Houston: Lost at Home

by Rajesh C. Oza

In 2019, playing baseball’s cheaters,
The Nats won the Series on the road.
Still tagged as the sport’s deadbeaters,
The Astros carried the warts of a toad.

In 2023, with Bochy managing heroic,
The Rangers won at Minute Maid.
With Dusty chewing on a toothpick,
The Astros prayed and flayed.

Sure, they have 2017 and 2022,
But 2017 was banged on a trash can,
And 2022 was too good to be true,
For a team that warranted a ban.

Stealing signs left the ‘Stros stained
And unable to win at home.
Perhaps they should’ve remained
Hapless but honest in the Dome.

George Carlin famously suggested,
“In baseball the object is to go home.”
But when your Series ring is contested,
You are banished to aimlessly roam.

 

The Doubled-Up 3 Attaboy Blues

by Michael X. Ferraro

A baserunning blunder
had clapback like thunder
but somehow, for the offending team.

Bryce Harper’s brain spasm
caused clubhouse sarcasm,
now the Braves’ year has run out of steam.

 

Sonnet for Overly Creative Use of the Injured List

by Kevin Canfield

New York Mets under investigation,
For supposedly stashing fit players
On the injured list (read: paid vacation);
Manfred’s sleuths don Sherlock-style deerslayers.

A major transgression? A petty crime?
An attempt to deprive a neophyte
Of valuable big-league service time?
Was the man’s groin pulled or just kind of tight?

Team owner Steve Cohen, hedge fund tycoon,
Ran afoul of the feds, paid immense fines;
To diehards, he’s promised the stars and moon,
But this fall, Mets news is outside the lines.

To a longtime fan, it’s a small misdeed,
Far worse is somehow blowing every lead.

 

Even Sadder

by Mikhail Horowitz

These are the saddest of possible words:
Steinfeldt to Evers to Chance.
Trio of bear cubs fleeter than birds,
Steinfeldt to Evers to Chance.

One of them nearly completely forgotten,
Simply because of a name that was not in
Accordance with metrical elegance — rotten!
Steinfeldt to Evers to Chance.

Mikhail Horowitz is an American poet, performance poet, parodist, satirist, social commentator, author and editor. He lives in the Hudson River valley.