From Booklist
Baseball poetry began in Mudville, where Casey let down the multitudes, but the game's subtle pleasures also attract modern poets. The latest is Torreson, who offers a series of lyrics honoring various New York Yankees. The best baseball poems distill a fleeting memory of on-the-diamond grace down to an indelible image, and Torreson can slap images to all fields like Don Mattingly in his prime. On DiMaggio: "how like Sinatra you swing / into each curvy pitch, / keeping each day / from going its own way." And yet, when Torreson really hits the long ball, his subject isn't Yankee triumphs but the seasons of pinstripe decline. "Spring Plowing, 1965" finds a boy on a tractor struggling through a rut-strewn field as the Yanks tumble toward mediocrity: "as the boy tills / his team under / and pimples break out, / his voice cracking / among the ruins." Baseball and poetry can seem impenetrable to the uninitiated, but once inside their worlds, emotions run the scales in a heartbeat. Torreson shows us how. Bill Ott
Review
1920, When Carl Mays Beans Ray Chapman
1960, The Year Hook Hansen Owned The Cafe
1973, Buzzing Over Yankee Stadium
Andy Stankiewicz, Yankee Rookie
At Penn Station The Team Boards The Yankee Special
Because Dust Delivers Each Drop Of Rain
Billy Martin
A Boy Is Knocking
The Called Shot Home Run
Catcher And Son At Grossinger Hotel And Country Club
The Day I Meet Billy Martin
Don Larsen's Perfect World Series Game
Dreams Should Not Dog Great Centerfielders
Ending The One-game Cataclysm
Entering The Lost Country Of Dave Winfield
The Fans Versus Ed Whiston
Gil Mcdougald, Yankee Infielder
Give Praise For Bases
In The Midst Of A Long Baseball Strike, G. Mcdougald's Deafness Is Lif
In The Series' Sixth Game, Reggie Courts The Moon
Jim Bouton: Unwriting
Joe Dimaggio Never Swings A Bat At Old Timers' Games
Lou, Here's To Your Joyride To The Stadium
Maris And Dylan Came Scowling Out Of Hibbing, Minnesota
Maris Of The Cards
Mickey, Once Our Days Made Their Face In You
Nobody's Fan
Paul O'neill, Descendant Of Mark Twain, Starts Us Down The Wide River
A Pitcher Is A Beautiful Woman In An Old Movie
Rain Delay
Ring Lardner Watches The Babe Take Batting Practice
The Rivals
Roger Maris
Ryne Duren, Yankee Reliever
Sometimes The Yankees Love Us Back
Spring Plowing, 1965
Thirteen-year-old Girls And Handsome Kevin Maas
Thurman Munson
To Comfort Catchers Of The Knuckleball
To Mattingly In The Shadow Of His Ailing Back
Tools Of Contention
Two Years Retired, Bobby Murcer Makes A Comeback Bid, 1985
When It Is Over God Slips A Finger Into The Middle Of Yankee St.
When That Spiral At The Finish
When The Babe Stormed New York
Who's On First
The Yankees Bend To The Cool, Clear Water Of Mirrors
Yogi, Though You're No One-eyed Hunchback
Your Streak's Generous Nature
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
1960, The Year Hook Hansen Owned The Cafe
1973, Buzzing Over Yankee Stadium
Andy Stankiewicz, Yankee Rookie
At Penn Station The Team Boards The Yankee Special
Because Dust Delivers Each Drop Of Rain
Billy Martin
A Boy Is Knocking
The Called Shot Home Run
Catcher And Son At Grossinger Hotel And Country Club
The Day I Meet Billy Martin
Don Larsen's Perfect World Series Game
Dreams Should Not Dog Great Centerfielders
Ending The One-game Cataclysm
Entering The Lost Country Of Dave Winfield
The Fans Versus Ed Whiston
Gil Mcdougald, Yankee Infielder
Give Praise For Bases
In The Midst Of A Long Baseball Strike, G. Mcdougald's Deafness Is Lif
In The Series' Sixth Game, Reggie Courts The Moon
Jim Bouton: Unwriting
Joe Dimaggio Never Swings A Bat At Old Timers' Games
Lou, Here's To Your Joyride To The Stadium
Maris And Dylan Came Scowling Out Of Hibbing, Minnesota
Maris Of The Cards
Mickey, Once Our Days Made Their Face In You
Nobody's Fan
Paul O'neill, Descendant Of Mark Twain, Starts Us Down The Wide River
A Pitcher Is A Beautiful Woman In An Old Movie
Rain Delay
Ring Lardner Watches The Babe Take Batting Practice
The Rivals
Roger Maris
Ryne Duren, Yankee Reliever
Sometimes The Yankees Love Us Back
Spring Plowing, 1965
Thirteen-year-old Girls And Handsome Kevin Maas
Thurman Munson
To Comfort Catchers Of The Knuckleball
To Mattingly In The Shadow Of His Ailing Back
Tools Of Contention
Two Years Retired, Bobby Murcer Makes A Comeback Bid, 1985
When It Is Over God Slips A Finger Into The Middle Of Yankee St.
When That Spiral At The Finish
When The Babe Stormed New York
Who's On First
The Yankees Bend To The Cool, Clear Water Of Mirrors
Yogi, Though You're No One-eyed Hunchback
Your Streak's Generous Nature
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
