Baseball great Willie Mays is celebrating 78th birthday today. It gives me a good reason to show May's classic catch. Willie Mays played in the Negro leagues, got over 94% of the vote for the hall of fame, is Barry Bonds godfather, and a class act. Happy Birthday Willie Mays.
Two middle grade reads Willie Mays is mentioned in,
Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park
The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggott
On a related note, I believe I pulled something in my throat cheering for my team tonight. Pitching duels are great unless its your team. When its your team its hard to, breathe, talk or watch. The later the game goes without a score the churning in your stomach will not be ignored. Its even harder when its against a divisional rival. My Mets where playing the Phillies. If you know nothing about baseball its along the lines of Cubs/Cardinals, or Yankees/Red Sox. If those two references don't help, I am sorry there is nothing I can do for you. Any how in the 7th inning it was still scoreless. The Mets were playing at home, and the home team always bats last in the inning, that way the home team gets the last up in the game. (A part of home field advantage) Bottom of 7th, Mets first baseball Delgaldo gets a leadoff walkout. The next two players are out quickly. So its two outs and a man on first. Tatis, a pitch hitter (PH) is up to bat, he hits a weak ball to the Phillies 3rd baseman. The 3rd baseman should've ate the ball (not thrown it ) because he was not going to make the play. Instead he rushes the play and throws it over the first baseman. Allowing Delgado to score from first. Delgado is not young, and his knees are not the best. They are no where near Kirk Gibson territory but still for Delgado to score from first on an error throw with two outs in the bottom of the seventh in a scoreless game , against a rival team that won the World Series last year, is definitely worth a primal deep down scream that threatens my vocal cords. And of course the Mets won, if they didn't I wouldn't have posted this. So I'll go to sleep tonight with a sore throat but it was totally worth it. If you've read this entire post and you're not a baseball fan congrats. You never know it may come in handy for trivia one day. I need some tea
Willie Mays may not have a chocolate bar named after him, but there is this jazzy song.
5 comments:
Love what you do, Doret.
I chose your blog for my "This is How You Do It", Weekly Geek post.
Thank you for the fine reads.
Thanks Susan. Did you watch the Say Hey Song or the catch?
Speaking of Willie, and that catch: In my opinion, one of the great baseball books ever written, A DAY IN THE BLEACHERS by Arnold Hano, is told from Hano's POV as a fan in the stands at that classic World Series Game in 1954, Giants vs. Indians, when Mays made that remarkable effort. Roger Kahn said of this book, "The first and, I believe, the best of all the baseball books written from the point of view of the man in the stands."
A must read for baseball fans. Here's how it begins:
- - - - -
When the evening papers of September 28, 1954, reported that a dozen men and boys were already camping across the street from the bleacher entrance outside the Polo Grounds prior to the first World Series contest, I felt the urge.
I turned to my wife and said, "I think I'll go to the game tomorrow."
She said, "Don't you need a ticket?"
I said, "Only for the reserved seats. I'll sit in the bleachers."
JP
Great stuff! Wooooooo!
Love the Willie Mays song. We're big Cubs fans at my house, though we rarely get to a game now that we live in Oregon! Glad you enjoyed the game.
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