Gerard Manley Hopkins. The soul of Madrid’s Crusaders?
Banners 4 Secrets 1 Game One in Boston.
John Keats hit a 3 run homer in top of the 11th inning on a 3-2 Thomas Jefferson fastball, as the Wild Card Banners drew first blood. Dante, four strikeouts, and Poe, six strikeouts, both lasted into the ninth, 0-0. Christina Rossetti singled in Ben Mazer off current Secrets closer Alexander Hamilton to give the Banners a 1-0 lead. Emily Dickinson knocked in Cole Porter off the Banners’ closer Boccaccio in the bottom of the ninth, to tie things 1-1 and send the game into extra innings. Sandro Botticelli pitched a scoreless 10th and 11th inning to get the win. Florence is up 1-0!
Laureates 9 Gamers 4 Game One in Dublin.
Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas homered, and Sara Teasdale went 3-4 with 3 runs and 2 stolen bases, as the Laureates chased Lewis Carroll in the fourth inning on the way to an easy 9-4 victory. Ionesco and Billy Collins hit back to back homers for the Gamers in the 8th and Noel Coward tripled in two in the 9th, but it was too little, too late, as Jonathan Swift allowed 3 hits and fanned five in 7 innings of work. JD Salinger and Livy finished up for Dublin. Laureates win game one at home.
Universe 6 Crusaders 5 Game One in Madrid.
Beethoven falls to Spielberg’s Universe in Madrid, as an error by Gerard Manley Hopkins in center allows 3 runs to score in the first inning. Hopkins hit a 2 run homer in the 7th and Joyce Kilmer sliced a bases loaded double to make it a 5 run inning, as the Crusaders went up 5-4. But in the top of the 8th, Bishop Berkeley relieved Beethoven with one on and yielded a 2 run homer to Chuck Berry. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was near-perfect except for the wild 7th inning, stayed in the game, finished strong, and earned the win, as Jean Cocteau retired the final batter for the save, with Mary Angela Douglas waiting to score on second base. A narrow victory for the Universe, as they go up 1-0 in the series.
The Press Conferences
George Washington, manager, Secrets
Press: Mr. President, were the Secrets distracted by the controversial poem, “Blacks Matter,” which your left fielder Kanye West recited to a crowd outside the park before the game?
Washington: No. Poe wasn’t distracted. Look at how he pitched.
Press: But you lost the game.
Washington: My players aren’t distracted by poetry.
~~
Erasmus, manager, Banners
Press: Keats only had two home runs through May. Why wasn’t he hitting home runs earlier?
Erasmus: He wasn’t eating his Wheaties. (smiles)
Press: How do you feel about this win, beating Poe and the Secrets in Boston?
Erasmus: Winning has nothing to do with feelings. Dante pitched with expertise. My team has faith in expertise.
~~
Bob Hope, manager, Gamers
Press: Charles Dickens help beat you with a big home run today. Why are some of your players saying, Charles Dickens is not a poet?
Hope: If it’s not poetry, it hits pretty good. Look, we don’t get to say what poetry is. I tell my players, just have fun. And win.
Press: The Dublin fans were yelling insensitive things at Lewis Carroll today. Did they get under his skin?
Hope: We’re not playing the Dublin fans. The Laureates are a good team. We know what we have to do.
~~
Cervantes, manager, Crusaders
Press: Tough loss. Do you regret taking Beethoven out of the game? He clearly didn’t want to leave.
Cervantes: I’m the manager.
Press: But Beethoven was still throwing hard—
Cervantes: I am the manager.
~~
Billy Beane, manager, Universe
Press: It proved to be the right move, but why did you stay with Harriet Beecher Stowe in that five run seventh?
Beane: Because it was the right move.
Press: You’re a baseball guy, not a poet. Does that feel strange?
Beane: Spielberg told me it would feel strange. It does feel strange. But I understand in poetry, strange is good.
~~~
Game Two Matchups
BANNERS AT SECRETS
Florence Banners Game Two Starter: Percy Shelley
1. Ben Mazer CF .272
2. Christina Rossetti LF .281
3. John Keats 2B .279
4. Friedrich Schiller 1B .254
5. Thomas Wyatt RF .299
6. Thomas Moore SS .291
7. Guido Cavalcanti 3B .271
8. Stefan George C .269
9. Percy Shelley P 23-8 2.78
Boston Secrets Game Two Starter: Plato
1. Nathaniel Hawthorne CF .273
2. Cole Porter 1B .297
3. Emily Dickinson C .278
4. Kanye West LF .267
5. Robert Frost SS .275
6. Carl Sandburg 3B .295
7. Paul Simon RF .270
8. Woody Guthrie 2B ,265
9. Plato P 25-8 2.21
~~
GAMERS AT LAUREATES
LA Gamers Game Two Starter: Democritus
1. Noel Coward SS .317
2. John Betjeman CF .325
3. Billy Collins LF .284
4. Eugene Ionesco C .279
5. Dorothy Parker 2B .282
6. Joe Green 3B .261
7. Ernest Thayer 1B .250
8. James Whitcomb Riley 3B .238
9. Democritus P 13-13 4.88
Dublin Laureates Game Two Starter: Blaise Pascal
1. Sarah Teasdale 2B .313
2. Oliver Goldsmith CF .275
3. Alexandre Dumas LF .338
4. Charles Dickens 1B .359
5. Aphra Behn RF .262
6. Mirza Ghalib 3B .254
7. John Boyle O’Reilly C .277
8. JK Rowling SS .228
9. Blaise Pascal P 11-10 4.67
~~
UNIVERSE AT CRUSADERS
Phoenix Universe Game Two Starter: Lucien Freud
1. Chuck Berry 3B .377
2. Maya Angelou C .316
3. Bob Dylan 2B .252
4. Decimus Juvenal RF .260
5. Paul Celan SS .249
6. Delmore Schwartz CF .247
7. Yusef Komunyakaa LF .224
8. Steven Dobyns 1B .230
9. Lucien Freud P 7-6 4.49
Madrid Crusaders Game Two Starter: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1. Gerard Manley Hopkins CF .281
2. Phillis Wheatley LF .252
3. Anne Bradstreet 3B .373
4. Aeschylus CF .253
5. Saint Ephrem SS
6. Joyce Kilmer RF .265
7. Countee Cullen 1B .245
8. Francisco Balagtas C .233
9. Mozart P 12-4 3.77