Baseball and Key Lime Pie

by R. Gerry Fabian

I, somewhat surprisingly to me,
decide to go to the diner for lunch.
They seat me in a single two-sided booth
and I order a Diet Coke and glance at the menu.
In my head, I am currently rewriting the lineup
of my favorite professional baseball team
which has lost four straight games
because among other things,
they do not have a “closer.”
A woman is seated in the booth
next to mine while I continue
the play around with different lineups.
I am also considering a change at “closer.”
I look over at the woman who smiles
and I smile back, a polite casual smile.
“May I join you?” the woman asks
while moving across the aisle
and sliding into the seat across from me.
The waitress notices but makes no comment.
Almost simultaneously we both order the “special.”
When our sandwich platters arrive,
I feel her foot rub up against mine.
I smile. She smiles back.
We eat without conversation.
I am torn between the “closer” and her smile.
For dessert, she orders, “Key Lime pie and two forks.”
“Well, what do you think?”
“The pie is excellent.”
“Not the pie.” She scolds.
At that moment, I close my eyes as
the entire lineup falls into places
including the new “closer.”
When I open them, the check is next to me
and she is walking out the door.

 

Robin Roberts

by Michael Ceraolo

I could be stubborn:
staying with my fastball for a few years
after it had lost its effectiveness,
believing the commissioner was independent
despite mounting evidence to the contrary,
but eventually I adapted
I’m proud to have been instrumental
in bringing in Marvin to head our Association,
though I think by the end he had gone too far
I think the game needs a commissioner
chosen by all interested parties,
not just the owners,
so he or she can be truly independent
and act in the best interests of the game

Who's Your Daddy?" ... Robin Roberts Edition - Baseball Roundtable

 

Northwood Little League

by Danny Barbare

Revisiting Northwood Little
League, my coach picks
me up in his car, he just
happens
to be a policeman. Nervous as
can be, I stand on the
mound, strike after strike, till I
believe,
I don’t need a trophy just
a cold Coca-Cola on a
hot summer’s day, I am happy.

 

Danny P. Barbare resides in Greenville, SC, with his wife, family and sweet dog Miley. His poetry has recently appeared New Feathers Anthology, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, North Dakota Quarterly and many others.

 

Yankees 5, White Sox 1

by Stephen Jones

Nestor Cortes is Nasty
Even though
His high heat is barely ninety
Instead
He pitches with guile
And a mustache of style
And shows batters
He is no oddity

 

Rip Sewell

by Michael Ceraolo

I’m proud of my major-league career,
though some will denigrate it
because I pitched through the war
I’m proud of resurrecting the eephus pitch
(I thought I had invented it,
but I understand historians have found
someone who threw it before I was born)
But what I’m most proud of is my part
in the defeat of Murphy’s Guild in ’46:
I spoke out against the strike,
and the proposed union went down to defeat