Who’s On First?
July 30 2016


The New York Yankees
in all their pin-striped swagger
remain coolly nameless;
numbers only
of those corporate jerseys
stitched in black. 
Are they so famous
we’re expected to know?
Disdainful, even of the fans.
Or are they humble; 
the whole greater
than its anonymous cogs,
as they methodically go about the business
of playing ball?

We love underdogs.
So only a New Yorker
could support this team,
with its strict comportment,
its enforcement of hair length, and facial trim,
the smug glory
of its winning heritage.
The Big Apple
Gotham
the straw that stirs the drink.
Frank Sinatra, singing New York, New York,
the bleacher bums
hurling raspberries.

My team
which won a championship decades ago
plays gamely
on a hostile field.
Because on any given day
the Yankees are beatable
  --  and how sweet that is.
Although I must admit
a certain grudging admiration 
for their unequalled tradition
for expecting to win.

First pitch, final out.
But who’s keeping score, anyway?
Because isn’t leaving it all on the field, playing with heart
what really counts?
The consolation
that’s become all too familiar
for fans like me;
our boys, shuffling off the diamond
heads slumped in defeat.



Like dog poems, I could write a baseball poem every day! I recall one from quite a while ago which I think is called Try Easy; although with its pretensions of the philosophical, it was a lot more ambitious than this little puff-piece. But baseball invites that kind of writing: the more I watch, the more I affirm the notion that baseball really is a metaphor for life. 

I recently pointed out this small detail to a brand new fan of the game. I think their uniform is intended as a kind of psychological warfare, connoting either disdainful swagger, or the kind of  methodical  efficiency that comes of dedicated teamwork. Anyway, ever since then, this factoid has kind of stuck in my head as something that might be worthy of a poem. Apparently, not really! Still, every once in a while, it’s nice to write purely in the spirit of fun. 

This season, we’re nicely ahead of the Yankees, battling other teams for first. So far. But that Yankee mystique always persists. And in baseball, even the best team and its fans have to learn to be good losers; because there is a lot of losing in baseball.  Not to mention, as the legendary Yankee catcher Yogi Berra notoriously said, “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over”.