For that wonderful ambassador of baseball who made it into the Hall of Fame this week.
MLB ALL-Candy Store Team
1B George Twizzler
2B Sandy Malomar
SS Starburst Castro
3B Pee Wee Reese’s Pieces
LF Hank Sauer Patch Kids
CF Coco Crisp
RF Oh Henry Aaron
C Thurman Musketeers
PH Melky Way Cabrera
LHP Baby Ruth, Jim Kiit Kaat, Haribo Belinsky
RHP Orel Hershibar, Bob Lemonhead, Heathbar Slocumb, Dave Gummipert, Rolo Butterfingers
MGR Jolly Rancher Grimm
Shohei Ohtani vs Babe Ruth
by Brian Harman
Called shots — Babe throws a
whiskey back, Shohei sips on
sake — timeless glitch
The Summer Game
by Doug Fahrendorff
Baseball
Seventy years a fan
And counting
From the “Whiz Kids”
To the “Brew Crew”
Following the boys of summer
Enjoying the timeless flow
Of the game
The perfect way to spend
A summer afternoon
Ossie Vitt
by Michael Ceraolo
I understand there’s a brain injury
that even today can only be detected
after death in an autopsy
I was in collisions at the plate,
and a Walter Johnson curveball beaned me
and knocked me out for several minutes;
if it had been a fastball I would have been killed
(I’m sure some of the Indians wish I had been)
Was it a brain injury, or the times,
that shaped my management style?
At this late date we’ll never know
Ken Keltner
The worst mistake I ever made
was to file for unemployment in the offseason,
something that seemed like a good idea at the time
but was much less so once we sobered up,
and I deserved all the abuse I took for it
What was not a mistake was being one of the players
who went to the owner asking for Vitt to be fired
We didn’t deserve his abuse,
and we didn’t deserve the abuse
from fans and sportswriters
Mel Harder
Being the longest-tenured Indian,
I was the leader of the group
that went to Mr. Bradley and asked his to fire Vitt
We were called Crybabies then and for years afterward,
but I’ll always believe we were right:
Vitt didn’t know how to treat people
He was never hired again
as manager of a major-league team