One classic response to a particularly vicious beanball was exemplified by a play Jackie Robinson made in the summer of 1953. Sal Maglie of the New York Giants was “Sal the Barber” mostly because of his high inside fastballs and “Shaved” hitters’ chins. Malgie was candid and friendly when he wasn’t pitching. ” “You have to make the batter afraid of the ball or, anyway, aware that he can get hurt” Maglie told me matter-of-factly one afternoon over drinks at his apartment in Riverdale. ” A lot of pitchers think they do that by throwing at a hitter when the count is two strikes and no balls. The trouble there is that the knockdown is expected. You don’t scare a guy by knocking him down when he knows he’s going to be knocked down.” Then when, Sal?” I asked. ” A good time is when the count is two and two. He’s looking to swing. You knock him down then and he gets up shaking. Now curve him and you have your out. Of course, to do that you have to be able to get your curve over the plate on a three-and-two count. Not every pitcher can.” THE HEAD GAME, ROGER KAHN , 2000
Magalie could break three different curves over the plate, three and two. He had particular success against such free-swinging sluggers as Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges. But it is simplistic to say Maglie intimidated Campanella and Hodges. Rather, his unpredictable patterns disrupted their timing and concentration. He had less success with Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, and one day in Ebbets Field, by throwing a shoulder-high fastball behind Robinson, Maglie brought matters to detonation. THE HEAD GAME, ROGER KAHN , 2000
Sex At Dawn
- Humans are randy descendants of hypersexual ancestors
- Conventional notions of monogamous “till-death-sets-us-apart”
- Marriage strain and a dead weight of the false narrative, that insist we are something else
- Conflict – What we are told we feel and what we actually feel
- The richest cause of confusion, dissatisfaction and unnecessary suffering
- Man can choose what to do, but not what to want
- With and without love, casual sexuality was the norm for prehistoric ancestor
- The essential first step in discerning the culture from the human is detribalization
- Recognize the tribes we belong to and extricate from the unexamined
- Freudian – Civilization is built largely on erotic energy that has been blocked, concentrated, accumulated and redirected
- Psychoanalysis is learned from the study of one’s self – one’s personality
- Civilization was forged by the driving force of vital necessity at the cost of instinct satisfaction
- Sexual instinct rebels against sublimation
- High Mate Value – Willingness and ability (power)
- To Provide – Human groups tend to respond to food surplus and storage like chimps
- To Protect – Chimpanzees resolve sexual issues with power – Bonboo resolves power issues with sex
- Engage in parenting – The ability to form and maintain a flexible multidimensional, adaptive social network
The knockdowns thrown at [Cookie] Lavagetto, the fatal pitch thrown at Ray Chapman, roared toward the temple. A batter gets away from that pitch by ducking backwards. (Chapman’s freeze reaction, though not unknown, is rare) Angered or frustrated by Robinson that afternoon in Brooklyn, Maglie threw his best fastball behind the hitter, shoulder high. That was and is dangerous and inexcusable. As a batter strides forward, he loses height. Reflex makes him duck backwards. A batter’s head moves directly into the path of the fastball thrown behind him shoulder-high. Robinson started to tuck into Maglie’s Pitch and then his phenomenal reflexes enabled him to stop, as it were, in-mid duck. The ball sailed just behind the back of Robinson’s neck. Robinson glared but did not lose his poise. Maglie threw an outside curve, and Robinson bunted toward Whitey Lockman, the Giants first baseman. By making Lockman field bunt, Robinson was forcing Maglie to leave the pitcher’s mound and cover first. There he would be in Robinson’s path, and Jack, going at a full and full-muscled tilt, intended to run over Maglie, signing his name in spikes on the pitcher’s spine…. THE HEAD GAME, ROGER KAHN , 2000