Au Revoir, Dusty

Au revoir, Dusty
In you did we trusty
Smart, passionate, steady
Toothpick at the ready
Giant, Astro, Dodger, Cub
You always improved a club
You have nothing more to prove
And lots of grandchildren to love
Raise a glass of Baker Wine
And celebrate the good times.

 

Dodger Blues

by Rajesh C. Oza

In memory of Louise Glück, 1943-2023, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature

When Louise was born,
The Dodgers were in Brooklyn.

Before Jackie, a name for the ages,
There were other colorful monikers:
Arky, Augie, and Billy;
Dixie, Mickey, and Frenchy.

This was more than a decade before
Campy, Jackie, Pee Wee, and Sandy
Won the World Series.

This was decades before
Clayton’s Los Azure dreams
Died with Louise’s laments into oblivion,
A pain salved with rebirth in Spring:

“You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:
from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water.”

(Referencing Glück’s “Wild Iris”)

NLDS Haiku

by @DodgersHaiku1

10/7/23
Dodgers 2 D’backs 11

That was no Outman
Kersh yields six runs in one-third
Of an inning. Shock

10/9/23
D’backs 4 Dodgers 2

Another short start
And quiet Dodgers offense
Spells doom. O and 2

10/11/23
Dodgers 2 D’Backs 4

Lance Lynn’s house special
Homeruns. Served it up four times
Dodgers stunned by Snakes

 

Kershawmandias

By James Finn Garner

With apologies to Percy Shelley

Reprinted from October 11, 2019.

I met a traveler in La-La Land,
Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the Ravine . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half a ton of Gator-Ade cups lie,
And blue playoff towels now still,
And B-list actors hoping to flog their dreck
To Smoltz and the odious Buck,
And a mangled manager in a heap;
And on a whiteboard, these words appear:
‘My name is Kershawmandias, Ace of Aces;
Look on my season only, dammit, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the meltdown
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level field stretches far away.”

For the story behind this photo, visit Atlas Obscura.