BIG BAD BASEBALL ANNUAL 2001: RETRO 1

"In the midst of this carnage and hypocrisy, we are miraculously afforded the opportunity to watch the lapidary skills of a most intricate managerial artist as he creates shadings of infinitesimally differentiated reds culled from the copious spillage of blood he is given as his primary (often his only) raw materials."

More than a book, a way of life...

--Who was C.O. Jones talking about in this passage from BBBA 2001? Hint: he's a manager who'll still be in the dugout in 2011.

"Ex-Expo farmhand, rumored to have attitude problem, has outside shot to become Dodger Dog."

--Ditto.

Stumbling over this book in a dark corner of my garage (a festively haunted "found" space filled with the overflow of an all-too-obsessive life...), I was amused to re-discover, nearly ten years on, the plaintive outpourings of that stripped-down, multi-voiced "last stand." We'll revisit some of the linguistic hijinks (and the low-bridge moments, too) in mercifully small doses.

Third time is the charm department: Ron Johnson pulls the ripcord a few years in front of baseball's biggest betrayal...

"So what lies ahead for the Expos? How can I put this?"