Exegesis

pg. 5"But Lucille say she cooking up a pot of pigfeet"

a food preparation associated with African American soul food and Southern country cuisine, as well as German and Irish cuisine. However pigs feet are not always pickled. Often they are cooked in vinegar and water to preserve their natural flavor. In Ireland they are known as crubeens or crúibíní. In this preparation, the feet of hogs are salted and smoked in the same manner as other pork cuts, such as hams and bacon, and can be prepared. They are then placed in tall glass jars and covered with a solution of hot brine containing vinegar, much in the manner of pickled vegetables such as cucumbers. This method allows them to be preserved without any need for refrigeration until the jar is opened. Pickled pigs feet are usually consumed as something of a snack or a delicacy rather than as the primary focus of a meal as its meat course, although this is not a universal rule. If proper refrigeration is available, any unused portion can be kept in the jar for several days after it is opened. Often they will be consumed with crackers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_pigs_feet


pg. 6"Okay, baby...but I'm gonna buy me a banty rooster and put him out there in the backyard..."

Banty is short for Bantam. The old folks back in the day just always call Bantam Roosters, "banty" roosters. Bantams are about 1/4 the size of what is considered a "regular" chicken. They are sometimes referred to as domestic game birds. Most people raise them as pets, unfortunately there are those who still raise and use them to fight.In addition this term is used to describe the behavior of some short men who may tend to walk with a swagger and adopt a somewhat exaggerated male posture. They are called banty roosters after the bantam rooster both because of their size and because their behavior can "out-rooster" the more standard sized rooster.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_banty_rooster


pg.9 "That's Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. Them's the only two men hit more home runs than you. "
Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947) was an American catcher in baseball's Negro Leagues. He played for the Homestead Grays from 1930 to 1931, moved to the Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1932 to 1936, and returned to the Grays from 1937 to 1939 and 1942 to 1946. In 1937 he played for Ciudad Trujillo in Trujillo's Dominican League and from 1940 to 1941 he played in the Mexican League for Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz. He stood 6-foot-1 (185 cm) and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg) at the peak of his career.[1] Baseball historians consider Gibson to be among the very best catchers and power hitters in the history of any league, including the Major Leagues, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Gibson was known as the "black Babe Ruth."[2] (In fact, Gibson was so good, many fans at the time who saw both Gibson and Ruth play called Ruth "the white Josh Gibson.") [3] He never played in Major League Baseball because, under their unwritten "gentleman's agreement" policy, they excluded non-whites during his lifetime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Gibson


pg.14 "I'll be damned! I'll die and go to hell and play blackjack with the devil beforeI give you ten dollars"

the equivalent amount of goods, in a particular year, that could be purchased with $1 would be $3.42. The value of the dollar decreases as when when the years get closer to the 21ist century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_currency#Consumer_Price_Index


pg.34 "The Braves got Hank Aaron and Wes Covington."

(born February 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama), is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned from 1954 through 1976. Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron 5th on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players." After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his Major League Baseball career in 1954. He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (1975–76) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. In his career, Aaron had many accomplishments and set many records. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs with 755, which he held for 33 years until being surpassed by San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. During his professional career, Aaron performed at a consistently high level for an extended period of time. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times.[1] He is one of only four players to have at least 17 seasons with 150 or more hits.[2] Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975[3] and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957 he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series. It was Aaron's one World Series victory during his career as a player. Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856). He is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (3rd) and runs with 2,174 (tied for 4th with Babe Ruth). He also is in second place in at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games (3,298). Aaron's nicknames include "Hammer," "Hammerin' Hank,” and "Bad Henry”. To honor Aaron's contributions to Major League Baseball, MLB created the Hank Aaron Award, an annual award given to the hitters voted the most effective in each respective league. He is the last Negro league baseball player to play in the major leagues.[4] He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, his first year of eligibility. That same year, baseball fans named Aaron to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hank Aaron on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron


pg.34 "The Braves got Hank Aaron and Wes Covington."

(born March 27, 1932 in Laurinburg, North Carolina) was a Major League Baseball player for the Milwaukee Braves, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1956 to 1966. Covington is one of a handful of players to have played for four different teams in one season when he accomplished this feat in 1961. His best season came in 1958 with the Braves when he hit 24 home runs, had 74 Runs Batted In and hit for a .330 batting average. He played his last game of his career with the Dodgers in the 1966 World Series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Covington


pg.34 "I hit seven home runs off of Satchel Paige."

(July 7, 1906[1]– June 8, 1982) was an American baseball player whose pitching in several different Negro Leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime. Paige was a right-handed pitcher and was the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball. He played with the St. Louis Browns around the age of fifty and represented them in the Major League All-Star Game in both 1952 and 1953. His professional playing career lasted from the mid-1920s until 1965.[2] In 1971, Paige was the first player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame from the Negro Leagues.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige


pg.34 "Sandy Koufax. He's leading the league in strikeouts."

pronounced /ˈkoʊfæks/) (born Sanford Braun, on December 30, 1935) is an American left-handed former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1955 to 1966. Koufax's career peaked with a run of six outstanding seasons from 1961 to 1966, before arthritis ended his career at age 30. He was named the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1963. He also won the 1963, 1965, and 1966 Cy Young Awards by unanimous votes, all during the period when only one pitcher was chosen per season, making him the first 3-time Cy Young winner in baseball history. In each of his Cy Young seasons, Koufax won the pitcher's triple crown by leading the NL in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average. Koufax's totals would also have led the American League in those seasons.[1][2] Koufax was the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hitters (including a perfect game). Despite his comparatively short career, Koufax's 2,396 career strikeouts ranked 7th in history as of his retirement, trailing only Warren Spahn (2,583) among left-handers. Retiring at the peak of his career, he became, at age 36 and 20 days, the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.[3] Koufax is also remembered as one of the outstanding Jewish athletes in American sport. His decision not to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur garnered national attention as an example of conflict between social pressures and personal beliefs.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Koufax


pg.34 "I bet you couldn't hit no home runs off of Warren Spahn"

(April 23, 1921 – November 24, 2003) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 21 seasons, all in the National League. He won 20 games each in 13 seasons, including a 23-7 record when he was aged 42. Spahn was the 1957 Cy Young Award winner, and was the runner-up three times, all during the period when just one award was given. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, with 83% of the total vote. (His eligibility was delayed, under the rules of the time by 2 years of token minor league play). Spahn was regarded as a "thinking man's" pitcher who liked to outwit batters. He once described his approach on the mound: "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." Spahn won more games (363) than any other left-handed pitcher in history, and more than any other pitcher who played his entire career in the post-1920 live-ball era. He is acknowledged as one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball history. The Warren Spahn Award, given to the major leagues' best left-handed pitcher, is named after him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spahn


pg.34 "You got Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette."

(November 22, 1926 – February 6, 2007) was an American right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played primarily for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves. The team's top right-hander during its years in Milwaukee, he was the Most Valuable Player of the 1957 World Series, leading the franchise to its first championship in 43 years, and the only title in Milwaukee history. An outstanding control pitcher, his career average of 1.84 walks per nine innings pitched places him behind only Robin Roberts (1.73), Carl Hubbell (1.82) and Juan Marichal (1.82) among pitchers with at least 3000 innings since 1920. Born in Nitro, West Virginia, Burdette was signed by the New York Yankees in 1947, and after making two relief appearances for the team in September 1950, he was traded to the Braves in August 1951 for four-time 20-game winner Johnny Sain. Along with left-hander Warren Spahn and hardworking Bob Buhl, he gave the Braves one of the best starting rotations in the majors during the 1950s, winning 15 or more games eight times between 1953 and 1961. When Milwaukee won the 1957 World Series against the Yankees, Burdette became the first pitcher in 37 years to win three complete games in a Series, and the first since Christy Mathewson in 1905 to pitch two shutouts (Games 5 and 7). In the 1958 Series, however, the Yankees defeated Burdette twice in three starts. In addition to winning 20 games in 1958 and 21 in 1959, Burdette won 19 in 1956 and 1960, 18 in 1961, and 17 in 1957. In two All-Star games, he allowed only one run in seven innings pitched, and in 1956 he topped National League pitchers with a 2.70 earned run average. He also led the NL in shutouts twice, and in wins, innings and complete games once each. Burdette was the winning pitcher on May 26, 1959 when the Pittsburgh Pirates' Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game against the Braves for 12 innings, only to lose in the 13th. Burdette threw a 1-0 shutout, scattering 12 hits. In the ensuing offseason, he joked, "I'm the greatest pitcher that ever lived. The greatest game that was ever pitched in baseball wasn't good enough to beat me, so I've got to be the greatest!" The next year, facing the minimum 27 batters, Burdette pitched a 1–0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on August 18, 1960. Tony González, the only opposing batter to reach base after being hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, was retired on a double play. Burdette helped himself by scoring the only run of the game. Following up his no-hitter, five days later he pitched his third shutout in a row. As a hitter, he compiled a .183 batting average with 75 RBI and 12 home runs; his first two home runs came in the same 1957 game, and he later had two more two-homer games. In 1963 Burdette was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals (1963-64), and was later sent to the Chicago Cubs (1964-65) and Phillies (1965). Signing with the California Angels, he pitched exclusively in relief for the team in 1966-67 before retiring. In an 18-year career, Burdette posted a 203-144 record with 1074 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA in 3067.1 innings, compiling 158 complete games and 33 shutouts. His totals of wins, games and innings with the Braves ranked behind only Spahn and Kid Nichols in franchise history. Burdette was often rumored as having thrown spitballs, leading to New York Times sportswriter Red Smith writing that "There should be 3 pitching statistics for Burdette: Wins, Losses, and Relative Humidity." Burdette also cut a record in the 1950s entitled "Three Strikes and Then You're Out". Burdette died of lung cancer at age 80 at his home in Winter Garden, Florida.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Burdette


pg.61"Big old strong boy. Look like Joe Louis. "

(May 13, 1914 - April 12, 1981), better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis helped elevate boxing out of a nadir in popularity in the post-Jack Dempsey era by establishing a reputation as an honest, hardworking fighter at a time when the sport was dominated by gambling interests.[1][2] Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 27 championship fights, including 25 successful title defenses – all records for the heavyweight division. In 2005, Louis was named the greatest heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization,[3] and was ranked number one on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. Louis' cultural impact was felt well outside the ring. Louis is widely regarded as the first African American to achieve the status of a nationwide hero within the United States, and was also a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to and during World War II.[4] He also was instrumental in integrating the game of golf, breaking the sport's color barrier in America by appearing under a sponsor's exemption in a PGA event in 1952.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis