by James Finn Garner
A bad night in the mess for McCullers,
His cooking was nothing like mother’s
Served up five taters
Like an unlucky waiter
While his team swallowed goose eggs and crullers.
Ed. note — Man, I love crullers.
Doing the Wave Just for Warmth
By James Finn Garner
These late Series games can be epic
A good-pitching-beats-good-hitting clinic
But summer can’t last
Other sports get broadcast
They might soon conflict with the Winter Olympics.
New Legends of the Fall
by James Finn Garner
On a beautiful weekend in fall
As everyone broke out their sweaters
And watched colored leaves in thrall
Of the passage of time and the weather
A few teams still played baseball
Underdogs showed up and played better
The Braves, Bums and Mets hit the wall
While the Pods and Phils raced for the cheddar.
Get set for the stories that bawl
About TV ratings — “could be better!”
Ignore this predictable squall
And enjoy the seasonal splendor.
Ralph Terry
by Michael Ceraolo
Going from the Yankees to Kansas City officially
was a trade between two big-league teams,
but everyone knew it was more like
being farmed out, with return certain
if the player developed sufficiently,
which is what happened in my case
After my return I experienced
the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat
before that became a sports catchphrase,
both times in a Game Seven:
giving up the walk-off to Mazeroski,
two years later shutting out the Giants, one-nothing
Later, in retirement,
I qualified for the pro golf tour
I think I’m still to this day
the only former major leaguer to do so
What I’ve Learned
by Stephen Jones
Now that the Wild Card
Smoke has cleared
And my team has just lost,
There’s one that I’ve learned,
Something in my brain
Like a Pythagorean theorem:
“In the postseason war
There is a reason for
Pitching, pitching, pitching.
No matter how gaudy
Your at-bats have become,
There is a reason
You’ll always be undone:
Pitching, pitching, pitching.”