Posted By:
Julie Vognar
Men Against Red
(T-206 Ty Cobb)
Who is this proper young man?
A touch of pink to his cheeks,
composed mouth, eyebrows raised over calm blue eyes,
pale brown hair combed neatly
across high forehead, he is painted
on a battered piece of cardboard
hardly more than two inches high; (card)
only the brilliant red background
lends him significance.
Is this he was was all aim, power,
cunning,
spikes and fury? The greatest hitter,
hater,
the grandest dragon of them all?
"Cobb, Detroit," says the caption,
briefly.
1952 Topps Jackie Robinson
His skin seems almost made of
other than skin,
carved from some dark wood,
polished
to set off the bright black eyes,
the full lips parted in a smile
of
all encompassing determination.
Jackie, symbol to all men of the
sometimes angry ineveitable.
Only the brilliant red back-
ground
could do him justice: half
his shortstop's double play,
the opposing pitcher's night-
mare,
(card) quiet under hail of abuse,
or equal
to any in volley and sting of
words--
paradoxically, to survive
as long as he did, he must have
had
(for whatever reason!)
a bit of the Cobb in him.
(nobody pointed out that my understanding of the double play was a little wobbly)