Afternoon Tea (62.1) Season Greetings

[Narwhal_McClaren]

Greetings from the Box Seats,

With a successful preseason and Spring Training now in the books, it is with great anticipation and hope that I compose this note to you.

Since boyhood, I have believed that there is no better time of year than this. The cracks of bats on balls, the chatter on the basepaths, the thwacks of cheese and change-of-paces echoing in the catcher’s mitts…it is just, well, *chef’s kiss.*

As mentioned in my previous communiques, the objective for this season is primarily to continue building a strong foundation from which we may leap forward into the future. That being said, there is reason to be tentatively hopeful for the team that we will be fielding. In fact, the preseason prediction projects that we will finish the season in second place with a 89-73 record.

This report further expects our star performers to be Amin Asim, Abdul-Muhaimen Saleem, and Luca Maundrell. We at the front office anticipate that Roosevelt Davis may be added to that list as well.

Which brings me to my next point: yes, we successfully landed Roosevelt Davis in free agency. Thus far, he recently informed me, he has been finding the British Isles delightful. He intends to become more acquainted with it when time allows, citing the Lakes District and Stonehenge as two sites which he has always hoped to visit.

In preparation for this weekend’s opening series against Cairo, I invite you to read the passage from Beowulf which I have required the team to memorize. May we fair as brave Beowulf did against the terrible Grendel.


That mighty protector of men
Meant to hold the monster till its life
Leaped out, knowing the fiend was no use
To anyone in Denmark. All of Beowulf ’ s
Band had jumped from their beds, ancestral
Swords raised and ready, determined
To protect their prince if they could. Their courage
Was great but all wasted: they could hack at Grendel
From every side, trying to open
A path for his evil soul, but their points
Could not hurt him, the sharpest and hardest iron
Could not scratch at his skin, for that sin-stained demon
Had bewitched all men ’s weapons, laid spells
That blunted every mortal man ’s blade.
And yet his time had come, his days
Were over, his death near; down To hell
he would go, swept groaning and helpless
To the waiting hands of still worse fiends.
Now he discovered —once the afflictor
Of men, tormentor of their days —what it meant
To feud with Almighty God: Grendel
Saw that his strength was deserting him, his claws
Bound fast, Higlac ’s brave follower tearing at
His hands. The monster ’s hatred rose higher,
But his power had gone. He twisted in pain,
And the bleeding sinews° deep in his shoulder
Snapped, muscle and bone split And broke.
The battle was over, Beowulf Had been granted new glory.

[Dington]

Reminds me of memorizing lines of Canterbury Tales. Or was it Beowulf? idk.