"Great Moments in Literary Baseball"

September 3, 2007

From Atlantic Monthly, May 1987, an amusing collection of highlights by Robert Atwan featuring famous writers as players, including “Ernie” Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Tommy Wolfe, “Lucky” Sam Beckett, Henry Miller, and Frank Kafka, among others.

In the second game of a double-header in Detroit in 1919, the Boston first  base coach began pointing his finger at the mound and gesturing wildly as Detroit pitcher Frank Kafka started his delivery. The home-plate umpire went out to the mound to ask Kafka what the hell he thought he was doing. Kafka protested that he had not committed a balk. The umpire said that a balk was not the issue and ejected Kafka from the game. The following day, after a short inquiry conducted by the American League commissioner, Kafka was permanently suspended from organized baseball. The commissioner never disclosed the nature of Kafka’s violation.

Another:

During a 1978 contest for last place being played under protest in a constant drizzle Atlanta second baseman Harry Pinter signals time out and stoops to tie his shoelace. He misses a hard-hit ground ball and is charged with an error. Pinter (moving toward first) says that he called time. A long pause. The second-base umpire claims that he misunderstood Pinter’s signal—he thought he was batting away a bug. Silence. Another hard grounder shoots past Pinter and a big E appears on the scoreboard. Pinter (moving toward second) says he thought play had been stopped to discuss the misunderstood signal. A long pause. The umpire maintains that Pinter did not call time out to do so. As Pinter (moving toward first) turns to ask the first-base umpire what is happening, another ground ball bounces by. A long silence. The few remaining fans begin drifting to the exits.

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