Reader Eli points us to this dank
little nugget from Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times:
Felix Pie: His biggest accomplishment of the spring is hitting two home runs, which is fine. But after having it pounded into his head for years to play the little-man's game, it's not the kind of skill he needs to show to be of any use to the team.Got that, kids? Homers = no use. He actually said that! If you're small, stay small, and do small things. Don't try to hit home runs. Hasn't it been pounded into your head for years to play the little-man's game?!
I like to think that Wittenmyer prefers the novel version of
The Natural over the movie. Not because it's better, but because Hobbs strikes out at the end, instead of hitting a useless home run. "At least Malamud knew how to write a good Hollywood ending," he says to himself, every time he finishes re-reading the last page, eyes welling up with tears of joy.
Gordon also plays in a fantasy league where home runs are worth negative four hundred thousand points. His list of top 3 useless players of all time? Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Sadaharu Oh. (Interesting that he would include Oh; I guess you have to give him some credit for non-xenophobia-ness.) In one of his most time-consuming efforts, Wittenmyer has painstakingly re-edited his VHS copy of
Major League so that Willie Mays Hayes does ten pushups everytime he hits a home run.
His nickname for Harold Reynolds (stay with me now) is "4-3", since, in his mind, grounding out to second base is the real "HR." For this same reason, he correctly-by-way-of-incorrectly refers to groundouts to second as "rally killers."
In hindsight, I kind of regret writing that last part, but it's too late now to hit the delete button or anything.
Hey, everybody, look! Pie taters = food metaphor!!
[runs away and goes to sleep]
Labels: bernard malamud, felix pie, food metaphors, gordon wittenmyer, wesley snipes