My best buddy ransomed a 59 Topps Enos Slaughter

from a kid up the street.

Didn't know what lust meant,
 
but I had to have that card.

In '34 he played Bi State ball here;

his hometown was 50 miles away,

lifetime average .300;

Enos was a YANKEE.

We traded 3 times

before Tom got smart and ordered another one.

He didn't get the number from me-

'somehow' mine got inked out.
 
 
In '75 at NC State, I read

Enos coached Duke's baseball team

and parked in a Doak Field seat.

State shellacked 'em twice

but my joy was hollow.

Slaughter never showed!

Fifteen years later at the hometown mall

Enos plugged his autobiography.

He signed mine while expounding on Branch Rickey;

Slaughter was  more truthful than diplomatic.

Tact was never Bosco's hallmark;

in 1960, managing Raleigh Durham's Mets,

he told the front office what a lousy team they'd given him.

Kept telling them till the Mets released him.

He's dead and God alone knows

how long Eno lasts in heaven;

he'll tell Him what he thinks too. 

Copyright ©2002 Daniel Grey Taylor