Randy Johnson

Wikipedia - "Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 22-year career, he pitched for six different teams. The 6-foot-10-inch (2.08 m) Johnson was celebrated for having one of the most dominant fastballs in the game. He regularly approached, and occasionally exceeded, 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) during his prime. He also threw a hard, biting slider. Johnson won the Cy Young Award five times, second only to Roger Clemens' seven."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, YouTube - LHP Randy Johnson pitching mechanics

Sacrifice bunt

Jose Molina
Wikipedia - "In baseball, a sacrifice bunt (also called a sacrifice hit) is a batter's act of deliberately bunting the ball in a manner that allows a runner on base to advance to another base. The batter is almost always sacrificed (and to a certain degree that is the intent of the batter) but sometimes reaches base due to an error or fielder's choice. Sometimes the batter may safely reach base by simply outrunning the throw to first; this is not scored as a sacrifice bunt but rather a single."
Wikipedia, The Sacrifice Bunt, CHAPTER 9 — TO SACRIFICE OR NOT, SABR: The Sacrifice Fly, MLB: Soriano's sac bunt (Video)

Tim Peeler - "What I Will Try to Know"

The direction, drive, and drop,
The fierce curve winking
Into the mitt and its plop.

That a curve would not break in space,
Propellers would beat nothing forever,
That birds would flap absently
Like words hanging motionlessly
Between mind and page.

That speed is relative,
That legs are powerful,
That Aboriginal grip on an ancient weapon
That slashes an ultimate curve
And only is what it is,
Too clean for symbol,
Too pure for metaphor.


Touching All the Bases
Tim Peeler

1967 World Series

Bob Gibson
Wikipedia - "The 1967 World Series matched the St. Louis Cardinals against the Boston Red Sox, with the Cardinals winning in seven games for their second championship in four years and their eighth overall. The Series was played from October 4 to October 12 in Fenway Park and Busch Memorial Stadium."
Wikipedia, Roger Maris – 1967 World Series, CNN: Aftermath of a Bittersweet World Series, YouTube - 1967 World Series Game 1: Cardinals vs Red Sox

EFQ Staff - "The All-Dinner Team"

C: Norm Sherry (apéritif)

1B: Cookie Lavagetto (dessert)
2B: Coot Veal (entree)
SS: Bobby Wine (beverage)
3B: Pie Traynor (dessert)

OF: Darryl Strawberry (appetizer)
OF: Sam Rice (side dish)
OF: Chili Davis (entree)

RHP: Goose Gossage (entree)
Bob Lemon (garnish)
Jose Lima (side dish)
Ray Lamb (entree)
Spud Chandler (side dish)
Mark Lemongello (dessert)
Roy Crabb (appetizer)
Allyn Stout (beverage)

LHP: Herb Score (garnish)
Noodles Hahn (side dish)
Dennis Cook (chef)

BENCH: Oyster Burns (appetizer)
Peaches Graham (dessert)
Pepper Martin (table seasoning)
Bill Bean (side dish)
Jake Flowers (centerpiece)
Tim Salmon (entree)
Bake McBride (pastry chef)
Pickles Dillhoeffer (condiment)

MGR: Salty Parker (table seasoning)


Elysian Fields Quarterly

Dave Smith - "Mean Rufus Throw Down"

He waits perpetually crouched, teeth,
tongue, raw knuckles, tattooed muscles
bunched under his hide like clouds,
taking and taking and taking until
the right moment tears his eyes open,
his arm, like a lover's curse, snakes
swiftly out to second eating the silky
air of the proudest runner, ending the game.


Hummers, Knucklers, and Slow Curves
Edited by Don Johnson

Ozzie Smith

Wikipedia - "Osborne Earl 'Ozzie' Smith (born December 26, 1954) is an American former shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals from 1978 to 1996. Nicknamed "The Wizard" for his defensive brilliance, Smith set major league records for career assists (8,375) and double plays (1,590) by a shortstop (the latter since broken by Omar Vizquel), as well as the National League (NL) record with 2,511 career games at the position; Smith won the NL Gold Glove Award for play at shortstop for 13 consecutive seasons (1980–1992). A 15-time All-Star, he accumulated 2,460 hits and 580 stolen bases during his career, and won the NL Silver Slugger Award as the best-hitting shortstop in 1987. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2002."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Dead-ball era

Frank Baker
Wikipedia - "The dead-ball era is a baseball term used to describe the period between 1900 (though some date it to the beginning of baseball) and the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1919. In 1919, Ruth hit a then league record 29 home runs, a spectacular feat at that time. The dead-ball era refers to a period in baseball characterized by low-scoring games and a lack of home runs. The lowest league run average in history was in 1908, when teams averaged only 3.4 runs scored per game."
Wikipedia, YouTube - Deadball Era Game Footage

William Carlos Williams - "The Crowd At The Ball Game"

The crowd at the ball game
is moved uniformly
by a spirit of uselessness
which delights them—

all the exciting detail
of the chase

and the escape, the error
the flash of genius—

all to no end save beauty
the eternal—

So in detail they, the crowd,
are beautiful

for this
to be warned against

saluted and defied—
It is alive, venomous

it smiles grimly
its words cut—

The flashy female with her
mother, gets it—

The Jew gets it straight— it
is deadly, terrifying—

It is the Inquisition, the
Revolution

It is beauty itself
that lives

day by day in them
idly—

This is
the power of their faces

It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is

cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail

permanently, seriously
without thought



Leasing News

My Mets Journal - Joe Petruccio

"My NY Mets sketchbook. I create an entry after each Mets game or commentary on the crazy stuff going on around the team."
My Mets Journal, Sketching The Mets: Interview with Joe Petruccio

Geoffrey Young - "George Brett / October 14, 1976"

ABC thought it was what we wanted to see
the side of the coin
that didn't turn up
as last night that white voyeuristic eye
came to lick sweat

in your Kansas City clubhouse
plunged into the finality
of all that lost sweetness
it hurt

You hurt

You said, There's nothing to say, really,
when you lose, the team loses,
when you win, it's the team that wins

A hopeless Warner Wolf at last
got sensitive
to the numb gloom of the Almost
as his every useless question
outraged the manhood
of a nation

George Brett, the tears
in your eyes



Baseball I Gave You All The Best Years of My Life
Edited by Richard Grossinger and Lisa Conrad

Mark Fidrych

"Mark Steven Fidrych (pronounced /ˈfɪdrɨtʃ/; August 14, 1954 – April 13, 2009), nicknamed "The Bird", was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched his entire career for the Detroit Tigers (1976–1980). In 1976, Fidrych led the major leagues with a 2.34 ERA, won the AL Rookie of the Year award, and finished with a 19-9 record."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, NYT: "Fidrych Remembered for Remarkable Season and Endearing Antics", YouTube - Fidrych Fame: The Bird Beats The Yankees

“Baseball Players Practicing,” 1875 - Thomas Eakins

"This well-known watercolor (on paper) by Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916) is in the collection of The Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. It measures 10¾ x 13 inches. The players depicted are members of the Athletic of Philadelphia BBC (National Association of Professional Base Ball Players). Batting is first baseman Wes Fisler and catching is, most probably, John Clapp. The location is the Jefferson Street Grounds, also known as Athletic Base Ball Grounds, in Philadelphia. This same field was the site of the first National League game played on April 22, 1876 when the Boston BBC, sometimes referred to as the 'Red Caps,' defeated the Athletic BBC 6-5."
19c BaseBall

Gene Carney - "Tape Measure"

Not everyone could hit
Tape measure home runs -
Mickey could:
Pinstriped slashes echoing the Babe's
Dotted lines in the photo next day
Tracing the imaginary flight into history

As a kid
I often wondered where they got
That five-hundred-plus feet ribbon
Hauled out to the stadiums
From the nearest university
I guessed
By a crack team of
Bespeckled scientists
In white lab coats
Carrying clipboards and rulers
And Lord knows what else they used
To make their measurements

Today I realize
They were probably just guys
Looking for free passes
Science in those days
Was as welcome in the game
As it was in religion:
Not much at all

Who cared exactly how far it went?
The more important questions were
Was it done in the clutch?
And did it win a game?
And whose did it remind you of?
If the smash set off a chain-reaction
Of story-telling for the next week
Then it was
Long enough



Baseball & the Lyrical Life

Edited by Tom Colnay

Harmon Killebrew

Wikipedia - "Harmon Clayton Killebrew (... born June 29, 1936), nicknamed 'Killer' and 'Hammerin' Harmon', is a former Major League Baseball first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. During a 22-year baseball career in which he played for the Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins, and Kansas City Royals, he was second only to Babe Ruth in American League (AL) home runs and retired as the AL career leader in home runs by a right-handed batter (since broken by Alex Rodriguez). He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, YouTube - Harmon Killebrew presents - Harmonic History - Part 1, Part 2

Montreal Royals

Jackie Robinson
Wikipedia - "The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec, that existed from 1897–1917 and from 1928–60 as a member of the International League and its progenitor, the original Eastern League. The Royals are most famous as the top farm club (Class AAA beginning in 1946) of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1939 to 1960."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, 84. 1946 Montreal Royals, YouTube -Jackie Robinson debuts with Montreal Royals

Tim Peeler - "Waiting for the Braves, 1985"

To have a winning year,
Taking time by the forelock,
Expecting, as well, the muse
To break into my starting lineup,
Watching the days slip by
Through the choking red dust
Of a Georgian county road,
Waiting for the uniformed Godot,
Seeing him rise slowly
Between green whiskers of spring wheat,
Imminently disappearing
Amidst the brown death of summer heat,

Waiting and watching anyway
Year after year...
Because my Daddy did
While announcers come and go
Like bad business partners
And different players circle the bases
And leave,
Never granting an October,
Never a harvest moon.



Touching All the Bases

Shibe Park

Shibe Park circa 1912-13
Wikipedia - "Shibe Park, known for the last one-third of its existence as Connie Mack Stadium, was a Major League Baseball park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When it opened April 12, 1909, it became Major League Baseball's first steel-and-concrete stadium. It was on the block bounded by Lehigh Avenue, 20th Street, Somerset Street and 21st Street. It was thus just five blocks west, corner-to-corner, from Baker Bowl, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies that had opened in 1887. The stadium hosted two Major League Baseball All-Star Games; in 1943, marking the first time the game had been played at night, and in 1952, with that game holding the distinction of being the only All-Star contest shortened by rain (in this case, to five innings)."
Wikipedia, Shibe Park - Video, Alan Luber

Stephen Cormany - "Culture vs. Nature"

Every so often in Yankee Stadium
Mantle or Murcer had to contend with the monuments.
A long drive would get sandwiched between
The Sultan of Swat
The Iron Horse and
The Yankee Clipper.
Mickey, if he had been given to such gab
May have called the protuberances
The Stonehenge Pinball Machine.
On the other hand,
Take the case of Cleveland's Municipal Stadium:
No monumenge there
Nay, in fact before 1946
No fence.
In a game against Philadelphia
In the early thirties
Rangy Earl Averill
Chasing a towering drive off the bat of
Al Simmons
Was bowled over by a polar bear.



Baseball I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life
Edited by Richard Grossinger and Lisa Conrad

Red Barber

Wikipedia - "Walter Lanier 'Red' Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sportscaster. Barber, nicknamed 'The Ol' Redhead', was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–38), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional football in his primary market of New York City."
Wikipedia, Radio Hall of Famer, npr: "Baseball Memories: The Red Barber Centennial", YouTube - Red Barber on Jackie Robinson, Mel Allen and Red Barber on the 1947 World Series

Tom Clark - "To Orestes Minoso"

Minnie, you collide
with Roberto Clemente
when I try to summon up
the greatest ballplayer I ever saw

I'm not talking about reputations
but what you did day in day out
was so much more than anyone had a right to expect
that no one except Bill Veeck
ever really understood it

You busted your ass every minute, like your heroic namesake
although I'm not too sure about that
since unfortunately I remember my Greek mythology
less well than I remember you

If you'd have been a white Protestant from
Maryland, you'd have been in movies and the Hall of Fame
and today instead of an obscure coach
you'd be a celebrity
drinking coffee on television
and flashing us your famous smile
in ads for athletes foot

Maybe it's better this way



Fan Poems - North Atlantic Books

Ted Williams

Wikipedia - "Theodore Samuel 'Ted' Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002), was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox (1939-1942 and 1946-1960). Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice. A nineteen-time All-Star, he had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, YouTube - Ted Williams, Greatest Sports Legends- Ted Williams Hits .400, Roy Firestone interviews Ted Williams, Ted Williams (part one of three), (part two of three), (part three of three)

A golden era, caught for all

Lefty Grove sitting in the dugout at Fenway Park.
"Days before the first pitch of the 1939 baseball season, a sharp-eyed Boston news photographer pointed a camera at a 20-year-old rookie with big ears and freckles. The kid’s new Red Sox uniform hung off his scrawny frame, making him look like a boy wearing a man’s suit. That moment was preserved by the shutter. The photographer, Leslie Jones, scribbled 'Red Sox player’ as a caption and squirreled the negative away in his Dorchester basement, where he kept tens of thousands of images from his life as a newspaper cameraman."
Boston, flickr, Leslie Jones, Historic Baseball Photos by Leslie Jones

Louise Grieco - "It Ain't Over..."

Baseball is something
like love. There's an elegance
about it - a fine tension.

Fielders pluck comets
from thin and glorious air.
Pitchers make solid spheres
disappear. And batters smash meteors
with matchsticks.

But fielders also topple
over fences, sprawl empty-handed
in the dust. Pitchers throw wild.
And batters sometimes tilt
at windmills.

Yet they lean in - watch - wait.
They risk looking foolish
in order to be brilliant.



Line Drives

Willie Stargell

Wikipedia - "Wilver Dornell 'Willie' Stargell (March 6, 1940 – April 9, 2001), nicknamed 'Pops' in the later years of his career, was a Major League Baseball left fielder and first baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career (1962-1982) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Over his 21-year career with the Pirates, he batted .282, with 2,232 hits, 423 doubles, 475 home runs and 1540 runs batted in, helping his team capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series (1971, 1979)."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, MLB - Video

"Life, Liberty, and Breaking the Rules" - Bill James (Slate)

"First of all, I have absolutely no doubt that, had steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs existed during Babe Ruth's career, Babe Ruth would not only have used them, he would have used more of them than Barry Bonds. I don't understand how anyone can be confused about this. The central theme of Babe Ruth's life, which is the fulcrum of virtually every anecdote and every event of his career, is that Babe Ruth firmly believed that the rules did not apply to Babe Ruth."
Slate

Baseball scrapbook 1921

"Baseball scrapbook. Art Nehf. Rube Marquard. Grover Cleveland Alexander. 1921 New York Yankees. Home Run Baker. Rogers Hornsby. Nick Altrock and Al Schacht. Wilbert Robinson. Miller Huggins. Joe McCarthy. Tris Speaker. Frank Frisch. Pie Traynor. Charlie Gehringer. Carl Hubbell. Mickey Cochrane. Jimmy Foxx. Mel Ott."
YouTube

D. Roger Martin - "Hammerin' Hank"

You did it, Henry.
You took The Babe's untouchable record
and stuffed it in your pocket.
Not bad for a gangling
black kid from Mobile.
The TV cameras were set to roll,
the reporters were poised
and the stage was set
with you and Al Downing
in the multi-million dollar spotlight.
Your teammate, Tom House,
caught the home run ball in the bullpen,
which was good economics.
That could have been
and expensive ball to buy back.
"A black Babe Ruth," they said you were.

Now it's your record
that stands casting its shadow-
a distant target
for future sharpshooters,
probably as yet, unborn.
And doesn't it make you wonder, Henry,
if things have really changed
since Jackie Robinson
courageously showed the world
there was another color of man
who could play this game.
Will any of us live long enough
to hear some wise scribe say,
"Here's a kid who
really has a chance to be
a white Henry Aaron."




Leasing News

Curse of the Bambino

Wikipedia - "The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004. While some fans took the curse seriously, most used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner."
Wikipedia, Bambino's Curse, History of “The Curse of the Bambino”, Sports Illustrated - The Curse of the Bambino

Rochelle Nameroff - "Backyard"

For Larry
"There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball.
Unfortunately, neither of them works."


it was all so serious
as he taught me
digging the knees

a deliberate hunkering
the back & forth wiggle
shifting the weight

it screws yr behind in the ground he said
protection I guess
or the secrecy of boys

he called it
The Stan Musial Crouch
& man how I practiced

getting it right to unwind
breathless exquisite & deadly
the permission to love

without going crazy
& o big brother
how much I remembed


26 Feb 80

Into the Temple of Baseball
Editer by Richard Grossinger & Kevin Kerrane

Dennis Eckersley

Wikipedia - "Dennis Lee Eckersley (born October 3, 1954 in Oakland, California), nicknamed 'Eck', is a former American Major League Baseball pitcher. Eckersley had success as a starter, but gained his greatest fame as a closer, becoming the first of only two pitchers in Major League history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season in a career (the other being John Smoltz)."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Pafko at the Wall: A Novella

Wikipedia - "...On the fiftieth anniversary of 'The Shot Heard Round the World,' Don DeLillo reassembles in fiction the larger-than-life characters who on October 3, 1951, witnessed Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jackie Gleason is razzing Toots Shor in Leo Durocher's box seats; J. Edgar Hoover, basking in Sinatra's celebrity, is about to be told that the Russians have tested an atomic bomb; and Russ Hodges, raw-throated and excitable, announces the game -- the Giants and the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in New York. DeLillo's transcendent account of one of the iconic events of the twentieth century is a masterpiece of American sportswriting."
Wikipedia, amazon, Google

Detroit - Comerica Park

"Join Seattle Times baseball writer Geoff Baker as he walks from the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, over to and inside Comerica Park where he gives you a tour."
YouTube

Tom Clausen

in the shoe box
attic light from one window
and the creased Willie Mays


_____



from the train window
fans outside the ballpark
before the game



_______



back to back walks...
the catcher takes the pitcher
to the top of mound



_______



full moon just rising
we recount the best plays
on the drive home




Baseball Haiku

Sandy Koufax - “Pitcher Perfect” 1963-1966

"There are only three people in all of baseball history who have done it: win three 'triple crowns' in pitching. Sandy Koufax, the guy shown at right, is one of them. He garnered this distinction during his magical years on the pitching mound with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1963, 1965 and 1966 – a memorable time for baseball."
The Pop History Dig, Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, YouTube - LHP Sandy Koufax: RareSportsFilms, Sandy Koufax & the 1966 Dodger Interviews, Sandy Koufax Story

Cubans in Baseball Cards

Habana Cubans 1947
"As in the United States, Cuban Baseball Cards began as Trade Cards, Cabinet Photos, and promotional giveaways with Tobacco products. Cuban Baseball Cards are some of the rarest cards providing some of the only cards examples of great Negro League legends like the Martin Dihigo, Jose Mendez, John Henry Lloyd, Oscar Charleston and Ray Dandridge."
Cubans in Baseball Cards

William Heyen - "If You Know Me at All"

I once prayed that this acre be the elm's home,
but my elms are dying, or dead. Today I dragged
almost the last torso to the back line
for mouse- and rabbit-shelter over the long winter.

Babe Ruth, whose decorum on formal occasions I sometimes
for the health of my soul have needed to emulate,
said near his end that termites had gotten into him,
and as I hauled elm bats away across autumn,

my right elbow and left knee ground out their lamentation.
But I am used to them by now, and almost
unafraid. Me and the Babe and the elms got
a season or so to go before we're nothing here

but sawdust. I root for them, as you will,
with me, if you know me at all. In elm bark we see
children on diamonds over which the sun passes,
and all our home runs in the cross-cut growth rings.


Line Drives
Edited by Brooke Horvath and Tim Wiles