Romancing the Horsehide
Baseball Poems on Players and the Game
By Gene Carney
New York, Harper Perennial, 1992Disclaimers: Gene Carney is a regular contributor to A Red Sox Journal, and I am not qualified to be a poetry critic. But so what?
A poetry book is random access, open up and read awhile, then close the book and think about it. Gene writes what they call free verse, meaning it doesn't rhyme. If he were a pitcher he would be a finesse pitcher, one who paints the corners. The subtitle of this book is Baseball Poems on Players and the Game. Most of the ones I have read so far are about the game.
I was just watching the Little League World Series, and kept thinking about a poem called Little League Mom --
She's terrified by the speed
Of the ball
That he has to face...
He's terrified of fanning
Which reminded me of an interview with a professional athlete who said his greatest motivator was fear of failure. In another poem, Gene writes:
I don't know about you
But when I was a kid
We played ball
As far away from the adults
As we could get
Gene manages to delve into many of the nooks and crannies of a baseball fan's soul. In Stubs, he wonders why he saves the ticket stubs to every game he attends. Here's Grandstand in its entirety:
The roof giveth
And the roof taketh away
Shelter from
Foul balls
And foul weather
Protector of
Souvenir scorecards
Haven of vendors
And those who
In real life
Long
To move up a notch
From General Admission
I'll be done reading this in a couple of years, and then write another review -- DN
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