Darlene Sularski, a cocktail waitress and hostess at Lefty O'Doul's Restaurant and Tavern, recoiled in horror Tuesday morning when she opened a package delivered to the famed San Francisco establishment.
Inside the box was the severed left arm of Lefty O'Doul, legendary San Francisco baseball player and manager.
Technically, it was the detached left arm of a mannequin that had been Lefty's stand-in near the entrance of his Geary Street saloon for many years, draped in a baseball jersey and silently greeting patrons. Three years ago, the arm was ripped off, literally and colloquially, by two tourists. Bartender Paul Stengel (grandnephew of baseball legend Casey Stengel) leapt over the bar and gave chase, but the miscreants eluded him in nearby Union Square.
Lefty's arm was abducted by two men who perhaps were emboldened by too many of O'Doul's Bloody Marys. The men took the arm on a three-year joyride through the Midwest, photographing it in various locales and situations - some of them rated PG-13.
Tuesday, the arm returned in its mysterious package with a return address of Des Moines, Iowa. Besides the arm, the white box - big enough to hold an old-fashioned 19-inch TV - included a letter, a dozen snapshots and a barrelful of Styrofoam peanuts.
The letter was from "Lefty's Left Arm" and opened "Dear Bar Patrons of Lefty O'Doul's." It recalled the plane flight to Des Moines in an overhead bin and its "reservations about the weather."
The arm then listed some of its adventures, including participating in a 12,000-cyclist bike race across Iowa, sledding and touring the state Capitol. Somewhere along the line, it put on a yellow bracelet from Livestrong, cycling champion Lance Armstrong's cancer foundation.
To judge from the photos, though, the arm was usually involved in harassing the friends of its captors, who used it to grope anyone within arm's reach.
The letter included a handwritten note: "We felt it was time for Lefty to return home. He will be missed but long remembered! Lefty's friends."
Sularski said that when she opened the box, she quickly realized the arm was plastic, but it creeped her out anyway. She has worked at Lefty's only since September and didn't know the story of the dis-arming. (The Lefty mannequin, with its empty left sleeve, had been moved to a secure balcony above the saloon floor.)
Sularski quickly handed the package to O'Doul's owner Nick Bovis, saying, "I'm not dealing with this."
Bovis, whose family bought O'Doul's in 1998, said Tuesday he plans to insure the left arm for $1 million, and to hold a reattachment ceremony. Although Bovis now markets a Bloody Mary mix based on O'Doul's recently rediscovered secret recipe, this job might require a screwdriver.
Lefty O'Doul, who played with the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Dodgers and Phillies in the major leagues and managed the minor-league San Francisco Seals for 17 seasons, opened his saloon in 1958 and died in 1969. The tavern remains a shrine to O'Doul and to baseball, the walls covered with scores of historical photos.
When his mannequin was maimed three years ago, it wasn't the first time Lefty O'Doul had experienced left arm trouble.
Francis Joseph O'Doul was a San Francisco native who became a big-league pitcher in 1919. He soon blew out his left arm and had to focus on hitting. He made a comeback as a slugging outfielder, posting a career .349 batting average, including a .398 season - just short of the sport's revered .400 mark - with the Philadelphia Phillies in '29.
O'Doul managed the minor-league San Francisco Seals from 1935 to '51 and was a beloved figure in town. He helped develop a local baseball phenom named Joe DiMaggio. O'Doul also was instrumental in introducing baseball to Japan and is enshrined in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
A drawbridge spanning McCovey Cove outside AT&T Park is named the Lefty O'Doul Bridge.
Read the original SF Chronicle story here
No comments:
Post a Comment