A Ballad Of Baseball Burdens Poem by Franklin Pierce Adams

A Ballad Of Baseball Burdens

Rating: 2.7


The burden of hard hitting. Slug away
Like Honus Wagner or like Tyrus Cobb.
Else fandom shouteth: "Who said you could play?
Back to the jasper league, you minor slob!"
Swat, hit, connect, line out, goet on the job.
Else you shall feel the brunt of fandom's ire
Biff, bang it, clout it, hit it on the knob -
This is the end of every fan's desire.

The burden of good pitching. Curved or straight.
Or in or out, or haply up or down,
To puzzle him that standeth by the plate,
To lessen, so to speak, his bat-renown:
Like Christy Mathewson or Miner Brown,
So pitch that every man can but admire
And offer you the freedom of the town -
This is the end of every fan's desire.

The burden of loud cheering. O the sounds!
The tumult and the shouting from the throats
Of forty thousand at the Polo Grounds
Sitting, ay, standing sans their hats and coats.
A mighty cheer that possibly denotes
That Cub or Pirate fat is in the fire;
Or, as H. James would say, We've got their goats -
This is the end of every fan's desire.

The burden of a pennant. O the hope,
The tenuous hope, the hope that's half a fear,
The lengthy season and the boundless dope,
And the bromidic, "Wait until next year."
O dread disgrace of trailing in the rear,
O Piece of Bunting, flying high and higher
That next October it shall flutter here:
This is the end of every fan's desire.

ENVOY

Ah, Fans, let not the Quarry but the Chase
Be that to which most fondly we aspire!
For us not Stake, but Game; not Goal, but Race -

THIS is the end of every fan's desire.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Kim Barney 03 April 2019

Hmmmmm... almost two years after my last comment, it looks as if I am still the only baseball fan on this website, but I know Wes Vogler likes baseball!

0 0 Reply
Kim Barney 19 May 2017

A great baseball poem. I must be the only baseball fan on this website, to not have anyone commented on this poem before.

3 1 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
1 / 107
Franklin Pierce Adams

Franklin Pierce Adams

Chicago, Illinois
Close
Error Success