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Rounding Third

by Paul Kocak

I could do that
Tap my glove
Gallop hat’s off
Horizon bound
Basket catch twirl homeward

I could do that
I all but said to the strangers
In the park
All shiny youth
On my sunset stroll

I could do that
If you only knew
In my dreams
Of Technicolor yesterday
Long gone
Rounding third

 

Paul Kocak is the author of Baseball’s Starry Night: Reliving Major League Baseball’s 2011 Wild Card Night of Shock and Awe, which Doris Kearns Goodwin called “a magical book about a magical night.” He followed this with World Serious: One San Francisco Giants Fan’s 2012 Pilgrimage.

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A Character in Any Language

by James Finn Garner

http://youtu.be/A-F8oKUKbZw

If you hate inane postgame banter
–canned, obsequious, and jock-y–
Then you need to tip your hat ter
The Jays’ Munenori Kawasaki.

With glee he mangles all the blather
–“We came to play,” “Let’s have a look”–
In an accent thick as lather
From his handy battered phrase book.

The talking heads’ condescension
Is clear in their braying bonhomie,
But Mune, in whatever declension,
Will not be deterred by the phonies.

Add to this his pregame stretches
And hapless epileptic boogaloos,
You’ll see fun is back in baseball, betches.
Will someone tell Selig the news?

 

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Dial 4-6-3 for Murder

By Hilary Barta

Nothing quicker a rally will slay,
Than the pitcher’s old pal, double-play.
First the pickup and flip,
Then the pivot, and zip! 
It’s the nick-of-time bail-out ballet.

 

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37 Major League Names to Sing To

by Pat McCaughey

Tate Mee Ott Tutor Ball Gomes.
Tate Mee Ott Tutor Crouse.
Brye Meacham Peterson Crocker Hack.
Hoy Dent Karnuth Hoy Evers Gibbs Brack.
Foor Fritz Root, Root, Root, Forster Holm Teahen.
Imlay Dent Wynn Acker Sain.
Foor Fritz Jahn, Drew, Troy Sykes Yde Houk
Acker Olt Ball Gomes.