by Matt Perry
Baseball on the radio –
a trip to the kitchen,
my seventh inning stretch
Holo Cow!
By James Finn Garner
Sung to the tune of “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band
Stumblin’ down on Rush Street, walkin’ pub to pub
Harry Caray was the idol of every Bleacher Bum
Started in St. Louis, but seduced the owner’s wife
Then Chisox, then the Cubbies — a checkered, blesséd life
Then MLB tries some tricks
During the “Field of Dreams”
And ghostly Harry resurrects
To gasps and chokes and screams….
.   Cub Fan, Bud Man
.   This ain’t worth a tinker’s damn
.   Harry lives in a hologram
.   (Harry lives in a hologram)
.   Cub Fan, Bud Man
.   This ain’t worth a tinker’s damn
.   Harry lives in a hologram
.   (Harry lives in a hologram)
He’s leading the seventh inning stretch, the weak of heart begin to retch
Beer gut missing around his middle, where’s the liver spots, sweat and spittle?
There’s no way to digitize a glorious mess like Harry
Please find some breathing pitchman and let the dead stay buried.
He’s been dead since ’98,
But you could never tell
Thanks, computer science,
But he never looked THIS well…
.   Cub Fan, Bud Man
.   This ain’t worth a tinker’s damn
.   Harry lives in a hologram
.   (Harry lives in a hologram)
.   Cub Fan, Bud Man
.   This ain’t worth a tinker’s damn
.   Harry lives in a hologram
.   (Harry lives in a hologram)
Na na na-na-na-na
Na-na-na nanna na na-na
Na na na-na-na-na
Na-na-na nanna na na-na…
Tinker/Evers/Chance
by Michael Ceraolo
We once were discrete individuals,
but after we were linked in the FPA poem,
we couldn’t be separated
We went into the Hall of Fame together
We can’t be separated even in death,
and that’s okay with us: it is much better
to be remembered together than forgotten separately.
Michael Ceraolo is a 62-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has two full-length books, Euclid Creek from Deep Cleveland Press and 500 Cleveland Haiku from Writing Knights Press. Two additional books are also in the pipeline:Â Euclid Creek Book Two from unbound content press and Lawyers, Guns and Money from Writing Knights Press.
“The Golden Voice of Vin Scully” by Dan Bern
Subscription Baseball
by Stephen Jones
I was looking forward to the game,
But could not find it on TV —
At least not on any customary station.
Then I learned it was being aired
On some streaming service,
And only by subscription.
In disbelief, I went online to explore —
Is this our brave new world, our 1984? —
And sadly, discovered
Baseball’s schedule, and my landscape,
Has been changed forever. It’s now
Littered with subscription service.
It’s bad enough that ticket prices
Have soared — truth is, I can’t afford them —
But to ask for more money when I’m home?
There’s nothing right in this situation —
And I wonder what minds made it so.
My only active thought spins around:
America’s national pastime
Is now MLB’s “cash time.”