Gus, she may not be blonde, but she might have inherited a wicked good matzoh-ball soup recipie from her MiL.

Gus, she may not be blonde, but she might have inherited a wicked good matzoh-ball soup recipie from her MiL.

Cohan = Irish
Cohen = Jewish

No?

How quickly we forget the July 24 brawl game! N.b. I don't actually approve of fighting in baseball, but if you're an AL East fan, you have no shortage of full-contact.

Hence my use of the word "ostensibly". Ty Cobb sliding in cleats up certainly puts a lie to baseball never being a contact sport. As does the picture they used on the cover of the King/O'Nan book. I LOVE that picture - only Jeter would have been a worthier glove-to-smug-face target (if only the catcher had figured out a way to get a cream pie in his glove beforehand).

One ball bouncing off his head versus volunteering for repeated pounding to the face? Who would you want as a bodyguard?

No, I mean, Jose Canseco's coordination is so crappy that, with his arms up over his head, he can't catch a ball that subsequently hits him on the head. Both hands, and he totally whiffed the ball.

Now, maybe boxers are suckers, but at least they can usually perceive an object coming towards them well enough to, like, duck.

No, I mean, Jose Canseco's coordination is so crappy that, with his arms up over his head, he can't catch a ball that subsequently hits him on the head. Both hands, and he totally whiffed the ball.

Hmph. I know this is the enduring image of Canseco in the outfield, but having watched him play regularly from his second season until he left the A's, I need to note that he was a thoroughly competent, even better-than-average fielder when he came up. There was some talk of moving him from right field to centerfield for a while, even. He had a strong and accurate arm, also.

My heroine list:

• Doris Ling-Cohan
• ita
• Zoe

OK, you could flip those last two. Call it a tie.

eta: (Cohan ==Irish, Cohen==Jewish) Sure. Not that they are mutually exclusive.

Cohan = Irish

Cohen = Jewish

I don't think you can tell, anymore. Ellis Island, etc., didn't have much quality control over spelling.

OK, you could flip those last two.

Maybe you could flip those two. I would want tickets to see the show.

Maybe you could flip those two. I would want tickets to see the show.

I could so flip ita. Come to the F2F and settle this bet!

Zoe would shoot me.

having watched him play regularly from his second season until he left the A's, I need to note that he was a thoroughly competent, even better-than-average fielder when he came up.

I think then that his brains decayed after he left the rarefied air of Oakland. Because, he is universally regarded as a joke in Boston.

Ty Cobb sliding in cleats up certainly puts a lie to baseball never being a contact sport.

I found out, in the Ken Burns baseball documentary, that feet-first sliding (i.e. spikes up) was invented because of a black second-baseman in the major leagues, in the 1880s. The white guys on the other teams wanted to scare him off, so they slid into second and stabbed him in the legs with their cleats. That experiment in integration ended rather quickly.

(For the record, Cobb came a lot later, and would spike anyone for any reason. He also hated black people, but since he played in an all-white league, less of an issue at 2nd base.)

As does the picture they used on the cover of the King/O'Nan book. I LOVE that picture - only Jeter would have been a worthier glove-to-smug-face target (if only the catcher had figured out a way to get a cream pie in his glove beforehand).

I think the photo is over-used. It's grown kind of dull, and even if they wanted to use the 7/24 game as emblematic of the season, they could have picked another photo. E.g., as the fight was being broken up, any one of several players staring bloody murder.

(Or, my favorite, a photo mid-play, capturing a 2B or shortstop in the act of levitating in the infield.)