Remembering Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas; Died on this date Three Years Ago.

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Remembering Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas; Died on this date Three Years Ago.

04/01/2018

April 1, 2015 marked the passing of John Paul Hammerschmidt, who in 1966 became the first* Republican elected as a congressman from Arkansas since Reconstruction.

Hammerschmidt was the first person to defeat future President Bill Clinton. (Clinton later lost one additional race for governor of Arkansas, as well as several presidential primaries in 1992.)

Hammerschmidt served Arkansas’s Third District for twenty-six years in Congress. He was widely admired throughout Arkansas and in the halls of congress for his honesty, character, and ability.

JOHN PAUL HAMMERSCHMIDT

was born on May 4, 1922, in Harrison, Arkansas to Arthur Paul and Junie M. Hammerschmidt, the fourth of five children. Both sets of grandparents migrated to Boone County, Arkansas in the early years of the twentieth century and were of German descent. His paternal grandfather began the Hammerschmidt Lumber Co., which his father and later Hammerschmidt himself managed. Hammerschmidt’s family settled in a modest house on the outskirts of Harrison, and he attended public school there, graduating from Harrison High School in 1938 at the age of sixteen.

EDUCATION

After graduation, he left home to attend the The Citadel in Charleston South Carolina. After one year at the Citadel, he received an appointment at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He later requested and received a change in that appointment to allow him to attend West Point with a fellow native of Harrison one year later. During the interim period, Hammerschmidt entered the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Arkansas for the 1940–41 school year. While Hammerschmidt was visiting a friend in California, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Hammerschmidt decided to start working at a naval yard to be more involved in the war effort.

WORLD WAR II

Hammerschmidt then made the pivotal decision to forego West Point and join the Army Air Corps and begin pilot training. After pilot training, Hammerschmidt was commissioned as second lieutenant, and he promptly volunteered for missions overseas. He was assigned to the China-India-Burma Theater and headed for the Tibetan border. He flew 217 combat missions, most of which took place flying over the “Hump” (the eastern Himalayan Mountains).

For his service in World War II, Hammerschmidt received four Distinguished Flying Cross medals, the Air Medal with four oak-leaf clusters, and three battle stars. Following the war, Hammerschmidt continued serving his nation in the U.S. Air Force Reserves (1945–1960) and the District of Columbia Army Reserves (1977–1981).

Hammerschmidt continued his military service in the United States Air Force Reserves from 1945 to 1960, and later in the District of Columbia Army Reserves from 1977 to 1981

POST-WAR

After his release from the army, Hammerschmidt continued his college career at Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University, at Stillwater, Oklahoma, receiving a Bachelor's Degree in 1946.

He was soon called home to take over the family lumber business due to an illness in the family. After moving back to Harrison.

He then entered the lumber industry, founding the Hammerschmidt Lumber Company and becoming its president. Hammerschmidt also was president of the Construction Products Company and the Arkansas Lumber Dealers Association and Southwestern Lumberman's Association.

Hammerschmidt courted and married Virginia “Ginny” Ann Sharp of Bellefonte (Boone County). They married on October 11, 1948, and had one son.

REPUBLICAN PARTY POLITICS

Hammerschmidt led a relatively quiet life in Harrison from 1947 to 1966. He was active in the community, serving as city councilman from 1948 to 1954 and again from 1961 to 1962, and kept busy running the Hammerschmidt Lumber Co.

He was also active behind the scenes in the Republican Party of Arkansas. By 1966, Hammerschmidt was the chairman of the party and was actively helping Winthrop Rockefeller campaign for governor. Hammerschmidt was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, and 1988. He was twice the state chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, serving from 1964 to 1966 and again from 2002 to 2004.

ELECTION to CONGRESS

In 1966, the Republican Party needed a candidate to oppose Democrat Jim Trimble in the Third District and eventually asked Hammerschmidt if he would make the attempt to unseat this popular congressman, who was set on continuing his twenty-two years of service in Congress.

Hammerschmidt agreed to run and made early efforts to maintain a campaign independent of the then-popular Winthrop Rockefeller in order to direct his message to the voters of his district, though he continued to contribute his time to help with the gubernatorial campaign.

Hammerschmidt won the 1966 campaign by almost 10,000 votes, a margin of more than 6 points over the Democrat incumbent. In so doing, he became the first Republican to represent Arkansas in Congress since Reconstruction.

Thus, the Hammerschmidts began a twenty-six-year co-residency in Washington DC and Harrison.

Hammerschmidt served on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the Public Works (Transportation and Infrastructure) Committee, and the President’s Committee on Aging. Included among his major accomplishments on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee is an excellent track record for veterans’ casework, as well as the initial introduction of a bill to create the Vietnam Veterans’ War Memorial. Hammerschmidt was always willing to intercede on behalf of current and retired servicemen and was known for his quick responses and consistent follow-ups.

As an active and later ranking member of the Public Works (Transportation and Infrastructure) Committee, Hammerschmidt was able to dedicate much effort to improving the nation’s (and Arkansas’s) highways and interstates. There are several highways and bridges named after him as testimony to his ability to get major projects funded and completed.

One of the most lasting and significant contributions Hammerschmidt made to Arkansas was his sponsorship of a bill that made the Buffalo River the nation’s first national river. This bill provided for the preservation of the Buffalo as a free-flowing stream and allowed for the eventual creation of a national park and a network of trails and campsites for visitors’ continual enjoyment.

Hammerschmidt achieved reelection to Congress with relative ease in his following twelve campaigns, with William Jefferson Clinton—then a young law professor at the University of Arkansas—coming the closest to defeating him in 1974.

1974, the year Nixon resigned, was the worst year for the GOP in living memory. Hammerschmidt was in Washington DC during the majority of the campaign and was somewhat surprised at the intensity of the battle waiting for him when he returned to the district roughly ten days before the election to campaign in person. He was aware of Clinton’s charisma but counted on his constituency to pull him through, which they did.

RETIREMENT

After retiring from Congress in 1993, Hammerschmidt maintained an active lifestyle by serving on numerous boards and committees both in Arkansas and in Washington DC. From 1999 to 2004, he served on Arkansas State University's board of trustees. During the 1990s, Hammerschmidt received a BS and an MA from Canbourne University, an unaccredited online degree program.

His wife of fifty-eight years, Virginia Hammerschmidt, died on January 2, 2006. Hammerschmidt maintained an office at North Arkansas College in Harrison, and former constituents often called him for help and advice. In 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Arkansas.

DEATH

Hammerschmidt died at the age of 92 of heart and respiratory failure at a hospital in Springdale, Arkansas.

LEGACY

A fellowship at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith was created in his name to allow a university student to work in the 3rd congressional district office.

The John Paul Hammerschmidt Federal Building near the Fayetteville Historic Square is home to the Fayetteville office of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Interstate 49 in Arkansas is designated as the John Paul Hammerschmidt Highway in northwest Arkansas.

Hammerschmidt was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 1990 by the Arkansas Aviation Historical Society.

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Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

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Jeb Bush gets religion.

"They said he got religion at the end, and I'm glad that he did." — Tom T. Hall. The Year Clayton Delaney died.

Well, it's official. Jeb Bush has changed quite of few of his positions on illegal immigration. The single most significant is that he no longer endorses the "path to citizenship" for those who came here illegally.

This is, after all, the key portion of any proposal aimed at "reforming" our existing illegal immigration situation.

No sensible citizen can see any point in trying to deport between 12 and 16 million people currently living in America illegally. And no candidate for any office that we know of supports that. What the average American wants is for the country to "get a handle on it." They want it stopped, our borders secured and future illegal immigration prevented. It is a national security issue.

The Path to Legal Status

The only way to accomplish the above goals, is to identify current illegal immigrants, get them accounted for, have them documented, and placed on a path to legal status. Neither they nor their children or spouses should live in a state of fear or anxiety.

But a path to "citizenship" is not the right course. It is not morally or legally correct. A merciful and compassionate nation can provide the safeguards of legal status without sending the message to the rest of the world that all you have to do is cross our border and you will eventually get to become a citizen, thus circumventing the legal framework scores of millions of Americans have followed, honored and respected.

If someone who is granted legal status eventually wants to become a citizen, that person should have to return to his or her country of origin and wait in line like 20 million people around the world are doing at any given time. Failing that, America will forever send the signal that anyone in the world can "jump the line," and that there is no reason at all to obey our immigration and naturalization laws.

We Like Jeb Bush

We are glad Jeb Bush has learned this lesson. He is a fine speaker, and can eloquently explain his positions on complex issue. If he were not named "Bush" he would be an actual top tier candidate—in all that that title would entail, including likelihood of acceptance and support of and from the American people in the primaries, and in any theoretical general election.

We also recognize that he already is a de facto top-tier candidate because of his fame and his fundraising.

If he were to be the nominee of the Republican Party we would heartily support him and endorse him. We hope, however, that he is not, as he does not give the center-right coalition the best chance of winning.

The Major League Baseball Playoffs are not realistic, and destroy the actual meaning of the sport.

Major League Baseball is unique in this respect—its postseason is markedly different from the way the game is played normally. No other major league sport suffers from this flaw.

Not that much is wrong with baseball. In some respects it's the most well thought-out sport there is. The "perfect game" many aficionados say.

But the Major League Baseball postseason experience is unique in the world of professional sports, and not in a good way.

In fact the playoffs are flawed in such a way as to detract from the sport itself and diminish the game and what it means to be the world champion of the sport.

Among the Big Four team sports of North America: football, hockey, basketball and baseball—and all the 122 professional major league teams competing in the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB respectively—it is in baseball alone that the postseason turns the sport itself on its head and makes it reflect something that it is not. This article will explain why that happens and why it is wrong-headed.

Background on the The Frequency of Play

The 30 teams in both the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association teams play a very similar schedule. On average, each team has a day off between games, sometimes two days off. Though there are back-to-back games, they are relatively infrequent. NBA teams play between 14 and 22 back-to-back games a season, and for the NHL it usually ranges between 9 and 19. The NFL has a full week between games, the exception being the new Thursday games that each team plays once, leaving them only four days' rest once a year.

But baseball players play every single day. Ten days straight, then a day off, then seven more games, then a day off, then ten more games. Typically a baseball team plays 27 games every 30 days. For the NHL and NBA it would be 14 per month, and for the NFL the number would be 4.

Getting to the Playoffs: It's a grind

In all four sports, getting to the postseason requires a total team effort—in fact an all-out total organizational effort. Teams must be deep, have bench strength and the capability of moving players in and out of the lineup, and on and off the roster, who can take the place of key players who go down for an injury, or who have to miss games for whatever reason. While this is true of the other three major sports as well, it is most certainly even more of a concern for baseball teams because of the sheer volume of games in which a team must field a competitive lineup.

Each league's regular season* is a marathon, not a sprint. NFL teams play for 17 weeks, 16 games. The NHL has an 82-game season over six months, paralleled by an NBA season of 84 games over the same timeframe. Baseball is the biggest marathon of all—a true test of resilience and endurance—162 games usually starting around the beginning of April and finishing about the end of September.

NHL teams carry 23-man rosters, of which 20 can be active for any particular game. The NBA is similar, with 15-man rosters of which 13 can be on the bench for a given game. In the NFL, the teams have 53 players on a roster, but only 46 can suit up on game day. In Major League Baseball, teams have a 25-man active roster, and all 25 are at the park every day.

The Postseason Playoffs: Sport by Sport

The National Football League:

Of the 32 teams, 12 qualify for the playoffs. The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season. Each team plays once a week, the exception being that the four top teams get the first week off. For a typical qualifier to reach the Super Bowl, the team must play three consecutive weeks. At that point both remaining teams have two weeks off before the Super Bowl.

In short, the playoffs, with a game each week, reflects the same means of advancement as is present in regular season grind.

The National Hockey League:

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason. The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on. Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off. But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

The National Basketball Association

Major League Baseball

10 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason. (Although four of those teams qualify only for a one-game do-or-die play-in game.)

Here is where all similarity to baseball ends.

Unlike the other three sports whose playoffs mirror the test of the regular season, and whose conditions are the same as the regular season, Major League Baseball playoffs in no way resemble the sport itself. In hockey, basketball and football, the teams win playoff games and reach the pinacle of the sport in exactly the same way that they qualify to try to do so.

Not so in baseball. They are two entirely different concepts. Teams make the playoffs only because they have depth, five-man pitching rotations and can play day-in and day-out at a high level. But the baseball playoffs suddenly become a kind of "all-star" game within each team's roster. MLB playoffs are conducted in a way that more closely follows the NBA and the NHL. Teams have enormous numbers of days off.

Here's the key point: No Major League Baseball team could even qualify for the postseason if they played the same way during the regular season that they do in the playoffs. None.

In the regular season Major League Baseball teams have to use a 5-man starting rotation, with pitchers pitching every 5th day. There are not enough days off to have even a four-man rotation, let alone a team with three pitchers. Even the best team in baseball using only a 4-man rotation, would wear them out, and most likely end up with a record of something like 66-96, or 70-92—and that would be if they were otherwise teh best team in the sport.

The 2014 Baseball Postseason is Typical

As examples, last year's World Series teams the Kansas City Royals played only 15 games in 30 days, and the San Francisco Giants played only 17 games in 30 days. The 12 to 15 days off in the non-baseball fantasy world of the MLB postseason, means that teams can turn to three pitchers and give all of them plenty of rest. But it isn't the way baseball really works.

At one point, the Royals had 5 consecutive days off, and the Giants had 4. This never happens in the regular season. Even the All-Star break is only three days. Very rarely is there anything beyond a one-day break, and even that happens only a couple of times a month.

What this means is that neither team used the team that got them to the playoffs. (The NFL, NBA and NHL teams ALL used the very same teams that got them to the playoffs.)

Baseball teams use a three-man pitching rotation in the playoffs. Sometimes, they essentially opt for two pitchers only—conceding the likelihood that some of their games are going to be lost—when their third-, or rarely fourth-best pitcher has to face one of their opponents' two-man or three-man rotation members.

Imagine an NFL team using only one running back and three wide receivers, instead of rotating through their roster in the course of a playoff game—or using only 4 defensive backs and 4 linebackers, instead of rotating 8 or 9 DBs and 6 or 7 linebackers? In hockey, would a team use only two or three of their forward lines? Would an NBA team use only the starting five? They would never make the post season if they tried to present that product to their fans during the regular season.

Those are the equivalents of what Major League Baseball sets up every fall. No other sport drags its playoffs out in such a way as to completely change the playing field—completely change the dynamics of its game.

Why Does Baseball Do This?

MLB does this because the TV networks want to drag out the games so that they can try to have one game each day This requires an unnecessary staggering of games, and creates the phenomenon of 15 off-days in a month.

What about travel days?

What about them? Baseball has travel days constantly. A team may play in Chicago one day and in Miami the next, or in New York one day and Phoenix the very next day. Travel days as a routine part of the game are again, a phenomenon of television, and stretching out the playoffs.

In years past, travel days were employed only when necessary. The famous "subway series" games were played on seven consecutive days. Why? Because there was no "travel day" required to go from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Today, they would put in artificial travel days.

Even fairly long train trips didn't necessarily matter. The 1948 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves was played in six consecutive days, October 6 & 7 in Boston, October 8, 9 & 10 in Cleveland, and October 11 back in Boston.

This reflects actual baseball, the way the teams play day-in and day-out, and the kind of unique test that baseball presents to its athletes, its managers and management, and to its fans.

In the modern world of charter planes, teams fly from coast to coast to play games on consecutive days. The artificial "travel day" should be eliminated so that teams can play in the playoffs in the same way that got them there in the first place.

*All these leagues also have pre-seasons and training camps, which add an additional 6-8 weeks to each player's year.

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Remembering Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas; Died on this date Three Years Ago.

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