Thurman Munson

Wikipedia - "Thurman Lee Munson (June 7, 1947 – August 2, 1979) was a Major League Baseball catcher who spent his entire career with the New York Yankees. A perennial All-Star, Munson was killed at age 32 while trying to land his personal jet. He is the only Yankee ever to win both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Awards."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Phil Rizzuto - "Prayer for the Captain"

There's a little prayer I always say
Whenever I think of my family or when I'm flying,
When I'm afraid, and I am afraid of flying.
It's just a little one. You can say it no matter what,
Whether you're Catholic or Jewish or Protestant or
whatever.
And I've probably said it a thousand times
Since I heard the news on Thurman Munson.

It's not trying to be maudlin or anything.
His Eminence, Cardinal Cooke, is going to come out
And say a little prayer for Thurman Munson.
But this is just a little one I say time and time again,
It's just: Angel of God, Thurman's guardian dear,
To whom his love commits him here there or everywhere,
Ever this night and day be at his side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.

For some reason it makes me feel like I'm talking to
Thurman,
Or whoever's name you put in there,
Whether it be my wife or any of my children, my parents
or anything.
It's just something to keep you really from going bananas.
Because if you let this,
If you keep thinking about what happened, and you can't
understand it,
That's what really drives you to despair.

Faith. You gotta have faith.
You know, they say time heals all wounds,
And I don't quite agree with that a hundred percent.
It gets you to cope with wounds.
You carry them the rest of your life.

August 3, 1979
Baltimore at New York
Pregame show

Mikhail Horowitz - "The Nether World Series"

It's high noon in Hell
You're stationed at 2nd base
for the Dead Sox
at Styx River Stadium

The infield's a bottomless pit

You're playing naked,
& every man on the opposite team's

Ty Cobb

Charles Bukowski - "Betting on the Muse"

Jimmy Foxx died an alcoholic
in a skidrow hotel
room.
Beau Jack ended up shining
shoes,
just where he
began.
there are dozens, hundreds
more, maybe
thousands more.
being an athlete grown old
is one of the cruelest of
fates,
to be replaced by others,
to no longer hear the
cheers and the
plaudits,
to no longer be
recognized,
just to be an old man
like other old
man.

to almost not believe it
yourself,
to check the scrapbook
with the yellowing
pages.
there you are,
smiling;
there you are,
victorious;
there you are,
young.

the crowd had other
heroes.
the crowd never
dies,
never grows
old
but the crowd often
forgets.

now the telephone
doesn't ring,
the young girls are
gone,
the party is
over.

this is why I chose
to be a
writer.
if you're worth just
half-a-dame
you can keep your
hustle going
until the last minute
of the last
day.
you can keep
getting better instead
of worse,
you can still keep
hitting them over
wall.

through darkness, war,
good and bad
luck
you can keep it going,
hitting them out,
the flashing lightning
of the
word,
beating life at life,
and death too late to
truly win
against
you.

Dick Allen

Wikipedia - "Richard Anthony Allen (born March 8, 1942, in Wampum, Pennsylvania) is a former Major League Baseball player. He played first and third base and outfield in Major League Baseball and ranked among his sport's top offensive producers of the 1960s and early 1970s. Most notably playing for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox, he led the American League in home runs twice, and led both leagues in slugging average (the AL twice) and on base percentage. His .534 career slugging average was among the highest in an era marked by low averages. He won the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year and 1972 AL MVP. He also spoke his mind, combatted racism, and bucked organizational hierarchy. Sabermetrician Bill James rated Dick Allen as the second-most controversial player in baseball history, behind Rogers Hornsby."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, YouTube - Dick Allen

Tom Clark - "Great Catch"

With one away
in the seventh
and Terry Crowley on base
Pina threw
a side arm curve
to Earl Williams
who golfed it
high 'n deep
to left

Joe Rudi
pedaled back
to the warning path
sidewise, watching
the towering drive
as it peaked
and began to fall

with one hand propped
against the wall he
crouched, and leaped
and hung
motionless
in a bath of light
his glove
a foot above the top
speared it!

- and then he fell back down
into the sound

Richard Lewis - "All"

Nothing that came before
was as tight as the All-Connie Mack Team
my 12 and under year
had a third baseman at third
a right fielder in right
2 good athletes had to look
towards second
for a spot in that lineup.

The closest I ever got
to the power of God
was being shortstop on that team,
just calling "play to third"
was an out,
and holding upstretched arms for relays
was
like pouring liquid outs
thru a funnel.

Error card

Wikipedia - "In the trading card collecting hobby, an error card is a card that shows incorrect information or some other unintended flaw. It can contain a mistake, such as a misspelling or a photo of someone other than the athlete named on the card. Depending on whether the manufacturer noticed the problem while the cards were still being produced, a card may exist in both correct and incorrect versions."
Wikipedia

William Snyder Jr. - "Babe Ruth: Those Long Nights Until"

One morning, Brother Matthias, crucifix hard
and gold around his neck, waits for us to climb
the dormitory steps, for Poppa to give me over.

Rows of iron beds, blue blankets lumping up,
windows black–no light in this long, dark room.
Awake, I jam the soft, leather fingers, mold
a pocket with my fist, wait for tomorrow–
the books, the canvas and cotton, the clatter
of needles and steel. And balls, stripings
of lime, patches of grass, and on top
of the pebble-pocked mound, staring down
at the catcher's squat, I see the future,
and my crotch and thighs and my cheek-veins
swell with craw.

Finally morning. An orange sky, the sun
a dull, red sucker rising through
the eastside smoke, the smells from the cow yards
already. Behind the schoolhouse bricks,
Mrs. Neally plunges sheets into copper tubs.
"Babe," she calls, "it's the babe." I want to see
my mother.

Journeyman

"A player who has played (1) for many years; (2) for many different teams; and (3) often, but not always, a player of marginal offensive prowess who is solid defensively. Commonly used to describe a utility player whose flexibility and good attitude may have kept him in the Big Show longer than his simple talents would usually merit."
Baseball Slang Dictionary

Johnny Klippstein

Wikipedia - "John Calvin Klippstein (October 17, 1927 - October 10, 2003) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (mostly as a reliever) for a number of teams throughout his career. The most prominent portion of his career was spent early on with the Chicago Cubs (1950-1954)."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

William Heyen - "The Stadium"

The stadium is filled,
for this is the third night the moon
has not appeared as even a thin sickle.

We light the candles we were told to bring.
The diamond is lit red with torches.
Children run the bases.

A voice, as though from a tomb,
leads us to the last amen of a hymn.
Whole sections of the bleachers begin to moan.

The clergy files from the dugout
to the makeshift communion rails
that line the infield grass.

We've known, all our lives,
that we would gather here in the stadium
on just such a night,

that even the braveast among us
would weep softly in the dark aisles,
catching their difficult breath.

Douglas J. Cannato - "When Bunning Brushed Him Back"

I couldn't believe what happened
When Bunning brushed him back.
During the first of two in Cleveland,
The Tigers had the field
And my Indians the bat.
An inside pitch, as I recall,
Sent Piersall to the deck.
He charged the mound,
The benched cleared,
And I would never forget -
The fists, the anger, and the rage.
It was just a game,
But something chaned inside this boy.
Some innocence was lost that day,
When Bunning brushed him back.

Cuban Baseball Cards

Fermin Guerra
"As in the United States, Cuban Baseball Cards began as Trade Cards, Cabinet Photos and promotional giveaways with Tobacco products. But instead of cardboard being the main printing media of choice in Cuba it was a thinner paper with cards made mostly to paste into accompanying albums. Cuban Baseball Cards are some of the rarest and most difficult for collectors to find."
Cuban Ball, Cuban Baseball Cards, npr - "Baseball Cards Tell Story Of Negro, Cuban Leagues"

Stephen Cormany - "Was Sudden Sam Ever So Great?"

In 1970
In honor of his first ever
Twenty game season
A small group of Cleveland's finest
Were selected by the club
To take Sam out to supper at Pat Joyce's
A plain invitation, Sam figured
To paint the town,
Red, white, blue, orange, green, and polka dot
Not to mention practice his spitter
Off the observation deck of the Terminal Tower.
When the night's feativities had finally
Wended to a close
And Sam was ditched in front of his
Rented penthouse in Pepper Pike
He had painted town
In colors that would draw
Picasso's envy.
Off some fool's credit card
He'd called girls in
L.A., Frisco, Minneapolis, and Denver
And then he remembered his buddy - his
High school catcher back in Pittsburgh -
And called him, too.

Tom Clark - "Billy Williams"

Billy hits one out to the Heartbreak Hotel
It's just a long out
because at age 38
he doesn't pull the ball
any more

Even so
he's still The Whistler
The quiet man
from Whistler, Alabama
whose sweet swing
lingers in my song
on wings of memory
from 1957
or is it
1960?

José Cardenal

Wikipedia - "José Rosario Domec Cardenal (born October 7, 1943 in Matanzas, Cuba) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the San Francisco Giants (1963-64), California Angels (1965-67), Cleveland Indians (1968-69), St. Louis Cardinals (1970-1971), Milwaukee Brewers (1971), Chicago Cubs (1972-77), Philadelphia Phillies (1978-1979), New York Mets (1979-1980) and Kansas City Royals (1980). Cardenal batted and threw right-handed. He is the cousin of Bert Campaneris."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Lynn Rigney Schott - "How It Was at Second"

(for my father)

"He tore it off like a chicken wing–see?
(a garland of scar around the thumb) cleats
high as Cobb's and me hanging in, skinny
as ever, ready to turn two, my meat
hand dangling like bait before those mean teeth.
As they carried me off the field he called,

'Hey, Four-eyes! What do you think about that?'
'Maybe the good Lord'll pick up the ball–
who knows? It's a long season on the grass,
you bastard.' In the end, in Boston, God
disguised as Musial lined a final blast
off his nose. I wired him a knowing nod."

He smiled, remembering to his daughter
the kick and the smirk of Enos Slaughter.

Tom Painting

all days rain
on the playin field
a stray dog


___________



bases loaded
a full moon clears
the right field fence


___________



the foul ball lands
in an empty seat
summer's end

Eddie Mathews

Wikipedia - "Edwin Lee 'Eddie' Mathews (October 13, 1931 – February 18, 2001) was a baseball third baseman in Major League Baseball and is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen to play the game."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Robert Lord Keyes - "The Yankees"

The Yankees are in spring training
down in Florida.
I can feel them everyday
cracking their bats on anvils
with each warmer sunrise.

The Yankees pound quarters
out of the moon.
The Yankees knock birds out of trees
by the millions.
I can listen to them
chewing up the college squads
and minor leaguers
like wolves on a deer.
It is a thing to hear.

The snow
listens so hard it vanishes.
The pastures
clear themselves of everything
but wind.
The ponds collapse,
the ground moves.

The Yankees are heading north.

Baltimore Chop

"A manner of hitting by chopping the ball into the ground immediately in front of home plate with the design of making the ball “hop” into the air, either high enough to allow the batter to reach first base before the infielder can field the ball and throw it to first base. Another goal is to chop the ball hard enough to have it ricochet over the infielders’ heads. The term is derived from the style of play of the 1894 Baltimore Orioles, who led the National league in batting by often using this style."
Lexicon of Baseball Slang Terms

Charles Hobson

Night Baseball Game, Yankee Stadium

Bob Jacob - "Stoop Baseball"

First you need the air
that young boys breathe.
Then a Spaldeen ball
with exceptional bounce,
and of course a street with
trees to help deflect
a really long hit,
but with enough openings
for an occasional home run.
The boys must learn
to take a deep breath
just before throwing the ball
at a brick stoop with
at least three steps.

One boy per team,
who, while pitching
on any given day,
may be Freddie Fitzsimmons,
Don Newcombe, Hugh Casey,
Ralph Branca or Preacher Roe.
While in the field he will be
either Pete Reiser or Dixie Walker.

The rules must be clear.
A ball caught on a fly is an out.
A ball going through legs
into the street is a single.
A double is a ball landing
on a fly in the street
before the large tar patch.
A triple is over the patch,
and a home run is all the way
across to the opposite sidewalk.

An occasional car
coming down the street
is all right, but a
careful watch is essential.
Each boy must take acute
aim at the very edge of
a step, throwing the ball
with all his might,
hoping to hit an edge
to give the ball loft
and traveling length
into home run land.
Such a hit is rare
and should be marveled at.

Not really necessary, but
intriguing is a door at the
top of the stoop with
small panes of glass.
The boys should be prepared
to chip in and pay
for a pane now and then.

If, after reading this poem
you have any questions
about this serious, fun sport,
I suggest that you go back
to Queens, New York, in the 1940s
and watch.

John Judson - "Rube Waller, Pitcher (1899-1967)"

No leagues then.
No attendance while men walked streets,
jobs scarce as hits off Satchel.
the one-time Baby Bull
Good days were gone,
so we barnstormed for gas, bed, and meals,
until Jesse proved us with four medals,
and Hitler had to leave the stands instead
of having to pin them on. That
was the bent way of a world we'd
sailed to in holds, chained to walls
and one another-which we learn
and live with. Except
on the field, when a new ball is
unpacked, and a rosin bag plops in dirt,
and your pure sweat starts to crown
aspiration and comic relief and curve.

And you toe the rubber, take your look in,
and throw the whole thing with a snap of
fingers, and watch four seams grip air,
bite that last black inch of plate and know
no music goes with you like this
all the distance.

Baseball Digest

Wikipedia - "Baseball Digest is a baseball magazine resource, published in Evanston, Illinois by Lakeside Publishing Company. It is the oldest baseball magazine in the United States. It was created by Herbert F. Simons, a sportswriter for the Chicago Daily Times, in 1942. Simons first published the magazine in August, 1942, and served as its editor-in-chief until 1963. In 1981, Joan Whaley was published as its first female contributor."
Wikipedia, Baseball Digest, Google, amazon

Robert L. Harrison - "Meeting 'Newk' Again"

The papers had him
signing autographs
years after Ebbets Field
had been buried forever.
So onto the concrete highways
I went in search of him.

I waited in lines filled
with people holding
bats, balls and photos
waiting for a hobby high.

Between shoulders
I could see that
old time Dodger
signing and smiling
just like it was
Knot Hole time again.

The I grabbed my seconds
as my turn came up
and our shadows met
on paper and pen,
on the past and present,
on the moment.

His voice was as warm
as yesterday's memories.
His eyes were as clear
as my vision.
His face turned back
the years for both of us.
Afterwards, I wandered away
and got lost in a crowd
too young to share
my dreams with.

Thomas Michael McDade - "Cooperstown Calm"

Jackie Jensen
was carved
in my mind
like bronze
along with
some graffiti:
"Chicken to fly,"
a phobia I didn't share
on my first
flight from Logan
to Chicago boot camp.
I was as easy
in my Delta seat
as Jackie always
seemed
in a batter's box.
Happy to serve
in the Navy
as he had done,
I didn't gloat.
Just wished I could
have traded with him -
all my Cooperstown
flying calm
for a Topps card
worth of talent
back when making
Little League
was as distant as
Fenway to Comiskey
by bus.

Satchel Paige

Wikipedia - "Leroy Robert 'Satchel' Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues."
Wikipedia, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Baseball Reference

Gene Carney - "Satchel"

The very names of his teams
Stir up other-wordly visions:
Birmingham Black Barons
Nashville Elite Giants
Chattanooga Black Lookouts
Crawfords and Monarchs
Stars and the Black Sox
Who weren't turned out
But never let in either

The very names of his pitches
Stir up colorful visions:
Little Tom and Long
Radio and B Balls
Two-hump Blooper
And the Hesi-
Tation

Ina game where records
Are part of the mystique
Satchel's birth date was uncertain
Seemed like he was born pitching
and destined to throw forever
His own

Even then
In his four decades
Mostly in the shadows
Before the awful eclipse ended
There was no one like
Lanky Leroy Paige
Don't bother to look back

Did that oldest rookie ever die
Or does he live on yet
Folk hero separate but equal
Always somewhat separate
Always at least equal

David Starkey - "September Pears"

They thud to the grass
like long singles
to right field. Hard
as baseballs
rain soon soaks
their skins, softens
the cores. Wasps
and white-tipped butter-
flies alight then,
as sweet rot
bloats the fruit
to softball size.
Swollen, they burst
into foul decay.
Yet crickets go on
chirpin their approval
of the mottled corpses
scattered amid
pinestraw - memento
mori as jolting
as the electronic
scoreboard after
a fierce grand slam.

Ray Washburn

Wikipedia - "Ray Clark Washburn (born May 31, 1938 in Pasco, Washington) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. Washburn, a right-hander, pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1961 to 1969 and the Cincinnati Reds in 1970."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Adam S. Ferber - "The Batboy"

From the stands
where the fathers sit,
through the gate
at the dugout's edge,
onto the field of play

sewn with
bases and chalk,
masks and gloves,
stopwatches, bats,
chest protectors,
shinguards, pine tar, resin,
helmets, seeds, and snuff,

through a maze
of blue hose
legs cleated,
poised and powerful,
walks the batboy.

Nine.

"Unied"-up
with stirrups showing,
weathered cap,
silver chain.

Serenely
by the watercooler
he takes his place.

When each furious threat
has ebbed;
no pitch, no swing,
no steal, no slide, no throw,
he works.

Larry Fangman - "Ode to Dan Quisenberry"

Quiz,
the news
of your death
hit me
like a fastball
in the ribs.

A sportswriter
in the paper
praised you
as a pitcher
and a poet, so I
special ordered
your collection.

Six weeks later,
I paid $12.95
and held
the pages of your life
in my hands.

On the way home,
in rush hour traffic,
I opened your book
at the red lights
and read
until the horns
honked
behind me.