Greetings, all.
And welcome to Countdown Day 29.
So, you ever run into someone who seems especially pliable? No, we’re not talking flexibility of character here.
Instead, I’m thinking more along the lines of extreme pliability in the physical sense.
(Is it me, or did a large portion of you just flash back to a showdown between Plastic Man and Mr. Fantastic?! Or maybe you imagined a tense makeshift tug of war game between you and a friend, using the legendary Stretch Armstrong as your game piece?!!)
In any case, our first Winter Solstice 2024 countdown hero is some nameless guy from the bowels of the New York City subway system.
You’d think that after nearly a dozen years of living in Manhattan, I’d be able to easily dismiss anything I ever saw or experienced on the subway. (Case in point, like the time a complete stranger hugged me, claiming that I’d saved her from serious harm. In truth, all I really did was flatten an oversized cockroach that had camped out on the platform at the Steinway Street station in Queens.)
But in mid-August of this past year, things were different somehow. And that day, I soon learned that the guy who jumped on the Uptown 5 express train at Union Square was not your normal train car showman.
Unlike most of the singers, dancers and musicians in the subway, he had a way about him, a style I hadn’t seen before. How to best explain it?…Well, the man just sort of glided.
He wore what looked like fairly expensive high top sneakers, khaki cargo pants, a New York Yankees’ baseball jersey and a grey fedora
hat that he flipped on and off of his head in perfect rhythm to the music that came from an old-school boom box he brought on with him.
Like I said, this was not the typical midday/midweek underground entertainer. This guy bent and stretched and wiggled like something straight out of Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, and then for good measure, he suddenly flipped upside down and backwards – ala the late soccer legend Pele, landing perfectly on his feet.
The subway car wasn’t especially crowded, so there weren’t a lot of passengers waiting to drop change and maybe a few stray bills into his grey fedora. It didn’t seem to bother him all that much, though, as he continued his expert routine, smiling widely and doing some variation on a moonwalk as we approached the next stop.
Executing something of a modified bow, he collected his modest earnings (the best I could offer him were a few crumpled singles, as like most of us, I don’t carry around too much cash anymore) and headed for the door. On the way out, he lowered the volume on his radio, tipped his grey fedora and then flipped it back, again perfectly on top of his head.
I hadn’t noticed it during his performance, but when he walked out, I could see the number 29 on the back of his Yankees’ jersey.
Yeah, so I checked it out and the last New York Yankee to wear that number was a little known utility infielder/outfielder named Dustin Ackley. Along the way, some Major Leaguers of note, including power-hitting outfielder Jesse Barfield, All-Star relief pitcher Mike Staunton and the late, great Hall of Fame hurler Catfish Hunter had also worn it.
Additionally and oddly coincidental, the very first New York Yankees uniforms with jersey numbers debuted in 1929.
Enjoy the start of the weekend, all. Hope to hang with you tomorrow.
JFish
@Copyright 2024 by John L. Fischer
Pingback: A Toast to Us – John L. Fischer