Your Fighting Diplomats began the week with a four game winning streak as they have started to play better defensively and the pitching has had some brighter moments after struggling in California.
On tap this week was a 2 game set against the Fords of Haverford and a doubleheader slated at Swarthmore. My nagging problem with Haverford nickname overflowed this week as I began imagining Haverford intramural games between snooty rich kids and scholarship kids or "the haves" vs. "the have-nots". I would have thought that Haverford which is chock full of writers and creative types could come up with something better than the Fords but apparently not , so it was easy to root against the Fords. Your Fighting Diplomats entered the week 4-1 in Centennial conference play, placing them in tie for second with the Bullets of Gettysburg and trailing the undefeated John Hopkins Blue Jays. A cold Tuesday afternoon game at Haverford brought out the Diplomat bats as the heart of the order ( Note : in Massachusetts it is pronounced " haaat of the aaahdah" ) combined for nine hits and 5 runs leading to a 10-7 win and running the win streak to 5.
Aristotle has mentioned he believes "we are what we repeatedly do". If he were a baseball coach you can be certain his team would have been fundamentally sound with solid pitching. But the Diplomats seem more to be a team mired in a perpetual 13-8 game. Ari may have reached for the hemlock giving up 10 runs in many games. To be a real threat to win the conference they are going to need to pitch better and make all the plays in the field.
The Friday game was rained out and postponed until Sunday which brings us to a doubleheader at Swarthmore. Swarthmore was founded by Quakers in the 1860's and we can only imagine the ferocity of the contests in the late 1800's between the battling Quakers and the Fighting Diplomats. Facing the Garnet--yep the Swarthmore nickname is Garnet-which in case you are not aware ( I wasn't ) is a group of minerals that have been used since the bronze age as gemstones. I have a feeling the naming happened like this: a bunch of Swat guys are sitting around and want to be thought of as Ivy league types so they start with colors. But Cornell has the Big Red and Dartmouth is the Big Green ( by the way since when did colors have size??) Harvard is, of course, the Crimson so these guys came up with the "Garnet". Choosing an obscure name is consistent with the intellectual image they like to project but the uniforms! are often dark purple and black which is attractive.... if you like bruises. James Michener, author of Hawaii, Centennial, Texas and many other epics was a Swat grad and grew up in an orphanage in Doylestown,Pa where it is reported he missed the chance to play baseball as he worked in a circus. Rumor has it though he did learn the hidden ball trick in the circus from a fire eating midget.. Swat, however has been beaten about 12 straight times by the Fighting Diplomats but this season's version is not your mother's Swarthmore baseball team and the Garnet managed to beat the Fighting Diplomats in Game 1 and led early in game 2. But the Diplomats emerged from a brief hitting rut and rang up 12 runs to earn a split in the nightcap 12-8. On Sunday, the Diplomats needed a win and got a terrific performance on the mound as senior Matt Kalos worked on a no hitter into the ninth . The Diplomats playing in 45 degree weather broke open a 1-0 game in the bottom of the eight with 4 runs and finished up the week 3 -1 and maintained second place in the conference.
This week the Fighting Diplomats have two games with Washington ( MD) and a doubleheader at Dickinson College in Carlise Pa. Your faithful correspondent is intending to witness the Dickinson double-header where your Diplomats battle Red Devils. Alert readers may recall last year I mused the Red Devils would have been more aptly named the Poets offering some acknowledgment of Emily. Further I pondered the Poets may have recalled the poem of Emily's "I'm nobody. Who are you are you? I'm nobody too?" and gone with the name the "Dickinson Nobodies".
Talk about taking the field with an edge! Teams all over talk about getting no respect and nobody believes in them as a rallying cry-what an advantage! Instead of an Us against the world bonding mentality , there are mumblings about Devil cults and people looking nervously around for chicken heads and signs of players being up all night at trestles with wintergreen oil splashed all over them.
Looking ahead at the powerful Johns Hopkins team I reviewed the media guide and noted their leading hitter is Todd Emr. Since when have baseball players been named Todd?? and existed without vowels in that last name?? The media guide reports that after a tough game "Todd likes to relax with a California Chardonnay" and in his spare time likes to shop with teammates Biff and Geoffrey .Just last week, it reports Todd found a lovely lavender polo shirt to go with his creme khakis which bear a subtle hint of daffodil. Jeez what happened to Vic and Tony and Mickey???
1 comment:
This is classic Moriarty, complete with intentional errors (Socrates not Ari), brilliant word play, hilarious loose associations and the rambling of a master raconteur. Dave, you're killing me! J.D. Salinger and the Growling Bears? Leo the vegetarian? Jim Thorpe, Pop Warner, and the Fords? Bullets flying at Gettysburg? Battling Quakers vs. Fighting Diplomats? You've still got the juice after all these years, and nobody can refer to you in the third person but you old buddy.
Go Fighting Dips!
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