State Gold

by Todd Herges

On the occasion of my son winning the USSSA Nebraska state championship, U11 division

Winning it all bestows some

Pride
For all of the games well-played;

Satisfaction
For all the big metro team thumpings;

Excited hope
For next season and all that will follow
on the way to the show (for sure?);

Redemption
For past transgressions – especially the mental;

Medals
That will hang on hall of fame walls
until future days when all of them fall;

Memories
That will live as long
as the players and their parents and their kids.

Posted 7/18/10

Playing Golf in Kearney on the Last Tuesday of the Last College Series at Rosenblatt

By Todd Herges

To stand on a crest
In the two o’clock shade
‘Neath the bough of an ever green cedar
On a mid-summer day
When the sky is so blue so full
Of nothing but promise
Of a gentle late-summertime breeze
And later a gentle night shower …

To look southward
And forward
And toward a great rift
Of a great river valley below
And see the rise of soft shoulders beyond …

Is to stand without feeling
Your feet or your height
Or your avoirdupois at all
And to think that right now
As the spring turns to fall
It’s good to be here in Nebraska.

Posted 7/4/10

With Love and Ancient Cautions: From a Wood Fan to a Strasburg Fan

By Joe Moag

Unto He!

Unto He, the new rookie,
He with an arm fit to hoist Zeus’ bolt,
Fit to slay our past; fit to redeem our degradations.

Unto He, our welcomed savior!
A reprieve from years of ill, from years of doubt,
From years of lowness.

Unto He, the Lifter!
Unto He, the Changer!
Unto He, the Future!

Unto He, Alleviator of this state
Of prolonged exile, of overdue vengeance,
Of our just and righteous payback!

Unto He we place this proof
That our faith, traveled across orphanage and dismissal,
Our Faith, that thing
Which steeled our resolve
To simply stay in the game long enough,

Has borne fruit! It has brought
Him, here, to Us.

No light as bright as this has ever shone, only to
Fall away in wreckage through the dimming of life’s cold onslaughts and hurly-burl!
Immortals don’t flinch, or suffer, or miss their mark – they shine!
Our wait itself is the toil and testament to the surety of this!

This Game and its Gods, who sit high and low,
Sworn sacred to the mischief in their souls
Could never be jealous enough
To make this foreseen future, this deserved fate,
Fall short.

Posted 6/27/10

Free Bat Day, Tiger Stadium, 1971

by James Finn Garner

.

Rallies were exciting,
Cheers a clanging roar
When each kid 14 and under
Got a bat at the stadium door.

They pounded on the railings,
The seats, pillars and floor,
Then they pounded on each other–
Bats ain’t given out no more.
.
Posted 6/22/10

The Stephen Strasburg Fallout (A Reflection)

by Stephen Jones

.
From the much-anticipated debut
Standing on a mound of dirt
To voicing Letterman’s “Top 10”
Standing on a mound of media

Only days apart quite a “change up”
Perhaps more so & swifter
Than the time he spent between pitches
(The umpire asking him to “slow down”)

From baseball’s eager expectation
From its projection of possibilities
& into media’s spotlight attention
In history 14Ks still outweigh a Top 10

.
Posted 6/14/10