The Houston Babies Lost by Scores of 9-0, 29-4 on Saturday, Feb. 27th.
Forget the highlights from yesterday’s opening day doubleheader of vintage base ball for the Houston Babies. There weren’t any.
The Babies dropped a twin bill to the Richmond Giants at George Ranch on Saturday, February 27th, by the scores referenced here only once in the caption to our featured team photo. I will not mention them a second time. The memory itself is sufficiently painful as a reminder of how far the Babies have to go to get back into the shape they were in at the close of the 2009 campaign. These losses brought a six-game win streak by the Babies to a train-wreck level close on a sunny, brisk, and windy Saturday at a game played in the greater Houston area. Even the historic site of the wonderful George Ranch State Park failed to halt the pain or relieve the injury of our club’s 2010 embarrassing start.
To put it mildly: “We wuz awful!”
On the bright side, the Babies problems were few and easy to diagnose: (1) We couldn’t hit; (2) We couldn’t run the bases when we did reach; and (3) We couldn’t make basic plays in the field.
Silent Bats! Unholy Sight! All Laid Calm! Far into the Night!
The brighter news is that we can only get better from here, but we’ve got to recapture the heart we found in our first two seasons of 21st century revival. Remember! The original Babies got bombed by the Cincinnati Red Stockings in their first game back on March 6, 1888 and they came back with heart to play decently. By 1889, the Babies had captured their first pennant as champions of the Texas League.
Babies General Manager Bill McCurdy assured the post-game media that he has every confidence in the world that Babies field manager Bob Dorrill will be able to pull the Babies out of their starting gate swoon and get them back into their winning ways. “We are extremely fortunate to have a man of Bob Dorrill’s savvy and wisdom guiding our Babies team out there on the field. He has my complete vote of confidence as general manager. In fact, if Bob ever gets in trouble as manager, I’ll probably be getting a call on the same day too. …. What’s that, you say? …. You say I’m wanted on the phone? …. Forget it for now. …. Whoever it is, tell ’em to call back and go to voice mail. ….. Thanks.”
Nobody’s losing confidence in you Babies players either, guys and dolls! Hope that doesn’t register as too unbecoming to today’s PC standards, but there has to be room for a little Damon Runyan perspective on a plight like our current one – and not just maybe, but hell yes, a lot of Douglass Wallop too. (Wallop is the guy who wrote “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,” the inspiration for “Damn Yankees.”)
In their honor, I want to leave you with these words, Babies. Carry them with you into our next game on April 10th. There’s something important here about baseball and I want to try to get it across to all of you in the words of the great Broadway song lyricist Benny Van Buren. In the musical “Damn Yankees,” the manager of the Washington Senators is talking, then singing to his team after they’ve just been drubbed again by the New York Yankees. I’ll also simply close my words to you all today on these lyrical notes of how I feel we generally have to face all disappointments in life:
See boys, that’s what I’m talking about. Baseball is only one half skill, the other half is something else…..something bigger!
You’ve gotta have….Heart! All you really need is heart! When the odds are sayin’ you’ll never win, that’s when the grin should start! You’ve gotta have hope! Musn’t sit around and mope. Nuthin’ half as bad as
it may appear, wait’ll next year and hope.
When your luck is battin’ zero, get your chin up off the floor. Mister, you can be a hero. You can open any door.There’s nothin’ to it, but to do it.You’ve gotta have heart! Miles and miles and miles of heart! Oh, it’s fine to be a genius of corse!But keep that ol’ horse before the cart! First you’ve got to have heart!
Smokey: A great pitcher, we haven’t got!
Rocky: A great slugger, we haven’t got
Sohovic: A great pitcher, we haven’t got!
All: What’ve we got? We’ve got heart! All you really need is heart! When the odds are sayin’, You’ll never win, that’s when the grin should start! We’ve got hope! We don’t sit around and mope! Not a solitary sob do we heave, mister’- cause we’ve got hope.
Rocky: We’re so happy, that we’re hummin’.
All: Hmm, Hmm, Hmm
Manager: That’s the heart-y thing to do.
Smokey: ‘Cause we know our ship will come in!
All: Hmm, hmm, hmm
Sohovic: So it’s ten years over due!
All: Hoo, hoo, hoo.We’ve got heart! Miles and miles and miles of heart! Oh it’s fine to be a genius of course, but keep that old horse before the cart!
Smokey: So what the heck’s the use of cryin’?
Manager: Why should we curse?
Sohovic: We’ve got to get better……
Rocky:….’cause we can’t get worse!
All: And to add to it; we’ve got heart! – We’ve got heart! – We’ve got Heart!
WE, THE HOUSTON BABIES, HAVE GOT HEART TOO!
Tags: Baseball, History, Houston Babies
The Pecan Park Eagle 
February 28, 2010 at 3:06 pm |
As a player, I can assure you that it takes a lot of tongue biting while you watch your erstwhile teammates boot an easy play, throw the ball around / away, or get so excited that they actually got the man out at second base that they don’t bother to look to throw to first to try to get the man running (who runs like your sainted grandmother) out at first. It truly IS a gentleman’s game.
April 19, 2010 at 5:16 pm |
Where can I find a game schedule?