Dartholes in Fuselage

Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar is one part hangar and one part bar, which explains some of the unique pieces and storage around the place. That level of detail goes all the way down to the menus themselves, where the Pilot’s Log Book that belonged to Jock has transformed into a file folder for all of his favorite beverages and bites. Of course, with all of that information, some of his flight information has been obscured, but that doesn’t mean we can’t put some pieces back together.

The log book includes a space for the date (year, month, and day), what aircraft was used, how the aircraft was identified (i.e. it’s call sign), who was the pilot, who was the second pilot or passenger(s), and points of departure and arrival. It also includes a section to describe the Mission, Procedures, and Maneuvers. It is this last section, on the page with one of the Hangar Bar’s signature drinks, the Cool Headed Monkey, where something caught my eye and warranted further investigation.

On the fourth line of the mission section, the menu reads, “Dartholes in fuselage (again). Yankees lose 12-1. Dang it!”

Sounds like Jock, who we know is an avid New York Yankees fan from his hat in Raiders of the Lost Ark, is having a particularly bad day. Or is he? While some of the information is obscured on the page, we can tell that this is taking place in October of 1943, but the day of the month is missing. But we have enough pieces to investigate, a team, a month, and a year. A simple search gives us the Yankees’ schedule in October of 1943, which happened to include the World Series that year.

On October 2, the Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns twice (5-1 and 7-6). On October 3, the Yankees again beat the St. Louis Browns (5-2). In the World Series, played against the St. Louis Cardinals. They won four out of five games, including games on October 5 (4-2), October 7 (6-2), October 10 (2-1), and October 11 (2-0). In fact, the only game the New York Yankees lost in October of 1943 was on October 6, falling (4-3) in the second game of the World Series.

The dartholes in the fuselage got me to thinking; perhaps we’re looking at events tied to Raiders of the Lost Ark. The opening scene of the movie takes place in 1936, and while the New York Yankees were still playing in October of that year, the World Series having begun on September 30, their only loss in the month of October would come on October 5 of that year, losing to the New York Giants (5-4).

Personally, I’ll chalk it up to Jock mishearing a static-filled radio broadcast or finding an oil smear on the box score in his newspaper. Either way, the Pilot’s Log Book that the Hangar Bar utilizes for a menu is a treasure trove of details, and I’m certainly going to be digging through them for more stories from Jock’s adventures!