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Mark Stellinga's Sample Poems
1 Window Seat
2 Old Babe
3. The Hustle
4 The Reaper Denied
5 The Saga of Margie and Tim
6 Old Friends
7 First Fish With Gramps
8 The Salesman
9 A Special Christmas
by Mark Stellinga
Source: Phonetical Imagery, 2004
1
Hey, did I ever tell you 'bout
the greatest baseball game,
or should I say, the one that gave
"Old Babe" his famous name?
Like several other great ones,
there were many hits that day,
and, if it hadn't ended like it did,
I'd have to say
nothing all that great went down,
but talk about suspense,
you ever seen a coach
put SEVEN fielders on the fence?
They both were scoring runs at will,
the errors, very few,
and after 14 innings, they were tied at 22!
The top of fifteen saw more hits,
the third out didn't arrive
'till ten went up, two were left,
and the Reds had picked up five.
6
The Yank that batted first was walked.
The next flied out to right.
The next guy bunts, now two are on,
a close call, but not quite.
Now time is called, and to the mound,
out waddles old coach Jones.
The bullpen hummed with forks and spits,
the bleachers oozed with groans.
The Reds had traded FOUR for ONE
to sign their new "Big Gun"!
He'd finished forty ball games with no walks,
no hits,
no runs!
Then sure enough, the signal came,
as Jonsey whirled around,
and the "million-bucks-a-minute-man"
came charging to the mound!
His half a dozen warm up shots were clocked
at one-o-eight,
when the next Yank, hitting .415,
digs in beside the plate.
11
So the kid winds up, the cannon roars,
the umpire growls his call,
"Take your base!" On his first pitch,
he nicks him with the ball!
Well now the Yanks decide to let their
hottest man pinch hit.
He struts out to the batters' box,
Big Gun just smiled and spit.
But, despite the great delivery,
his wind-up takes too long.
The "squeeze" is tried, a run is scored,
the Yanks can do no wrong.
With a triple steal, and first base clean,
The batter takes "ball one"
and Big Gun gives the ump a glare,
then cocks his awesome gun,
The next three pitches gave new meaning
to the old term, "smoke"!
The first two cracked the bats, on fouls.
The third one, well, it broke,
16
but not the bat, the "pitch",
and Big Gun grinned and waved good-bye.......
With two men on and two men out,
it was time to "do, or die"!
The next Yank looked at 4 before he got
the old green light.
With 3 and 1, he ripped one foul,
then took one high and tight.
The count was full, and if looks could kill,
the glare on Big Gun's face
would o' dropped the ump as, once again,
he bellers, "Take your base!"
Now Big Gun's hit a batter, and,
he's issued his first walk,
and, with the fear of "squeeze" he chokes,
and the umpire signals, "balk"!
So now the Yanks are down by three,
when, on the emerald turf
walks one of the all time greats,
the man they call, "Big Murph!".
21
By this time Jonsey wanted to believe
their luck was gone,
but thought he'd play the odds and hollered,
"Big Gun, put him on".
The fans of both teams liked the way the
strategies were done.
It looked as though, no matter what,
this game would soon be won.
The Red's Big Gun had struck out 91 of 94,
but he had never pitched a ball
to big Old Babe before.
In situations like this one,
Old Babe was hitting great.
With runners on, his average loomed at .738!
Because the wind was strong that day
and mostly blowing in,
Jonsey made a move you'll prob'ly
never see again.
26
He lined all seven fielders up against the
outfield fence!
You could have heard a pin drop,
and it really made no sense.
But little 'bout this game made sense,
and when you've heard the rest,
you'll know, of all the games to date,
why this one was the best.
Old Babe just twisted in his spikes,
then found the Big Gun's eyes.
The Yankee fans went crazy
when they saw the old bat rise.
He pointed straight to center field, then,
with a tiny grin,
he nodded at Big Gun and said,
"Come on boy, bring 'er in!"
Now bear in mind, they're down by three,
a grand slam wins the game,
and everybody knows how Old Babe
earned his hallowed name.
31
So Big Gun throws a knuckle ball,
Old Babe didn't even flinch.
The next one curved pret' near four feet,
but missed pret' near one inch.
The count was even, one and one,
when Big Gun hurled the next,
the darn thing caught the corner,
Old Babe's muscles sort of ...flexed!
At one and two, the Big Gun threw
two garbage balls, down low.
The runners sneaked off just a bit,
and dug in hard to go.
Now Old Babe showed the patience
of a wise and crafty fox.
He tapped the plate, and once again,
stood poised within the box.
Big Gun squeezed the rosin bag
and waited for the sign,
The catcher pounded in his mit and roared out,
"One-o-nine!"
36
A radar gun could not have clocked
that record breaking pitch.
They say it left an imprint of the baseballs'
crimson stitch,
not within the catcher's mit,
but on the slugger's BAT!
And to this day there's not a soul
who knows where that ball's at!
Now some old fans who saw the game
that crazy summer day,
will still look up and search the sky,
you ask them why, they'll say,
Of all the home runs Old Babe hit,
the one that won this game's
the only one they've never found,
and, in the Hall of Fame,
The picture shows the field that day,
it shows the slugger's bat,
And all the fans are looking UP,
but what they're looking AT,
41
It seems has never come back down,
but if it ever does,
It surely represents the greatest hit
there ever was....
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