by Raphael Badagliacca
Where all ends
Lead to new beginnings
Looking down from heaven
At double-headers
Only seven innings
Mr. Banks shook his head
And said, “Let’s play three!”
Mel Ott
by Michael Ceraolo
During my playing days I was noted
for my unusual batting stance and hitting home runs,
but now I think I’m mostly known
as the object of Durocher’s derisive remark
about where being a nice guy gets you
Though I didn’t have the success as a manager that he did,
the suggestion that being a nice guy
means you can’t be competitive or successful
is too ridiculous to even discuss,
something only Durocher could have come up with
I don’t see how my playing record
could have been improved by a nasty disposition
Tom Seaver, 1944-2020
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.