You Never Forget Your First Pitch

by James Finn Garner

Tiger cub Freddy Dolsi’s
First major-league pitch
Was to Manny Ramirez.
(Now, ain’t that a bitch?)

Freddy went down the middle
To show off his heat.
Manny clobbered that apple
Five hundred feet.

The much-touted Tigers
Can’t seem to catch flame
With their pitchers untested,
Senescent or lame.

To young Freddy we wish an
Improved rookie year.
Every guy’s not Ramirez,
But it’s uphill from here.

Posted 5/20/08

2008 AMERICAN LEAGUE THREE-LINE TEAM PREVIEWS

BALTIMORE

Is it too late to call Cal?
Or even Bob Bonner?
With Hernandez or Fahey, the season’s a goner.

BOSTON

The pitching staff is shot to hell.
With Schilling, Beckett, and Colon unwell,
They’re Dice-rolling at the opening bell.

CHICAGO

Will the Sox get greedy
With Crede?
Watch your back, Ozzie—or, rather, watch Joe’s.

CLEVELAND

It’s time for the talent to show.
And with any luck (please, God)…
Maybe a new logo?

DETROIT

No injury worries—not even a tinge!
When any Tiger feels a twinge,
They’ll call on Brandon Inge.

KANSAS CITY

Tote that Bale, lift that Gload,
Another long year in KC?
Or a renaissance? These kids are beginning to be.

LOS ANGELES

K-Rod,
And Vlad the Impaler,
And a bunch of young pitchers hopping out of a trailer.

MINNESOTA

No cash for Johan or Torii,
But there’s money for Nathan—within reason—
Though he pitches just 70 innings a season.

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

The Yankees won’t listen to reason!!
They’ll pull out their Wang
To open the season!!

OAKLAND

What’s that sound from the Street?
Is it Foulke music so sweet?
Oh, it’s Rich Harden’s shoulder, grinding like meat.

SEATTLE

Half the team has reached the big three-oh,
And aside from Ichiro,
There’s a lot of “don’t know.”

TAMPA BAY

They sent Longoria to Triple-A
To reduce his service time? Feh!
This franchise is still the pride of Mephistofele.

TEXAS

Trouble children, like Bradley and Hamilton,
And a pitching staff
Of no wheat and all chaff.

TORONTO

Toronto has Coats.
Maybe they’ll avoid
A cold April.

Posted 3/31/08

THE ROCKET, by Edgar Allen Cano

Actually, by Hart Seely

His new book, Mother Goose Goes to Washington: Nursery Rhymes for the Political Barnyard, is now available from Simon & Schuster.

.

Once upon a midnight era, while I pondered Yogi Berra,
O’er many our Babes and Scooters, men of dynasties of pinstriped lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a yapping,
Like Big Pappi, loudly crapping, rapping ’bout some final score.
‘Tis some Redsock fan,’ I muttered, “drunken still, from 2004.”
“Only this, and nothing more.”
.
Ah, distinctly, I remember; we had rumbled through September,
‘Till our Bronxian troops had snatched a Wild Card from the Tigers’ drawer.
Anxiously, I sought each morrow; for our foes, I’d feel no sorrow,
For we would beg or steal or borrow, tomorrow would be ours for sure.
Beating down the Redsocks in a way no Gammons could ignore,
Owning them, forevermore.
.
Though some hitters could be chilling, we’d take pleasure on Curt Schilling,
Crushing balls of gopher, wreaking havoc like in times of yore;
And in my heart, though feeling clammy, I imagined beaning Manny,
Manny, being Manny, on his fanny, writhing on the floor.
Send them home as losers, and to us, a series ring restore!
Champions soon, and evermore!
.
“Suddenly, I felt a shudder, sensed a faint, familiar flutter,
In flew a stubbled chin of rubbled skin of double-grubbled gore.
And there before me, face a-twitter; t’was the famed Piazza-hitter;
He of filth and cheese and splitter, Roger Clemens at my door!
Bigger than Giambi, wide and pinstriped at my chamber door.
Big he was, as Michael Moore.
.
“Beast!” said I, “Fiend full of might! What evil brings you here tonight?
“What lures you out of Texas to this distant place and littered shore?
“Ancient one, so grand and pro, who hurled for us, once, long ago,
“Tell me, creature, large as train, that we’ll rule the Socks again!
“Send them home as losers, and to George a series ring restore?
Quoth the Rocket… “Nevermore.”
.
Soon to FOX, my eyes were peering, long I sat there watching, cheering,
Certain we’d beat Cleveland, for we’d always beaten them before.
Andy, Moose, Chien-Ming Wang! How could anything go wrong?
But then again, I bent to cussing; ’round our heads I felt a buzzing,
Bugs and mites and pop-ups; we were roasted, toasted, out in four.
Quoth the Rocket. “Nevermore.”
.
And so the Rocket, once rehired, now sits resting, home, retired;
While tears of Susyn Waldman stain the paint upon my chamber door.
For in his eyes was all the seeming of a Redsock who’d been scheming,
And now his Boston fans are streaming, gleaming from the drinks they pour;
And my team, from hell itself, a curse we’re facing to be sure…
It shall be lifted. nevermore.

.

You can see more of Hart’s poetry and Yankee silliness at his blog, IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS…..caught.

Posted 10/31/07

Chet Nichols

by Thomas Michael McDade

Could have been the jingle
of his name that led him
to the banking game.

But then again, he was
“Chet Thrift” with runs
back in fifty-one

When his ERA was lowest
in the Senior Circuit —
his winning mark
just a tad higher
than prime!

Posted 10/19/07