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In celebration of
my 7th birthday,
my father was taking me
to a baseball game
at Yankee Stadium
I was wearing
a perfectly sized
Mickey Mantle uniform,
despite my "hating"
the team
he played for
My father
was a firm believer
in getting to a destination early,
especially if it involved
driving in the Bronx
!!!
We arrived at Yankee Stadium
ninety minutes
before game time
Our box seats
were eleven rows
behind first base
and the birthday boy
was permitted to
go down to field level
I was accompanied
by an usher,
generously tipped
by my bartender/father
Yankee first baseman
waved to a boy
who shouted
MOOSE
That was his nickname
The boy was me
and despite "hating" his team
I found it impossible
to not enjoy
the chant of
MOOOOOOSSSE
My father befriended
a gentleman
—another early arrival—
whose daughter
was my age
She was cuter than
a basket of chips
The gentleman noticed
the boy in the Mickey Mantle uniform
and asked my father
if his daughter
could have "my autograph"
on her baseball program
!!!
She very carefully negotiated
the narrow staircase
leading to field level
and I found it impossible
to not smile
at this cute little
basket of chips
Of course I autographed
her Yankee Stadium program
with a pencil provided by
the stadium usher
I signed it
right next to
the full page image
of Mickey Mantle
but I signed it
That is how Willie Mays
signed his name
and I had copied it
hundreds of times
on the inside covers
of countless school notebooks
However,
the cute little girl
was expecting
Mickey Mantle's autograph
because of the uniform
I was wearing
!!!
To say the little girl "cried"
when she saw
the Willie Mays autograph
was grievous understatement:
She shrieked loud enough
to be heard in center field
And then she ran towards
home plate
Of course,
her father followed
in hot pursuit
and we never saw them again
The good news is
I was not arrested for forgery
or terrorizing
a little girl
but the bad news is
the Yankees won that game
No one else
asked for
a Mickey Mantle autograph
that day
but someone did
rub my head
for good luck
and then treated
my father and me
to bowls of spaghetti
from
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