AFTER THE GAME IS OVER [Sa 9-30-17] A repeat from 2011

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from A Place Of Winter For the Years of Winter…

            For most baseball fans, the season is over. No “post-season.” So I’m reposting this “poem” from the same date in 2011. The Cubs and their fans have gone on to much better times since I wrote this.

            I know this is doggerel instead of poetry, but good poetry is not the point.

There were other folks involved, of course, but since baseball poetry traditionally deals with male intergenerational bonding…

It was the major leagues, almost

The Pirates and the Cubs

But names that fit them best at most

Were the 1.75rates and the Flubs [1]

Hot dogs were twenty smackers

Ice cream was even more

When they saw the price of young Jack’s Crackers

Every chin dropped to the floor.

Each player made a million each

For working half a day

But every ball was out of reach

No one dared to shout “Say hey!” [2]

Every bat let out a sigh

When they saw who came to hit

None of their kind would have to die

Since every pitch was missed

Every pitch was wild as sin

The managers prayed for rain

Home plate doesn’t have to take you in [3]

There was no Spahn or Sain  [4]

But for a boy up in the bleachers

With a grandpa old as Never

Watching on the field those wretched creatures

It was the best day in Forever.

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

1] 1.75 is half of pi, if we accept pi as 3.14 without the “to infinity,” making half-rate Pirates 1.75rates. You can say “half-rates” in that line if the meter offends you.

2] The signature exultation of Willie Mays, for whom no ball was ever out of reach.

3] Poet Robert Frost said that “home is where they have to take you in.” Home plate is where they try to keep you out.

4] The battle cry of the 1948 National League Boston Braves, who became the Milwaukee Braves and later, and currently, the Atlanta Braves, was “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” reflecting the abilities of Hall of Fame lefthander Warren Spahn and his pitching rotation partner, Johnny Sain, compared to the rest of the rotation, who pitched best if rained out. Based on a poem by Boston Post sports editor Gerald Hern: “First we’ll use Spahn, and then we’ll use Sain, then an off day, followed by rain. Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain, and followed we hope by two days of rain.”

The “place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where life is defined by winter even in the summer! [And where it is 34 degrees F this morning.] We lived there 2007-2015, to be near the grandchildren and do things like take them to ball games.