Looking back thru the ages as a knothole kid “afficiando”, sitting in the center field bleachers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.A 55 cents stub in our left hand, munching a hot dog with the right, watching Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson field those enemy balls, into a pivoting eye and hand coordination like there was no tomorrow.
“Yer out,” cried the umpire named Majorkirth, Robinson whipping the ball to first base for a double play.
II
Thousand of aeons later, our immeasurably revolving planet has seen its starry eyed Major League infielder stars, radiate the ball parks and reenergize their fans.
A metamorphosis transcending “w’s” indeed.
Didn’t Ring Lardner ring true with his “Alibi Ike”, Joe E Brown playing out the role of an outfielder who had his eye on the ball hit his way, the other one on the owner’s daughter. .
“How does that mustard grab you, mister?”
III
Across the River into the park that the Sultan of Swat alias Babe Ruth made, a rhubarb seemed to be
brewing……. Cyber space dominates the very air we inhabitants eat sleep and live by.
Indeed, poppy!
IV
The current Yankee second baseman, dependable in and out of stripes, fielding and hitting, has sent tremors through the fiber optic configurations where once the Babe could point to, in putting the wood for a homer
A free agent hero out of Central America tuned into our way ofCapitolism. Robinson Canow “Do n’t ya knowe”.
V
Shedding his stripes, exchanging his Mozart musical persona to civilian suits- white shirts, ties, Brooks Brothers haberdashery from head to toe.
“Don’t ya know” and his once beleaguered agents, lawyers,CPA’s and out and out businessmen are collectively whuppingup a 21st century caper that “Alibi Ike”, Pee Wee, Jackie Robinson and the Babe himself could ever conceive or imagine in this life or the next.
“Robinson Canow…don’t ya know!
VI
Ten years…a decade in the making. 30 mill a year….the Yankee hierarchy aghast at the 300 million bargaining chip beyond anyLou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, 61 homers.. teammate explosiveness.
But an explosion of this sort, how the Steinbrenner family canbargain at this level. Our pop culture takes a back seat to what was once a field of dreams..Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Pepper Martin and the gashouse gang ….Dizzy Dean, knuckleballerBobo Newsom. Lefty Gomez, Whitey Ford. Stan the ManMusial cleaning out his harmonica for a breath of fresh air.
Where is Branch Rickey, the Mahatma? The ancient Dodger offices at Montague and Court Street, in down town Brooklyn.Walter O’Malley’s father in law, a Judge adjunct the Name Detective’s Surrogate’s Court where he spent 36 years in hard labor.
VII
Think of it….300 mill for ten years. “Don’t ya know
Say it ain’t so. Robby Caknow
The field of Dreams, adjunct the house that Ruth built, November 19, 2013.
