by Raphael Badagliacca
I ran into my old friend
Where have you been, I said
I looked for you everywhere
In the urban parks
On the country meadows
Under the blue sky
On the green fields
You’re back that’s all that matters
Let’s play ball.
Inevitable Gaming?
by Stephen Jones
MLB, in its wisdom,
Is turning to PCs —
To further clarify
What we already know:
In order to appeal
To a younger audience,
All games
Will now be defined
By strikeouts, home runs
And walks only,
And therefore
Will be played
As quickly as possible.
Teams will be penalized
For any and all
Between-the-lines,
Around-the-bases stuff.
Here’s the Thing
by Raphael Badagliacca
here’s the thing
about spring
training I never
knew more than
I do now
it was always
all about hope,
the way it brings
back to us
the only year
that matters —
the baseball season
that’s the reason
why we need it now
more than ever
we’re out of shape
for hopefulness
Don Sutton
by Michael Ceraolo
On the ’66 Dodgers
I was the youngster on a staff of mostly veterans,
and I learned all I could from them
I couldn’t learn to throw a fastball or curve
like Koufax, that’s something that can’t be taught
But there were a couple of others
I could and did learn some tricks from
(wink wink)
I won’t rat them out even posthumously;
they know who they are,
and they have my eternal gratitude
Remembering
by Jim Siergey
I must have seen Hank Aaron play
at Wrigley Field in nineteen
fifty nine
But it was my first baseball game,
I knew little about the sport
at the time
But I did see him hit number
seven hundred and fifteen
on the TV
in nineteen seventy four so
I am happy to have that
memory