“Let’s Play Two!”

By Dr. Rajesh C. Oza

Ernie Banks wanted
To play a doubleheader
Every day, because

He loved baseball so
Much that one was not enough
To satisfy him.

Wilbur Wood lost two
Games of a doubleheader.
He started both games,

Throwing his trademark
Knuckleball ball to twenty-four
Wins, twenty losses.

Billy Williams and
Ron Santo played every game
In 1965.

Perhaps a couple
Players will play all the games
In 2024.

Ferguson Jenkins
Threw 29 complete games
In 1974.

MLB may not
Have 29 complete games
In 2024.

So why does baseball
Today give hitters days off
And pitchers pitch counts?

Is Pampers part of
How managers lead their teams?
Or a diaper brand?

Dr. Oza’s novel Double Play sits at the intersection of Ernie Banks’ Cubs, the Negro Leagues, riding the El, wrongful convictions, immigration and friendship. It will be published in October 2024 by Chicago’s Third World Press.

 

White Sox Brownfield

by James Finn Garner

Eloy was my boy
His power was a gimme
A South Side homeboy
Just like Pico and Timmy.

These faces are all gone — oy!
Ruined, traded, DFA’d.
The advice of Sox coaches, boy,
Should make any player afraid.

Now there’s no joy
At 35th and Shields
Hope is destroyed
At Fill-in-the-Blank Field.

Should we ask the batboy?
Maybe he has a solution.
The EPA should deploy
To contain this pollution.

Remodeling Sale

by James Finn Garner

Summer savings is everyone’s goal
Blowing saves over time can get old
A bullpen redo
Might pull your team through
How clever are you with your payroll?

Subscription Baseball

by Stephen Jones

So many different subscription services,
Left, right and center,
As I try to follow my team this year.

Baseball’s become more complicated,
And more expensive, too,
Even for someone relaxing at home.

There’s a big problem in all of this.
How is it, now, that America’s pastime—
Its looked-forward-to leisure of summer—

Has evolved like an apocalyptic survivor,
Transformed into MLB’s frenetic cash cow?