1989 Play-by-Play
January
On January 7th, scoring opened in a big way with 39 gamesters bowing to Emperor Hirohito. Fifteen went Wild for five, and the lead was very crowded. Two days later, the great, great Morbo Chucks soloed for one on Bill Terry, the last man in the National League to hit .400, (401 in 1930). The ace on top of their Wild Card gave them six points and sole possession of the lead!... And what a wonderful five days they had, before the Sick Puppies shattered their dreams with a four-point solo on maverick economist Robert Lekachman and took the lead at nine points... Jan. 17th, rookie phenoms Morituri te Salutamus soloed for one on millionaire rancher Lloyd Bentsen Sr., in a car crash. What a debut!... Jan. 20th, the Portland Sisters (a team featuring the Merry Little Breezes) and OPEC scored one each on Lady Peel aka Beatrice Lillie, "every other inch a lady," delightful British actress of stage and screen... Next day, Binky Brown, the Morbo Chucks and the Sick Puppies scored four each on Brooklyn Dodger great Carl Furillo. The hit lifted the Pups to 13... Jan. 23rd, 40 gamesters scored on artist Salvador Dali, and four -- including Demento Morte and Deus ex Machina -- went Wild. The deuce moved the Pups to 15... Jan. 24th, serial killer Ted Bundy ran out of appeals and five gamesters scored a sparky six points each; it was the last scheduled execution to qualify for points in the Game... Jan. 26th, the Fire Ants scored a solo ace on H. Claude Hudson, a founder of the NAACP... The next day, Pontius scored a WILD CARD SOLO with his singleton on Sir Thomas Sopwith, aviation pioneer with designed the Sopwith Camel.
February '89
February 3rd, Doom & Gloom, the Moorebids, and D. Perriman Jr. scored five each on actor, director John Cassavetes... Feb. 10th, G. Reaper soloed for three on disgraced Rep. Wayne Hayes famed for employing blonde temptress (not typist) Elizabeth Ray at the taxpayer's expense.
March '89
March 9th, after a month-long lull, Capt. Cadaver, Deus ex Machina, the Moorebids, and the Sick Puppies scored six on photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who was destined to become even more famous after he died. The Pups rose effortlessly to 21 points... Mar. 12th, Deathwatch, Ms. O'Ree and D. Perriman Sr. scored two on Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans, who also produced "No Time for Sergeants" on Broadway and played Elizabeth Montgomery's father on TV's "Bewitched"... Mar. 27th, e. mcgrath soloed for two on literary critic Malcolm Cowley.
April '89
April 12th, 11 gamesters kayoed Sugar Ray Robinson and took a four-count. Leading the way, the ham-fisted Moorebids, who took the lead at 22 points!... Apr. 15th, Montressor and Perry Mason duoed on China's Hu Yaobang for three... Next day, Legion of Doom shouted, "You're out!" to umpire Jocko Conlan and put two runs up on the scoreboard... Apr. 19th, D.K. Androt and T. & J. James tallied two each on author Daphne Du Maurier... Apr. 21st, Pontius soloed for three on Princess Dok-Hye, the last of Korea's Yi Dynasty... Apr. 26th, 18 gamesters proclaimed "I Love Lucy" for three each on Lucille Ball... Apr. 27th, Penguin soloed for one on Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese electronics pioneer who started a company with $50 in 1918 and sold $42 billion worth of goods in 1988... Apr. 28th, eight gamesters tallied three on Teamster bad guy Roy Williams and the Sick Puppies re-took the lead at 24 points.
May '89
May 3rd, six gamesters turned four points on Christine Jorgensen, sex-change pioneer in 1952... May 6th, Fire Ants and Legion of Doom scored one each on West Point coach Earl "Red" Blaik... May 11th, Sal Monella played a mournful two-point solo on Jazz mentor Max Gordon... May 20th, three hits: e. mcgrath soloed on economist Sir John Hicks for two; Demento Morte and G. Reaper scored two each on Sen. Warren Magnuson; 14 gamesters led by the Sick Puppies scored six on comic actress Gilda Radner, and the Pups rose to 30 points... May 30th, 15 gamesters scored two on Claude Pepper, long-timer on Capitol Hill.
June '89
June 3rd, 40 gamesters joined the throng celebrating the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini; Dr. Doornail and Necrophiliac Pimp went Wild for five... June 13th, Ms. O'Ree soloed for two on Fran Allison of TV's "Kukla, Fran & Ollie"... June 18th, Dorian Gray and e. mcgrath tallied two each on gadfly I.F. Stone.
July '89
July 2nd, Demento Morte, Mr. Brink, Perry Mason and the Penguin tallied three on Soviet big cheese and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko... Next day, 11 gamesters scored three on actor Jim Backus who managed to play James Dean's father in "Rebel Without a Cause" and be the voice of Mr. Magoo... July 6th, Dorian Gray soloed for three on Hungarian leader Janos Kadar... July 10th, the National Health soloed for two on comedian Tommy Trinder. Same day, Cassandra Bob, J. Eby, Morituri te Salutamus and Sweeny Todd scored two on Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs, Woody, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, Sylvester, et al... Next day, 28 gamesters led by the Sick Puppies scored two on actor Laurence Olivier; the Pups rose to 32... Next day, the Sick Puppies soloed for two on philosopher Sidney Hook, and rose to 34... July 16th, Cassandra Bob and Minerva dueted for conductor Herbert von Karajan and were rewarded with two taps of the baton... July 31st, the Sick Puppies led five in scoring four on economist Michael Harrington, and rose to 38.
August '89
August 16th, Morituri te Salutamas, Razor and Silver Tapps scored four on actress Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty on TV's "Gunsmoke"... Aug. 22nd, M. Hamilton and the Moorebids scored two on fashion arbiter Diana Vreeland... Aug. 26th, Cassandra Bob, Ms. O'Ree and D. Perriman Sr. scored two on author Irving Stone... Aug. 28th, Minerva soloed for three on columnist Joe Alsop.
September '89
September 4th, M. Hamilton soloed for two on detective novelist Georges Simenon... Sept. 11th, 16 gamesters led by the Sick Puppies scored three on Paul Gann, co-author of Proposition 13. The Pups, unchallenged in the lead, rose to 41... Sept. 15th, Robert Penn Warren, long on literary lists, found himself on six death lists and dashed off two points to a circle of lettered admirers that included Cassandra Bob, Demento Morte, Deus ex Machina, e. mcgrath and the Morbo Chucks... Sept. 22nd, the man who wrote "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" didn't, and 19 gamesters aced on Irving Berlin. For some, this capped a wait of almost 20 years. Chiming in with Wild Cards were D. Beach, The Penguin, D. Perriman Sr., Scorpio and Sweeny Todd... He loved a crowd, and on Sept. 28th, Ferdinand Marcos drew one to the sunny parade ground outside Game Central where he reviewed 44 snappy gamesters and awarded each three points with a lily cluster. The leading Pups rose to 44 points... Next day, August Busch Jr., head of an American brewing dynasty, set up a final one-point pilsner for Fire Ants, e. mcgrath, the Morbo Chucks, Mortis the Cat and Necrophiliac Pimp... Sept. 30th was concert time as M. Hamilton sang a one-point solo with American musical eminence Virgil Thompson.
October '89
October 3rd, the Fire Ants soloed for one on fiddler Dennis McGee... Oct. 4th, a great American sports hero, Secretariat, crossed the finish line at 1-1 and paid one point to Pontius for the space he'd wagered... The theater was full on Oct. 6th, and Bette Davis took a final bow for 33 enthralled fans of the silver screen... Oct. 16th, matinee idol Cornell Wilde swashed and buckled, scoring three handsome solo points for Mortis the Cat.
November '89
November opened on the 5th with an arpeggio from Vladimir Horowitz, playing a two-point concert for chamber of 14, most notably D. Perriman Sr. and D. Beach of the Diner's Club, rallying again as in days of old, plus Ms. O'Ree for her 14th hit of the season, plus The Penguin who surged into a tie for second place with the Moorebids. Did the feisty Gothamites resent the intrusion? You bet, and the next day they had a musical response of their own, belting out "The Ballad of the Green Berets" with a no-nonsense six-point smash on Sgt. Barry Sadler, pulling to within two points of the leading Sick Puppies. Joining the Moorebids on the beribboned balladeer were the great, great Morbo Chucks and the Portland Sisters who each passed about a dozen gamesters on their march to the front... Nov. 12th saw an historical duet on Spanish Civil War firebrand Dolores Ibarruri. D. Beach and Fire Ants each collected one point, and noted, "They shall not pass!"
December '89
December 6th, Ms. O'Ree broke the ice of a 23-day lull with a solo deuce on songwriter Sammy Fain, her 15th hit of the year. Same day, the Sick Puppies led four in a deuce on actress Francis Bavier, Andy Griffith's loveable "Aunt Bee," and moved to 46... Dec. 14th opened with a boom as the only H-bomb developer to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize, Andrei Sakharov, unleashed four blinding points on nine goggled gamesters; Perry Mason led the way and moved into third at 39... Dec. 17th, taps sounded for Gen. A.C. Wedemeyer, WWII commander, and Minerva soloed for one point... Dec. 22nd, Deus ex Machina soloed for two on playwright Samuel Beckett... Dec. 25th, Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu was on the receiving end of a 21-gun salute; scoring three points each were Perry Mason, the Portland Sisters and moving to 49 points, the Sick Puppies. Same day, the Yankee's Billy Martin went drinking with a pal and ended up dead in a ditch; scoring four were Blunt Instrument, Deathwatch and Morituri te Salutamus... Dec. 26th, the high-sticking Sick Puppies put four more points in the net with a solo on hockey's Doug Harvey.
And so it ended, with The Sick Puppies winning the Gran Prix for the fifth year in a row (53 points) and the Perriman Pennant (15 hits), the latter honor shared with Ms. O'Ree who had a career best season. The Reaper Ribbon for High QPA (4.16) went to Dr. Doornail. Clete's Cup went to Fire Ants (1.25). Morituri te Salutamus won Rookie of the Year with bookend car crashes, and Pontius took Doc's Diploma for Class List with three solos including a Wild Card Solo, the pinnacle of style. The Buffalo Cup went to Ghostwriter, who correctly called four coup d'etats, all bloodless, and couldn't liberate a single point.
Let's look at the Top Ten for 1989.
Take me on to 1990.
Take me back to Play-by-Play.