It Was May 1972

It was May 1972. There would be seven airplanes hijacked during the year. Richard Nixon was the President of the United States. From May 22-30 Nixon would met with Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev for the Moscow Summit there Nixon and Brezhnev would sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I).On May 28th the first Watergate break in occurred, Watergate would be the demise of Nixon as he would resign his presidency two year later. was President however there was a dark cloud over his term due to the Watergate break in on June 17th 1972.

In the music world "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" performed by Roberta Flack and three other songs would hold the number one spot for three straight weeks the most during 1972. The Staple Singers top the Soul Chart for the month of May with their hit song "I'll Take you There"

In Sports on May 6th the Indiana Pacers defeat the New York Nets four games to two claiming the ABA Basketball Championship one day later the Los Angles Lakers would defeat the New York Knicks in five games to capture the NBA's championship.

The Godfather topped the movie charts for the entire month of May.

Herman Wouk's Winds of War was on New York Times best seller three of the four weeks in May.

Moe Berg passed away at the age of 70. Berg played pro baseball and a spy during World War II, we will dive into more into Berg later in this post.

OK all your groovy people lets look into some of the events in greater details.

The Los Angles Lakers Wilt Chamberlain was named the NBA Finals MVP. During the Finals the Big Dipper averaged 19.4 points per game while hauling down an astonishing 23.2 rebounds per game.

Over in the ABA the Pacers Freddie Lewis earned the MVP Award. Lewis average 16.6 points per games, 4.1 assist and 4.0 rebounds. The Pacers would become the first ABA team to capture the ABA title.

This was Wouk's second novel on World War II whose main character is Naval Officer William "Pug" Henry, Pug would cross paths with Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler all during his travels to London, Rome and Moscow. Winds of Wars also dives into Pug personal life.

Wouk described his book "as a linear narrative of World War II, aiming to evoke the historical drift toward Pearl Harbor"

Winds of War would later become a seven part mini series that aired February 6th-13th 1983 which starred Robert Mitchum , Ali MacGraw Jan Micheal-Vincent to name a few. The mini series saw 140 million people turn on their TV sets to watch the series, making it the most watched mini-series at the time. Winds of Wars earned three Primetime Emmy Awards.

United States President Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev who was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union meet for the Moscow Summit from May 22-30.

Two important treaties were negotiated.

One being the SALT I Treaty (Stregetic Arms Limited Treaty) which was to freeze the number of offensive weapons known as Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) as well as freezing the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM)

The other treaty that came out of the summit was the Anti Ballistic Missiles (ABM) which was limiting the manufacturing and deployment of Anti Ballistic Missiles (ABM).

The ABM Treaty limited strategic missile defenses to 200 interceptors each and allowed each side to construct two missile defense sites, one to protect the national capital, the other to protect one ICBM field.https://history.state.gov › Milestones › 1969-1976

Roberta Flack chart topping song "First Time Ever I saw Your Face" was her first number one song. The song was released on March fourth 1972 it would hit number one on April 15th and remained number one for six weeks according to Billboard.com thus making it Roberta's first number one song. The six weeks the song remained at number one was the most any song had at the top of the charts in 1972. In 1973 "First Time Ever I saw Your Face" earned the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for 1972.

Flack at the age of 15 earned a full scholarship to Howard University where she met Donny Hathaway whom she would team up with. Later in 1972 Roberta and Donny released "Where Is the Love?" their song would reach number five. In July it reached number one in the Easy Listening chart, in August of 72 it reached number one in the R&B Charts. Billboard ranked "Where Is the Love?" as the number 58 song of the year.

Moe Berg was passed away on May 29, 1972 at the age of 70. Why is Moe Berg such an interesting person well he was a professional baseball player but maybe more interesting he was a spy for the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services) which later transformed into C.I.A.

Moe began his 15 year professional baseball career with Brooklyn in 1923, Berg's career would see him suit up for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and end his career with the Boston Red Sox. 1929 was Moe's best year when he finished 30th in the MVP voting. Berg's career baseball stats are six triples and home run, .243 career batting average, 206 RBI's while delivering 441 hits.

Moe would become involved in the United States O.S.S. department Moe Berg’s he spoke with Italian physicists to see if he could gather any information if Germany was developing the atomic bomb. Berg would attend a lecture in Switzerland where German physicist Werner Heisenberg would be speaking, with a pistol in his pocket and a cyanide pill for Berg, Moe was to determine if Germany was building the atomic bomb if they were he was ordered to assassinate Heisenberg. Berg listen and decided that Germany was not developing an atomic bomb, he than sent his report which President Roosevelt one of many read, Roosevelt said “Give my regards to the catcher.”

When notified that he was to receive the Medal of Honor Moe responded to Colonel, Infantry Director, "I have your letter of 6 December. On 2 December, on being notified of the award,I wrote your Colonel Skinner: 'I regret that I must refuse to accept and I reject the medal awarded me. I do this with the respect for the spirit with which it is offered

Upon Bergs death his remains were taken by his sister to Israel with his sister. that same yea Moe's Medal of Honor was donated the award to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV8vZLUO844QnYl6R8MDmBg

Our person of the Month is former professional baseball player Ron Hunt. Hunt began his career with the New York Mets from the 1963-1966 seasons. While playing with the Mets Ron was a two-time All-Star in the 64 & 66 seasons. 1963 he was second in Rookie of the Year voting behind the Reds Pete Rose. In 64 he placed 25th in MVP voting .

Hunt was traded to the Dodgers along with Jim Hickman in exchange the Dodgers sent Tommy Davis and Derrell Griffith in November of 1966

Hunt was traded to the San Fransico Giants along with Nate Oliver in return the Giants shipped Tom Haller and Frank Kasheta. With the Giants. While with the Giants from the 68-70 seasons, Hunt would place 15th in MVP voting following the 1969 season

Ron was traded to the Montreal Expos for the Giants Dave McDonald. Hunt remained with the Expos from 71-74. In 1973 Hunt finished 26th in MVP voting.

At the end of the Month in May Ron's average was .247, hit had 27 hits, 10 runs scored for the month of May.

Ron was known for his talents to be hit by pitch 50 times in one season (1971) which is the most in the modern era. He lead major league baseball in hit by pitches from the seasons of 1968-74.

I had asked Ron a couple of questions, here they are

What was your best game? "The first major league game I played" In his first game Ron went 2-3, with a walk and a run scored facing the Reds Dave Maloney and Joe Nuxhall at Crosley Field. Hunt collected two the Mets seven hits.

Next I asked who was the toughest baserunner to double up? "Brock" Hunt replied. Lou Brock according to baseballreference.com grounded into only 114 double plays with 11240 plate appearances. Brock would lead MLB in stolen bases from 1966-1970, 71-74. Bobby Tolan lead MLB in 1970 with 57 steals.

Since you have been hit by 243 pitches I asked which pitcher pitch hurt the most Ron replied "The ones that hit me" Hunt ranks fourth on the all-time hit by pitches trailing Jason Kendall (254), Don Baylor (267) and all-time leader Craig Biggio (285)