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Baseball Parity, Chicago Parody

by Dr. Rajesh C. Oza

Had the Dodgers
Lost just one more game,
This sub-600 season woulda been lame.

The winning percentage
Of most every other team,
Was surely a parity-lover’s dream.

Leaving aside the Angels, Marlins, Rockies,
And the historically bad White Sox,
All the other ballclubs had their shots.

Within sniffing distance of the wild card,
A couple of wins here and there
Woulda given your team a playoff share.

If the Mets and Tigers coulda
Advanced to the second round,
My Cubbies, too, shoulda stuck around.

Yeah, there may be MLB pair-a-tee,
But as Steve Goodman’s Dying Cubs Fans know
They still play the blues in Chi-ca-go.

Dr. Oza’s novel Double Play on the Red Line 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.

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Go-juu/Go-juu, 50/50

by Dr. Rajesh C. Oza

In Japan, on July 5, 1994,
A mama flipped a coin;
A papa flipped it once more.

Go-juu/Go-juu: a Japanese number, now Dodger Blue!

Glove in hand, Papa wanted a boy;
Hugging a doll, Mama wanted a girl.
Regardless, their healthy child was a joy.

Go-juu/Go-juu: a Japanese number, now Dodger Blue!

On a Miami night, some 30 years later,
Some fans wanted a stolen base,
Others wanted a 400-foot homer.

Ain’t a swifty 50/50 out-of-the-ballpark nifty!

For all baseball fans, what a joyous treat
To watch Shohei Otani
Achieve his tremendous feat.

Ain’t a swifty 50/50 out-of-the-ballpark nifty!

 

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Baseball in July

by Tauwan Patterson

afternoon baseball awakens with the city in the west
pirates vs. marlins adorning the hanging television screen

around him
the day
leisurely stretches,
softly
it begins to
speak:

cars zoom by,
apartments rumble,
dogs shout good mornings at the sun
ke’bryan hayes steps up
to bat
knocks a sure footed
first inning triple
hit into right field

rounds one base,
then two, gone
with the wind
like his helmet
as he sprints towards parking
at third revealing
the tiniest neatest of ‘fros positioned
atop his dome like a crown

okay
sir,

we see you

keep our spirits alive

today’s gonna be alright

.

Tauwan Patterson is a Black + Queer Poet and recent graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. His work has appeared in online literary magazines Cool Beans Lit, 3rd Wednesday Magazine, and Muse-Pie Press’ Shot Glass Issue #41, and will also appear in the forthcoming Moonstone Arts Center anthology Which Side Are You On?!, the Winter Issue of Rise Up Review, Porkbelly Press’ Love Me, Love My Belly zine, the Rising Phoenix Review, the Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Amazine, and Arteidolia. With his poetry Tauwan aims to, in the words of the great poet and thinker Marcus Jackson, announce his freedom and presence. Making a sound that echoes in the end that says Tauwan Patterson. No more. No less.

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Fish Sale

by James Finn Garner

Fish for sale! Yo, fish for sale!
Marlins produce never goes stale!

A new rebuild set in motion,
A sinking team near the rising ocean.

In the glaring Miami sun
Any squad will come undone.

Don’t fall in love with Luis Arráez.
He’ll disappear before your eyes.

Burger, Bell, and Tanner Scott
Could be gone when summer’s hot,

And things won’t get calm later:
Come fall, bye-bye, Skip Schumaker

Root for the Marlins? Don’t forget:
A time-share is all you’ll ever get.

 

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NL East 2023 Spring Training Forecast Haiku

by Stuart Shea

Atlanta Braves
Without a weakness—
Except for being human
And, thus, changeable.

Philadelphia Phillies
The leadoff hen lays
Or does not lay; she knows of
No other outcome.

Miami Marlins
One more year, no fish.
Can’t be my cheap bait—no way.
God just detests us.

New York Mets
Ah, spring of Butto!
Lucchesi! Bickford! Megill—
Just not Senga. Ow.

Washington Nationals
Land of limousines,
Riding on retreads: Senzel,
Gallo, and Winker.