Baseball: Still Some Dying to Do

Mantle's swing has lost its zing and

Marls's bat is rusty.

The pin-striped gods now play like

clods; their pennant deeds grow

musty.

Nostalgia haunts the golden days;

the jolly boys are cranky.

What mockery now lies in that

phrase—"It's great to be a

Yankee."

Mockery of the New York Yankees? And in the Washington Post, no less! Only two years ago, no sportswriter in Washington—or anywhere else—would have dared such doggerel about the Yankees, perennial overlords of the American League, winners of 29 pennants and 20 World Series. But last season the champion Yanks plummeted to sixth place, and rival teams...