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Take Me Out to the Ball Game
The game of baseball’s changed since I was younger,
Back when the Giants played at Candlestick.
A hot dog in my hand helped quench my hunger;
The left-field stands were cheap, but did the trick.
I watched as Mays, McCovey and Cepeda
Each seemed to hit the leather off the ball.
While Marichal high-kicked each pitch and made a
Sound case for his induction to the Hall.
Today the players all seem less heroic,
With steroid records adding asterisks.
The strike zone’s getting larger, umps less stoic
When sweeping dirt off home plate with their whisks.
Each year it seems the pitching’s getting stronger,
With speeds up to one-hundred three and more,
While player’s batting averages no longer
Are quite as high as they once were before.
Back then less than .300 was a bummer,
But now .280’s good enough to cheer.
While RBIs keep dropping every summer,
And pitchers throw less innings every year.
It all costs more, but here I’ll stop my whining.
The hot dogs now taste better than they did.
And in the left-field stands the sun’s still shining
The way it did back when I was a kid.
.
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Point of View
Perspective is, you must agree,
__A most intriguing thing.
It shapes the way we think and see
__The views to which we cling.
The way I see the world today
__Is different than I did
When living in Hawaii Nei
__Or when I was a kid.
Perspective changes day to day
__Depending where we stand.
What may seem dim when far away,
__Seems clear when near at hand.
When far away, things may seem fair;
__From closer, not quite so.
So small when visioned from the air;
__But large when seen below.
A stranger seen across the street
__May be nor here nor there.
But strangers whom we chance to meet
__May prove beyond compare.
To change perspective means that we
__Will stand where others stand.
It doesn’t mean that we’ll agree
__But helps us understand.
The Earth, when viewed from outer space,
__A blue-green marble’s found.
Perhaps more beauty we’d embrace
__If we would turn around.
If where we stand, the world appears
__A dreary, dismal place,
Perhaps its time we shifted gears
__And did an about face.
For stubbornness won’t serve us well
__And beauty never find us,
If roses that we hope to smell
__Are in full bloom behind us.
.
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James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and four collections of poetry including Sidekicks, Mostly Sonnets, and Laughing Matters, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in both print and online media. He was honored with being chosen as the winner of the 2021 SCP International Poetry Competition.
I was a baseball aficionado in my youth and even had the “Baseball Encyclopedia.” I remember those great Giant baseball players and knew the batting averages by year of the favorite players in both leagues. Thank you for taking me back to those days that I miss. You are so right about the game having changed. Perspectives certainly do change if one is willing to empathize and place oneself in another’s shoes. I always enjoyed well rhymed and well-conceived poems like yours.
Mr. Tweedie – Both of these poems are exceptional! The rhyme and meter are wonderful, and the messages clear, critical, and relatable. I think about the significance of perspective all the time, and you have presented that subject perfectly. As for baseball, many of us older guys regard the 60a and 70s as its golden age, with the Giants players you mention, plus Koufax, Gibson, Aaron, Clemente, Mantle, and many others. However, it’s hard to put even any of them above Shohei Ohtani, I have to submit. Thanks for the outstanding reads.
Take me out to the Ball Game, even though I don’t know much about baseball, paralleled my feelings towards tennis. Everything’s got more serious and more money-oriented. But alas, unlike the hotdogs at baseball games, the strawberries and cream at the All England Croquet and Tennis Club (Wimbledon) have always been priced beyond the pocket of your average Joe.
In POV, I found the most poignant sentence, considering how things are today, ‘(A different Perspective) doesn’t mean that we’ll agree / But helps us understand’. The final lines are pretty much up there in their poignancy, too – ‘…beauty never find(s) us, / If roses that we hope to smell / Are in full bloom behind us.’
Dear James,
I am not generally a sports fan – the last baseball game I went to was in Baltimore 31 years ago…but I still appreciated the story you told. I love how you tied it together with the hot dog. I was certainly transported to a bleacher in the sun with the taste of a juicy hot dog on my lips.
Regarding poem number two -thank you for the beautiful reminder to consider what I focus on. I need that a lot these days!
Gigi
I remember being amazed at seeing McCovey play right-handed hitters almost half way between 1st and 2nd base, then scoot back to the bag to take a throw from another infielder. Mays often played center almost like a back-up infielder, daring batters to hit one over his head. (In the ?1959 All-Star Game at old Forbes Field, the announcer described his triple over Mantle’s head this way: “The only guy in the park who could have caught it was the one who hit it.”)
Nice poems both–James. They say (esp. the 1st) in an quiet way something substantial about life then vs. now.
When I was a boy, I was a fan of the Phillies, and every year they competed with the Cubs to see who would be in the cellar. Since moving to the Boston area, my home team has fared much better, but who can afford to buy a Fenway Frank these days? Even bleacher seats cost a small fortune nowadays.
C.B. I made a point of taking a Fenway Park tour when I was in Boston back in 2018. It turned out to be a memorable and treasured part of my ten-day trip across New England. My only disappointment was that the Red Sox were away or I would have happily paid for a good seat and enjoyed a Fenway Frank while watching pop flies bounce off the Green Monster! Now that I am living in the Pacific Northwest I have become a Mariner’s fan. I even drove 3 1/2-hours to Seattle to watch my then six-year-old grandson have the unique experience of throwing out the first ball before a Mariners game at T-Mobile Stadium. GobMariners!
I take heart James that the hotdogs are better now – these are glorious slices of nostalgia: I note that the phrase, ‘when I was a kid’, occurs in both poems, so you really do repeat yourself … but that, surely, is what nostalgia’s all about! We live it again and again. Nice!
James,
lol I noticed the repetition just before I submitted the poems as a set and considered slightly rewriting one of them but decided that it didn’t matter and no one but Margaret would notice it, anyway! You proved me wrong!
Good to be ahead of the pack, then James! And here is a free idea for you: why not – in a leisurely fashion over the next year – write a whole stream of poems in which the phrase ‘when I was a kid’ surreptitiously, invisibly, imperceptibly is there, and then bring out a collection called, ‘When I was a Kid’ – in which every poem has that phrase. It has a ring to it!
Jim, baseball is meaningless to we Englanders, apart from Steve McQueen bouncing that ball in “The Great escape.”
However, “Point of view” is just another example of your prestigious way with words that always hits the spot for me. Thank you.
James, it is always pleasant to read a well-written baseball poem, so thank you for that.
When I was a teenager and in attendance at MLB games in Toronto, which included the years when the Blue Jays won two World Series in a row, it was great to watch George Bell, Jesse Barfield, and Joe Carter hit home runs. But then arrived the lean years when the team was losing all the time. This was when I taught myself that if I arrived at the stadium a few hours before game time and thus during batting practice, I could watch the players having their home run contests against each other.
If you attend anymore MLB games, then by phoning the home team or its stadium, the fine folks there can tell you the specific time of day that each team’s batting practice session begins. By watching batting practice, one is guaranteed to see the players combine to hit more than a dozen home runs!
In my opinion, it is always a disappointment if there wasn’t a home run hit during the game. But that feeling is negated by having watched them hit home runs during batting practice, which despite them being hit during batting practice are nonetheless amazing feats of strength to witness.
My favourite section of each stadium is those of its LF (left field) seats, because that is where most home runs are hit. But when sitting there you have to be alert, because the baseballs of home runs can violently bounce all over the place if not immediately caught. Also, unlike the 1B (1st base) and 3B seating sections, when seated in the LF (or RF) seating section it is easy to correctly track the trajectory of a sky-high baseball as it is traveling over any part of the outfield.
From Lannie.
P.S. Although it is hardly worth mentioning now that there are less than a handful of games remaining in the regular season, for those in the USA there is usually one Free Game of the Day that can be live-streamed at the MLB website: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games
Yes, the game of baseball has changed, as memories like yours in this poem, James, directly depend on opportunities each of us had. I grew up in Florida, where we could see the boys of summer close up in spring training. Good seats sometimes cost nothing. At each single game, the game itself with the potential for a win (which didn’t count because it was only training!) was the thing. But the stars (and cheering for them individually) were almost as important. As Russel Winick says, Shohei Ohtani has brought that back to Los Angeles. More power to him! In Japan, the sport of greatest popular interest is HIGH SCHOOL baseball. Ohtani started starring at that time, and he’s only 30 years old now.
Other stars were announcers and color commentators whose play-by-play talk created and fostered the drama. If I have to remember one, let it be Joe Garagiola, the guy who made a cheekier career out of announcing than he had in playing.
James Tweedie, your final quatrain for “Point of View” comes to us as a feeling reminder to look for roses when and where they may be found.
James, baseball has changed quite a bit. But it seems that during the playoffs, the old game returns. Will you tuning in to watch? What makes me return to the older version of the game is to listen to it on the radio…it take me back in time. The sun is still shining…