Thanks for a Great 2008!
That’s a wrap for the 2008 campaign (baseball, that is–was something else going on we missed?) It was a year full of surprises, both nice (hello, Tampa, welcome to the bigs) and not-so-nice (Tigers, we’re looking at you). And it was a great season for baseball verse. Check your favorite team below to see the year’s poems and videos.
.
BARDBALL wants to thank all the people who contributed to the site this year, as well as the readers and fans who kept returning. We’re a fan-driven site, so please tell your friends, fellow fans and blog readers about us. Let us know about other poetry and songs you find, or better yet, get out a pen and write what’s on your mind!
.
Here’s a quick plug: In 2008, Cubs fans with a literary bent enjoyed a monthly reading series in Wrigleyville called the Lovable Losers Literary Revue, organized by Donald Evans. From that event has come a published work, Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Til Next Year. Writers such as NPR’s Scott Simon, Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan, bestseller Jonathan Eig, and Bardball’s James Finn Garner and Stu Shea have written terrific pieces on tradition, heartbreak and curses that will cheer up any fan of baseball or writing. A portion of the proceeds will go to Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities. Order your copies today!
.
Word about BARDBALL continues to spread. This season we received poems and email from people in more corners of the nation. This is why we do this: to hear what things are like for the Sawx fan on Lansdowne Street, the new Rays Rooter, the mossy Cubs die-hard, the kid in the sandlot, and the fan in Montana glued to her radio imagining the taste of a Busch Stadium hot dog. We can learn more about the game this way than from all the pinhole cameras that Fox Sports can install around home plate.
.
BARDBALL will be shutting down for the Hot Stove Season, but we’ll be back for spring training in 2009 with new verse, songs and videos celebrating everything we love (and hate) about our National Pastime and personal addiction.
.
This will also give us time to ponder: What rhymes with “Utley”?
.
