Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ode to Manny

This is on the side of the Manny Bobblehead #2 box: (reprinted without permission):

Manny's Magical Moment
Only in Hollywood...Only in Mannywood
(With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer)

The outlook wasn't brilliant
For the Dodger 9 that day.
Manny's wrist had been hit with a pitch,
And tonight he would not play.

A dark irony we had to think,
A full house in the stands.
Satisfied, a little bit,
With Manny Bobbleheads in our hands.

But the boys in blue, a resilient bunch,
all the summer long,
battled the Reds in a 2-2 tie
as the night continued on.

When Loney walked in the 6th
and Kemp did the same,
Martin's single loaded 'em up
The hitter, pitcher Billlingsley,
would surely be out of the game.

Who would emerge,
we collectively wondered?
The reliable Loretta perhaps?
But the electricity spread instantly
as Manny grabbed some bats.

Out from the dugout he came,
like Gibson a score 'n' a year ago.
The crowd as one stood up,
But so did on Dodger foe.

For Dusty Baker all dressed in red,
Yes, he who once wore blue,
Walked to the mound to deliver the news,
"Sorry, Arroyo, you're through."

In came the sacrificial lamb,
who tossed his obligatory eight.
Then once more the announcer
boomed the name,
and Manny strode to the plate.

Pandemonium ensued,
belief all around,
56,000 voices in unison
creating that special sound.

And then came the pitch, 96 on the gun,
The swing and the thwack and the thrill...
A laser to left, like a missile in flight,
soaring deeper and deeper still.

It passed the grass and the guy in left,
and headed for the fence.
And jubilation soon replaced
the collective moment of suspense.

We knew he hit it well,
it sounded oh so good,
and there it flew before our eyes,
headed straight for Mannywood.

The crowd jumped up and down,
With unabashed joy.
It was in the faces of moms and dads,
Of every girl and boy.

Yes from the depths of our initial lament
to the height of this night's glory,
we were reminded of the power of hope,
and of our unscripted story.

Who knew that we'd have
such a magical night?
Who knew even that we could?
That's why we Don't Stop Believin'
Right here in Hollywood.

Oh somewhere in this favored land
the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere,
and somewhere hearts are light,

And somewhere men are laughing,
and somewhere children shout,
But they're delirious in Dodgertown;
Mighty Manny has slammed one out.

18 comments:

Eric Karros said...

Is this a puzzle?

Josh S. said...

I had a good time reading that at the ballpark yesterday.

The funny thing about the bobblehead is how tiny the helmet is. It's like he's saluting Juan Pierre or letting everyone know he just finished his bowl of soft serve.

Greg Zakwin said...

Mark Loretta reliable?

Gagne's lucky glasses said...

I had an extra Kemp bobblehead and I traded it to a friend who went to the game yesterday for the Manny one...I am excited

berkowit28 said...

There are far too many syllables in some of those lines. It really does not scan very well, sounds a bit like a Henry Gibson parody.

Steve Sax said...

Agreed, berk. Drew McCourt must not have been an English major.

rbnlaw said...

Berko dropping the Henry Gibson reference. I'd be surprised if half the folks around here were born when Henry was holding his oversized flower and reciting lines on Laugh-In.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Does Google know the audience for its ads on this blog? One minute is about unemployment benefits, the next it's Kaiser Permanente, and then it's the Morman church. What's going on here?

Kyle Baker said...

I'm usually pretty observant, but I didn't even notice the ode on the box. Glad I didn't throw the box away. This is like when I had to write some iambic pentameter tripe in 7th grade English class, and ended up just making the syllables fit.

Orel said...

As a matter of fact, SoSG is the top Dodger blog among the jobless ailing faithful demographic.

Orel said...

Dusty! What an avatar!

Kyle Baker said...

Also Google seems to think we're all overweight. Probably not totally off the mark.

You know how Google email shows ads based on words it pulls from one's email content? What if Google ads did the same from, say, a GT? What a trip that would be. Based on recent GT comments, it might have an ad for "Can't grow a moustache? We can help!" or just a whole bunch of beer ads.

Kyle Baker said...

Josh-

Maybe the bobble is accurate, and Manny, when he took his curtain call, had just accidentally picked up Pierre's batting helmet and stepped up to doff his cap. Or maybe it was Broxton's discarded soft-serve ice cream replica cap that Manny picked up.

Eric Karros said...

I don't know in what rhythm I'm supposed to be reading this.

Assuming the meter of a given line in one stanza should be the same for the corresponding line in other stanzas (but not necessarily the same as the other lines in the same stanza).

Looking at just the 2nd line of each stanza, they range from 5 syllables ("belief all around") to 10 syllables ("like Gibson a score 'n' a year ago"). The first lines seem to vary just as much (from 6 syllables "We knew he hit it well" to 11 "But the boys in blue, a resilient bunch") and the last is probably the worst (from 6 syllables "Of every girl and boy" to 16 "The hitter, pitcher Billlingsley,
would surely be out of the game.").

Oh how I love to criticize. And when I criticize the meter of a poem, you know it must be really bad.

Kyle Baker said...

Damn, it's bad in here now.

LLCoolL said...

I think the helmet was sized to match the body, not the head. Do they still serve ice cream in mini batting helmets?

Fred's Brim said...

my first instinct in reading poorly-written poems is to read it in the style of Twas The Night Before Christmas... sadly that seems to work too often

Alex Cora said...

Josh S: I didn't notice the mini helmet until you pointed it out. Made me laugh, but then realized that Manny really does have a big head.