Volume 21: The Further Saga of Alemany '66:
As revealed by The Shadow
with minor assistance from F.J. Bonaccorso
Special Dedication:
To all those special friends that never, ever let us down
and always give us unconditional love. To our animal friends represented by
Callie and Louie pictured below:
Callie is on the right and with best friend Pamela Harding Cardillo.
Louie, on the left with his amor, Teri Arteaga Romero.
Subtitled: Kowabunga!
Our Blast Of Nostalgia For This Week:
Say Kids, What Time Is It?
It’s Howdy Doody Time!
From the original show’s inception on December 27, 1947 until it’s final airing on NBC on December 30, 1960, HOWDY DOODY and BUFFALO BOB visited our homes 2,543 times.
5:30 PM, Visiting Locker Room, Chavez Ravine, Dodger Stadium
Alan Trammel, Bench Coach of the Chicago Cubs: Skipper, I got some bad news.
Lou Pinella, Manager of the Cubs: More bad news? Ok, let's have it.
Trammel: It's Cliff Floyd. His coat got stuck in the revolving door at the hotel. Jerked him back into the glass and gave him a whiplash. Doc has his neck in a brace. He is out at least for ten days.
Pinella: Shi#!$#. You are joking, Alan? Tell me you are joking.
Trammel: Shakes his head negative.
Pinella: With Derek Lee's hamstring pull from last night that leaves us with only four position players on the bench.
Trammel: We can't possibly have anyone here in LA from a farm team by game time.
Pinella: (Kicks the water cooler outside the visiting manager’s office.)
Trammel: Skipper, I have an idea.
Pinella: What is it?
Trammel: We need someone with some pop that can pinch hit. Who better than our hitting coach? You’ve seen him take his cuts in the batting cage. The old man still has some bat speed.
Pinella: (Stares Trammel in the eyes). You want to activate a 58 year old?
Trammel: the White Sox activated Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso at age 55 for a game a few years back. It would be an age record and bring a lot of media attention that the Tribune Company would revel in having. And we break a baseball record held by the (ugh!) White Sox.
Pinella: Yeah, and it certainly didn't hurt the Cowboys any when they activated that Dave Gieg guy this year. I guess it is better to activate him and have him available, just in case. Alan, this is for one game only, until we can get someone from Triple-A tomorrow.
Trammel: Move over Minnie Minoso, Jim Dantona is erasing your name! I'll let Jim know he is being activated. I can hardly wait to see his face.
1944, Northeastern France
A two-ton truck screeches to a halt. Six GIs wearing green fatigues jump from the back of the truck to the muddy ground. One GI is carrying a nearly empty bottle of wine.
Sergeant: Bob Hope may be funny, but I couldn't take my eyes off Dorothy LaMour. What a pair of legs.
Private Mankiwietz: Hey, Frankie, you missed a great show. Let's head over to the chow line.
Sergeant: O'Higgins, relieve Corporal Bonaccorso on guard duty.
The GI’s are walking toward the mess area for hot chow.
Sergeant: Bonaccorso, anything to report?
Frank: Not much Sergeant. It was a quiet day, the guns at the front lines sound about 5 miles away. Oh, except we had an inspection.
Sergeant: Inspection? Did the Captain come to inspect the gun?
Frank: No, Sarge, not the captain.
Sergeant: You mean we had top brass here on an inspection today? That S.O.B. colonel finally steps out of the headquarters sandbags to see how we were doing?
Frank: No, Sarge. Not the colonel, it was a general.
Sergeant: Your, f##king kidding me. Our one-star commander was looking at my gun.
Frank: Nope.
Sergeant: Bonaccorso, who inspected the gun? By now the group had stopped walking and all eyes were on Frank, and waiting for his answer. (A light rain began to fall.)
Frank: (pulling his collar up to protect his neck from the cold rain). It was Patton!
Private Digby: Geez, was he packing his pearl handles?
Private Rodriguez: Did he cuss at you? Or hit you?
Frank: He was wearing his pearl handles and he was very polite. He checked the gun breech and then commended the unit for having a clean gun. Did you know he was from California? And he wants a crate of cherries from my dad's orchard.
Sarge: Son of a gun! I should have sent you to Lyon for the USO show and stayed here myself. I can't believe you talked to Patton. What else did he say?
Frank: He said we were going to have a big party in Berlin and be home by next summer. Smells like beans again at the chow line.
Top of the 9th, Dodger Stadium
Bob Uecker and Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto are Guest Radio Announcers for the Cubs (even the radio broadcasters for the Cubs are on the Disabled List!)
Uecker: And the pitch from Saito is high, ball four. Saito seems to have lost his control.
Phil: Holy Cow, that sure is not characteristic of Saito, Bob. He starts the 9th inning by striking out the first two batters he faces and then walks the bases full. Izturis is at third, Cedeno on second, and Ramirez is now on first.
Uecker. That brings up the pitcher's spot, and there is only one man left on the Cubbies bench. That would be 58 year-old batting coach and former local star at Alemany High School, Jim Dantona.
Phil: Holy Cow, Dantona had a tryout with the Cubs more than 35 years ago, but he has never had a major league at bat.
Uecker: Rick Honeycutt, the pitching coach of the Dodgers is going out to the mound to talk to Saito. Dantona was activated only two hours before game time when it was learned that Cliff Floyd incurred a severe whiplash while getting clothing caught in a revolving door at the Cub's hotel this afternoon.
Phil: Holy Cow, what a spot to get your first major league at bat, H-o-l-y friggin’ C-o-w. The Dodgers lead 4 to 1, with two out in the top of the ninth inning.
In the right field upper deck seats: Danny McMahon just about breaks a tooth on a Cracker Jack corn kernel as he hears ---
Dodgers PA Announcer, Richard Weier: Now batting for the Chicago Cubs, #44, Jim Dan---to---na!
Dodgers Organist, Jan Zemba Wilkes, plays a few bars of the Alemany Alma Mater
Danny McMahon: Hey, Marty, did you know that Dantona was an active player? I thought he was the batting coach.
Martin Molidor: I heard on the pre-game broadcast that the Cubbies had two guys go on the DL in the last 24 hours and activated Jim for tonight's game only. I never thought he would actually play.
Uecker: Dantona rubs a little pine tar to his bat and he walks to the plate.
Phil: Geez, Louise, do you think this guy has any chance against Saito?
Uecker: Ernie Banks says that Dantona still has the bat speed and the eye. If Ernie believes in this guy, so do I, Scooter. Hey, Scooter, could you pass some of those Dodger Nachos this way, please?
Phil: Dantona taps the bat at his cleats, and he steps into the box. He has an open stance and awaits Saito. Saito pitches from the stretch, and Dantona takes strike one.
Uecker: Man, that was a wicked slider on the outside of the plate. Has Saito got his control back?
Phil: Saito is ready to deliver, and Dantona checks his swing and takes a fastball low and away. The count is 1 and 1. Holy Cow, the Cubs could sure use a victory tonight. Rookie pinch hitter, Jim Dantona, making his major league debut, represents the winning run at the plate. OOOh my, a fastball under the chin backs Dantona out of there. Ball 2.
Eucker: That ball registered 94 miles an hour on the radar gun! Dantona is staring out at the mound, he was not happy with the location of that pitch, Scooter.
Phil: Holy Cow, 94! Can that guy bring it? Saito stares in to Russell Martin for the sign. He nods yes and goes into the stretch. Dantona swings late at another fastball, oh my that came faster than the last pitch. The radar gun reached 96. Count is 2 and 2 to Dantona. Jim asks for time, and walks over to get a little more pine tar on the bat. Lou Pinella is standing with arms folded on the top step of the dugout and encourages Jim. Jim steps back in the box, Saito delivers, and there is a drive to the gap deep into left center. Holy Cow, no one is going to catch that one, one hop up against the wall. Izturis scores and here comes Cedeno right behind him. The ball is caroming off the wall between Pierre and Gonzales. They are waving Aramis Ramierez around third. Look at Jim Dantona run. The old guy is headed for third and here comes the throw from the weak armed Juan Pierre. Holy Cow, Jim slides and raises a cloud of dust, and the ball gets by Betemit! Dantona is heading for home even though his third base coach put up the red light. The ball bounces off the dugout steps and Saito throws toward home. Oh, no, the throw is going to get him, Bob! Dantona is coming in standing, Holy Cow. Martin puts the tag on Dantona. Oh my, what a collision. Martin is down. Dantona is down and reaches a hand for home plate. And the umpire has not signaled anything. Is he out, is he safe? The ump opens up Martin's glove and there is no ball in the glove. The ball is ten feet behind home plate. The ump signals safe. Cubs take the lead! Cubs take the lead! Dantona has tripled and scores on the throwing error by Gonzales.
(The Dodgers go down meekly, 1, 2, 3 in the bottom of the 9th)….. and the final score, Cubs 5, Dodgers 4. Hoooo--llly Cow. I don’t know if the fat lady is singing, but somewhere Meatloaf sure is singing, “By the Dashboard Light”. This is Phil Rizzuto and Bob Uecker saying, “Good night from Los Angeles”.
The Pride of Alemany during his try-out with the Cubbies.
And while we are on the subject of sports, here is the
Shadow’s Trivia Question of this week:
Part 1: Name the sports immortal rebounding the basketball back when basketball shorts were the proper length. This man led the Pacific Coast Conference, Southern Section, in scoring two consecutive years. He was the first four-sport collegiate varsity lettermen at his university and won an individual NCAA championship in track and field. He led the NCAA in punt returns in football. He sucked at baseball, batting .097 his first year on the varsity. He did not participate in the Olympics, but his older brother won a Silver Medal in the 1936 Berlin Games in track and field.
This week's prize is a bootlegged CD, "For Your Love" by an unknown artist believed to be from Singapore doing a terrible imitation of Stevie Wonder. This item cannot be bought in stores closer than Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Even Wolfman Jack and The Midnight Rider do not have this album, considered a collectors item (by some people). Although lusting for this album, Danny McMahon and Robert Johnson are not illegible to participate. Your answer must be sent to bonafrank@yahoo.com and you also must answer Part 2 found below in this volume and be the first person to answer correctly in order to win.
Tustin, California
Mayor Barbara Louise Rice Mino: Once again, I am so pleased to welcome Ruby the Elephant and her entourage to Tustin for the 1st Annual Tustin Animal Artists Festival. All of the art works you see on exhibit today are available for auction to help homeless animals. We have artworks sent from as far as Douglas, Alaska, painted by Seymour the Squid, and even one by Snickers, the presidential seal. Right now though, we invite you to watch Ruby paint an original watercolor in the city square.
Ruby calls this watercolor “Cherry Blossoms #18”
Notice that Ruby has studied the French impressionists.
Will Las Panteras Rosas discover this masterpiece!Auctioneer,
Joannie McKinney Erwin: Our first item up for auction is an example of contemporary canine abstractionism. The artist is Louie Romero, who paints in Yorba Linda, California. This painting is titled, “Dog Dreams”. The bidding will start at $5000. Do I have $5000?
"Dog Dreams" by Louie Romero.
Barbara Broeski Tennis: (Raises her hand, obviously wanting a fine Louie to hang in her new research institute).
Joannie: I have $5000, do I hear $6000?
Rex Olliff: (nods his royal head)
Joannie: We have $6000 from his Excellency, the King of Sweden. Do I hear $7000.
Barb: $7000!
Woman in the last row: I bid $7,500. (All heads turn to the back row bidder).
Joannie: We have $7,500. Do I hear $8,000? Going once, twice, sold to Chris Belle Monroe.
And here is the artist, Louie, who also does tricks for treats.
By the way, Louie paints with his tail.
Photo courtesy of Teri Arteaga Romero.
"Goodbye, kids, thanks for coming to the Peanut Gallery."
Trivia Question Part 2. Name all the Alemany ’66 people in the Peanut Gallery?
We will identify them for everyone in the next issue.
Thanks for reading.
