With the “world series” being played I’m reminded of a baseball story my dad told me.
Back in the 30’s, my dad played in industrial league baseball. Lots of factories and companies in those days had what would be considered semi-pro teams by today’s standards. Many showed up for the week end games, It was a good moral and team building activity for the workers.
Dad told me about a pitcher that was feared by batters in the league. His fastball was truly fast, but he could be a bit wild. The pitcher’s name was Mel Famey. He could have gone to the bigs. But you never heard of him because, sadly, he also had a drinking problem. Mel could pitch like nobody’s business. However in big games, with lots yon the line, he’d sneak beers into the dugout and was known to have one or two between innings to settle his nerves.
In one such game that my dad played, Mel was getting more and more wild with his high heat as the game progressed.. The game, and league championship, was on the line. It was the bottom of the 9th, game tied, and Dad’s team was batting. A batter was hit and took first base. A second and third batter were walked on balls. The bases were loaded....and so was Mel! Unbeknownst to the team’s manager, Mel had a bottle in his flannel uniform and took one giant swig before pitching to my dad. Famey wound up, threw a blazing fast ball hitting my dad in the hip. The last beer drunk caused the winning run to walk in. Or as my dad described it, “it was that beer than made Mel Famey walk us”.
Oh? I got the impression, like all sports events, it was the Black Lives Matter Series. . . Silly me.