One of the best things about writing this is the contacts made and coming to know “cyberfriends”. One such friend is Richard Young. Richard works for BU Photography and we met when he assisted in procuring a couple of photos of Harry Agganis for the soon to be released Images of Fenway Park.
As it turns out, Richard reads this blog and as a kid was a huge Mickey Mantle fan. My recent post about Mantle led to him sharing a poem he wrote about Mick which he allows me to share with “youse guys”. Lucky youse guys! (Staying true to the New York vernacular)
GOING, GOING GONE.
Mantle’s dead.
The world is upside down.
Drunk on fastballs;
missed the hanging curve.
Now no more facades.
Gone the oil and leather.
Left to limp alone
this outfield stretch
of time.
Warning tracks
in the mirror;
shadows of the switcher.
Rounding third,
head down, for home.
Shake with Frank Crosetti,
Yogi at the plate.
Steps are full of Enos,
Moose and Gil.
Got a run for Whitey.
Grim is in the pen.
Smiles again, and
shyly tips his bill.
From the cannon shot
off Ramos to the
knuckleball of Shultz
all the way to Denny’s
freebie five-uh-oh.
From drainage ditch
to abscessed hip,
through bottles
and beyond.
A seven etched
in the heart.
Slow motion dreams
of gray pinstripe.
The Mick’s no more
around.
Old Casey
sent him down.
The perfect drag.
The comet
run aground.
And so it is on this day in Fenway Park history, March 21, 2012, thank you Richard, thank you Mick.
About fenwaypark100
Hello and welcome, my name is Raymond Sinibaldi. A retired history teacher, after 26 years in the classroom, a baseball fan for three score and five, I have authored 13 books. Eight about baseball and her glorious history; most recently Yankees in the Hall of Fame and Dodgers in the Hall of Fame. An aficionado of the Kennedy Administration, I have written four books in that realm and also co-authored a book of motivational stories for coaches. The first, The Babe in Red Stockings which was co-authored with Kerry Keene and David Hickey and released in 1997. It is a chronicle of Babe's days with the Red Sox. We also penned a screenplay about Babe's Red Sox days so if any of you are Hollywood inclined or would like to represent us in forwarding that effort feel free to contact me. In 2012 we three amigos published Images of Fenway Park in honor of the 100th birthday of Fenway Park. That led to the creation of this blog. The following year, 2013 came my first solo venture, Spring Training in Bradenton and Sarasota. This is a pictorial history of spring training in those two Florida cities. The spring of 2014 brought forth the 1967 Red Sox, The Impossible Dream Season. The title speaks for itself, and it also is a pictorial history. Many of the photos in this book were never published before. The spring of 2015 brought 1975 Red Sox, American League Champions. Another pictorial effort, this will be about the Red Sox championship season of 1975 and the World Series that restored baseball in America. The spring of 2016 brought 61 Motivational Stories for Every Coach of Every Sport. My first JFK effort was in 2017 with John F Kennedy in New England, which was followed by JFK From Florida to the Moon (2019) and JFK At Rest in Arlington (2020). Jackie's Newport came about in 2019 and in 2023 came both Yankees in the Hall of Fame and Dodgers in the Hall of Fame. I was fortunate enough to consult with sculptor Franc Talarico on the “Jimmy Fund” statue of Ted Williams which stands outside both Fenway Park and Jet Blue Park Fenway South, in Fort Myers Florida. That story is contained in the near 300 posts which are contained herein. Throughout the years this blog has morphed from an exclusive Red Sox focus, to a broader baseball perspective to a blog about life, with baseball a large portion of it. This year, 2024, I have reactivated this blog which lay dormant for quite some time. Welcome aboard, pass the word and feel free to contact me about anything you read or ideas you may have for a topic. Email me at fenwaypark100@gmail.com.
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