by Hilary Barta
Engaged in a liquored-up tryst
The slugger soon started to list
And onto the chick
Ol’ Mickey got sick
Cried Angie, “I’d rather we kissed!”
When Mick Got Sick
Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No
Produced by No Mas, Animated by James Blagdon
MLB All-Church Team
1B Ángel Echevarria
2B Max Bishop
SS Jimmy Sexton
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Alta Cohen
CF Bob Usher
RF Ryan Church
C Dixie Parsons
RHP Tim Pugh, Conrad Cardinal, Jiggs Parson
LHP Eddie Priest, Kneel Cotts, Chuck Templeton
MGR Deacon White
John Henry Lloyd
by Michael Ceraolo
Occasionally a writer would call me “the black Wagner”,
and Honus was gracious enough to say
he was honored by the comparison;
I felt equally flattered by it
Some in later generations wondered
why we didn’t protest our exclusion more
I can’t speak for anyone else,
but my way of protesting was to play my best
against the white major leaguers
whenever we got a chance to play against them,
and by my play disprove the reasons usually used
as a cover for bigotry,
knowing our chance would come eventually
even if it was too late for me personally
Plus, I got to play ball for a living,
something not too many are able to say
Published in the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Spring 2020
Lineup for Yesterday (3 of 3)
by Ogden Nash
R is for Ruth.
To tell you the truth,
There’s just no more to be said,
Just R is for Ruth.
S is for Speaker,
Swift center-field tender,
When the ball saw him coming,
It yelled, “I surrender.”
T is for Terry
The Giant from Memphis
Whose .400 average
You can’t overemphis.
U would be ‘Ubell
if Carl were a cockney;
We say Hubbell and Baseball
Like Football and Rockne.
V is for Vance
The Dodger’s very own Dazzy;
None of his rivals
Could throw as fast as he.
W is for Wagner,
The bowlegged beauty;
Short was closed to all traffic
With Honus on duty.
X is the first
of two x’s in Foxx
Who was right behind Ruth
with his powerful soxx.
Y is for Young
The magnificent Cy;
People battled against him,
But I never knew why.
Z is for Zenith
The summit of fame.
These men are up there.
These men are the game.
Originally appeared in the January 1949 issue of SPORT Magazine.