The Subway Series #1 (Yankees vs. Mets)

by Stephen Jones

So far so far for now
New York City’s baseball helix
By bat The Yankees won
Necessarily this series 2-to-1

Or did The Mets collapse
A team in need of rebirth
Refocus to rebuild girth

But questions do remain
The Mets? Direction cohesion
An on-rush demonstration
Needed field-and-plate
This season a rebuildment

For all the long ball signature
The Yankees win however
The stats of good pitching
Meaningful future-wise

.

The Sacred Room: Yankee Stadium

by Ed Ryterband

My first Yankee game dad is taking us
I’m full of quiverings and pictures
About Mantle, Berra, Ford and
Suddenly we turn a corner in the Bronx
The giant stadium is looming over us
Vendors hawking banners, hats and badges
I’m drooling over all the souvenirs.

Dad tugs me through a turnstile
Then we join the flow streaming through our gate
One of many in the endless curving wall of Yankee Stadium
A hundred voices rumble echoing inside a tunnel,
Up a ramp and then another ramp
My skinny legs aching with impatience
Up another flight of steps
At last out into the open space
The playing field, the neatest grass and careful dirt and endless seats,
More people than I ever saw.
I gape at them, float above myself

A roar jolts me to attention
The Yankees poring from the dugout
A stream of heroes,
Spreading confident to their appointed places
Hats on hearts they face the flag
The anthem squawks
The game begins at last
I stand and sit and stand again
The plays move slow,
I savor them like ice cream.
Another wish fulfilled a boiled hotdog
Strangers hands pass it on to me
Draped in yellow mustard
I sniff it close, steaming still
My first bite tangy on my lips and tongue.
Washed down with coke and ice cubes for my chewing
Dessert: fresh peanuts
Shells collecting, covering my feet
My breath gets raw and stinky
So dad tells me
I don’t care
What I remember
Mantle hits a homer that never seems to end
The roar is deafening and wonderful,
Carries me into the sky
I hope the game will never end
It does
I sleep the whole way home.

Doomsday Mo

by Hart Seely

When earthquakes terrorize Japan,
And home run sluggers head to jail,
When rioting confronts Iran,
And bankers grow too big to fail,

When Presidents must prove their birth,
From fools who claim they don’t belong,
While tides of hatred roil the Earth.
And all the world seems going wrong.

When cresting rivers flood our land,
And cemeteries fill with graves,
We’ll know it’s time to make our stand…
When Mariano blows two saves.

Home Run Crazy . . . But Wary (as of Easter Sunday)

by Stephen Jones

35 home runs so far this year
At home plate the Yankees on a tear

But a cautionary admonition does exist

During the regular season one may
By thunderous bat live or die
But it is by pitching with good reason
That teams win in post-season

So while the Yankees knock on history’s
Door — home runs grand slams RBIs —
They also know in cycles a live bat
Can cool when other teams get hot

They know it’s with pitching they must persist

AL East 2011 Haiku Predictions

By Stuart Shea

BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Talented groundhogs
Trying to burrow through a
two-layer brick wall.

BOSTON RED SOX
Deep at every spot.
Not young at any of them,
Must win now or else.

NEW YORK YANKEES
E. Chavez is “back”!
Well, that’s a strange way to say
That he feels “healthy.”

TAMPA BAY RAYS
Damon? Ramirez?
It all depends what kind of
leadership you want.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Latinos can get
Good job opportunities
North of the border.