Three Strikes You're Out
"Give me some peanuts and crackjacks," goes the lyric of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, written in 1908 by Jack Norworth. Those were simpler times. Nowadays it would need to include garlic fries, pizza, nachos, eggrolls, and a cornucopia of whatever is available in the food court of the local mall. I admit I love baseball more than any other sport except lacrosse. I enjoyed playing it as a kid, but never as much as I like going to the game. Not because it's fast, but because it's so liesurely. It's not just an athletic contest, it's a picnic, a town meeting. I was at Dodger stadium a few years ago when the same Cardinals player hit back to back grand slam home runs against the same Los Angeles pitcher, the first time it had ever happened in the major leagues. "We've just seen history being made," someone near me exclaimed. "No," I said, "we've just seen trivia being made."
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:28 AM
9 Comments:
John,
I hate to be picky, but isn’t there something slightly anachronistic in this drawing? Judging from his long-hair and what the double-bass player is wearing around his neck, the musician is evidently from modern times, but the three baseball players (Yanks?) have a distinct resemblance to the original New York Knickerbockers, the first organized baseball team ever to play under a set of rules similar to those used by the current Yankees or Yanks of today. Perhaps you intend this drawing to be an exercise in Quantum Mechanics, one in which Time plays an unobservable role; consequently, measuring whether an event happened, and measuring when an event happened are fundamentally different since these two measurements do not correspond to compatible observables and interfere with each other. Am I being clear? If that is the case, my apologies. If not, buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks. As one Time Traveler said,” I don’t care if I ever get back.”
I HATE organized sports!
I come from a family of big, strapping jocks, all of whom excelled in all manner of sports; except me. When I was about 10 my parents decided it would do my weak, underdeveloped body good to play soft ball. I suffered through an entire summer of practices in the 100 degree Alabama summer. The coach stuck me in far right field, where I would pray fervently that I wouldn't have to try and catch a ball. And of course I wasn't allowed in any game, because I sucked so badly, which was fine with me. I'd sit in the dugout and read.
The last game of the season, when my team was about 40 points ahead, the coach came into the dugout the last couple of minutes of the game to try and get me to go out and play. I remember thinking: "What kind of dufus is this guy? Does he think because I'm a kid I have no dignity?"
That was the last time my parents tried to make me play a sport (thank god!).
Kate, I have great sympathy for you as I too was a total disaster as a sports player. In fact I am so ignorant about sports, il professore, that I did not even know the baseball players uniforms were from a different time. (grin) However the joke did make me laugh out loud so hopefully that will please John C. Il professore, your comment last night and tonight, I must admit, also made me laugh out loud. Love them but will be proof reading my comments from now on. [smile]
Hey, prof, anachronism is the very soul of cartooning. One man's anachronism is another man's creative license. Okay, so we had to make do with hand-me-down uniforms. My costume budget is even smaller than my hairdressing budget. Anyway, I thought anachronism was an interest in spiders.
John, I meant no offense by pointing out the difference in the clothing of the bass player and the baseball players. What would great art be without anachronisms? The Bard of Avon had a clock ticking inside Julius Caesar, and, as every educated person knows, the clock was invented by John Cameron Swayze for the Timex watch company in the early days of B&W television. What’s more, the Danish Prince Hamlet could not have attended Wittenberg as that university did not open its doors until 1502. Most likely Hamlet studied at Princeton where he joined the Triangle Club, hence his interest in dramatics and bad acting. Let’s not forget that the basis of the word "anachronism" comes from the Greek "ανά," meaning "against Ava Gardner," and "χρόνος" meaning "Time" as in “time on my hands and you in my arms.” To this day I regret not having a Timex watch and Ava in my arms.
“The Bard of Avon had a clock ticking inside Julius Caesar”
CORRECTION: Because I neglected to put quotes around “Julius Caesar” some subscribers may get the false impression that the roman emperor had a time peace inside his body. That is incorrect. Had he had one, he might have seen the Ides of March coming. The crocodile in “Peter Pan,” however, did have a clock inside its body, but that’s another story.
That's hilarious Professor (((LOL))) but was waiting for you to tell us Caesar uttered the words "et tu brute" right before the timer went off!
Jean, let he who is without sin (or a typo) cast the first stone as the bugler blows. Obviously Caesar did not have a time peace, he had a time piece. Furthermore, as Brutus stabbed him, perhaps the emperor took one last look at his Timex watch. “E tu Brute” does not mean “you too, Brutus” as is commonly believed, but “it’s eight to two, you big brute you.” (Rhymes, by the way.) As our world sinks slowly into the sunset and the deluge, let us keep on LOL.
(((chuckles))) the sun's over the yard arm there... so I'll drink to that! LOL
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