twos and threes

(tribute to Grantland Rice) 

When playing spades or hearts or bridge, a handy one is the ace.
Kings and queens can be cash on hand; jacks and tens have their place.
Eights and nines and even sevens take tricks occasionally,
But the deck's a concert grand ill tuned without cards two and three.

The same holds true in baseball, and always with games on the line.
Though stars are who we look to, often times they just don't shine.
Greats are known to whiff, or err, or get tagged, since they mortals be,
And who's left to push the starter clutch but lowly two and three?

Sing a song of Hazle - his pockets full of hits;
They surely were when Milwaukee called, with Bruton blown to bits.
For 8 weeks in '57 he held the secret to this game;
Balls rode in on the local - Bob expressed 'em toward whence they came.
When the dust cleared, Milwaukee had won - 'Hurricane' was .403;
Next year, hitting zip bought membership into Club Two and Three.

Old Bengals hoist drinks to Floyd Giebell, who back in year '40
Played Joe Bagadonuts to Bob Feller, a Cleveland Crybaby.
27 wins gave Bob a howitzer - one gave Gee cap gun,
But Floyd whipped Robert 2 to 1, and Tiger Series tickets were run.
The next year, he became a bum - earned runs were 6.03.
What could Giebell possibly be but a two spot or a three?

The '25 A L MVP was Roger Peckinpaugh,
but in the Classic he made more errors than you ever saw.
His 8 of flubs trumped Harris' bat and Johnson's pair of wins;
Pirates stormed back from 1 to 3 to wear victorious grins.
The Nats boss Harris had to kick himself. OH, if ONLY he
used crystal ball and made the call to a streaking two or three.

George Rohe hit just .258 for the Chisox in '06;
Cubs racked 116 wins, while the Sox hit with cracked cue sticks.
Pine guy George got 7 base knocks and batted .333;
That Hitless Wonder bent balls over and made 'em sing high C.
.227 lifetime, Rohe stepped up, as we know today;
He blew one heck of a hot lick for a guy who was a trey.

We could talk on of king and pawn changing places for briefest whiles,
And certainly Dent, and Weiss and Doyle gave bosses cause for smiles,
But hamlets and burgs and unkempt graves house many short and tall -
Transformed to gods or vice versa at destiny's fateful call.
So when you meet one on the street with unprepossessing look,
Bear in mind a title is blind to the quality of a book.

Aces are fun, unless there are none, and trick chances are few -
That winning card ending tussle hard might be a three or two.


Dan Grey Taylor Jr.


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