Freemans Sporting Club

Brown
Coltrane
Monk
Roach
Rollins
Ellington
ArmstrongDavis
Gillespie

Some of the greatest Jazz musicians to pick up an instrument and play with such heart and soul...

Fisher
Tolstoy
Melville
Salter
Amis
Exley
Nine Stories
It’s unsettling to stare the last month of summer in the teeth: how did it disappear so quickly? But the best way to reassert yourself over your supposed leisure time is to work through a classic book—and there’s still time. Where to start? Head to Three Lives Bookstore and set down War and Peace on the checkout table. That will get their attention, like ordering a couple double whiskeys at noon—it’s quite empowering.

Of course then you have to read it. But the secret is that War and Peace—like Moby Dick and Crime and Punishment—is terrific and moves along at a good clip. When you crack into Tolstoy you’re joining a century-long thread of culture, and it’s thrilling. Perhaps that’s not where your head is during this summer of dissatisfaction. Fair enough. What about Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes? It’s knowing, world weary, and steeped in misbehavior: it’s disaffection perfected.

A.J. Liebling was the New Yorker’s Paris correspondent during World War II. He was expelled from Dartmouth for refusing to go to chapel and famously said that he could write better than anybody who could write faster. He spent his junior year at the Sorbonne but stopped going to class after the first week. Instead, he devoted his year in Paris, as one should, to eating, and his short memoir, Between Meals, describes his devotion to la cuisine classique. When he ran out of money he telegraphed his wealthy father and intimated that he was considering running off with a German woman of a certain age. His father promptly wired a few hundred francs, as A.J. expected, and encouraged him to enjoy his time in the city of light with women his own age. His book is a bittersweet ode to the pleasures of eating well on your own terms.

Feel like something more sinister? James Salter’s novel, A Sport and a Pastime, details two Americans driving through France with a pretty girl, and promptly gets down and dirty. Michael Kerr’s war writing in Dispatches is pitch perfect. M.F.K. Fisher is a true American heroine and writes about food as well as anyone. And if you haven’t read Salinger’s Nine Stories—try The Laughing Man on for size—they’re the model of the form.

For voyagers, Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia is a meditation on restlessness and details a Welsh village in Argentina, of all places. Peter Fleming (Ian’s more compelling brother) is the ultimate travel companion in One’s Company and Brazilian Adventure. If all that’s too much and you just want to hit the bottle then consider Kingsley Amis’s Everyday Drinking. It’s the definitive book on the ultimate subject and should see you through the dog days with your dignity reasonably intact.

Onward ho.

-David Coggins.

Here at F.S.C we pride ourselves on the short distances we travel to find the great folks who put real love and plenty of good ol’ fashion American skill into our clothes. We like to say it’s a ‘Made Local, Buy Local’ affair and the closer to the store something is made, well, the happier we are.

But that rationale by no way means we have a fear of distance. No sir, no way, no how. Getting out there amongst it is an F.S.C prerogative. That is why, when we heard of the adventure three gallant young chaps from the city are about to set out upon, driving from London to Mongolia (http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com), through Central Asia, all for a good cause, we just had to get involved. And so we have. John, Ewan and Jason will embody the “sporting” in Freemans Sporting Club, being kind enough to allow us to kit them out for the rugged adventure.
Leaving on the 24th of July, the team, which goes by the name of The Renegade Pencils (www.renegadepencils.com), belying their day jobs spent behind the desk in the advertising game, will set out to complete the 10,000 miles in a refurbished ambulance. They will be raising money for Pencils of Promise (www.pencilsofpromise.org) a wonderful group who focus on bringing schools and education to children in impoverished and developing countries.

Before they left, we invited the gentlemen to the Rivington Street store for a refreshing local ale so we could wish them the best of luck for the trip. We took the opportunity to look over a few of the maps they’ll be taking with them. Once you get used to seeing such keys on the maps as “Disputed boundary” and “Ceasefire Line” you can get on to appreciating the vast distances they will be travelling in lands not often listed on your standard family vacation. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan anyone? Of course, we all agreed that nothing said composure and stoic resilience like a man dressed in white. And with that in mind, the men will cross the continent dressed in F.S.C’s finest whites as pictured below. Come blizzard in August (not uncommon in Mongolia) or busted radiator in the middle of nowhere (not uncommon on this rally) the men know they’ll be looking their very best in their F.S.C gear. What is more, we’ll all have the great fortune of reading and watching their adventure unfold right here as they report in from the road for this blog.

Gentlemen, we’re proud of your adventurous spirit, go well and Godspeed and cold wash.

-Les Robinson

Sorry I missed you guys last week. I am back though with another batch of summer inspired photos for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy.

For your reading and viewing pleasure we have another great write up by our good friend David Coggins.

Enjoy.

Steinbrenner
Steinbrenner
Steinbrenner
Steinbrenner
Sheppard
Sheppard

The Yankee Empire lost two of its icons this week: the Boss and the Voice. The imperial George Steinbrenner brought money, vision, and occasionally collusion, to the Bronx. But he was wise enough to keep Bob Sheppard on as the public-address announcer who ultimately intoned the names of the Bombers for over 50 years.

In 1973 Steinbrenner led a group of investors that bought the team for $10 million. His partners soon left, one saying: ‘There’s nothing as limited as being a limited partner of George’s.’ The volatile Steinbrenner—who fired Billy Martin five times—went to extremes, whether conducting tirades at employees or weeping like a boy when the Yanks won the Series. He was also suspended from baseball for making illegal contributions to Nixon’s reelection campaign (a felony charge that was ultimately pardoned by Ronald Reagan.)

He had an incredible market advantage, the team is valued at a cool $1.6 billion, and he used it—plowing profits from the YES Network back into marquee free agent signings. All this from a man who once declared that he was ‘dead set against free agency.’

If Steinbrenner was a force of nature, disregarding niceties that didn’t suit him, Sheppard epitomized old world class. His voice recalled a time when no soundtrack blared between every batter. His understated delivery perfectly offset the grandiosity of Yankee Stadium. He received a master’s degree in speech from Columbia and enjoyed enunciating elaborate names of Japanese players. ‘Anglo-Saxon names are not very euphonious,’ he said. ‘What can I do with Mickey Klutts?’ A class act to the end, Sheppard had strong feelings about his craft ‘A public-address announcer should be clear, concise, correct,’ he said. ‘He should not be colorful, cute or comic.’ Amen to that.

-David Coggins

Our good friend and writer David Coggins recently sat down with manager Van Capizzano of FSC Barber to discuss his life outside of the shop and his passion for bass fishing.

Enjoy.

Obsessive anglers, like Russian spies, look like everybody else. But they’re not. Once you get the fever you start thinking what you could be doing at that moment on the water. Commitments to women and employers necessarily take a backseat. You start justifying the most preposterous road trips: if we leave tonight we’ll be in Bozeman by tomorrow afternoon. You may make a few enemies: Perhaps your cousin selfishly scheduled her wedding during the best mayfly hatch of the year. Or you might be staying with friends in the Catskills, wondering if they’ll notice if you disappeared for, say, 5 hours to try your luck in the Beaverkill.

Consider the case of our man Van Capizzano. You may know Van as a barber at FSC Barber, located at 8 Rivington St. But if you only know Van with a straight razor then you don’t know the whole story. Van is, above all, a bass fisherman, pure and simple. Not sitting in a boat with a six pack (though that serves its purpose)—we’re talking tournament bass fishing, with sonar and prize money.

This is serious business. As Van says: ‘In competitive bass fishing you use artificial bait and you can't troll, so every fish you catch is a direct result of your presentation and making the right tackle changes based on hundreds of variables each day to key in on the fishes pattern to make the catch.’ That requires thousands of casts a day and incredible sensitivity to the fish’s behavior. If there’s time, you check out the lake the weekend before the tournament and combine local knowledge with a lifetime’s worth of experience. That’s a commitment—just how much? ‘I only drink,’ Van says, ’when I'm not fishing.’

- David Coggins

Happy Fourth of July.

Enjoy.

Stephens

When you think of 4th of July, what comes to mind? For me it was growing up as a young kid and going out to buy fireworks with my older brother. He would light the fireworks, firecrackers and sparklers out in the street as I watched them align with the stars at night. Or the good ol’ family reunions we would have at my old house out in Long Island. All of my aunts, uncles and cousins would show up that I had not seen in ages and one hell of a night was guaranteed. But one image that stands out the most to me, and is also due to the fact that 4th of July is the second most popular day in the US to barbecue is watching my Dad or Uncle cooking burgers, dogs and buns on the good old fashion grill.

It was way before my time back in 1952, but thanks to a Mr. George A. Stephen Sr. who was an American inventor, entrepreneur and avid griller we have what is considered today the cream of the crop of grills, the Weber grill. Stephens’ had been determined to build a better grill one sunny Sunday afternoon while at his Mount Prospect, Illinois home. After becoming discouraged with the uneven and unmanageable flame of open brazier grilling, he had the idea of creating a more suitable grill with a lid that would allow outdoor cooks to grill in all types of weather. Stephens’ at the time was working for Weber Brothers Metal Works, a Chicago custom order sheet metal shop that manufactured, among other products; half-spheres that was bonded together to make buoys for use in Lake Michigan. It was there while at Weber Brothers Metal Works, Stephens’ carved one of the buoys in half and constructed a dome shaped grill with a rounded lid and holes poked through the top, and the original prototype Weber kettle grill was born.

Hot off the grill (no pun intended), Stephens’ Weber was garnering much attention and was in such high demand; he was unable to produce them at the rate that they were being demanded. By the end of 1952,Stephens’ grill had become so successful he formed the barbecue division of the Weber Brother’s factory and in the late 1950’s Stephen bought out the Weber Brothers factory and become the sole owner and soon after changed the company’s name to Weber –Stephen Products Co.

Today Weber manufactures and sells 37 different grill models still made in the USA and as well as China. They are sold worldwide in over 30 different countries and are still recognized as one of the best grill manufacturers on the market.

This Sunday is 4th of July so in honor of Mr. Stephens, do some grilling.

With summer officially upon us, June 21 to be exact. I put together a nice batch of images to describe what my summer means to me, what I have done thus far and what I hope to do before this beautiful season changes.

Enjoy.

Barbary Macaque: The Proud Father

Evelyn Waugh & Family

Ernest Hemingway & Son

With Father's Day just around the corner, we at Freemans Sporting Club wanted to show our appreciation to all the father's and father like figures in our lives. So in honor of the widely celebrated holiday our good friend, writer and may I say one dapper gentleman, David Coggins wrote a brief story on the holiday.

Enjoy & Happy Father's Day.

"When it comes to parenting strategies consider these two extremes: The common marmoset (a sweet primate from Brazil) and Evelyn Waugh (the acidic writer from England). Anticipating the birth of his children, the marmoset gains weight to build his strength. He plans to bring his youngsters everywhere he goes, whether swinging through the trees or keeping them on his lap. If he ever hears them whimper he arrives within a minute. Waugh, on the other hand, took a less involved view of his brood, proclaiming: ‘I despise all my children equally.’ That he was a father seven times over, however, calls that statement into question (even though he was Catholic).

A recent article in the Times described Swedish legislation that allows men to take extended paid paternal leave. Leaving work to spend time with young Ingmar is not just tolerated, it’s expected. One contented wife, a policewoman from Spoland, declared her husband most attractive ‘when he is in the forest with his rifle over his shoulder and the baby on his back.’ Whether fathers bear arms or not, it isn’t surprising that divorce rates went down when the law was enacted and men put in their time on the home front.

In America, Father’s Day began in 1909 thanks to the good and godly Sonora Smart Dodd who so was moved after a sermon in her Methodist church in Spokane that she began an effort to honor pops around the nation. By the 1930’s, the Associated Men’s Wear Retailers of Manhattan, hoping to boost sales, got in on the action and formed a committee to make the holiday official. Congress—showing unusual foresight—predicted Father’s Day would become overly commercial, and resisted. It was finally signed into law in 1972, by none other than Richard Nixon (himself a father of two). What began in Spokane more than a century ago now takes you to the haberdashery seeking a tie for the man who taught you the four-in-hand knot. It should also take you to the liquor store for a good bottle of Scotch. After all, your old man deserves it: he taught you to appreciate the right stuff."

-David Coggins