the brooklyn nine a novel in nine innings

The possibility of having a Yankee fan in the family is more heartburn than heartbreak. Many are the youngsters like me who learn – either in the stands or in the field – that baseball will break your heart long before puppy love does. These are the fears of a third-generation Baltimorean who saw his first game on 33rd Street against Yastrzemski and the Red Sox in Boston’s pennant winning year of 1967 witnessed the only grand slam by a pitcher in a World Series when Dave McNally belted one over the wall on 33rd Street in 1970 and delighted to the antics of Moe “Hot Foot” Drabowsky.Īs an 11-year-old, I was in the stands for the only game of the 1969 World Series in which the Birds beat the New York Mets before dropping four in a row in one of sport’s great upsets.

Long before the Brooklyn cyclist unleashed his rude comment (lack of civility being synonymous with Yankee fans), wonder turned to worry: Might my first-born grandchild – exposed to the fealties of kids Big Apple to the core – be taken in by the glitter of false gods? Here along the shores of the Patapsco, the one true faith has been represented by an orange bird since 1882. “Perhaps one or two might turn on a radio during Shabbat to check on the baseball.” I asked this learned man if the students – boys, after all, being boys – were mischievous. How powerful is the doctrine? Back when I covered the city’s community of Orthodox Jews, I interviewed a rabbi who’d taught for many years at the Ner Yisroel rabbinical college on Mount Wilson Lane.

In many circles, the National Pastime is religion. Major League Baseball would not return to Baltimore for 50 years when the lowly St. The team was moved to New York and called the Highlanders until “Yankees” was formalized in 1913. The franchise was sold to a Gotham cop and his businessman partner for $18,000, less than 2022 season tickets in the Bronx. Hard to swallow: The New York Yankees (excuse me while I spit) began as the Baltimore Orioles when the city’s original, short-lived American League team disbanded after the 1902 season. From the day Gus was born in Lower Manhattan a few weeks after the 2018 World Series I have wondered about the possibility that he might one day adopt the pinstriped (fill in with vulgarity of choice) as his team.

The brooklyn nine a novel in nine innings