by James Finn Garner
Dusty Baker notched his 2000th win
With a toothpick lodged into his grin
No World Series ring?
That don’t mean a thing
His record requires no spin.
Photo by David J. Phillips/Associated Press
The Center
by Paul Kocak
The center, it did hold
Promise and potential
Glittering as three golden rings
Twelve years as the beating heart
Of forged trial and triumph
Leaping exaltations
Hugging exclamations
Victors’ arms aloft
As gladiators parade
Down Market Street
And Main Street, Everywhere
Our avatar of success
Is silhouetted behind the plate
A catcher fair and famed
The center of the storm
An oracle of swing or miss
Each pitch thus framed
By one so named
Gerald Dempsey Posey III
Buster, to us
Forever young
Forever loved
A giant among Giants
Hanging up the cleats
Headed home
Paul Kocak is the author of Baseball’s Starry Night and World Serious, as well as the poetry collections Rounding Third and Tipp Hill Litanies. His memoir Chasing Willie Mays is a must-read for Giants fans. Check out all his books at his Amazon page here.
Post Scriptum, October Version
by Paul Kocak
In the wake
Of the last swing
(Or its simulacrum)
The season’s dust
Settles into memory
Fantasy and myth
In the dust
Of the last out
(Or its doppelgänger)
A season’s dreams
Run and hide
Hibernate and wait
In the spring
Of a scarred hope
(Or its trope)
One fan’s vision
Hungers for one more
Crack of that bat
The Wilmer Flores Limited Offer Blues
by Michael X. Ferraro
Every time we eat, he ALWAYS gets the tab.
Shoos a fly on the street — Voila! Here’s your cab.
Scratched his nose at Christie’s, “won” a rare Vermeer.
Wilmer winked at my mom — that’s how I got here.
Michael X. Ferraro is the author of the satirical sports novel Circus Catch, which asks what would happen if one athlete told the truth in the golden age of cheating.
The End Putrefies the Means
by James Finn Garner
Max Scherzer had Flores’ number
Had always buzz-sawed his lumber
Then the ump blew the call
Not a checked swing at all
And gave a classic the whiff of a dumpster.