Jonathan Williams - "O For A Muse Of Fire!"

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 1958 -
a date previously memorable in history for the birth of
Joe Lewis (1914),
the Empress Maria Theresa (1717),
and the beheading of
Johan Van Olden Barnveldt (1619)
Place: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
Time: 3:06 P.M.; warm and sunny; breeze steady, right to left
Attendance: 5,692 (paid)
Situation: top of the sixth; Cardinals trailing the Cubs, 3-1; one out; Gene Green on 2nd
Public Address: "Batting for Jones, #6, Stan Musial!"

The Muse muscles up; Stan the Man stands ... and
O, Hosanna, Hosanna, Ozanna's boy, Moe Drabowsky comes

2 and 2
"a curve ball, outside corner, higher
than intended -
I figured he'd hit it in the ground"

("it felt fine!")

a line shot to left, down the line,
rolling deep for a double...

("it felt fine!")

Say, Stan, baby, how's it feel to hit 3000?

"Uh, it feels fine"


_____________
Only six major-league players in baseball history had hit safely 3000 times prior to this occasion. The density of the information surrounding the event continues to surpise me, rather belies Tocqueville's assertion than Americans cannot concentrate.

Into the Temple of Baseball. Edited by Richard Grossinger & Kevin Kerrane