by Jim Siergey
Originally appeared in The Chicago Baseball Magazine.
The Last Brooklyn Dodger (January 9, 2021)
by Bill Cushing
Lasorda’s at his heavenly rendezvous,
his heart giving its final drop of blue.
He became a foul-mouthed savior
and then his team’s ambassador.
Still, before Brooklyn was a borough,
the team began by making heroes.
When Jackie broke the racial limit,
the Dodgers forced all sports to pivot.
Then, a Moses drove them to exile
by denying them space, and meanwhile
as Bridegrooms to the Yankees,
O’Malley packed up the team to leave.
Departing Brooklyn with a series ring,
they bid Tommy addio with the same thing.
A former New Yorker, Bill Cushing lives and writes in Los Angeles as a Dodger fan (by order of his wife!). His latest collection, Just a Little Cage of Bone (Southern Arizona Press), contains this and other sports-related poems.
“Cubbies are Rocking” (1989)
(Horrible “funk” songs, #2 in a series)
“Let’s Play Two!”
By Dr. Rajesh C. Oza
Ernie Banks wanted
To play a doubleheader
Every day, because
He loved baseball so
Much that one was not enough
To satisfy him.
Wilbur Wood lost two
Games of a doubleheader.
He started both games,
Throwing his trademark
Knuckleball ball to twenty-four
Wins, twenty losses.
Billy Williams and
Ron Santo played every game
In 1965.
Perhaps a couple
Players will play all the games
In 2024.
Ferguson Jenkins
Threw 29 complete games
In 1974.
MLB may not
Have 29 complete games
In 2024.
So why does baseball
Today give hitters days off
And pitchers pitch counts?
Is Pampers part of
How managers lead their teams?
Or a diaper brand?
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.
White Sox Brownfield
by James Finn Garner
Eloy was my boy
His power was a gimme
A South Side homeboy
Just like Pico and Timmy.
These faces are all gone — oy!
Ruined, traded, DFA’d.
The advice of Sox coaches, boy,
Should make any player afraid.
Now there’s no joy
At 35th and Shields
Hope is destroyed
At Fill-in-the-Blank Field.
Should we ask the batboy?
Maybe he has a solution.
The EPA should deploy
To contain this pollution.
