by Fred Lovato
Ichiro made Hall
unanimous but for one
there’s always THAT guy
A Baseball Game
By Richard Brautigan
Baudelaire went
to a baseball game
and bought a hot dog
and lit up a pipe
of opium.
The New York Yankees
were playing
the Detroit Tigers.
In the fourth inning
an angel committed
suicide by jumping
off a low cloud.
The angel landed
on second base,
causing the
whole infield
to crack like
a huge mirror.
The game was
called on
account of
fear.
From the book The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. Copyright 1965 by Richard Brautigan. Photo by Chris Felver/Getty Images.
Asked for a Happy Memory of Her Father, She Remembers Wrigley Field
by Beth Ann Fennelly
His drinking was different in sunshine,
as if it couldn’t be bad. Sudden, manic,
he swung into a laugh, bought me
two ice creams, said One for each hand.
Half the hot game I licked Good Humor
running down wrists. My bird mother earlier,
packing my pockets with sun block,
had hopped her warning: Be careful.
So, pinned between his knees, I held
his Old Style in both hands
while he streaked the cream on my cheeks
and slurred, My little Indian princess.
Home run: the hairy necks of men in front
jumped up, thighs torn from gummy green bleachers
to join the violent scramble. Father
held me close and said, Be careful,
be careful. But why should I be full of care
with his thick arms circling my shoulders,
with a high smiling sun, like a home run,
in the upper right-hand corner of the sky?
Beth Ann Fennelly recently served as the poet laureate of Mississippi and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Mississippi, where she is a four-time teaching award winner. This poem appeared in her book, Open House.
Spring Training’s Desert Hopes
by Dr. Rajesh C. Oza
All the teams are
Tied for first,
And might just win 2025’s World Series.
Hope blooms in
The Cactus League.
Rookies and vets
Have a thirst,
A spot on the team means no unemployment wearies.
Hope blooms in
The Cactus League.
Legends like Fergie Jenkins
Make Sloan Park burst,
Cheering on my novel’s baseball queries.
Hope blooms in
The Cactus League.
Dr. Oza’s novel Double Play on the Red Line, sits at the intersection of Fergie and Ernie’s Cubs, the Negro Leagues, riding the “L,” wrongful convictions, immigration and friendship. It will be published in 2025 by Chicago’s Third World Press.
The author (back to camera) chats with Fergie Jenkins at Sloan Park in Mesa, AZ, February 2025.
Rickey Henderson
RIP to the greatest lead-off hitter of all time. (12/25/58-12/20/24)
Rickey came on Christmas Day
Rickey born in a cab that day
Rickey lightning on the field
Rickey is the Man of Steal
Rickey wins with all his teams
Rickey says what Rickey means
Rickey never gonna quit
Rickey too legit to quit
Rickey slowing down? Never!
Rickey gonna run forever.
