The Merkel Boner

There's a house on Merkel Street, not too far from here, that is one of the craziest mishmashes of architectural eras and styles I've ever seen. Alison and I used to walk past it on our way to yoga classes years ago, and it was so ugly and insane looking that we started referring to it as the "Merkel Boner," a reference to the infamous baseball play in 1908 by New York Giant, Fred Merkle. (Different spelling, I know, but too good a joke to pass up.) If you don't know the story, check out the video below — it's seriously one of the most interesting sports moments ever.



A couple of nights ago, we ran into our friend Benn at the grocery store, whom we hadn't seen in a long time. We asked him where he was living these days, and he said Merkel Street. So of course I immediately asked him if it was the "Merkel Boner." And then of course I had to explain my clever joke, and I guess I was kind of long-winded about it and said the word "boner" probably about fifty-three times. In my defense, it is a complicated story, about which Daniel Okrent says, in "Inning Two" of Ken Burns' Baseball (which I just now finished watching), "Trying to explain the Merkle Boner in twenty-five words or less is like trying to explain relativity to kindergartners." I really wish, by the way, that I had the Burns treatment of the story to show you here, because it's quite masterful and poignant and much better than the video above, which, however, will do.

Anyway, when I was finally finished, Benn just kind of said, "Welp, bye!" and scrammed out of the store with his groceries. I say he was hungry and looking forward to cooking the food he'd just bought, but Alison's convinced I came across as a complete lunatic and actually frightened him. I guess the two explanations aren't necessarily mutually exclusive...

Oh, and the answer was no — it's not his house. Too bad.