By Dan Zamudio

Bat boy

Steady
breeze rustles his
oversized uniform
as he kneels outside our home team
dugout

and waits
patiently for
the moment when both hands
will hold smooth pine still trembling from
a hit.

Confucius says

Only two things can last forever:

an old baseball mitt
with softened leather
and a double-header
delayed by
stormy weather.

Baseball Riddle

A ll professional
L eagues forbid its
U se.
M ade to be
I ndestructible.
N ever cracks.
U nfilled inside the
M iddle.

B aseball’s
A ttempt to save
T rees.

Dan Zamudio is a Chicago writer and lifelong Cub fan who recently forced his tired girlfriend to take three
rolls of action photos while he played catch with strangers on Wrigley Field after a long tour. Dan’s baseball poems can also be seen in the 2001 issue of SABR’s “The National Pastime”.

(originally published in Baseball Ink Vol. 1, No. 3 - December 2000)