Van Lingle Mungo: An Elegiac Ode

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, Winter 1985 (Vol. 4, No. 2).

Honor now, Van Lingle Mungo
Pound the plate and hoist a fungo
Flaming fastball, fiery nature
Famous for his nomenclature
Hero of that long ago
When players played for keeps, not dough
Lived it up, day/nocturnal
Never read the Wall Street Journal
Skippers in those stormy times
Included Carey, Stengel, Grimes
But Van so needed elbow room
It’s hard to say who managed whom.
He railed at teammates, cursed the Gods
Who saddled him with fearful odds.
Now, standing on the pitcher’s mound
Van draws a breath and looks around
No doubt, a trembling of the knees
To know his fate depends on these:

Fresco Thompson, Whitey Ock
Buster Mills and Lonnie Frey
Jimmy Jordan, Lindsay Brown
Packy Rogers—wanna cry?
Vincent Sherlock, Ernie Koy
Paul Chervinko, Frankie Skaff
Danny Taylor, Sid Gautreaux
(Dry your eyes, it’s worth a laugh)

And among the others chosen
For his teammates, Goody Rosen
Curly Onis, Gordon Slade

Small wonder that he oft displayed
The passion of a man betrayed.
   — it’s over, Van; rest easy.