by Dan Campion
Base-ball is our game: the American game: I connect it with our national character.
—Walt Whitman, quoted by Horace Traubel, Sunday, September 16, 1888
Our scribes used hyphens to effect
The link of “ball” to “base.”
It took a bard, though, to connect
The game to time and place,
To claim that bonds of fellowship
Bound “character” to sport,
Each clutching other in its grip.
We’re privileged to report
The name is safe, the hyphen out,
Walt got the call correct,
Bard, umpire, manager, and scout,
Our leadoff intellect.