This, That, Baseball and Batman

by Woody

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: @woodywoodburn

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This, That, Baseball and Batman

Shooting from the hip on a hair-triggered keyboard…

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            Will self-driving cars be programmed to leave turn signals on mile after mile just for old time’s sake?

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For the love of Lou Boudreau! (Google him) I beg Cody Bellinger and all Major League batters to please, when the defense puts on an infield shift, poke or slap the ball to the opposite field and take all the singles you can get until they stop shifting!

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            Add baseball: My much-better-half was watching her beloved Dodgers on TV the other night and after the broadcast duo blathered on blah blah blah even more than usual, in rare total exasperation she sighed, “God, I miss Vin Scully!”

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            Speaking of The Golden Voice and my wife…

Nineteen summers ago was Scully’s 50th season behind the mic and in the press box before a game I asked him for an interview in the coming days.

True to his word, he phoned me at home a couple days later to set something up and my wife answered the phone.

“This is Vin Scully,” the caller said, needlessly identifying himself because his voice was unmistakable. “May I speak to Woody?”

Unfortunately, I was out and more unfortunately had not mentioned that I was expecting the call.

Most unfortunate of all, my wife assumed it was one of my goofy friends imitating Scully and joked in reply, “Who is this really?” and then playfully hung up.

The classy Scully phoned right back, to the great chagrin of my wife, who instantly realized her mistake and apologized before telling him when she expected me home.

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            More Scully. My writing idol, Jim Murray, was receiving an honor at the Beverly Hills Hotel and because of some good luck I was in attendance.

And because of some beverages, I was later in the men’s room when in walked Scully. He greeted another person who was leaving and his trademark voice echoed off the tiled walls as rich and melodic as a cello in Carnegie Hall.

I remember laughing to myself, imagining Scully doing the play-by-play right then and there: “Kirk Gibson steps up to the urinal, takes his stance…”

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            One final Scully memory. At the end of my interview with him in the press box hours before the first pitch, I sheepishly asked Scully to do a play-by-play radio call with me at bat. He asked who I wanted on the mound and without hesitation I said the great Bob Gibson.

Oh, how I wish I’d used a tape recorder for interviews back then instead of notepads. No matter, in my mind’s ear I can still hear the imaginary broadcast as “Woodburn fouls off another fastball and works the count to deuces wild – two balls, two strikes, two out with two men on.”

I still half-expected Scully to impishly have me strike out, but instead my Major League career batting average is a perfect 1-for-1 with an RBI line-drive single to left field in Dodger Stadium.

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            For some of us, who wore a bath towel pinned around their neck throughout kindergarten, today is a super holiday: Batman Day.

This year’s official occasion marks the 80th anniversary of DC Comic’s Dark Knight and will be celebrated around the world. Indeed, the Bat Signal will be lighted in Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, London, Montreal, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles – and perhaps a kindergartener-still-at-heart’s home in Ventura.

Let me close with this wisdom from a poster that says it all: “Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be Batman!”

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FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: @woodywoodburn

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …