Had you already heard about the response Vernon Wells had for a bunch of hecklers at the beginning of this month? After enough innings of shouts and jeers, the story goes, Wells tossed a ball up to the stands, with a handwritten message:
“Here’s your ball, now please tell me what gas station you work at so I can come and yell at you when you’re working. Please sit down, shut up, and enjoy the game. From your favorite centerfielder, Vernon Wells”
Maybe the fans got under Wells’s skin, but that’s a pretty comedic retort. Poetry it’s not. Billy Chapel’s signed message in For the Love of the Game, it’s not. (And while we’re on Costner, it’s also not as good as the note Crash sent Annie in Bull Durham.)