kjk

Bases empty, two outs, a 3-1 game, #8 hitter up. Nothing comes down to this.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Sandy Koufax' Perfect Gingergame

About a month ago, my roommates told me about an amazing tradition they have every holiday season. Having only moved in a few months ago, I'd never heard about it (even though I've known them for a long time), but as a new member of the house, I was invited to take part this year.

The tradition is this: my roommates (a pair of Jewish brothers), their two older siblings, and a couple close friends get together and build an important event in Jewish history, entirely out of gingerbread (well, and candy and icing... everything on the board is edible). Over the course of the six-year tradition it's always been something biblical, but this year was a little different. Being huge baseball fans, they decided to pay homage to the most famous Jewish baseball player in history by constructing a replica of Sandy Koufax' perfect game in 1965.

Needless to say, as a baseball nut myself, I was looking forward to this from the moment it was brought up. But I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Several weeks in advance: this elaborate and precise plan was drawn by a current
law student and former theater major. Go figure.
Friday: materials.
The gingerbread, mixed a day in advance, prepares itself mentally
Saturday afternoon: they see me rollin, we bakin
The 32x40" board, tinfoiled and ready for construction
Saturday evening: gingerbread starts to roll out of the oven and the vision begins to take shape

What would eventually become light towers turned out a little more phallic than anticipated
The first wave of icing allows construction to begin
The commencement of bleacher erection (haha, erection)
The infield and dugout get touched up
After laying down the infield dirt, our groundskeeper devises an ingenious
method for removing stray clumps from the outfield grass
The light towers are erected (haha, erected), foul lines are drawn, the crowd files in, and the masterpiece is completed.
The concession area featured three varieties of food and a beer stand

Washrooms were located in the concession area
One of my roomies' traditions is that Jews are always depicted as Gummi Bears while non-Jews are Santas. Koufax, obviously, was the only Gummi Bear on the field
The home dugout of course features the home logo
A heated exchange broke out, as they are wont to do, in the bleachers
Unfortunately, the scoreboard did not feature video highlights as that is not a technology that has
found its way into the gingerbread/icing world

Koufax' strikeouts were all accounted for
These two fans had the best seats in the house
But, typically, weren't watching the game
The achievement was commemorated with a plaque engraved into the ground
beyond the outfield bleachers

Fin

26 comments:

  1. That. Is. Awesome. Wel done guys...

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is what the holidays are for. Good show!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh. my. god.
    Words do not suffice to explain how awesome this is. Thank you so much for sharing, and chag sameach to my Jewish brethren.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is really beautiful, and you've made many many many people very happy. I am just gleeful over this. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Absolutely awesome.

    Kenny Holtzman was a late season rookie call up by the 65 Cubs and got in three games.

    You may need another Gummi Bear in the Cubs' bullpen.

    ReplyDelete
  6. the world is not perfect, but that game was. goodnshow guys. myron ace

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a great memory. I was actually at that game. My Dad took me when I was 11. One of great life memories! Thanks so much!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. sweet sweet. this seemed like it was a good time. but i didn't see the part where giant humans terrorize the santas and the gummis and eat them.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thats one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for all the kind words, everybody.

    ursus: good call, I had no idea about Holtzman. Though we don't have bullpens ;)

    Mark: that's incredible, I'm so jealous of you! Where were you sitting? Maybe we can label one of the attendees "Mark".

    4kart: that'll happen in a couple weeks ;) At least whatever's still edible...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Really fuckin cool man, thats dedication .

    Very creative

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is super cool. Could famous events in baseball history stop happening against the Cubs (e.g., the babe ruth shot heard round the world)?

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a wonderful tribute to a great sports moment. Amazing and original.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very very very cool. But the Union 76 Gas Station beyond the left-center field wall feels like a glaring omission...

    ReplyDelete
  15. When I saw this web site having amazing featured YouTube videos, I decided to watch out these all videos. Masonry Solana beach

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable familiarity on the topic of unpredicted feelings. Condo Insurance Sarasota

    ReplyDelete
  17. These all YouTube gaming video instructional activities are truly in flawless quality, I watched out all these along through my partners.
    Dissertations Experts

    ReplyDelete
  18. The young boys ended up absolutely stimulated to read through them and now have unquestionably been having fun with these things. Teardown rebuild Cincinnati

    ReplyDelete
  19. This web journal is differ fascinating Very proficiently composed data. It will be significant to everybody who utilizes it, including myself. Much obliged Hi!This is exceptionally helpful post for everybody. Much obliged to you so much this post.Just about everything looks great showed
    Women bottoms shorts

    ReplyDelete
  20. I really like and appreciate your blog post, thanks again. Want some more stuff.
    Jaipur Room Rent

    ReplyDelete
  21. I really like and appreciate your blog post, thanks again. Want some more stuff.
    My Room Rent

    ReplyDelete
  22. Can you please send by e-mail me the code for this script or please tell me in detail concerning this script?

    -------------
    Learn to Read Hebrew Fast

    ReplyDelete
  23. Remarkable video, actually a pleasant quality, this YouTube video touched me a lot in terms of features.

    Date finder

    ReplyDelete