Skip to main content

A New Lineup

As a person of limited substance, I have always been drawn to both light verse and baseball.  In the first grade we were asked to recite a poem in front of the class.  Amidst various renditions of Roses are Red, Jack and Jill, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I offered up Ogden Nash's Lineup for Yesterday: An ABC of Baseball Immortals -- all 26 stanzas and 104 lines.

In this popular poem - first published by SPORT Magazine in 1949 and seen HERE - I had discovered the masterful confluence of my two prime interests.  I was hooked young.and never lost my love for this unique work.  In fact, more than 50 years removed from that classroom, I still recite it to myself when I need to pass time waiting for the water to boil or the timer on the microwave to run its course. 



With that in mind - and desperately avoiding whatever task actually needed to be done - I attempted an homage to Mr. Nash with a modern "Lineup" comprised of the "Immortals" of my lifetime.  

I am well aware that one needs to share my extremely specific interests to understand this effort, but that did not deter me.  While I may lack Mr. Nash's gift for improvised language and clever wordplay, I am pleased with the result.  I imagine he might have been flattered by my effort.  At the very least, I'd hope he would not mind my imposition on his art.

With no further ado, and no illusion of comparison, I offer this lineup ... for the boy I was and the man I became.






























Comments

  1. JerryJune 21, 2017 at 11:17 PM

    Wow - you just transported me back to my youth - this was done with just the right deft touch.
    The surprises were delicious (Quisenberry! Tiant!).
    Thought I learned a new word - but help me with impervance?.
    I held my breath like a kid hoping you would include Tom Terrific, and of course you did not disappoint.
    Did you consider Gooden for K?
    Let's get this published/distributed!!!
    I am aware you have met a handful; what's the actual count there?

    ReplyDelete
  2. JerryJune 21, 2017 at 11:33 PM

    Try this one on for size:

    Dwight was a baseball meteor
    Made house calls at Shea
    .153 raised the bar
    Our own Doctor K

    Took liberties with the K placement in line 4. Maybe start a complete Mets version?!?!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Wooden

It was past midnight when the I-phone on my hotel nightstand began to vibrate. I had a text from my daughter telling me that John Wooden was hospitalized in grave condition. She is too young to have experienced Coach Wooden’s half-century heyday, but she knows me well enough to know I would want to be awakened by such news. A few minutes ago, I learned of his passing. I was lucky enough to know Coach Wooden. We weren't close -- occasional business associates. Since we first met around 1990, we saw each other no more than 10 times. But he always treated me like a friend. Invariably, he greeted me warmly, asked about my family and listened as much as he spoke. More revealing is the fact that he behaved as if we were equals though I knew we were not. Our days together were school days for me and he was my professor. I learned from listening to him, from observing him, from chatting with him and from reflecting on our time together. I learned from his textbook. I loved the quotes ....
1 comment
Read more

Ted and Dippy

I looked at the “Today in History” note in my morning paper and two old friends jumped out at me. One I knew very well. I never met the other, but he knew me; and every other kid of my generation. March 2nd is the birthday of Theodore Geisel (1904-1991); better known as Dr. Seuss. On a college application I was asked to name my “most memorable book”. I knew they expected 18-year-old males to respond with Hemmingway, Tolkien, Melville or Salinger. In the seventies they surely got their fair share of Keseys and Kerouacs. Maybe even a Hunter S. Thompson or two. I’m sure they reveled in more ambitious responses featuring Joyce or Milton. They did not get it from me. The application said “most memorable” and I interpreted that quite literally. I declared Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop as the obvious answer. After all, I had memorized it cover to cover by the time I was 5 and could still recite it verbatim as I completed that application in 1977. What could be more memorable than that? From “Up,...
1 comment
Read more