Words and Illustration by B. E. Sabin | August 24, 2024
On September 23, 1911, a gentleman named Earle Ovington hopped into a Bleriot monoplane and delivered the first airmail authorized by the U.S. Post Office. Rather than landing his plane in the predetermined location, Mineola, New York, he threw the mail sacks out of the plane and scattered the letters all over kingdom come. While the journey did not end in a fiery crash with Ovington and his plane in a flaming pile on the ground, it is safe to say that the execution needed some work. Ovington surely missed the mark.
A Is for Airmail
And speaking of missing the mark, when was the last time you saw a shortstop charge a slowly hit grounder, scoop it up in one deft motion, smooth as silk, and then launch the ball into the visitor’s dugout? Yesterday, last week, or a month ago (hopefully not a month ago, that means you’re not watching enough baseball)? Say it was yesterday, and I would say to you that the shortstop “airmailed” the baseball.
Let’s travel back to July 27, 1988, for a real in-game example of a twice-airmailed baseball. The New York Yankees were playing the Milwaukee Brewers (back then the Brewers were in the American League, it’s true, just ask your mom or dad or a trusted adult). Tommy John was on the mound for the Yankees and Jeffrey Leonard, old 00 himself, was at the plate.
Leonard hit a slow roller down the first base side and John hustled to pick it up. He fumbled the ball (the first of three errors that John would commit on this play, not a shining moment in his career), which then caused him to hurry his throw to first. He airmailed the throw over Don Mattingly’s head (this is the second error).
Luckily Dave Winfield was backing up the play because the runner who was on first, Jim Gantner, was trying to score. Winfield, who was known to have a strong arm, unleashed a bullet to the plate, but somebody got in the way. Can you guess who? That’s right, John cut off the throw that didn’t need cutting off and then proceeded to airmail the ball again past the catcher (error number three).
Thank you, John, for such a fine example of why A is for Airmail.
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