The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York and the first Little League baseball game was played in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Reading about the first Little League game brought back memories of a childhood friend. In the 1962 Little League World Series held in Williamsport, a team from New London, Ohio, ended up one pitch away from reaching the championship game when they surrendered a two-run, two-out double in the seventh inning of a 3-2 loss to West Hempstead, New York.
I knew all of the New London team members and one name brought back sad memories. Childhood friend Larry Walton (October 21, 1946 - January 7, 1968) was a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps who began his tour of duty in Vietnam on July 23, 1967, curiously the same day I was discharged and departed the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Larry was a mortarman attached to the 1st Marine Division, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, H&S Company. He was killed in, coincidentally, a mortar attack in Thua Thien province, just north of Da Nang, South Vietnam. RIP Marine!
But, enough bad news. 1939 was the year those delicious Thin Mint cookies were first offered by the Girl Scouts. Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics in May and people were listening to Over The Rainbow by Judy Garland and God Bless America by Kate Smith.
My parents loved Kate Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986). Often called The First Lady of Radio, she was also known as The Songbird of the South because of her tremendous popularity during World War II. Long after her death she became anathema to many groups because a couple of her songs from the 1930s had what is considered racial slurs.
The following game from a tournament in Paris was cleverly played by the Swiss master Henri Grob (1904-1974). He was one of the original IMs when the title was awarded in 1950 and an artist and painter. He was the leading Swiss player from the 1930s to the 1950s and won the Swiss championship in 1939 and 1951. 
GM Nicolas Rossolimo (1910-1975) was borm in the Russian Empire and after acquiring Greek citizenship in 1929, he was able to emigrate that year to France. In 1952 he emigrated to the United States.
He also held a brown belt in judo and recorded an album of Russian songs. He died on July 25, 1975 after he fell down a flight of stairs outside of a chess student's apartment on 10th Street not far from his studio. He laid unconscious for several hours and after being found was taken to St. Vincient's Hospital where he remained in a coma for several days. After the autopsy police ruled the fall accidental, but there was speculation that he may have been pushed by muggers.
[Event "Paris"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1938.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Henri Grob"]
[Black "Nicolas Rossolimo"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B50"]
[Annotator "Komodo 14"]
[PlyCount "46"]
{Sicilian Defense} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c4 {This unusual move has the
disadvantage of restricting the light squared B of activity. By all
indications though it's a moot point as there doesn't seem to by any way for
black to take advantage of it.} e5 4. Nc3 f5 (4... g6 5. d3 Bg7 6. Nd5 Nc6 7.
g3 Nge7 8. Bg2 O-O 9. O-O {In this equal position Mrdja,M (2353)-Roeder,M
(2447) Lido Estensi 2003 agreed to a draw.}) 5. d3 Nf6 6. Be2 (6. a3 Nc6 7. Nd5
Nxd5 8. cxd5 Nd4 9. b4 b6 10. Bb2 Be7 11. Be2 O-O 12. O-O Kh8 13. Nxd4 cxd4 14.
f4 Bd7 {and here Oertel,T (2048)-Wolff,C (2090) Arendsee 2008 agreed to a draw.
}) 6... Nc6 (6... Be7 7. exf5 Bxf5 8. Nh4 Be6 9. f4 Nc6 10. O-O Qd7 11. Nf3
O-O-O {with equality. Hald,J (2200)-Madsen,H (2170) Hedehusene 1994}) 7. exf5 {
Played with the idea of opening up the game.} Bxf5 8. Nh4 {Part of his plan to
open up the position...the N makes way for the advance of the f-Pawn.} Be6 9.
f4 exf4 10. Bxf4 Be7 11. O-O O-O 12. Qd2 d5 {[%mdl 32]} 13. Rae1 d4 {In his
notes to this game Fred Reinfled stated that the simple 13...Qd7 is best.
Reinfeld hypothesized that Rossolimo had grown overconfident and lax and
overlooked that the attacked N has a good square available. Balderdash! There
is nothing wrong with 13...d4 and it is just as good as 12...Qd7. It's
impossible to know Rossolimo's mental state. He was, though, the better player
and it's quite possible that he was confident and expected to outplay his
lesser opponent, but that's hardly overconfidence. 13...d4 a not careless move.
} 14. Nb5 {Black is faced with the problem of defending against Nc7.} Ne8 {
Reinfeld gushed over this move noting that this economically prevents Nc7and
at the same time it attacks the N on h4. All gushing aside, it's not the best
move.} 15. Bh5 {Annotating based on the result of the game this lemon gets a !
from Reinfeld who liked it because it counterattacks and threatens both 16.
Rxe6 and 16.Bxe8 followed by 17.Nc7. Komodo awards it a ? because it allows
black to equalize.} Bf7 16. Bc7 {Reinfeld gushes over this even more than his
last move and gave it two !! claiming it came as a shock to a complacent
Rossolimo because he now realized Grob's pieces are "effectively concentrated
for attack." Actually, the position is equal.} (16. Bxf7+ Rxf7 17. Nf3 {
leads nowhere.}) 16... Nxc7 17. Bxf7+ Rxf7 18. Rxf7 Kxf7 19. Qf4+ Kg8 {
Reinfeld asked, How is white to regain the sacrificed piece?} 20. Nxc7 (20.
Qxc7 Bxh4 {it's pretty obvious this leaves white a piece down and he has
nothing to show for it.}) 20... Bd6 {An elementary fork. Reinfeld makes no
comment on this position, but it's a highly critical one!} 21. Qg4 Bxc7 {
Missing his best move.} (21... Qxc7 {This is the only alternative Reinfeld
considered. White does regain his piece, but that's all.} 22. Qe6+ Qf7 23. Qxd6
Rf8 24. Nf3 Nb4 {The position is equal, but tricky. For example...} 25. Re7 Qf5
26. Qc7 Qg6 {and white's command of the 7th rank assures him of full equality.}
27. Qxc5 (27. Qxb7 Nxd3 28. Qd5+ Kh8 29. h3 h6 30. Ne5 Nxe5 31. Qxe5 {is equal.
}) 27... Rxf3 28. Qxb4 Rxd3 29. Qe1 Re3 30. Rxe3 dxe3 31. Qxe3 Qb1+ {etc.}) (
21... Bxh2+ {How was this rather obvious move missed by Grob, Rossolimo and
Reinfeld...all very good players.} 22. Kxh2 Qxc7+ 23. Kg1 Rf8 {Black, being a
P up, has the advantage, but is it enough to win? In Shootouts with two
different engines white scored +0 -5 =5, but many of the games were very long
and quite complicated. With humans it would no doubt be very difficult for
black to score the point and a draw seems like a reasonable outcome.}) 22. Qe6+
{It turns out that in this line white does not regain his piece. In fact, he
has to yield another one, but he gets a draw.} Kh8 {Forced.} (22... Kf8 23.
Rf1+ Qf6 24. Rxf6+ gxf6 25. Qxf6+ {wins easily.}) 23. Ng6+ hxg6 {Draw. White
has a perpetual check. A clever game by Grob.} 1/2-1/2
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