This haiku is in memory of the baseball pitcher, who, in the first decades of the 20th century, changed the way baseball was looked upon. A Hall of Fame pitcher and winner of 373 games, Christy Mathewson (1880-1925), unlike most ballplayers, never drank, never smoked, and never pitched a game on Sunday. He was the best thing that ever happened to baseball before Babe Ruth.

Christy Mathewson:
a true Christian gentleman
on the field and off

A.J. Chilson
17 November 2008
2:48 PM

Just minutes ago, the Philadelphia Phillies won their second World Series champiobship, beating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in five games. Only this time, it took a tenth man to win it all. And no, it was not a designated hitter.

Unlike the nine position men on the field for the Phillies’, the presence of Tug McGraw was there, and loud as ever. On the pitcher’s mound lied a part of McGraw’s ashes (the former relief pitcher died in 2004), compliments to his son, country music sensation Tim McGraw, who threw out the first ball for Game Three.

It was the elder McGraw, who, 28 years and 8 days before, had struck out Willie Wilson of the Kansas City Royals to give the Phillies their first ever championship. And now, he was holding a ticket to the hottest seat in baseball — on the field, as his beloved Phillies paraded on top of one another after closer Brad Linge fanned Erik Henske for the last out. Appropriately within feet of McGraw’s remains.

Ya gotta believe he was there.

MY FAVORITE GAME

If given the chance,
I would play my favorite game
only for the fun
of knowing that children could
one day play my favorite game.

A.J. Chilson
23 October 2008
3:22 PM

So I just turned off the TV set, after watching what was the longest All-Star Game in MLB history. This 15-inning epic saw the American and National leagues having and being thwarted chance after chance due to brilliant defensive plays. In the end, after over four hours of record action, the AL prevailed on a sacrifice fly.

Better than watching an All-Star game last so many innings (the only other All-Star Game to go fifteen frames was in 1967 – 2-1 NL in Anaheim on a Tony Perez home run) was that the game was played at Yankee Stadium, home to so many memories (Don Larson’s 1956 perfect game, Reggie Jackson’s three home runs in the sixth game of the 1977 World Series, and so on).

It was only appropriate that Yankee Stadium would be the setting to this extrodinary event. Not that the Stadium at the Bronx is as revered as Madison Square Garden, but that only days before one great member of the Yankee family, Bobby Murcer, passed away from a malignant brain tumor. Murcer, a longtime Yankee, who took an offer $10,000 less than another club to play alongside his boyhood idol and fellow Oklahoman Mickey Mantle, was a favorite to his fans. Though he failed to fulfill the media’s expectations of him being the next great Mantle, he will always be remembered as a true Yankee captain.

But of all the memories Bobby Murcer left Yankee fans with none will be more inspiring than that one day in August 1979, when he first did a eulogy for the team’s fallen catcher Thurman Munson, then drove in five runs at Yankee Stadium against a really tough Baltimore Orioles team on national television.

Not to be too light on someone’s death, if God was a manager of a baseball team in need of a pinch hitter I honestly feel he sent Murcer up to bat to send one into the seats where all the beatuiful angels were seated. And there Bobby Murcer was at home plate, getting a high five as he crossed home plate by someone named Mickey. Yeah, that’s my take on Bobby Murcer going to Heaven. With a bat and glove and uniform in hand. And not to mention, a microphone if Phil Rizzuto wanted a backup for a “Holy Cow!” at the announcer’s booth.