Word: callahans
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...John F. Callahan, a humanities professor at Lewis and Clark College, was friends with Ellison during his lifetime. Ellison’s wife named him literary executor after the author’s death...
...Following Callahan's Oct. 28 speech, hundreds of Ortega supporters attacked the U.S. embassy with rocks, eggs and improvised explosives fired from homemade mortars, which packed enough punch to break bulletproof windows. For several weeks afterwards, Sandinistas continued to hound Callahan, surrounding him at public events and forcing him to flee - on one occasion with the help of riot police...
...Still, Callahan hasn't let his off-field problems rattle his game. After getting dusted, he stepped back in the batter's box and in the process may have won some sandlot cred with a segment of Nicaraguans not normally reached via traditional suit-and-tie diplomacy...
...People see me on TV playing softball and they think, 'He's not so bad. He's out there playing ball with the guys - I mean, he can't be that bad, no matter what the government says about him,' " Callahan says with a laugh. To help his Mr. Baseball image, Callahan keeps several boxes of new baseballs (printed with U.S. and Nicaraguan flags) in his embassy vehicle so he can toss out a few to kids playing pickup games in roadside fields...
...Baseball has even helped Callahan score some points with government officials who call him a "yanqui imperialista" in public. At a recent private event, Sandinista hard-liner Comandante Bayardo Arce, who's also president of the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League, reportedly practiced some baseball diplomacy of his own with Callahan. "He puts his arm around me and says, in front of all the Sandinistas, 'This is my amigo from baseball - we share the love for the great sport of baseball,' " the ambassador said. However, he added, baseball is the only thing he and the former revolutionary can talk about...