To make reparations for links like this and thus placate Mr. Keilholtz (whose engaging manifesto indicates his simultaneous embrace of both Athletics and Giants is the least of his colorful internal contradictions)...

Irish Elk presents its annual tribute to Lefty O'Doul, favorite baseball son of San Francisco and Oakland, who batted .398 for the Phils in '29, and whose name graces a bridge and a famous bar in his SF hometown.

Pictured here with newsboys at Oakland's Grotto seafood restaurant, he suggests a baseball counterpart to Herb Caen.

He also is considered a father of pro baseball in Japan. The Baseball Library observes:

Making annual visits to Japan in the 1930s as a baseball ambassador of good will, he became an idol of fans there. He took the attack on Pearl Harbor as a personal affront.

Writes baseball historian John Holway:

Some Japanese researchers suggest that Lefty's love affair with Japan may have gone beyond baseball. Rumors have been flying that he had a koibito, or lover, and although details are hard to track down after 50 years, one theory is that she was a geisha. Apparentlly no one living today can verify the story.

Whatever happened to her? How did she survive the bombing raids during the war? How did he find her again? Why couldn't they marry? We may never know, but those of us who are romantics at heart can imagine the bitter-sweet possibilities.

It would make a hell of a movie, wouldn't it?

At any rate, who wouldn't want this on his gravestone?

.349 LIFETIME

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Listen to a selection of vintage jazz recordings at the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation.

And hear a sampling of Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band.