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The Florence Banners again found themselves in the middle of controversy as Percy Shelley lost control of his temper, and round two game four, when calls did not go his way from home plate umpire Richard P. Feynman. “When an umpire takes away a portion of the strike zone which rightly belongs to the pitcher, he’s altering the outcome of the game in favor of the other team,” is how Shelley put it to the press after the Florence Banners lost to the Phoenix Universe. The home crowd in Italy came to see Shelley tie up the series, 2-2. Instead, a big home run late by Bob Dylan propelled the Universe to an 8-5 victory, and a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. The Banners knocked out the Universe starter, Lucian Freud early, as Christina Rossetti continued her exceptional hitting in the playoffs with a 3 run double in the third. Glyn Maxwell, the Banners back up catcher, homered after Thomas Moore doubled in the fourth, giving Florence a 5-0 lead. But Shelley began to question calls in the top of the fifth, as he walked three straight hitters. Henrik Ibsen then hit a ball off the wall to score two—and red hot Delmore Schwartz slammed another home run to tie the score. Czeslaw Milosz, Edward Said, Michel Foucault, and Jean Cocteau came out of the Phoenix bullpen to keep the Banners scoreless.
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Virgil wins his 3rd playoff game in 3 starts as he out-duels Martin Luther King Jr 3-2, in Florence, keeping the Banners alive. King struck out 11 in the loss, while Virgil fanned 12, walking none. With the game tied at 2, Stefan George, the Banners catcher, picked up his second game winning hit of the series, homering down the left field line in the 8th. Virgil struggled a bit in the ninth as Chuck Berry singled, but Berry was thrown out trying to steal by George, and after Bob Dylan singled, Virgil struck out Juvenal on a high fastball for his third complete game win in the post-season. Christina Rossetti singled, went to the third on a bad pick off attempt, and then came home on Friedrich Schiller’s home run, as the Banners jumped off to a 2-0 lead in the first. Anthony Hecht took Virgil deep in the third, making it 2-1, and then singled in Paul Celan in the sixth to tie the score.
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Leonardo da Vinci struck out 14 hitters as the series returns to Phoenix, as the Banners force a game 7, with a 5-1 victory over Harriet Beecher Stowe and Steven Spielberg’s Universe. da Vinci also homered and began a 1-4-3 double play when Paul Celan tried to bunt a runner over for the Universe in the second. Lorenzo de Medici’s Banners, the Wild Card team from the Glorious Division, knocked off Ben Franklin’s Boston Secrets in 7 games—winning game seven as the visiting team. Florence is now in a game 7, played tomorrow in Phoenix—and Dante Alighieri hopes to complete the Banners’ comeback. The winner tomorrow enters the World Series against the Dublin Laureates. Singles by Juvenal, Alice Walker, and Galway Kinnell produced the only Universe run. Thomas Wyatt and Ben Mazer knocked in 2 runs apiece for the big Florence win. The Universe will call on Raymond Carver to stop the Banners. Carver has pitched well in his two post-season starts but has received no run support—the Universe were blanked both times. The Universe were the visiting club when they beat Wolfgang Mozart to eliminate Philip II’s Madrid Crusaders in six games.
Scarriet 