Zelensky came by our offices last night to chill out after his meeting with Biden. To be honest, we hadn’t seen him so upset since he heard CBS was canceling Blue Bloods. This is the closest to a smile Phil could get out of the poor guy, although, to be fair to Phil, he refused to be tickled.
I said, “Volodymyr, is it the Person of the Year business? — are you upset about getting edged out by Taylor?” He said, “No, although that didn’t help. I won’t begrudge her the title: she deserves it. I won it last year, you may recall. It’s pretty hard to repeat. It’s the war. I’m worried about the war.”
“Oh, yeah, duh, there’s that,” I said. ”But, c’mon, buddy — you’ll feel better after a few cold ones.”
It’s the birthday of poet and writer Heinrich Heine today (1797). Get this — his dad wanted him to be a businessman so he got him a job at a bank. But then he involved him in an embezzlement scheme and he got fired. Thanks Dad! So he tried law school, but the anti-Semitism was so intense he had to convert to Protestantism to get his law degree. [Jeez Louise! — and I thought I had trouble getting through.]
The man could hold a grudge. He said: ”We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.” Happy birthday, Henry!
Victor Jose Davalillo Romero, who died last week at the age of 84 in Venezuela, was a damn good ballplayer: Vic Davalillo to us fans. You can see his autograph from my collection, below.
I used to enjoy telling about him that he was once traded “for a player to be named later,” and it turned out it was him — he was shipped back as that player. So he was essentially traded for himself. But there’s nothing about that in his Wikipedia entry. [It turns out that happened to Harry Chiti in 1962. He was traded by the Indians to the expansion Mets, and after 15 games (during which he batted .195), he was returned to Cleveland as the “player to be named later.” Chiti was the first player to whom that occurred. It happened three times later: to Dickie Noles, Brad Gulden, and John MacDonald.]
Davalillo’s MLB career started with the Indians in 1963 and he played for them for six years. After that he played for five other teams and finished up with the Dodgers in 1980. He played in 1,458 games and had a lifetime batting average of .278. He won a Gold Glove in 1964. In 1965, he was the starting center fielder for the AL in the All-Star game, and was one of only three batters to finish the season batting over .300: His .301 trailed only Tony Oliva and Yaz. He won the World Series with the Pirates in ’71 and Oakland in ’73.
He holds one “distinction” which I love. In 1969, for St. Louis, he pitched twice in relief, failing to retire a batter either time, and yielding an earned run. He is one of only 14 pitchers in MLB history with an infinite ERA. Of those 14, he is the only one who had more than one pitching appearance.
Late in his career, he was an excellent pinch hitter for the Dodgers. In Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS vs the Phillies, LA was down 5-3 with two outs in the ninth and no one on base. Davalillo came up to pinch hit and surprised the defense with a perfect drag bunt. A flurry of hits tied the game and LA won in extra innings. They won the pennant the next day.
Davalillo’s play in the Venezuelan Winter League was legendary. All told, he played in it for 30 years, from 1957 to 1987, retiring at age 50. A stadium in Venezuela is named in his honor as well as the league’s MVP award.
Here he is, later in life. Rest in peace, Victor.
Commenter Pete shared this cute note on Rex’s blog:
“I sent my musician wife a text saying ’… your vibrator was really good last night.’ Auto-check didn’t like my typing of vibrato.”
The unusual word PSALTER was in the puzzle today, clued with “Book of hymns.” Here’s how psalter could be used in a psentence: That’s psome psorry psalter — my psalad is way too psalty.
She requested that we not go “cray cray” (which was the clue at 2D today for LOCO), or OVERDO IT (which was the answer at 3D), but we have to at least note that she’s 34 today — Happy Birthday, Taylor! (Volodymyr’s here today, TS, and he and Olena wish you the best.) It’s also the first day you can stream her ERAS tour concert film (for $19.89) at home. So — what are you waiting for?
Thanks for popping in. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 