DAN'S PAPERS, August 13, 2010 Page 26 www.danshamptons.com
Artist/Writers
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house on Nassau Point at Dan’s Papers afterwards, that time. He was in as a “but now dammit, I forgot pinch hitter and just it.” slammed it over the fence. Then he rubbed the spot “It was just a lucky shot,” he where he got hit. told war correspondent The big excitement of the Edward R. Morrow, who had day, however, came in the come in from the front in bottom of the ninth when Normandy for the day just to the Artists came up for their cover the story. last chance. Errol Flynn, the Ted Williams, the bad-temactor, hit a solid double to pered Boston Red Sox leftleft, off pitcher-salesman fielder was there, but it was Willie Loman. (Some were Woody whacked a triple just to sign autographs. “I tipped off that he’d paid to could beat these bums with come and play.) Then 16-yearone hand,” he said, and that was probably old Andy Warhol, who was with his parents true. renting a bungalow on the beach in Montauk, Adolf Hitler had been invited but he never walked. And then the next batter, farmer Dick showed up. An aide arrived to say he was busy. Hendrickson Sr., also walked, loading them It was a shame because the idea of the Artists- up. Writers Game was that you leave your guns Managing the writers at that time was and troubles at the door when you come to Harold Ross, the founder of The New Yorker. play, and he sure had a lot of guns and trou- He trotted out and sent Willie Loman off to bles at that time. the showers and then called in Bob Feller— Woody Guthrie, the folk singer, hit a triple, the son of a farmer in Southampton who was driving in two at the top of the ninth, opening home for the summer from college and reputthe lead for the Writers to 7 to 4. Also in the edly possessed of a blazing fastball—to put top of the ninth, Albert Einstein came up to out the fire. hit again, and this time he twisted away from In response, the manager of the artist’s the first pitch but it hit him in the side of the team, choreographer Jerome Robbins, brought head anyway. He waved people away saying heavyweight champion Joe Louis to the plate. he was all right. But then he struck out. Louis had been staying with some fellow “I finally got the brainstorm I wanted that African Americans who had a home in Sag solved the Unified Field Theory I have been Harbor—this was in the heyday of segregaworking on,” he told a local reporter from tion—and everyone had to wait for him to be
brought over. Bob Feller blazed his first pitch,which Louis swung for and missed. Then, the umpire, President Franklin D. Roosevelt—out here for a little R and R with his Presidential advisor Harry Hopkins—threw Bob Feller out of the game for pitching so fast in what was supposed to be a slow-pitch contest. The writer’s new pitcher was called in— Jimmy Durante, the schnozz nosed comic— and he did a big wind up and pitched this great arc of a pitch, high up into the sky, which a big Osprey flying by caught in his talons and flew off with. The President then called off the game on account of strange behavior. He said he had to run because Eisenhower was on the telephone and he had to find a place near by that had a phone booth to take the call. On the books, this game ended Writers 7, Artists 4, but for many years there were those who believed that the Artists could have won it there in the bottom of the ninth if only the President had allowed the game to continue. As a result of this controversy, Leif Hope, the long time promoter of the game placed an asterisk (*) next to this score in all the record books to indicate the contentious nature of this dispute and the unusual outcome. Late that night, George Plimpton awarded the jeroboam of champagne at Jungle Pete’s to Ernest Hemingway of the Writer’s team, for the accidental winning bunt he hit in the top of the eighth to get on base—breaking a threeyear drought of never having gotten a hit.