“The Kickers” by Victor Gillam
baseball and politics
national obsessions
autumn aromas
From my books Ephemera and Riverthink
Baseball
All posts tagged Baseball
Image from pinterest.com
at the crack of the bat
in that nick of an instant
you know that it’s gone
there’s no need of a sprint
just a thoroughbred trot
round the bases will do
it’s the same whether played
in rough sandlots of youth or
grand ballparks that showcase
skilled men in their prime
it’s the puffed-up-chest feeling
of making one’s mark
on a small arc of history
one standout moment
to last for a lifetime
remembered relived
a reminder a testament
everyone has it within them
within their two hands
with a well-practiced effort
and a disciplined focus
to once and for all
catch lightning in a bottle
“Old Yankee Stadium” by Frenchy
a game of inches
played on manicured acres
of statistics
(originally posted March 2013)
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra 1925-2015
Painting by Stephen Holland
From limelightagency.com
RIP Yogi Berra. You were one of my idols. A small man who stood taller than most athletes and celebrities of your era. You were a little giant, a class act. Kind, generous and uncharacteristically humble. You were a bulldog on the diamond. A 3 time MVP, 15 time all-star, you chalked up 8 personal world series records. In your 18 Yankee years, you played in 14 world series and instrumentally helped to win 10 of them. And your legendary aphorisms hid more common-man wisdom than all of the philosophy textbooks I studied in college. You made us Yankee fans proud. You made us Italian-Americans proud. Because of you, I became a catcher in little league. Because of you, I walked a little more confidently through life. Godspeed, old friend. And don’t forget, when you get to the pearly gates, if you find a fork in the road, take it.
Political Cartoon 1860
From Getty Images
baseball and politics
national obsessions
autumn aromas
“Still Life – Glove and Ball”
Painting by Steven Allen Boggs
From saboggs.com
slapped a ball in that glove
fifty times every night
making perfect a pocket
to hold boyhood dreams
of green grass and red clay
in the sunshine of life
when the crack of a bat
was the sweetest noise
summer gave up to the air
Joe Tinker, John Evers, Larry Chance
1905 Chicago Cubs Infielders
Image from what-the-hall.info
so swift in their motions
of smooth executions from
Tinker to Evers to Chance
snapping leather like gunfire
double-play bullets shot holes
shredding visiting pennants
the moreso remarkable they
did despise one another
yet understood teamwork
and stood emblematic
a gonfalon trio of discipline
any endeavor would benefit
merely to emulate them
quickly perfectly done after
Tinker to Evers to Chance
walk away with a win indulge
bitterness somewhere alone
off the field then rejoin the
next game on the morrow as
one cracking beautiful unit of
Tinker to Evers to Chance
Broken Baseball Bat
Photo from checkswing.com
splintered travesty
sharp from the split
calving crashes of will
between old rival
friends swinging hard
their milled timber
opposing opinions
crack shattering
baseball bat duels
leaving wounds
for a moment
but never a lifetime
First Baseball Game
Played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken NJ
Print by Currier & Ives At nj.com
“Hudson Street Brownstones Hoboken, NJ”
Photo by Andrew Prokos
At andrewprokos.com
a square gentrified mile
of brownstone ambitions
tucked under a cove of the Hudson
where fingerlike docks
play in shimmering
Manhattan shadows
that dance with remembrance
Sinatra and baseball
were born on these
maritime streets
built of cobbles and clamshells
between chimneyed castles
of capital magnates who
built major industries
here where great railroad hubs
carry commuters who
outnumber natives
a hundred-to-one
where no block is lacking
a bar or a bistro
where incomes are double
and tax rates are half
anywhere in the nation
remarkable blueprint
for modern prosperity
steeped in the founders’ affections
Illustration by Norman Rockwell
from reversespins.com
linseed and leather,
dampened red clay, new-mown grass,
rosin and pine tar
Poesy plus Polemics 