Bill Davis - "Ballplayers"

Ballplayers are usually around
for five or six years,
at least two of them in the minors,
and some of them back and forth
the whole time.

The Spanish guys stick together,
and the married guys
and the older guys
and the pitchers.
It's important to make friends.

They play regular maybe two years or so
and sometimes get sent down suddenly
every time a hot kid comes along.
When they get sent down they take a bus.
They play in medium-sized cities
to small crowds, industrial cities:
Tidewater, Syracuse, Montgomery,
Winston-Salem, Pawtucket.

Sooner or later
they look around for a car dealership,
or a bar, or a job selling insurance.
They ask to stay up
until a loan comes through,
and sometimes
they ask to be traded.
A fresh start.

Ballplayers only talk
about baseball
if they're hitting well
or threw hard
the last time out.


Local 254, 1976