Tired of the view. It’s fer the birds.
they can handle it better. just lay back…

I wanted something happy up here for the holidays.
The solstice. I guess that was a shitty way to start.

Ya’gotta start somewhere, i always say.
I’m not one for admonitions or even
seasonal resolutions, so this is merely
an observation. when you hear people
talkin’ about oh my god i quit smoking,
it’s been three years; then they stop and say…

just don’t have one

oh, ok
=====

So, yeah. Happy.

Beloved Johnny Pesky died this year.
I didn’t. Not as of this writing.

This was August 14, 2012 I wrote this.
I was sad this year. It sorta helped.
At my worst, i weighed at least 243 lbs.
I trim them’scales at a lovely 184 baby.

yeah, appetite suppressant
=========

Just a day today. Fun with friends. Handyman remote located and before noon even, like he was coppin’, then the Perf with a morning DUE DATE and I mean that… and I in matching garb, along comes Wolf and we are repleat. That Karyazan better not let me down and make me look bad. Handyman says something twice, why say it ag’in~

All my ordering done, and a mid-day snooze after the $5 YING’s lunch special. No way to treat a lady at 199.5. Start tomorrow on the austerity. So I say.

.
Then Pesky finally lets go of the goddamn ball. An eternity. Different Tuesday, boys…

There’s film. He didn’t hold the ball. It was a bold risk at exactly the right time. Slaughter flew. When Pesky saw him, by then blind with reaching his goal, the young shortstop turned and threw, late. But he didn’t hesitate.

It was Sportsman’s Park. It was Enos’ destiny. He MADE it his.

They were screamin’ for him. Ran through the stop sign… wasn’t even a play. Sox lose.

Known for his love of the sport, a gentle soul and friend to so many, Johnny Pesky played alongside Ted, Bobby Doerr, Dom. A lifetime .307 hitter in over 5500 plate appearances spanning ten years. He hit .313 and was the everyday shortstop for the 1951 Sox, but didn’t figure in their future plans and went to Detroit. A year spent in Washington ended his career.

His final field appearance though, searching the box scores for late 1954, appears to be when the Senators traveled to Fenway Park for a season-ending series. While Pesky made no plate appearances the entire four-game set, he appears in the box score for the first of two Friday games, no doubt a makeup of some kind. That Friday, September 24, 1954 contest went eleven innings, scoreless. In the eleventh, Tom Wright, a former Sox himself in the period Pesky played in those colors, pinch hits and drives in an only run of the game. Wright having hit for the everyday shortstop, one Jerry Snyder, Pesky dutifully cleaned up the bottom of the eleventh, contributing to the 1-0 Senators’ victory. He didn’t play the rest of that weekend in late September 1954, but I betcha he got to the ballpark early. Every day.

In this same vein, let’s examine Tuesday, June 30, 1953…
there’s an exceptionally meaningful day in the life…

fade
=======================

Cleveland Indians 6, Detroit Tigers 4

Tuesday, June 30, 1953 at Briggs Stadium

CLE A    0  2  2    2  0  -   6  8  0
DET A    1  0  0    0  3  -   4  8  2

BATTING

Cleveland Indians            AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Mitchell lf                   3   1   1   2       0   0       2   0
Avila 2b                      3   1   2   0       0   0       1   1
Rosen 3b                      3   1   1   2       0   0       0   0
Easter 1b                     1   1   1   0       2   0       2   1
Doby cf                       3   1   1   0       0   1       2   0
Kennedy rf                    3   0   0   1       0   0       2   1
Strickland ss                 2   0   2   0       1   0       1   1
Ginsberg c                    3   0   0   1       0   0       4   0
Houtteman p                   2   1   0   0       0   0       1   0
Totals                       23   6   8   6       3   1      15   4

BATTING - 
2B: Doby (9,off Garver); Avila (13,off Garver).
HR: Rosen (17,3rd inning off Garver 1 on 1 out); 
     Mitchell (6,4th inning off Garver 1 on 2 out).
Team LOB: 5.

Detroit Tigers               AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Kuenn ss                      3   2   2   0       0   0       2   2
Pesky 2b                      3   1   2   3       0   0       1   2
Boone 3b                      3   0   1   1       0   1       1   0
Dropo 1b                      3   0   0   0       0   1       4   0
Delsing cf                    2   0   1   0       0   0       1   0
Souchock lf                   2   0   0   0       0   0       1   0
Batts c                       2   0   1   0       0   0       1   0
Lund rf                       2   0   1   0       0   1       4   0
Garver p                      1   0   0   0       0   1       0   0
  Nieman ph                   1   1   0   0       0   0       0   0
Totals                       22   4   8   4       0   4      15   4

FIELDING - 
E: Souchock (5), Batts (3).

BATTING - 
HR: Pesky (1,5th inning off Houtteman 2 on 1 out).
Team LOB: 3.

PITCHING

Cleveland Indians            IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP
Houtteman W(4-7)              5     8   4   4   0   4   1  22

Detroit Tigers               IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP
Garver L(6-7)                 5     8   6   6   3   1   2  26

Umpires: HP - Larry Napp, 1B - Art Passarella, 
           2B - Bill Grieve, 3B - Grover Froese

Time of Game: 1:35   Attendance: 50553

=======================

There’s our man, Johnny Pesky, having been traded the previous season after a slow start with the Red Sox, handling utility position needs for the second-division Tigers. They began 1953 just 27-60. End of Story. Mathematically, although it is the last day of June, all assembled realize these Tigers have little bite. They’re not playing out the string, not in June, but still. It’s the math.

Oddities are herein. For a doubleheader they played two days earlier in DC against the Senators, 5700 denizen attended, and tomorrow’s game between these same two teams here on this diamond within the confines known these days as Briggs Stadium, renamed after the owner, a mere 8700 will attend. Note here this day game was called on account of rain after five innings. Oh, and also for some reason drew over 50,000 spectators.

I dunno. I’m a baseball guy. but I dunno, boss.

(i think i got it wrong; i think it’s a night game and after a road trip, the novelty at the time of games played under lights, a nice summer evening… the fanatics had Briggs packed)

They had heart, those Detroit. It appears they opened the game against Houtteman with three consecutive singles to quickly jump to a 1-0 lead.In what would be the final stanza, Pesky hits a home run with two on in the bottom of the fifth inning, moving the line slightly but still them Bengals are over the teakettle as usual, the 3-run homer merely trimming a 6-1 deficit to 6-4. Shortly thereafter, a foul out and Walt Dropo strikes out and that’s three outs. That’s all the box score is willing to divulge. That’s where it ends, my friends.

Baseball purists know a complete five inning contest can go in the record books, and this one eventually did just that, but envision the momentary joy as Pesky returned to the dugout, and as they sat there, all bubbling congratulatory, he with his teammates, watching the rain. They no doubt urged on about needing a baserunner to bring the tying run to the plate. They probably got quiet, as dugouts do, as Boone popped out weakly for the second out. Winced and groaned collectively as Dropo whiffed. They know this premature death, ballplayers. Impending rain with looming implication.

Just a baserunner. That’s all we need. Keep it going.

Gotta figure rains become telltale, harder still, pouring then, until finally, into the gloaming of a midsummer evening go drenched partisans, feeling slightly out of sorts. Like they got robbed. Five innings. Can’t we see if the rain is gonna stop?

Is the rain gonna stop?

All we need is a baserunner.