Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
"... an exemplary sports book..." Kirkus Reviews

Thursday, June 2, 2016

:-(

Then:  23-28-1

Now:  24-28

Jesus wept...hopefully not on his ice cream sandwich.

4 comments:

joe de pastry said...

I understand why you guys keep referring to 1966, and I certainly wouldn't want you to stop, cause it makes sense it this context. But every mention of that year brings back to my mind awful memories, unrelated to baseball. I guess you could say 1966 is like my personal Niagara Falls or Yoan Moncada. So, pardon me, but I just feel like if I write a little something about that here maybe I won't think about it so much anymore.
I was 19 years old in April 1966, when I enlisted in the Air Force to avoid being drafted into the Army. I still feel guilty about that decision. I was too scared of the risk of going to prison to refuse to be inducted during a war I thought was stupid and immoral. But I was also too scared of the risk of having to kill or be killed [or both] in a Vietnamese jungle or rice paddy for a cause I didn't believe in to let myself be drafted. So I took the easy way out and let some other poor schmuck get drafted in my place.
For eight months I was stationed in first Texas, then Mississippi before getting a few weeks leave in December, then being sent off to a radar station at the top of a mountain in Goose Bay, Labrador, where it was about 100 degrees colder and about 100% safer than Vietnam.
I have only two good things to say about my 1966:
-I couldn't have picked a better year not to see any Yankees baseball.
-Sweet Nancy at the topless dance club in Biloxi taught my virginal self how to motorboat.
So from now on when you guys refer to 1966 I'll try to think only about Sweet Nancy.
Thanks, I feel better now.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

Let me get this straight (it’s 5:00 a.m. here, the sun is up, and I am a bit bleary-eyed having stayed up to watch the game): Pineda got through 5-2/3 innings and gave up only one run. And then John “The Master” Sterling’s “Three-Headed Dragon” (which I thought was a special at the Chinese joint around the corner on Gumpendorferstrasse) took over and… Did Delicate Betances not enjoy his breakfast in bed this morning after 12 hours of sleep and four days off? So he gives up a run. Next up: The Stringbean, who tosses another run. And then: The Scranton Strangler (d’ya remember “The Office?”) loads the bases, brings in yet another run and comes damned close to blowing the game for us.

I was wary of this trio from the start, especially Betances. (The Yankee publicity machine touting them as the most important event in the history of man since The Coming of Christ and the Freezing of Spinach hasn’t helped.) I’ll take a pass on the Kool-Ade, thank you: they are as mediocre and unpredictable as the rest of the team.

Much more fun: watching Trump fans getting bashed over the head and pelted with eggs in San Jose live on MSNBC. And the State Department issued a warning about travelling over here! Maybe you'd rather be in, say, Cleveland in July than Paris or Vienna...

Parson Tom said...

Joe: Thank you for your service. Glad you made a wise choice and joined the Air Force. That war was just SO wrong.

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