Jonathan Lemire has lived in his Brooklyn, N.Y. apartment nearly seven years. It’s in a late 19th-century building that boasts exposed brick in almost every unit, and Lemire’s brickwork is a wall that extends just off the kitchen, curving slightly because it abuts an outdoor spiral staircase. For as long as Lemire has lived there, there has been a single nail sticking out of the masonry.
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A month ago, Lemire finally hung a picture on that nail, and the picture has become a quarantined nation’s least-expected reminder that a baseball rivalry really meant something before the pandemic. And maybe it still does.
Almost any day of the week, political junkies can tune into “Morning Joe” or “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” and find Lemire – a White House reporter for the Associated Press and regular contributor to MSNBC – sitting in front of his brick wall, offering professional insight and political analysis, while just over his left shoulder hangs a framed picture of Jason Varitek smacking Alex Rodriguez square in the mouth.
(MSNBC)
“I look at it this way,” Lemire said. “What the nation needs now in these trying times is an inspirational image of good triumphing over evil, and the comeback story of the 2004 Red Sox depicted in that image is something we can all look toward now and draw inspiration.”
THE ORAL HISTORY: How the day of the Varitek—A-Rod fight played out
You’ll never guess where he’s from.
Lemire, 40, has lived in New York basically half his life. He went from studying at Columbia University to more than a decade writing for the New York Daily News to his current job with the AP. But he grew up in Lowell, Mass., 30 miles north of Boston, where he was raised in a family of passionate New England sports fans – Red Sox fans in particular.
“Coming to New York, being surrounded by the enemy – Yankees fans – has only heightened my Red Sox fandom,” Lemire said. “To the point that both of my children, by the age of 2 or 3, any time they would see a Yankee logo would give it two thumbs down.”
He should be thankful they didn’t give it something worse.
“I’ve actually had to discourage them in public from actively booing people wearing Yankees stuff,” Lemire said. “That might be the correct behavior, but it’s not always polite behavior.”
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And if you think those are bold words to put on the record for thousands of Yankees fans to read, remember this is the guy who appears regularly on national television with that picture hanging in the background. Whatever anyone has to say, Lemire’s probably already heard it, and unless they’re bigger and stronger than Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp, they won’t be the most intimidating person to call him out.
@JonLemire really that Photo you put on the Wall?
— Warren Sapp (@WarrenSapp) April 8, 2020
“It’s an image about a comeback,” Lemire insisted. “It’s about overcoming obstacles. It’s about, sometimes you have to smack your opponent in the face. And that’s the message we’re trying to get across here.”
Lemire was assigned to cover the Trump campaign in 2015. He was on the job from Trump’s escalator ride announcement to his election night surprise, and when President Trump took office in 2017, Lemire transitioned to the AP’s White House beat but remained based in New York. He travels to Washington D.C. often, and he follows the president on various foreign and domestic trips, but Lemire’s still stationed where Trump’s business and family and many of his advisors are located.
His New York City environs are a crucial element in understanding Lemire’s quarantined television appearances, and the eventual inclusion of that photo.
A small Brooklyn apartment with a wife and two kids doesn’t leave room for a home studio, nor does it present many options for a professional television backdrop. Many other at-home contributors have gone on air with smart-looking bookcases in the background, and Lemire has one – “with plenty of interesting political books on it,” he adds – but it’s tucked into an alcove, and not a camera-friendly alcove. No, Lemire’s best option was in front of his brick wall with that unseen, unused nail sticking out.
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“It’s either that or in front of my kids’ bunk beds,” he said.
MSNBC provided some professional gear – an iPad on a tripod, a halo light shining bright, a laptop showing the on-air feed – and Lemire began broadcasting in a shot so limited he had to choose between including a freestanding closet on his left or a refrigerator on his right. He chose to include the closet.
The internet was abuzz.
Some speculated the closet was a massive beer fridge – “I wish it was,” Lemire said – but it was the unadorned, century-old brick wall that became a total mystery. Was Lemire broadcasting from outside? Was he in the bathroom of a hipster coffee shop? Was he on stage in a comedy club, for some reason?
#MorningJoe
We’re all Jonathan Lemire these days, our backs up against a brick wall@JonLemire
— SueinPhilly שיינה (@sueinphilly) April 13, 2020
After a week or two, MSNBC offered feedback: Maybe Lemire could decorate the wall a little bit, add a touch of personal flair.
That’s when it happened. He did not choose a classic work of art, nor a political document or a drawing by one of his kids. Not even a family photo, all of them dressed up and smiling for the camera, found a home on that nail.
“Obviously,” Lemire said. “I decided the most important image that I could put there … would be a picture of Jason Varitek hitting Alex Rodriguez in the face.”
Lemire had other Red Sox gear all over the apartment – a Big Papi doll, a Mookie Betts bobblehead – but that particular picture had been hanging in his sons’ closet, an “inspirational image of good triumphing over evil” reserved for an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old, and when Lemire presented it to an unsuspecting national audience, the response was hilarious.
“I thought I would do it as sort of a gag and have it occasionally,” Lemire said. “But it gets so much feedback every time I’m on, I now have to leave it up.”
Room Rater Update. The photo in @JonLemire’s Skype Room identified. https://t.co/fQbolWZ8ky pic.twitter.com/UFQr5HwzoR
— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 25, 2020
Lemire appears most frequently on “Morning Joe,” MSNBC’s notoriously Red Sox-friendly morning political show. Host Joe Scarborough is a vocal Red Sox fan, as is frequent guest Mike Barnicle, a former Boston Globe columnist who appeared in Ken Burns’ “Baseball” documentary.
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Lemire and Scarborough have attended Red Sox games together, and during previous seasons, they’ve often broken away from politics to discuss the team on the air. In 2018, they struck a surprisingly pessimistic tone down the stretch, something they saw as an effective superstition, a sort of reverse psychology willing the Red Sox to a title. To this day, Lemire insists it worked.
So, when he hung the picture on the wall, Lemire said he didn’t clear it with is on-air boss. He just went with it and trusted Scarborough would be onboard.
He was.
Perhaps the most meaningful historic photo since blurred images of troops landing on Normandy graced the cover of Life Magazine. https://t.co/vuLCtsUpcP
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) April 16, 2020
Funny thing is, Lemire’s brother is an actual baseball reporter who also appears frequently on television. Joe Lemire spent seven years writing for Sports Illustrated. He is now a senior writer at SportTechie and has appeared often on MLB Network as a calm and engaging voice of reason for the sport. Joe is literally a professional baseball commentator.
But he’s not the one appearing on TV with Varitek and A-Rod framed over his shoulder.
(When I texted Joe a screenshot to ask about getting in touch with Jonathan for this story, Joe responded: “Who’s that guy?” When I asked Joe to comment for the story, he asked to be referred to as, “a source with knowledge of family dynamics.” Brothers, man)
“Jon texted my parents and me suggesting we watch his TV appearance because he had added ‘a lone decoration to the brick wall behind me,’” Joe Lemire said. “When I tuned in on my phone, the image was small and blurry — yet unmistakable. Given that my brother hung this as one of the few photos in his older son’s nursery, nothing surprises us. It was, needless to say, well received by the family back in Lowell.”
And after that first television appearance with the picture on the wall, Jonathan texted the family again: “At a time of crisis, what better image to symbolize a comeback?”
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Clearly, he’s been practicing that line for a while now.
“Like any political talking head, he knows how to stay on message,” a source with knowledge of family dynamics said.
And the message remains. The Varitek/A-Rod photo is now on permanent display in the Lemire household. It’s out of the nursery, out of the closet, and right there for all the world to see.
“It is now, of course, the most prominent piece of artwork in my home,” Lemire said. “It’s my daily life. I can draw inspiration from it as well.”
And at a time of crisis … ah, you know the rest.
(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
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