Daddy Winebucks

During Joe D’s hitting streak he ended up facing four pitchers who would eventually find their way to Cooperstown.  One of them was the great Bob Feller, who finished the ’41 season with 25 wins, one of them coming against the Yanks that day, June 2 when they prevailed 7-5.

Joe went 2-4 that day with a double and single but in looking at the Baseball Almanac I have to wonder just what he and the rest of his teammates were thinking.  For in Riverdale, NY that same day, maybe unknown to the team, Lou Gehrig died, finally falling to the horrible disease that now bears his name.

Has there ever been a more moving image in all of sports then Gehrig at Yankee Stadium that day, head bowed with his fellow ball players and fans, who were there to honor him in life, before they’d be forced to do so with his passing?

I tried to post the audio clip of his speech, but my computer skills fall far below that of my brain’s desire to do cool things in my blog.  But since blogs are about the written word, here’s two excerpts of what Lou had to say that day.  They are words we might do well to think about in good times and bad.

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got.  Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.  I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and I have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.  Look at these grand men.  Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day.”

“Sure, I’m lucky.  When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat and vice versa, sends you a gift, that’s something.  When everybody down to the groundskeeper and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something.  When you have a father and mother work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing.  When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know.  So I close in saying that I might have had a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

I applaud you if your eyes are dry right now.  Mine aren’t.

So Joe went 2-4 that day and I have a wine to review, but wow…

The 2003 Santino Syrah from the Sierra Foothills was my at bat for last night.  I’m guessing that with the older vintage the winery was able to sell off the rest of their inventory to TJ’s, who had it priced at $4.99.

The wine had a slightly musty nose but a little chocolate poked it’s way through.  The cherries were dried on the palate (this wine may have had lusher fruit a few years ago) but overall this was a nice, easily drinkable wine.

SINGLE