In the final three games of the 1956 World Series, the aging, soon-to-be-extinct Brooklyn Dodgers managed to score a total of just one run.<\/p>\n
But that run was good enough for a Game 6 victory, thanks to a 10-inning shutout thrown by \u201cOh, my darling\u201d Clem Labine \u2014 ordinarily a late-inning relief pitcher who, in a stroke of managerial genius, or desperation, was chosen by Walt Alston to start.<\/p>\n
As for the game\u2019s only run in the bottom of the 10th, it was delivered by a line drive off the bat of Jackie Robinson, which Yankee left-fielder Enos Slaughter momentarily misjudged, only to watch it sail over his head. It was Robinson\u2019s last hurrah at the end of a storied career.<\/p>\n
One reason you don\u2019t know or care about any of this is that Game 6 occurred in the penumbra of Game 5, when Don Larsen pitched the Perfect Game that is the only thing anyone remembers about the \u201956 Series.<\/p>\n
So where am I going with this? Have patience, there\u2019s some analogous reasoning on the way.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a person who deems yourself to be a \u201ctraditional\u201d American \u2014 which is like trying to be a traditional Catholic when the Catholic Church and Christianity in general are either self-destructing or being persecuted every time you look around \u2014 if, as I say, you\u2019re a traditional American, then you know that you\u2019re in Game 6 of a World Series that you are losing. All around you, people under 40 sound like neo-Marxists, while your older, fat-cat Republican neighbors are cosmopolitan globalists who wouldn\u2019t be caught dead wearing a MAGA hat.<\/p>\n
Like the fabled Bums of Brooklyn up against the New York Yankee juggernaut, you feel outmanned and outclassed at every position. None of the trends look good. The wind is not at your back.<\/p>\n
But, hey, it\u2019s Game 6, and right now Clem Labine is on the mound, in the form of a 70-year-old who came down an escalator in Trump Tower, with his best years clearly behind him.<\/p>\n
Except that they weren\u2019t. For now he\u2019s keeping a vaunted offensive lineup at bay, and it\u2019s starting to look like he might be good for extra innings, in the form of a second term in office. And, who knows, perhaps he has a teammate or two who will eventually remember how to swing a bat.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve noticed, of course, that I haven\u2019t mentioned Game 7. Nor will I.<\/p>\n
But I will say that the last time I laid eyes on Don Larsen was some 15 years ago in a sports bar in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho, where he was a regular and still scoring free drinks in recognition of his shining moment in the October sun some 45 years earlier.<\/p>\n
Some guys have all the luck.<\/p>\n
Or not. It may well be that Donald Trump will wind up in a few unread pages in the history of the world, noted as being just an anomalous bump in the road on the way to the New World Order.<\/p>\n
But, for now, it\u2019s still Game 6, and hope springs eternal.<\/p>\n
Chad Klinger lives in Basalt, land of the free \u2014 at least when it comes to getting a plastic bag at the local City Market.<\/p>\n