Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 24, 2005
October 23, 2005
October 25, 2005
Transcript:
"Can I help you?" "Yes, Hi...I'm wee bear...I've been on a journey across America to try and find the one person who can bring this divided country together-red staters and blue staters alike-and you're him." "I played baseball." "You WERE baseball, Mr. Mays...You were the greatest player in the history of the game and an icon of a past era that some-how seems better tha today so here, take this glove, go back to centerfield and everything will be okay." "I'm 74." "Make sure to stretch."
willie mays generally batted third, starting at the mid point of the 1954 season. he had been batting sixth and had 36 homers in the first 99 games. his manager, leo durocher, asked him to bat third and try more for average. he hit only 5 more homers the rest of the year, including one inside the park.
on the last day of the season, three players were in a virtual tie for the batting title. mays went 3 for 4 and won.
by the time the giants got to san francisco, mays always batted third with cepeda or mccovey batting fourth.