11/10/98
Softball: To Rise Above Cowardice
Dear People,
Once again, Kleeberger field is taken all weekend long, but fear not, for I will not let your progressively decaying bodies languor aimlessly for yet a third straight week. Yes, there will be a softball game this SUNDAY, November 15th at 5pm, under the glorious Edisonian bulbs of fashionable West Berkeley's San Pablo field, IF I get enough commits by this Friday at noon.
I realize that it is currently cold and gray and dark and dank, but as one who minored in geolinguistic climatology, I can assure you that Sunday will be mild and dry, with just a patina of dew to coat the water-resistant Portuguese clay soils of San Pablo's renowned infield. In any case, as you certainly know, this Sunday is the 79th anniversary of the death of Joe "iron Man" McGinnity, who earned his nickname by pitching both games of a double header three times, and winning all six games! I get vicarious waves of inspirational pride just thinking about his accomplishments, but regardless, failure to commit on this, of all anniversaries, would seem to be a particularly egregious act of craven disrespect.
Yes, it will be a night game, in a new and distant land. But this is not the time to worry your little heads about the real and terrifying risks of the great nocturnal unknown. Bat bites are rarely fatal. So find the courage within you and make that commit. Do it for Joe "iron Man" McGinnity, who would have no doubt pitched at two in the morning standing buck naked in the middle of an icy South Dakota prairie had that been what was required to get the job done....Raymond
PS: The magnificient lighted field is $3 per player, which is a nominal price indeed for a chance to honor the iron man.
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