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MLB All-Gotcha team

by Jim Siergey

1B Jay Gainer
2B Chris Getz
SS Oscar Givens
3B Gus Getz

LF Jake Gettman
CF Tom Gettinger
RF Joe Gaines

C   Grabby Hartnett

P   Jim Gott, Trevor Gott, Brian Givens, Mychal Givens

MGR Ken Graspromonte

 

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The Great One

by Tom Clark

So long Roberto Clemente
you have joined the immortals
who’ve been bodysnatched
by the Bermuda Triangle

When your plane went down
it forced tears out of grown men
all over the hemisphere
Al Oliver and
even Willie Stargell cried

You had a quiet
pissed-off pride
that made your countrymen
look up to you
even if you weren’t
taller than they are

No matter how many times
Manny Sanguillen
dove for your body
the sun kept going down
on his inability to find it

I just hope those Martians realize
they are claiming the rights to
far and away the greatest rightfielder
of all time

Copyright Tom Clark. From Fan Poems (1976).

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Tom Cheney

By Michael Ceraolo

Many had pitched as many innings,
or more, in a game before me
(adrenaline and nicotine kept me going),
but no one before, or since,
has struck out as many in a game
Yet very few fans know who I am:
I was anonymous long before
the anonymity of the grave
Though I can’t prove it definitively,
I’ll always believe
the more-than-two-hundred pitches
I threw in that game contributed
to my elbow problems the next year,
but no one forced me to stay in the game,
and I would have fought being taken out