BOSCO BUYS THE FARM


Enos Slaughter was a '59 Topps headshot.

My best buddy traded a kid up the street.

Didn't know what lust meant,

but I had to have that card.

In '34 he played Bi State ball HERE,

his hometown was 50 miles away,

lifetime average .300;

Enos was a YANKEE.

We traded 3 times before

Tom got smart and ordered another one.

He didn't get the number from me-

somehow mine got inked out.




In '75 at NC State, I read

Enos coached Duke's baseball team

and parked in a Doak Field seat.

State shellacked 'em twice

but my joy was hollow;

Slaughter never showed!




Fifteen years later at the hometown mall

Enos plugged his autobiography.

He signed mine while talking about Branch Rickey;

Slaughter was truthful but undiplomatic.




Tact was never Bosco's hallmark;

in 1960, managing Raleigh Durham's Mets,

he told the front office what a lousy team they'd given him.

Kept telling them till the Mets didn't offer him another contract.

Slaughter may not last long in heaven;

he'll tell God what he thinks too. 




Daniel Grey Taylor


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