Reviving the Art of Baseball Doggerel
You couldn’t have picked a better spot
In all the U.S.A.
Our welcome to St. Louis, son,
We send without delay.
If you can’t use these tickets
For just any game at all,
We’d be pleased to have your parents
When the umpire cries: “Play ball!”
Congratulations,
Bill Veeck
For a time, the Browns sent 2 free tickets to newborn children in St. Louis. Found on the marvelous Twitter feed of Jim Koenigsberger (@Jimfrombaseball).
Fifty years ago
DH rule implemented
I’m still not convinced
Where were we
. when we began to see
most of these men
. were half our age
and that any dream we had here
. was mud-caked and attic-packed?
It’s all small ball now—
. little victories, fundamentals.
Good knees. Pension plans.
. Cold beer. Shaded stands.
A sacrifice bunt sets up
. a suicide squeeze.
A body learns a lifetime
. of committing toward the base,
of being waved again and again
. toward home.
Winning is remembering
. neither team escapes the fate
of swirling dust kicked up
. from the slide into the plate
no matter how far they pull
. their caps down over their eyes,
nor how the ump
. will call the play.
Aaron Sandberg has appeared or is forthcoming in Asimov’s, No Contact, Alien Magazine, The Shore, The Offing, Sporklet, Burningword Journal and elsewhere. A multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, you can see him—and his poetry posts—on Instagram @aarondsandberg.
In honor of the first game at the original Yankee Stadium.
A century ago, in the debuth
Of his eponymous stadium, Ruth
Hit the inaugural tater,
Auguring the later
Parade of glory under that roof.
“Tick, tick, tick”
A sound I never hoped to associate with baseball.
Sick, sick, sick
The thinking that baseball is dull.
Ick, ick, ick
The inside of Rob Manfred’s mind
Maybe that’s unkind
But some people are blind
To what makes baseball such a kick!