Six Robert Louis Stevenson poems that predicted Robert Stephenson's rise to the Majors
When Robert Stephenson made his Major League debut with the Reds earlier this season, it looked like the end of a five-year journey that started when Cincinnati drafted the right-hander 27th overall in the 2007 amateur Draft. Turns out, it was actually the culmination of a 150-year saga. Though they don't share an exact spelling or any family heritage that we could find, Robert Louis Stevenson's poems were Nostradamus-like predictions of Stephenson's rise.
Don't believe us? Stephenson was recalled to the Majors and given the ball for Tuesday's start against the Rockies, so here's the proof:
"I woke before the morning, I was happy all the day,
I never said an ugly word, but smiled and stuck to play.
And now at last the sun is going down behind the wood,
And I am very happy, for I know that I've been good."
Here Stevenson clearly predicts what Stephenson's mindset must be like in the mornings before his big league appearances. The Reds pitcher is naturally "very happy," for he knows that he's been added to the rotation because he's "been good." But given the expected nerves that a rookie would experience, he likely would have trouble sleeping as he "smiled" and prepared "to play."
You sound the note of travel through the hamlet and the town;
You would lure the holy angels from on high;
And not a man can hear you, but he throws the hammer down
And is off to see the countries ere he die.
Another poem about Stephenson's call to the Majors. This time, the Reds' "piper" sounded "the note of travel" that called Stephenson from Louisville to Cincinnati -- something that has already happened twice this year. As for what earned him those call-ups? Why, his "hammer" curves that he throws down.
Over the land is April,
Over my heart a rose;
Over the high, brown mountain
The sound of singing goes
....
Over the high, brown mountain
I sound the song of spring,
I throw the flowers of spring.
Do you hear the song of spring?
Hear you the songs of spring?
Stevenson cleverly uses "April" as a way of discussing the entire start of the season, while the phrase "over my heart a rose" refers to the red jersey and 'C' of Cincinnati on Stephenson's chest.
The pitcher then throws "flowers" (pitches), with the "song of spring" standing in for the popping of the mitt and called strikes of the umpire.
I have left all upon the shameful field,
Honour and Hope, my God, and all but life;
Spurless, with sword reversed and dinted shield,
Degraded and disgraced, I leave the strife.
While Stephenson showed promise on the hill during his first big league start against the Phillies, he didn't look quite as good at the plate, going 0-for-2 with a strikeout during his first start. Whether that deserves a "degraded and disgraced" is debatable.
Perhaps he'll have more luck with his "sword" (bat) in his second outing.
"How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--"
While Stephenson could become an important piece in the middle of the Reds' rotation for years to come, he'll need to make sure that he doesn't leave too many pitches up in the zone. If he does, batters will be able to use their "swing" to send pitches "up in the air and over the wall" -- something the Phillies managed to do twice in Stephenson's first start.
The rain is falling all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
I mean, this one is obvious. It's about the wet, rainy weather this April. Though it's certainly a bit on the nose. We get it, if the rain is falling on the baseball field, it's also raining on umbrellas. Not all of Stevenson's poems were Major League worthy, I suppose.
