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New Season’s Reasons

by the Village Elliott

The start of each season,
Your team has new reason
To think this might be their year,
Though every team’s fans
Likewise make their plans
To partake of team’s World Series cheer!

Let the fire burn out
In your stove, we’re about
To join your team for Spring Training fun;
Though snow is not melting
Back home, we’re sweltering
Underneath a near-tropical sun.

We’ll see who’s been signed to
Join your team, and now who
Still looks fit in their old uniform.
We will evaluate
Those who came to camp late,
See who already blew out his arm;

For I think it behooves
Fans to study the moves
By their teams made in off-season deals,
Like your team who ain’t won
Major League Gonfalon
In years despite your life-long appeals.

But it’s a new season,
And you have your reason
To think certainly “This is next year!”
So, despite other fans
Also making their plans,
This is your year for World Series cheer!

 

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Life is Good!

by James Finn Garner

Winter’s been raw as a campout in Banff.
Your new basement walls are moldy and damp.
Your drapes caught fire from a knocked over lamp—

Relax!
Pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp.

 

Your check-writing hand’s developed a cramp,
Your bills are all due and you ain’t got a stamp,
Creditors cling to your neck like a clamp—

Smile!
Pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp.

 

Your yard now faces a new freeway ramp.
Your son is engaged to a gold-digging tramp.
Your “guitar hero” neighbor’s just bought a new amp—

Life is good!
Pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp.

 

First posted 2/13/2008

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On the Death of Baseball (1994/2014)

by Holly L. McEntyre

I spent my childhood
.        learning to tell
.        balls from strikes and
.        rejoicing over 6-4-3
double plays.

Memorizing the names and positions
.        of all “my” players,
.        watching my Montreal Expos “win some, lose some”
.        at Jarry Park,
copying their signatures from baseball cards
.        into my little red scrapbook.

Belting out two anthems
.        at “The Big ‘O’”
Proud of my country,
.        and of Canada,
and of the great North American game.

In the film version
.        of “Shoeless Joe”
James Earl Jones
.        tells us
that baseball is
.        the one constant,
baseball is America.

When baseball is ruined,
destroyed for the masses
.        by the few
.        wealthy enough
to own
.        those who
.        play for pay,
What does this say
.        about our constant,
What does this say
.        about our country?

It says
that even though a boy can
.        “have a catch” with his father,
although Mo’Ne Davis “throws
.        like a girl” at 70 MPH,
we have struck out,
because “Field of Dreams”
is just a movie, the “American Dream”
is just a myth, and
baseball
is just a game.

 

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October Replays

by James Finn Garner

While Giants fans
And Royal loyals
watch the see-saw
with short breath
life-and-death

I feel like I do when I’m watching
an old favorite movie,
and the second-from-last scene is playing
as succulently as ever

“I couldn’t be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it’s possible to get another.”
“Love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation for human actions throughout history. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death.”
“Well, nobody’s perfect.”

But it will be over soon, like always,
And time disappears again
like always
And I walk up the stairs in the dark house
And hope to sleep
All the way til morning.

 

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Baseball Record

by Steven D. Johnson

Five hundred eleven – the wins of Cy
near three sixty-seven – the bat of Ty
But in baseball heaven, just blink an eye . . .
.    and records will be broken.

Just look at Babe Ruth – seven hundred fourteen
.    To tell you the truth, his home runs were seen
.        to hold a record not passed – thirty-nine years, ‘til alas
Hank Aaron’s bat was woken.

Yet there is a record that will ever stand,
.    but it’s not Ted Williams, and it’s not Stan the Man
.        don’t look to Tris Speaker, don’t bank on Pete Rose
.           for this baseball record every ballplayer knows
.    belongs, yes it does, to another.

It’s not for stolen bases – though Oakland’s a believer
.    nor is it held by aces – like Gibson, Ford or Seaver
No, the sole baseball mark that will hold in every park
.    belongs to father, son, and brother.

The record that won’t break, held through highs and heartache,
is going seven-for-seven, every baseball season week
.    since 1911 – now that is quite a feat!
It’s keeping baseball alive since 1925.
It’s zero games missed since 1886.
It’s giving ballplayers a reason
.    to thrive in baseball season.

Yes, the only baseball record
.    that will maintain its stand
.        belongs to the beloved,
.            committed baseball fans!