AWAD reader Nadine Smith posted this in the comments to AWADmail 834:
I'll probably be sorry I suggested this, but many of the "limericks" have the meter all wrong. The form is strict for a real limerick.
I replied, "Don't be sorry, Nadine. I think readers who love anapæst gag at most of the entries (and iamb one of them.) When Casey Stengel was managing the NY Mets during their first season of 1962 (they went 40-120) he looked down the bench for a replacement player. His alleged comment appears as my L5."
When lim'ricks don't scan, it's a shame
And Casey might feel just the same.
So many poetasters
Creating disasters,
"Can't anyone here play this game?"
One of Yogi Berra's memorable wacky quotes is "I really didn't say all those things that I said." And he did not utter "Can't anybody here play this game?" That was Casey Stengel, who after winning ten pennants in twelve years with the New York Yankees became the inaugural manager of the hapless but lovable New York Metropolitans franchise in 1962, losing at least 109 games in each of his three full campaigns before retiring due to poor health in mid-season 1965. The quotation was adopted by sportswriter Jimmy Breslin as the title of his chronicle of the '62 "Amazin' Mets."
ReplyDeleteBerra was named Mets' manager when Gil Hodges died during spring training of 1972. Yogi won the 1973 National League pennant but was fired two-thirds of the way through his fourth season in 1975.
Thankfully, line 2 works just as well when "Casey" is substituted for "Yogi."
OMG! I knew something didn't feel right. It's now fixed (both here and at the AWAD comments.)
ReplyDelete