Earl Weaver – Sandy Rosenberg

Shades of Moonlight Graham

Moonlight Graham would have sympathized.

Graham, the character played by Burt Lancaster in Field of Dreams, played right field for two innings in one major league game but never came to bat.

Dave Ford, a former Orioles pitcher, had not pitched in two weeks when Earl Weaver brought him into a game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

On the first pitch, Robin Young got a bunt single.

The next batter was a lefthander. Earl Weaver changed pitchers.

When the dejected Ford got back to the dugout, Mike Flanagan greeted him, “Did you have your good stuff?”

When it rains for two days at Fantasy Camp, you hear a lot of good stories from the former pros.

I, however, was stuck on two at bats from the one game I played on Wednesday.

The rain stopped and the fog finally lifted by 9:30 Saturday morning.

I was again hitless in two at bats.

But we won, and I’ll get a chance to inch closer to the Mendoza line (.200 batting average) when we play again at Camden Yards on June 21.

Last bill hearing and walking with the bases loaded

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I had my last bill hearing of the session today.

I didn’t read my testimony, but it took a minute (It seemed much longer) before I saw that look of recognition on the chair’s face.

I had successfully summarized what the bill would do.

For my bills that have already passed the Senate, the next step is to “make sure the legislation gets implemented,” as I said to an advocate on the phone.

—

I could very well be on the House floor when the first pitch is thrown at Camden Yards Friday afternoon.

However, I will begin the session with this prayer:

Baseball as a Road to God is the title of a new book written by the President of New York University, John Sexton.

It “uses the secular sport of baseball to explore subjects ordinarily associated with religion—prayers, altars, sacred space, faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, blessings, curses, saints and sinners,” wrote Doris Kearns Goodwin in her review.

Baseball is also analogous to the legislative process. There’s someone at every base ready to tag your bill out, trying to prevent your legislation from reaching home, returned passed to its house of origin.

Whatever your faith, hope springs eternal at the home opener. This year, for the first time in many years, with justification for Orioles fans.

Tribute will be paid to Earl Weaver before today’s first pitch.

Religion was not on Earl’s mind on Opening Day. His focus was on bringing the best 25 players north from Florida.

But one season, Pat Kelly informed his skipper that there would be a prayer service in the clubhouse on Sunday mornings.

“Join us and walk with the Lord,” Kelly urged his skipper.

Weaver replied, “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded.”

Sorest loser and declaring victory

February 4, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“The sorest loser that ever lived.”

That’s what Earl Weaver wanted inscribed on his gravestone.

And that’s how he managed when the pros played the Fantasy Campers, some of his former players recalled last week.

Earl aside, Jim Palmer would throw batting practice fast balls. However, you did not want to come to the plate after another camper had gotten a base hit.

To win, a manager has to keep his 25 players happy. Only ten people start each game.

Every camper is in the starting lineup, but if you’re hitting twelfth and last, as I did, that’s only two at bats each six-inning game.

I did, however, come up twice against 20-game winner Mike Boddicker. The second time, I stroked a run-scoring two-out “legitimate” single to left (Boddicker’s term).

With a career average of .500, I now “own” him, as they say in the dugout.

Back in Annapolis, I now need to keep the bills in my lineup happy.

I’ve introduced thirteen, with an additional dozen or more to be put in the hopper by the Thursday 5 p.m. deadline.

Four bills will be heard this week. That means revising draft testimony and ensuring that a broad group of witnesses will testify, hopefully with a story to tell about why we need to pass this bill.

And if a task force to study the issue is the best that you can accomplish, as may be the case for two of my bills already, you don’t need to be a sore loser.

Declare victory instead.