CHUTES & LADDERS

         The brain is likened often to a computer, but I have reached the conclusion that MY brain is more like a game board of Chutes & Ladders. I
have no idea where various pathways will go. Why is it that the chant:

"Gibson goes in five, HEY!
The Slipper didn't fit HEY"

keeps flitting in and out of my mind, especially when walking the dog around the house?

         It dates from the 1967 World Series, Game Seven and more particularly, to coverage of the game I read somewhere, probably Sports Illustrated. The St. Louis Cardinals, angry about the Red Sox 'woofing' before the game, shouted this chant after winning. The article mentioned "the angry sound of spikes being pounded on the clubhouse floor" before it went into the refrain. The Sox were the Cinderella team that year and they boasted they would knock Bob Gibson out by the 5th inning, at least some of them did.

         Why does this come back to me? I lived at Ft Jackson, South Carolina that Fall. I had no rooting interest in the games. They were played in daytime then,when I worked in the Finance and Accounting Office paying trainees whose next stop was Saigon. One or two people would have their radios tuned in, but I cared little.

         Chutes and ladders! I slide down the chute, climb the ladder and I am back there again and the next ladder takes me to: Bernie Carbo. I think he played with the 1967 Cardinals, but he certainly played with the 1975 Red Sox and hit the least remembered, most important home run in baseball history to tie the 6th Game of the Series against the Reds in the 8th inning. Without it Carlton Fisk could not have hit the home run heard round the world, which I missed having fallen asleep after Bernardo came through.

         Down another chute to Bill Mazeroski and his home run that has been lost because there was no videotape in 1960 when he won the worst or greatest World Series 7th game ever played, leading off the 9th for the Pirates against Ralph Terry and the Yankees. We have Fisk on instant reply forever. When we see Maz, we are given the standard shot from the chest up with him squinting at the pitcher, and which was probably taken who knows when, and then grainy film of him circling the bases at old Forbes Field wearing the silly softball shirt with cut off sleeves that the Pirates wore that year.

         The mind starts to go on about that game and series: friend Maralyn's idol Tony Kubek getting knocked out of that game when a ground ball hit him in the throat, the Yanks winning games 12-0, 10-0 and 16-3 but losing the series but FOR GOD SAKE, let's see if we can find a ladder that leads out of here!

         So I conclude, enter the folders at your own risk, and sprinkle crumbs so that you may find your way back. I can't promise you I will be able to lead you. Good luck to all.