by Stephen Jones
With his smile and electric arm
He put Mets-ville on the map.
Boy of Summer, Hall of Famer –
Simply put: he was Tom Terrific.
Bert Shepard
by Michael Ceraolo
It was in a way because of politics
that I got to pitch in the majors,
though not from a quota system for amputees
I had been returned stateside
in a prisoner exchange in early ’45,
and when I was in Washington
getting fitted for a new lower leg,
I was visited by someone high up in the War Department
I told him my desire was to play baseball
and he mentioned me to Mr. Griffith,
who let me come to camp and be part of the team
Being a lefty, I was fortunate
that it was my lower right leg that was gone;
had it been the left the dream would have been gone also
I know I was kept around mostly as a morale booster
for those in similar situations as mine,
and to pitch batting practice and exhibition games
I did get into one real game and pitched well,
which tells you about the quality of wartime ball,
since I wasn’t very good before the war
with two full legs (too wild),
and I wasn’t very good after the war
with one-and-a-half legs (still too wild)
Yet, as much of a thrill as it was
to pitch in a major-league game,
I’d have to say my greatest thrill
was meeting, almost fifty years later,
the German Army doctor who saved my life
100-Year Anniversary
by Stephen Jones
Too much to say, briefly,
About the Negro Leagues
And 100-year anniversary,
But one word,
One word of history –
Like a diamond legacy,
Despite past society –
Is a jewel
In the field of green dreams:
Empowerment.
Reverend Percy Kendall
by Michael Ceraolo
Even some well-versed in baseball history
are probably wondering who I am and why I’m here
I’m in the Hall of Fame
I don’t mean to say I was inducted into the Hall;
there is a photo of me in the library there
And that photo of me attending an Indians game in 1937
shows a radio next to me and an earpiece in my left ear
The radio is two-and-a-half feet tall and almost twenty pounds,
which certainly stretches the definition of the word portable
I usually listened to the broadcast of the game I was watching,
though I occasionally switched to broadcasts of Tigers games
I think I was the first to bring a radio to the ballpark,
or at least the first to be photographed doing so,
and that’s why the Hall has a picture of me
Michael Ceraolo is a 62-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet , the author of two full-length books (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press; 500 Cleveland Haiku, from Writing Knights Press), and two more in the pipeline (Euclid Creek Book Two, from unbound content press; Lawyers, Guns, and Money, from Writing Knights Press).