Word: batting
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Then on the first pitch the Card's next time up, Curt Flood hit a screaming shot toward the wall. The fabulous Yaz, off with the bat's crack, leaped three feet off the ground, stuck up his glove and speared the ball backhanded before crashing to the ground. Even St. Louis announcer Harry Caray couldn't restrain himself. "Yastrzemski is clearly a super star," he gagged...
Then, a rally. Boston cut the Angels' lead to 5-4, had men on first and third with two out, and up stepped young Mike Andrews to the plate. On his previous at-bat, Andrews had missed a home run by a matter of feet when he belted one out of the park, barely foul. So here was the kid's chance to try to put one into Kenmore Square, be a super-hero, and get half a dozen stories in the next morning's Boston Globe about his wife, his children, his dog, his first grade teacher, his parents...
Proof? Obviously the important men here were Lonborg and Yastrzemski. By the third inning Lonborg was behind 2-0, both runs were unearned. He didn't seem to be shaken by the defensive collapse. But one couldn't be sure. Then, at bat against Chance in the bottom of the third, Lonborg poked a one-handed single to center. Lonborg was stronger than Chance, just as Santiago had been stronger than Kaat. One could trust...
Then, just at this hinging point, we--the crowd--responded for the first time in a way that brought us dignity and the right to talk of the Red Sox as "our" team--until our sharp fall from grace after the game. Harrelson was at bat, two men on, no outs. This was the weakest link in the rally, this hapless outfielder from the Kansas City A's who still carried that team's curse of failure. We knew that and took responsibility out of Harrelson's hands...
First the left foot, scraping the dirt near the back of the box, establishing this dominion. Then, settling the helmet with the right hand. Finally the foot, closer to the plate, more mobile than the anchoring left foot. One easy practice swing--just one and then the body tightened. Bat drawn up and back with terrifying geometrical precision, lines and angles of force created by arms, elbows and wood. No nervous practice swings, just a slow waving of the bat. The pitch--and the explosion of energy, cracking the ball down the right field line...