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Spin Rate

by Tom Lagasse

With curveballs bouncing hard into the dirt,
and four seamers zipping under his
opponent’s chins, Donald Trump’s spin rate
sends him to the training room twice a day for ice.
Preferring wildness over control, he doesn’t care
if he gets someone hurt. His fans cheer because
they believe he is the franchise’s savior
yet fail to understand this high spin rate
causes career-ending injuries. Perhaps
it is only a matter of time when the brief
hope of rebuilding and making the team
great again must wait another four years
if the country is not sold or relocated by then.

 

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How Hard is Hitting?

by Ted Kluszewski

How hard is hitting?

You ever walk
into a pitch-black room
full of furniture
that you’ve never been in before

and try
to walk
through it
without bumping into anything?

Well,
it’s harder than that.

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A Sonnet for Juan Soto, Who is Not Interested in Your Borderline Strikes

by Kevin Canfield

He’s paid, in a sense, to refrain from swinging
High heat, sliders in the dirt — he will not chase
If off the mark an opponent’s hurler is flinging
He’ll watch four wide ones, then jog to first base

His patience calls to mind a vintage mystic’s
So chill at the plate, get him an iced tea
This ain’t an opinion — just check the statistics
That’s how you earn such a high OBP

Twenty-six now, he’s been like this forever
Doing that shuffle after taking bad pitches
He’s made restraint a lucrative endeavor
Homers and walks — he knows what his niche is

It’s true, his contract’s huge, it’s not even funny,
But have you heard how Steve Cohen made his money?

 

Kevin Canfield’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other publications

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Ash Wednesday

By James Finn Garner

If you want to bash,
The bat you need is ash.

Any sentient ape’ll
Tell you to reject maple.

Waving around some hickory
Is no way to victory.

Maybe at a minimum,
Settle for aluminum.

But if you want a healthy slash
Line, I again opine: ASH!