This is one of nine stanzas in a poem we are not sharing today in Owl Chatter. Lo!
E’en as the essence of the Lotus-flower
That philters thro’ the gardens hour by hour
In ancient Egypt—Lo! it’s quick’ning breath
Makes wise the meek, and triumphs over Death.
I’m far too lazy to do a serious analysis of this, but my understanding is that when a batted baseball crosses into the stands and a fielder goes after it, he’s at the mercy of the fans because he has crossed into their turf. So if they hamper his efforts to catch the ball, that’s just tough luck. But if the fan reaches out over fair territory and has an impact on a play, that’s “fan interference,” and the umpire can call the batter out even if the ball was not caught.
We asked Owl Chatter Sports Consultant, the beautiful Sarah Fillier of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, for her input but she seems unclear on what a “foul ball” is. (It’s not exactly “offsides,” SF. Let’s talk later.)
The upshot is the line separating players and fans is a little blurry. This play, below, involved a fan who later claimed he was protecting his son from being hit by a foul ball. Outfielder Mike Trout (proud Jersey boy) reached into the seats and caught the ball. But the fan was sort of grappling with him for it and ended up actually taking the ball out of Trout’s glove. (A punster would say he fished it out of Trout’s glove.) I love the look on the fan’s face when he realized what happened and apologized and offered the ball back to Trout.
The umpires, correctly IMO, did not call the batter out due to fan interference because the incident essentially took place in the stands. The play caused many to recall a similar but significantly different play from last year’s World Series, where two Yankee fans ripped a foul ball out of Mookie Betts’ glove. The ball had not clearly crossed into the fans’ turf. That was a pretty ugly scene. The batter was called out and the fans have been banned from baseball stadia.
In the Trout play, even though Trout lost the argument, when he found out the fan’s child was part of the story and that the fan was apologetic, he arranged to meet with them, gave them some stuff, including a bat, signed the ball, and orchestrated a very happy ending. Our Phil was on hand to video the meeting. Look at the kid’s face.
In the puzzle today, at 94A the clue was “Retail magnate James Cash [blank],” and the answer was PENNEY. It reminded me of this story which I shared with Rex’s readers:
Over four decades ago, I bought a pair of pants at JCPenney. They were cheap and comfortable and since they weren’t jeans I wore them to work now and then. I was riding home on the subway one day and was exhausted. Of course, there were no seats, but then I noticed that there was one open space. It was because right next to it was a poor homeless man who was in pretty bad shape. He hadn’t showered or shaved or laundered his clothes in a long time and nobody wanted to sit next to him. I assessed the space and determined that I could squeeze myself in and still leave enough of a buffer between me and the homeless gentleman. I was so tired I went for it. It was great to sit.
After a few stops I glanced over at the poor fellow and noticed he was wearing the exact same pants as me. I guess I wasn’t the fashion plate I fancied myself to be. When my kids chide me for how I dress I remind them of that story.
Commenter Son Volt shared a wonderful song today but, for the life of me, I couldn’t see its link to the puzzle. I re-read all of the clues and perused the grid several times. Finally I caught the tie-in. At 61D the clue was “Title for Marie Tussaud,” and the answer was MADAME.
Did you know this? The clue at 30A was “Fig. that never starts with 666.” The answer was SSN (for Social Security Number). Rex noted: “This is how you will know the antichrist—by the first three digits of his social.”
On this date in 1899 in Poughkeepsie, NY, Alfred M. Butts was born. He invented Scrabble. Among its many admirers was Vladimir Nabokov who worked it into his novel Ada, and had a Russian version produced especially for his wife and himself.
It took awhile for the game to catch on. Butts lined the original playing board into small squares and cut the 100 lettered wooden tiles by hand. The first players were Alfred, his wife Nina, and their friends. Nina was better at it than Alfred. “She beat me at my own game, literally,” Butts admitted.
He earned a degree in architecture at UPenn and was an amateur artist. Six of his drawings were collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY.
Rich Little is the best impersonator I’ve ever seen. He’s 86 years old and still active. Active? I think he’s playing shortstop for the Dodgers. In yesterday’s game against the Cubbies, LA fell behind 11-0 and conceded defeat. In baseball that means you bring in a position player to pitch. Why waste a pitcher in a losing cause? So the Dodgers put shortstop Miguel Rojas on the mound for the last two innings. But Rojas is a bit of a card and he put on quite a show with his rare opportunity — impersonating the deliveries of four of the Dodger pitchers.
This is how Andrew Simon put it on MLB.com:
“Rojas imitated the way teammate Landon Knack, when pitching from the stretch, keeps his glove at the belt and leans back a bit before starting his delivery. He mirrored the way Yamamoto wiggles the ball around in his glove, then works with a slight hesitation in his windup — all while using Yamamoto’s No. 18 blue glove. He then recreated Kershaw’s iconic pre-pitch process: lifting both hands high above his head before dropping them back down. And finally, he repeated the way Sasaki, the Dodgers’ highly-touted rookie, starts with his back knee bent and his front leg straight out ahead of him before lifting it way up high as he goes into his windup.”
Here’s a small part of the show Rojas put on:
Hey, I got through an entire post without mentioning Trump. Oops, d’oh!
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 
One response to “Lord Have Mercy, I Think That It’s The Cops”
never understood putting a non=pitcher in a “conceded” game…what if the shortstop walks 5 guys and the opposing team keeps getting hits?[ after all he’s a shortstop, not a pitcher?] when does the inning end? heck, today’s pitchers never complete a game and they have 12 guys in the bullpen…???
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