My First Baseball Hero-Fat Freddie

Most of the great baseball players
Had nicknames that reflected their skills against their foes
Ruth was the King of Swat
DiMaggio was Jolting Joe

But my first baseball hero had no such nickname
He was a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, whose record in 1940 was first rate
His name was Freddie Fitzsimmons
Whose nickname was Fat Freddie, in view of his considerable weight

In I940 the Dodgers were an improving team
But had not won the pennant since 1920
They challenged the Cincinnati Reds for most of the season
And the Reds would have won overwhelmingly, but for the exploits of Fat Freddie

In 1940 Fat Freddie won 16 games and lost 2
A winning percentage of almost nine hundred is what he’d done
This percentage broke the National League record of .842
And stood until Roy Face in 1959 won eighteen games and lost one

The Dodgers handled Freddie with great care
He was given at least 5 days of rest in the main
Freddie owned a Brooklyn bowling alley
And apparently this was where he trained

In the end, Cincinnati, pulled ahead
And by season’s end it was they who won
All In all they were a superior team
A gap which Freddie’s great pitching could not overcome