When there are so many to mourn
-- in one week Kirk Douglas, George Steiner, Alice Mayhew --
the death of Roger Kahn is what I am thinking of
as I nurse my martini at the Knickerbocker
and his great book "The Boys of Summer"
about my boyhood team the Brooklyn Dodgers
when I came of baseball age in 1956, age 8,
the last hurrah (Newk 27 wins, Duke 43 hrs,
Erskine and Maglie no-hitters and, for the last time,
Jackie Robinson danced off third base)
and then the team moved to LA in 1958.
The Boys of Summer! They were giving away
paperback copies of this wonderful book
at a bank in Brooklyn in 1973, with five former players
on hand, to sign copies. My copy is in Ithaca
and I'm in New York City, so I can't name
all the guys who signed my book but one of them
was Carl Furillo and this gave me the chance
to praise his post-season clutch hitting heroics in 1959
and tell him he was my father's favorite Dodger.
-- David Lehman
Note: Shotgun Shuba was definitely there; I think Billy Cox also.
