Dick Mac (alive!)
Baseball And Writing
by Marianne Moore
Suggested by post-game broadcasts.
Fanaticism? No. Writing is exciting
and baseball is like writing.
- You can never tell with either
- how it will go
- or what you will do;
- generating excitement --
- a fever in the victim --
- pitcher, catcher, fielder, batter.
- Victim in what category?
- Owlman watching from the press box?
- To whom does it apply?
- Who is excited? Might it be I?
It's a pitcher's battle all the way -- a duel --
a catcher's, as, with cruel
- puma paw, Elston Howard lumbers lightly
- back to plate, (His spring
- de-winged a bat swing.)
- They have that killer instinct;
- yet Elston -- whose catching
- arm has hurt them all with the bat --
- when questioned, says unenviously,
- "I'm very satisfied. We won."
- Shorn of the batting crown, says, "We";
- robbed by a technicality.
When three players on a side play three positions
and modify conditions,
- the massive run need not be everything.
- "Going, going . . . " Is
- it? Roger Maris
- has it, running fast. You will
- never see a finer catch. Well . . .
- "Mickey, leaping like the devil" -- why
- gild it, although deer sounds better --
- snares what was speeding towards its treetop nest,
- one-handing the souvenier-to-be
- meant to be caught by you or me.
Assign Yogi Berra to Cape Canaveral;
he could handle any missile.
- He is no feather. "Strike! . . . Strike two!"
- Fouled back. A blur.
- It's gone. You would infer
- That the bat had eyes.
He put the wood to that one.
- Praised, Skowron says, "Thanks, Mel.
- I think I helped a little bit."
- All business, each, and modesty.
- Blanchard, Richardson, Kubek, Boyer.
- In that galaxy of nine, say which
- won the pennant? Each. It was he.
Those two magnificent saves from the knee -- throws
by Boyer, finesses in twos --
- like Whitey's three kinds of pitch and pre-
- diagnosis
- with pick-off psychosis.
- Pitching is a large subject.
- Your arm, too true at first, can learn to
- catch the corners -- even trouble
- Mickey Mantle. ("Grazed a Yankee!
- My baby pitcher, Montejo!"
- With some pedagogy,
- you'll be tough, premature prodigy.)
The crowd him and curve him and aim for the knees. Trying
indeed! The secret implying:
- "I can stand here, bat held steady."
- One may suit him;
- none has hit him.
- Imponderables smite him.
- Muscle kinks, infections, spike wounds
- require food, rest, respite from ruffians. (Drat it!
- Celebrity costs privacy!)
- Cow's milk, "tiger's milk," soy milk, carrot juice,
- brewer's yeast (high potency) --
- concentrates presage victory
sped by Luis Arroyo, Hector Lopez --
deadly in a pinch. And "Yes,
- it's work; I want you to bear down,
- but enjoy it
- while you're doing it."
- Mr. Houk and Mr. Sain,
- if you have a rummage sale,
- don't sell Roland Sheldon or Tom Tresh
- Studded with stars in belt and crown,
- the Stadium is an adastrium.
- O flashing Orion,
- your stars are muscled like the lion.
Printed here without permission.
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Created on: Friday, 28 February 1997
Changes last made on: Friday, 26 May 2000