Ms. Scarlett and the Duke

Ms. Scarlett and the Duke Snider: Those Damn Yankees

I, Scarlett Butler, was named after my great grandmother who preserved the now rich plantation, where I grew up. Our home, Tara, is just outside of Atlanta. It is fashionable today that the first connection you think of with my great grandmother is slavery. In fact, though she and her peers profited from slavery, she and they knew it was wrong. If you doubt it, read that slave holder, Jefferson's, first draft of the Declaration of Independence where he blames slavery on King George. Does that sound like he thought slavery was a good thing.

By my name, you can see that my great grandfather decided that he gave a damn after all. Ironically, the dam he built for irrigation led to the resurrection of Tara to a greater success than the antebellum version. Of course future generations of Butlers improved upon great grandfather's work. What Rhett Butler gave is now a hydro electric dam. This new success for Tara has led to wealth for all of Scarlett O'Hara's descendants. We all have a role in running Tara, but we are left with a considerable amount of free time. We have filled it with diverse hobbies. Some collected stamp's like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Some took to hunting like Teddy Roosevelt. Mine is baseball. I became a rabid fan in the 1947 World Series. I first had hope of a Yankee loss when Joe DiMaggio kicked the dirt in frustration, as Al Gionfriddo caught his 450 foot out. The frustration was mine when DiMaggio's team won the seventh game.

My team is the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati is the closest southern city to Atlanta that has a National league team. If you don't believe Cincinnati is a southern city, you don't know Cincinnati. But more than I love the Reds, I hate the damn Yankees. My great grandmother and grandfather would be so proud.

I had hope that when Joe D. retired, we could forget about the Yankees. Who knew that they would slip me a Mickey. That brings me to my rival, that baseball Annie, Lola. A baseball Annie is a female fan who sleeps with the players. She says that she tipped the Yankees on to Mickey Mantle. Since she claims she is responsible for the Yankees' success, you would think she would hang around the team. I guess she feels that sleeping with Mickey and Billy would not help. Or maybe she thinks it would be so easy that it is beneath her. She hangs around other teams seducing their front office people to send their best players away to play for the Yankees. She has been particularly successful with Kansas City. As I said she is a baseball Annie, so I do mean seduce. When Loretta Lynn sings about the devil's woman, she is describing Lola.

The two teams that play the Yankees most in the World Series are the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Saint Louis Cardinals. Lola knows the Cardinals would never part with Stan the Man, so she set her sights on the Dodgers' Duke Snider. With Duke and Mickey in the same outfield, the Yankees would be unbeatable.

Lola sneered at me that she would get Duke for the Yankees. Lola started with Leo when he was the manager. That was easy, he loved all pretty women. She whispered in his ear, the one that was not on the pillow. You need pitching. Duke for Raschi. When a man is into Lola, his brain turns to mud. Leo was totally into Lola, both mentally and graphically physically. He sent her advice up the chain of command. Of course he presented it as his own position. He had almost convinced the general manager.

I thought that she would get her way. I was sinking when I grasped a Branch, Rickey that is. Branch Rickey had a firm morality, that is to say he was a real prude. I got word to Branch Rickey that Leo was sleeping with that notorious baseball Annie, Lola. Suddenly, Leo was no longer a trustworthy authority. Branch Rickey consulted with his scouts.The trade was dead.

After Duke hit four home runs to beat the Yankees in the 1955 World Series, I gloated to Lola:

"Whatever Scarlett wants, Scarlett gets."

Lola didn't hesitate:

"You got one only after the Yankees won five straight World Series. Lola may not get all, but Lola gets most. Only one World Series, I don't give a damn."