent
most of his career playing in the city of Philadelphia
between the American and National League teams, and he was
inducted in nineteen fifty three to Hall of Fame by committee,
(42:48):
so he wasn't voted in by the sports writers. But
he really was one of the first big name Native
American ball players, and he faced a ton of discriminator
very similar to the kind of stuff that so famously
known about Jackie Robinson when he came through. But I mean,
this gentleman went to the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
(43:13):
which notorious school, and early in his career he literally
didn't get paid his wages because he was Native American,
and he did fall into a couple of stereotypes.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
Right. He did have He did have issues with alcohol,
He did have issues managing his money. Is actually non
dropped for non payment of dues for a while, got
back in good graces and as far as I know,
was in good standing when he passed. But the fact
that he faced so many issues was such a great
(43:47):
pitcher and still did such a great job on the
field and was able to I feel really work on
that Ashlar during the course of his life, right, he
really became a much better person. He was an okay
guy earlier on in life. He endured a lot, but
I think towards the end he really became one of
those men who really became quite reflective, very much like
(44:08):
to the rows, where very aware of his legacy, very
aware of what his impact was on the world, and
so ton of respect to brother Bender.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I love about baseball that it is so deeply rooted
in history, just like in masonry. I always joke like,
if you're interested or have an interest in freemasonry, it
always helps if you're a little bit of a history nerd,
because you're really going to dig some of the whether
it's American history or just world history. Baseball's kind of
the same way, they can always point back the things.
(44:40):
And then the other big thing is both organizations are deeply,
deeply held traditions. And I think baseball has tried to modernize.
You mentioned it was we talked about changing the game
the clock for the pitchers. I remember when that came out.
I was like, oh, good luck with that. See how
long that had lasts for I remember the commercials last
(45:02):
year here in DC now with larger bases, like for
the kids to run around. And I saw something this
year about a safety base now at first base. And
I just see the irony here that when brothers try
to talk about modernizing or bringing some change to our lodges,
they are often met with these sames differ resistance that
(45:23):
the game has faced. And you talk about this, there's
a serious need I think promotion for one of them.
How can we address some of these challenges when it
comes to modernizing this thing we love so much called freemason? Yeah,
And I guess the quick answer is I know it
all and I'm just going to keep it right here,
and grand lodges can pay me for that knowledge, right,
But No, in all seriousness, Yeah, the changes in baseball
(45:48):
will start there right. So the changes in baseball, especially
the block and the larger bases and now with the
safety base. Right, there's a lot of pushback from fans,
but I think if you look at the bottom line
for baseball at the business, their bottom line is the
money coming in. They're not seeing that much of an impact.
If anything, it's getting better, right, Like I said, pushing
into the Japanese markets with the big capitalize where you can, right,
(46:12):
So they're capitalizing on showho Tony, and I think you're
seeing positive overall. Right, fans are coming around to the
idea of the pitch clock. Baseball is the sport that
doesn't have a clock. Well now it does. It's not
really that I don't see. The few games that I've
gone to in person, I was like, oh, yeah, that's
what that thing in the outfit is. That's a football fan.
(46:33):
I'm so used to a play clock that they have anyways,
But in baseball, it didn't really feel like it was
picking up the speed of the game anything, because there's
still all of those decisions that happens. There's the checks,
there's the substitutions, there's the fun things that get to
happen in between the innings that don't happen in other sports.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yeah, and it doesn't change any of that, right, All
doing is speeding up the pitcher interaction with the mound,
So you're not getting the pitcher out there shaken off
fifteen pitches and the kind of step off the rubber
walking around coming back. It speeds that part of the
game up. It also keeps the batters more accountable as well.
It forces them to get into the batter's box and
get ready for a pitch. So so yeah, that's hasn't
(47:11):
really had the big of an impact. And I think
a lot of fans, whether they care to admit it
or not, kind of like it.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
It's not like when they decided to like move the
fences or add inches to the pitching mount, or to
change the physical part of the game so to speak,
that I think had more of an impact than a
clock in my opinion, just my opinion.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Oh yeah, look at the pitching stats when the mound
got changed. So that's uh, you want to bring up
a hot debate, Bring that up in a in a
saber meeting or some other you know, baseball academic type setting,
and yeah, you're going to get pretty heated debate almost
like mentioning, you know, women in masonry on a watch?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
How dare you?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
No?
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I'll save that one for the next hot stove dinner
that I go to.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
But but yeah, I mean, as far as masonry goes,
innovation isn't necessarily something that we need to have free masonry,
but changes are. I think we can all see the
writings on the wall all right. John Ruark from Down
your Way famously said twenty forty is the year where
masonry will no longer exist as we know it if
membership trends continue. Using using MSA data, he's updated that number.
(48:15):
I forget the year, he said now, but it's not
that far off. So what are we doing to adapt?
And people who say, you know, freemasonry can't change, well,
look at freemasonry between your jurisdiction and your neighboring jurisdictions.
It's different.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Now.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
Compare that to you know, the emulation work done in
England versus the work done in Scotland, which even in
Scotland doesn't have a sub ritual right. It varies from
lodge to lodge. So if the original players right, the
Big three original right, the Ireland, Scotland in England all
have different working ritual, then why can't we take a
look at ours and wonder how we can update things.
(48:52):
I'm not saying massive changes to the ritual, but if
their rituals different, fundamental aspect of freemasonry is different from
each other, then there's things we can do to modernize.
I'm not saying we need to modernize the ritual, but
we can modernize our codes. We can modernize the way
things work. I mean, I know, wording can be really important.
(49:14):
We're moving away from a society as a whole that
you know, really focuses on a set religious belief and
more towards a spiritual belief. Right, according to most jurisdictions,
that's still fine, But how many of your petitions specifically
go with a very rigid definition of what a Mason
can believe. Some jurisdictions are quite loo on it, some
are quite stiff. So what is yours? I know, in
(49:37):
New York, if you get a petition from the Grand Lodge,
you know the wording is to be believe in one true,
ever living God. Well, I know for a fact that
that's not how we interpret that in New York State, right,
I know, Buddhist Masons. I knew Hindu Masons right, who
don't necessarily believe in one true God. So what can
we do to make it sound more inclusive, to actually
reflect what we're doing. I shouldn't say it's not more,
but reflect what we're actually doing already and what changes
(50:00):
can we make to make it more appealing to younger men,
men who are lonely and are crying out for what
brimasonry offers. What can we do to engage them?
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Thanks again to Brother Nathan Tweety our guests this week
for stepping up to the plate and sharing his knowledge
of baseball and freemasonry. If you've enjoyed The Craftsman Online podcast,
you can follow us on Spotify or click subscribe on
Apple Podcasts. That's a surefireway to get the latest episodes
every Monday morning. You can also support us, whether you
want to take that free seven day trial to get
(50:32):
access to some of our bonus episodes or the full
catalog of our podcast, or just want to chip in
five bucks to help with what we're doing here. We
appreciate you supporting the show any way possible. I'm right, worshipful,
Brother Michael Arsay. I look forward to next time. Until then,
let peace and harmony prevail
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