by James Finn Garner
Summer savings is everyone’s goal
Blowing saves over time can get old
A bullpen redo
Might pull your team through
How clever are you with your payroll?
Brandon’s No Babe, But Shohei What!
by Dr. Rajesh C. Oza
What’s he doing out there
on the pitching mound?
He looks more like a bear
than a throwing hound.
Position players
say their prayers,
when the manager
says, “You’re my reliever.”
Babe Ruth began his career
with a pitch that hitters feared.
But when he traded in his ball,
His bat made him Bunyanesque tall.
When Brandon Crawford pitched
Batters were not bewitched.
He had an astronomical 27.00 ERA.
So what, he wasn’t even batting his weight.
Some say Triple Crown threat Shohei never shoulda
Pitched, even if imitate Cy Young he coulda.
But over a 162-game season,
Let’s have some fun with batting/pitching treason.
Dr. Oza’s novel Double Play sits at the intersection of Ernie Banks’ Cubs, the Negro Leagues, riding the El, wrongful convictions, immigration and friendship. It will be published in October 2024 by Chicago’s Third World Press.
Slanguage by Siergey #8
by Jim Siergey
One for the South Siders.
Subscription Baseball
by Stephen Jones
So many different subscription services,
Left, right and center,
As I try to follow my team this year.
Baseball’s become more complicated,
And more expensive, too,
Even for someone relaxing at home.
There’s a big problem in all of this.
How is it, now, that America’s pastime—
Its looked-forward-to leisure of summer—
Has evolved like an apocalyptic survivor,
Transformed into MLB’s frenetic cash cow?
Brian Snitker’s Lucky Day
By James Finn Garner
This clip turned my knees into jelly
As Snitker took one “not on the belly”
But saved was the skip
From glandular rip
By the belt corralling his potbelly.