Being a little up in years, I can recall when baseball was the “National Pastime.” Now, it is usually in the back part of the sports pages – unless, perhaps, you are in a major league city. Heck, LeBron James and Peyton Manning are both bigger than just about any baseball star – even during baseball season.
I recall about ten years ago asking two of my grandsons if they had ever had “Casey at the Bat” read to them. They indicated that they had not, so I did so. It was rather hilarious. They listened closely and then when I got to the end and they found out that Casey had struck out, they were madder than heck. Claimed it was a ridiculous poem!
I’m not certain, how many people read it to their kids anymore, but I enjoyed it when a young lad – even if Casey did strike out. Part of that may relate to my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. In my young days, they all struck out a lot. I recall that one year they traded their best player, a second baseman named O’Connell and he sat on his new team’s bench. The Blonde in the house is from Pittsburgh and after we got married her mother and aunt used to laugh at how I would holler at the TV when they lost – which was most of the time.
To return to “Casey” for a moment, I always got a kick out of what led up to his being at bat. There were two out, and the two guys in front of him had to reach base before Mighty Casey could come up. Well, one of them was Flynn who was a hoodoo, and the other was Jimmy Blake who was a cake. I knew most of the baseball jargon back then, but I never heard any player referred to with those adjectives.
This includes a player for the Pirates named Zak, I believe, who somehow got to first. Then, just as the opposing pitcher threw the ball, he called timeout to tie a shoe. Jim Russell hit that pitch for a home run – which did not count. If my mother had not restrained me, I would most likely have thrown the radio out the window – and it was not open. I would consider Zak a “hoodoo” and a “cake” even if I don’t know exactly what they mean in baseball terms – except that it is not good.
Since I have been in The Villages, I have played many seasons of softball. Met some great people and made many friends. The growth of the program here compared to 2000 when I started is tremendous. Essentially no team stays bad forever like the Pirates did as you have a new draft every year. The result is that the names may be the same, but the players are not. Perhaps, if major league baseball did that it might be good – but not now as the Pirates are doing better.
I have some seen funny scenes in softball here as well as lots of exciting plays. However, one of the funniest came in a game where I was playing third base. Some kind of a hubbub started over something that I no longer recall. In any case after about five minutes things calmed down, and the game started again. As the pitcher threw the ball, I looked over at third and a player was standing there. I said to myself, “I don’t remember there being a runner on third.”
Well, the batter hit the ball into left field and the runner at third took off for home. He got home, and players were hollering, and the scorekeeper was shouting, “he can’t score he made an out two batters ago.” What had occurred was that before the hubbub, he had been coaching at third, and the only thing he recalled when the game resumed was that he had been at third. Therefore, he got the base as a runner.
Now the good thing about the whole matter was that nobody wrote a poem calling him a hoodoo or a cake. Everybody just laughed, and the game continued. That’s Villages softball! I would not have missed that experience for all the tea in Ceylon!
Barry Evans is a Villager.