Oops

A final adventure

Baseball is not life itself, although the resemblance keeps coming up.
It's probably a good idea to keep the two sorted out,
but old fans, if they're anything like me,
can't help noticing how cunningly our game replicates the larger schedule,
with its beguiling April optimism; the cheerful roughhouse of June;
the grinding, serious, unending (surely) business of midsummer;
the September settling of accounts,
when hopes must be traded in for philosophies or brave smiles;
and then the abrupt running-down of autumn, when we wish for - almost demand -
a prolonged and glittering final adventure just before the curtain.

                         Roger Angell, The Summer Game 

 

 

 

 

 

Baseball week

Baseball is like church.
Many attend, but few understand.

        Wes Westrum, NY Giants player, coach, manager, scout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Clothespins

I once hit clothespins
for the Chicago Cubs.
I'd go out after supper
when the wash was in
and collect clothespins
from under four stories
of clothesline.
A swing-and-a-miss
was a strike-out;
the garage roof, Willie Mays,
pounding his mitt
under a pop fly.
Bushes, a double,
off the fence, triple,
and over, home run.
The bleachers roared.
I was all they ever needed for the flag.
New records every game—
once, 10 homers in a row!
But sometimes I'd tag them
so hard they'd explode,
legs flying apart in midair,
pieces spinning crazily
in all directions.
Foul Ball! What else
could I call it?
The bat was real.

            Stuart Dybek

The bigger scheme

In the bigger scheme of things
    the universe is not asking us to do something,
        the universe is asking us to be something.
            And that's a whole different thing.

                        Lucille Clifton, Generations

 

 

 

 

Hugs

We need 4 hugs a day for survival.
We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance.
We need 12 hugs a day for growth.

            Virginia Satir, Magic Touch

 

 

 

 

A hard fight

This man beside us also has a hard fight
with an unfavouring world,
with strong temptations, with doubts and fears,
with wounds of the past which have skinned over,
but which smart when they are touched.
It is a fact, however surprising.
And when this occurs to us
we are moved to deal kindly with him,
to bid him be of good cheer,
to let him understand that we are also fighting a battle;
we are bound not to irritate him,
nor press hardly upon him
nor help his lower self.

                John Watson, The Homely Virtues