The 44000 fans standing in the aisles, sharing their own swisheroos .
It was an act of nature, wasn’t it. Something that Burt Lancaster in his "Field of Dreams" could relate to. Images of cornfields, where innocence and dreams were but part and parcel of Einstein’s theory of relativity... marketing by nickel&dime bandits, gnawing undernesth those stalks like gophers.. (How would visitors, agog from the red planet’s gravity react?)
II
Newly wed Swisher was hardly a clone nor a cliche. "Nice guys finish last" said Leo Durocher, a genetic clothes hawk himself.... the fans erupting as one, as Swisher relished his reprisal from his energizing grand slam 24 hours earlier. Kicking dirt, playing out his own need to be wanted by the fans, playing out their own hungers for love&recognition. And becoming somebody. ("A Swisheroo")
Whether they were from the projects or the gun toting streets of the inner city, they were vibrant and alive with Swisheroo’s timing and mechanics in the batting box. Never swinging at the first pitch....
Working the count: three balls and two strikes, he made the Texas Ranger pitcher feel the heat and adrenalin in Swisher’s patience.....the sound of his lumber fouling off a fast bal after fast ball. It’s velocity at 100 m.p.h... the dual reaching its apex, the Ranger pitcher coming across the middle of the plate. Knee high. ......
III
The collective wisdom of the moment exploded on all those souls. Their palpitating heart beats with their own sweating adulation on a very heated humid night in August. 2912 Sure said the happy go lucky "Swsih" ...didn’t Babe Ruth set the tone a century ago.
This was no deja vu of that memorable reality. Or was it?
Swsiheroo tip tapping his was across home plate, his alter egos high fiving him. Throwing those towels around him. Yet 24 hours earlier...the catalyst had socked a grand slam, thew bases loaded.He was the mighty Ruth, the Iron Man, the DiMagio, 60 plus Maris. Mantle......Mon umen t Mick.....Bernie Williams .....Yogi......Paul.....the Scooter...... ("Ole reliable") Tommy Henrich "Mr Octobe"r Joe Torre Don Zimmer Don Marringly Tito....George Steinbrenner, the owner
IV
Meanwhile Hiroki Kuroda was playing out his Japanese heritage...4 other Nippon pitchers in the Majors, getting their "feet wet" on the mounds of Field of Dreams, playing out their "sweats" on North American Continent mounds.
Far from their own nuclear bomb hysterias of Nakasaki&Hiroshima , Tojo’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7,194.... curdling blood morphing as crushing losses into eternity. Hiroki wasn’t born but his schooling....ess the textbooks covered up the surprise attack, his temperament and instincts were in baseball.
A base ball pitcher hurling a no hitter thru seven innings against these mighty
Texas Rangers
.
V
But his Swisher and Tex had given him a two zip ("zilch nunca nada") lead.......his thinking into maintaining his control&smoke...
The cutter fast ball curve slider and sinker at knee level and dipsy doodling across the corners...dominating (downloading), the first pitch as "strike one", keeping the Rangers out of the zone and immortal owner Nolan Ryan’s loop......
The catcher’s fingers signaling the pitches , supporting Kuroda’s verve and pop....and then in the 7th the first hit.....did he think his manager might go to the bullpen.... take him out, but no Girardi straddling the dugout bar, didn’t change his expression..
Kept his faith..letting Hireoki Kurodi go the nine, the hurler transcending the metaphor and pitch count thinking.. A second hit ,the"closer"exhorting warmups in the bullpen.
Then the 9th.... three more batters ..........the 44 thousand were again on their feet in the aisles...waving their towels, their heroes recapturing their visions of what they couyld have become.
"The"Field of Dreams" and"Alibi Ike" in a doubnle take.. ...
VI
The very insightful lady asked the Japanese translater "What was the enduring moment of your fantastic victory Hiroki?"
"Besuto wa mada kite inaidesu."
"The best is yet to come"
Agust 14, 2012 Yankee Stadium
