The Boy of Summer

May 10, 2012 by JOB at 3:12 pm

We summer boys in this four-winded spinning,
Green of the seaweed’s iron,
Hold up the noisy sea and drop her birds,
Pick the world’s ball of wave and froth
To choke the deserts with her tides,
And comb the county gardens for a wreath. – Dylan Thomas “I See the Boys of Summer”

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7 Comments Filed Under: baseball, Dylanesque music bits, Earth, JOB, Sports Tagged With: do not try in high heels

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Jonathan Webb says

May 10, 2012 at 4:16 pm

Marvelous!

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- job says
  
  May 11, 2012 at 7:20 am
  
  Jonathan,
  
  What was the best play you ever made in Little League? – or did your neck of the woods have more rain-outs than ball playing?
  
  JOB
  
  Reply
Jonathan Webb says

May 11, 2012 at 9:09 am

Grew up in San Jose area, but I threw a kid out stealing once. I also caught a whole double-header and have gotten a couple of big hits while my dad was watching.

Potter shut me down once as an adult while he was practicing for minor league try-outs (Potter is kind of a nickel-and-dime Jamie Moyer with the off-speed stuff) That was the low point.

Must be nice to be in rural Wisconsin during baseball season.

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- job says
  
  May 11, 2012 at 9:52 am
  
  Actually, we have a problem in SW Wisconsin – while there is a diamond in town, our farm has no space big enough and flat enough for anything resembling an even playing field for pick up games. We have a pipe dream to borrow a neighbor’s dozer one day and carve one out of one of our hay fields. In the meantime, we play a rather lopsided game.
  
  You caught too, huh? So did I. So did Lickona I think.
  
  Back in LL in NJ where I grew up, I remember going for a foul ball – the batter knocked it straight up over home plate and as I went for it I slipped on his bat, which as he ran to first he’d thrown down on the already slippery plastic that home plates are usually made of. My feet went out from under me and I landed on my back squarely on home plate. I had the mitt in an open position and incredibly the ball landed in it for the out. True story.
  
  Favorite catcher of all time?
  
  Mine was, of course, Thurman Munson.
  
  I just about cried the day he died.
  
  JOB
  
  Reply
- Jonathan Potter says
  
  May 11, 2012 at 12:34 pm
  
  My true baseball career actually began and ended in third grade. I played short stop and, on rare occasions, got to pitch. My peak was striking out a fifth grader who was a slugger and was baffled by the way my fast ball seemed to float dreamily across the plate in slow motion.
  
  The episode to which Webb refers here was a later performance art project in which he played the unsuspecting rube.
  
  Reply
Jonathan Webb says

May 11, 2012 at 11:50 am

If you build it they will come, getting rid of them will be the hard part.

That’s an incredible story. It seems like our greatest athletic achievements owe more to luck than skill. Almost balances out being the goat. Almost.

Munson was great. I remember he was just about the only great player the NYY had in the lean years before Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter. As I recall he died in a plane accident. Strange that both he and Clemente both went that way. As for my favorite catcher, I think that Jesus Montero has surpassed them all (thanks for him, by the way). If you know how much the Mariners have sucked, and for how long, you’ll understand why.

But, when you look at Berra’s or Ivan’s stats it’s hard to argue with those two being the greatest.

Have that diamond ready by 10/13 and we’ll bring our mitts.

Thanks for the post.

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Jonathan Potter says

May 12, 2012 at 10:10 am

By the way, very clever use of the Dylanesque Music Bits category. Baseline double.

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