IBO Boxing Honesty and Integrity
You know Doubleday didn’t invent it,
The myth spun by Spalding to circumvent it.
Abner was a soldier, never a player
Says one of the poems by Ronald A. Mayer.
The course of baseball history set to verse
In a collection of poems, some longer, some terse,
Baseball Memories brings them together
From Leo’s Lip to Fidrych’s feather.
If it’s Yankees or Red Sox or Dodgers you seek
At this book of baseball poems you should take a peek.
For its author covers all the bases:
The stars, the magnates, the pennant chases.
Deep into the recesses of history it goes
From Wee Willie to Joe D. and on to Pete Rose.
The great ones like Ruth, Aaron and Williams get their space
But commons like Mendoza, Haddix and Merkle also have their place.
If it’s moments you’re after look to this tome
Like when Ruth called his shot and when Merkle pulled his bone.
Some extra pine tar exploded Brett’s rage
And Mayer gives that game a rhyme-filled page.
If you love baseball give this book a read through
For verses on Cobb and Jackie and Carew.
I guess what I’m saying is for baseball cranks
Near the top of poetry collections Baseball Memories ranks.
Baseball Memories: A Collection of 101 Poems Celebrating Immortal Players, Classic Games, and Wacky Events of the National Pastime, Sunbury Press, 200 pps., $19.95