The Eve of Destruction, Yankee-Style
by Hart Seely
The AL East, it is exploding,
Tampa flarin’, Toronto loadin.’
Your stopper is so old, his slider’s floatin’
You don’t believe in waste, yet Vernon Wells you’re totin,’
And even the Captain’s ankle still aint stopped bloatin’…
But you tell me…
Over and over and over again, my friend
We’re not totally whacked…
By A-Rod’s pact…
Of Destruction.
Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say?
Can’t you see the lineup starring Lyle Overbay?
If Robbie tweaks a hammy, there’ll be no one to play,
We’ll have run out of tricks, we’ll be using Jason Nix
Take a look around ya, pal!
It’s bound to scare ya, Hal!
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
We’re not in the grip…
Of A-Rod’s hip
Reconstruction.
Yeah, my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’
I’m sitting here, still Michael Pineda-waitin,’
I’m lookin’ at this team, I see no domination.
Damn Youkilis at third, there is no explanation!
And David Phelps alone can’t save our rotation
When even the Scranton roster is disintegratin’
This whole Cashman death wish thing is just too frustratin!’
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
We’re not under the wheel
Of A-Rod’s deal…
Of de-struk-shuuuuuuun.
2013 AL East Prediction Haiku
By Stuart Shea
BALTIMORE
The Orioles soared…
Does anyone believe they
Can fly high again?
BOSTON
With no Valentine,
Can the Olde Towne Team win back
Bleeding Boston hearts?
NEW YORK
Old Yankee soldiers
May not die, but do tend to
End up disabled
TAMPA BAY
Rays fans hold out hope
That good pitching can make up
For that weird infield
TORONTO
When blue jays make noise
It signals that something is
Wrong in the forest
Late Season Funk in the AL East
by Stephen Jones
Everybody’s on the skids
Yankees, maybe Baltimore too
Throw in hot Tampa as well
And one wonders about Toronto
“Skidding” being short rides
in September – and who
comes out on top, well
a skid is a slide through
September, anybody’s guess
Players missed when it counts
wild pitches now a measure,
late-season swoons and rallies
and who plays in October
Shutdown Haiku
by Stephen Jones
Safeco perfection
The Mariner’s King Felix
His game historic
Idle Comment
by Stephen Jones
There’s no reason to argue
or to spew
The American League East
is the best
competitively
realistically
Boston? New York? Tampa?
Baltimore too?
(And Toronto in the mix as well?)
But to shift gears
and memory/years:
Despite all the hiccups
the HGHs and PEDs
baseball the purity of it
continues to confound/explain
why a summer day or in rain
ball-to-bat glove-and-ball
fascinates us all
Stephen Jones is a contract writer/editor with a firm in New York City.
