ELVES RUN AM0K!

 

High-Tight/Low-Away


Pitching plebes in every league since diamond time began

have fallen prey to knocking knees and addle-pated pan

when making their initial walk up to that hallowed hill;

at issue then-as it is now-the feeding of the pill.

How best to throw the horsehide sphere? Where to establish sway?

Thus volunteered the grizzlebeard: "High-tight/low-away".

 


Some neophyte might spin a ball like none have ever seen-

a wicked curve with pretzel bends-or hummer, loud and mean.

His sinker may be bottomless, or he could use a split

that vanishes, and then returns within the catcher's mitt.

Although his stuff breaks chickenwire when warming up each day,

it matters not if he can't spot it high-tight/low-away.

 


Pro-scouts lust for catapults and spurn pinpoint control

(this verity robbed many a phenom of his baseball soul),

but Candiotti made it, and he barely busted eggs.

What quality caused him to be plucked from among the dregs?

Tom and his noble spiritline all earned their big league pay

because each 'he' rubbed rosary of high-tight/low-away.

 


At Madison-Mayodan High in 1983,

with bases drunk-2 outs-down to the batter 0 and 3,

Scotty Flynt Da Vinci'd back

with 3 straight curves-knee high on BLACK!

What sorrow that no ivory hunter saw this stellar play,

for Scotty held a Ph. D in high-tight/low-away.

 


Professor Stengel: 'If it's over the plate, it ain't a curve.'

Professor Stallings' last lecture: 'Oh, those bases on balls.'

 

dan grey taylor jr.

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With over 15 TDA front pages to his credit Dan Taylor will never be just another pretty face. The 47 year old Eden, NC native is not married, has no kids, and his biggest interests in addition to writing are baseball, history, and early jazz.

While Kipling, O. Henry, and Twain provide inspiration, Dan's idols of craft include Wilt Browning, Grantland Rice, Ring and John Lardner, Red Smith, Damon Runyon and Joe Falls.

Dan doesn't just build baseball pieces; he also produces works on a myriad of subjects.

Read some of Dan's recent writing:

Fugly Ducklings
A look back over a baseball life.

Mick
A poem about a key man.

Spahnie
A bird? A plane? Warren Spahn.

Worst Trade You Never Heard Of
John McGraw goes to the cleaners.

Hoyt
This one flutters across.

Son of Bad Penny
Dan returns to a favorite topic.

The Gladiator
The birth of an icon.

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Remembering the days of Ron Guidry.

Dan Taylor's Archive

 See the rest of Dan's work.