Aug 08, 2024 Fall OLLI lineup includes all about baseball from a former Red Sox coach and cautionary tales from the Roman empire

August 8, 2024 - A divided populace, immigration problems and attacks on political and legal institutions. Sound familiar? Yes, that's the current political climate in the U.S., but it's also very similar to that of the Roman Empire just before 27 B.C., according to Getty Museum docent and retired U.S. Navy captain Scott Jones.

"All of those hot button issues in Rome are hot button issues for us today," Jones said.

Jones, an expert on the Roman empire, is one of the experts teaching one of the 11 classes offered in for the CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)'s Fall semester. Each class meets once a week for six weeks, either virtually or in person or a combination of both.

Registration is now open for the OLLI Fall Semester, with classes beginning on August 19 and lasting through September 27. Among the classes available are: "Art Movements from the Roaring 20s to the Swinging 60s," "Asian Phoenix: The Stories of Modern North and South Korea," "What makes the Grand Canyon grand?" and "Our (Inter)National Pastime - Baseball from its Inception to the Modern Era," taught by a former Red Sox coach.

Notable among the OLLI instructors is the rich background and scholarship each one brings to the fall semester of classes. Jones, for example, is a retired U.S. Navy captain with 30 years of service and worked on Capitol Hill as the naval advisor for a U.S. senator and later served as naval advisor at the U.S. State Department. His work as a docent involves leading interactive tours through the J. Paul Getty Museum, a replica of a first century Roman villa.

"I have a special affinity for Rome," he said. "They're an amazing civilization. It started as a little village, and a few hundred years later they are a world power with brilliant people, scientifically-oriented and with beautiful architecture.

There is much we can learn from their triumphs and downfalls, according to Jones. Rome had a Republican democracy that lasted 500 years with a strong democracy and a separation of powers.

"But as the empire grew, they began wrestling with enormous wealth disparity and disagreed on how to handle immigration," he said. "The populace became divided between liberals and conservatives."

Jones says he will not tell anyone how to vote in the next election, but will lay out the history, the similarities and what we can learn from the fall of the Roman empire.

Aside from politics, history, current events and science, OLLI also offers classes in the arts, music and sports.

Teaching the class on baseball is Katie Krall, an adjunct faculty member of Northwestern University's Master's of Sports Administration program. Besides working in as the Senior Project Manager of Global Baseball Strategy for a division of Sony Sports Business, Krall spent 2022 as a development coach for the Boston Red Sox. The helmet she wore to coach first base is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Krall's class will cover all the bases in baseball, from the history to the business to the mechanics of a great pitch.

She will also talk about critical historical moments in the sport, such as Cuban baseball under Fidel Castro and the Negro Leagues.

Krall grew up outside of Chicago and her mom was on the board of the Chicago White Sox, so she grew up going to White Sox games. Her godfather was Rick Stelmaszek, catcher and bullpen coach for the Minnesota Twins, inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame. Thanks to him, her education went beyond baseball statistics.

"He always used to say, 'Those damn spread sheets are ruining baseball!'" Krall said. "He used to tell me to turn on the TV, turn on a (Tampa Bay) Rays game, and watch. He'd say 'Look at Blake Snell. Look at his mound presence, look at the way he dictates the cadence.'"

One more thing-when asked her opinion about who will make it to the World Series, the L.A. Dodgers made the cut.

Learn more about OLLI's Fall I courses via the course catalog and explore additional program offerings at go.csuci.edu/olli. You can reach the OLLI program at 805-437-2748 or [email protected].

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