Al Kaline is calling the game on television
With George Kell.
My Grandmother calls Kaline a dumb hick
From Arkansas.
She watches the game with the sound off
Ernie Harwell on the radio instead.
My Great-Grandmother has a battery-powered
Radio in her rowboat
Listening to the game.
Catching bluegills, rooting against the Blue Jays.
Those 80s Tigers are my beat.
Kemp for Chet, don’t call me Chester, Lemon
Guillermo “Willy” Hernández
Sweet Lou and Trammell turning a two.
“Bergie” Bergman doing time at first
Splitting with Johnny Wockenfuss.
Got no time for Jason Thompson here.
It’s a working man’s utility position.
Sparky trying to keep it all in play.
Rozema and Morris and Doyle Alexander … ah!
Ernie Harwell calling the balls,
Calling the strikes.
I’m in school at University of Michigan
When the Tigers hire Bo away from the football sidelines
To be the baseball president …
To fire Ernie Harwell.
And the love runs cool,
For your school,
For your boyhood team.
For all the dreams.
And Sparky has to deal with
Rob Deer, Petey Pete Incaviglia, and Mickey Tettelton
All in the lineup on the same day.
Even Cecil Fielder can’t fix what ails you.
Bring back Tommy Brookens,
Larry Herndon.
And “Fuss.”
Utility Man. Every Man.
Everywhere.
***
Joe Hilliard. Writer. Luddite. Teller of Tales. Grew up as a teen in Los Angeles on a diet of Blue Demon, Doc Savage, Philip K. Dick, the Circle Jerks, Mildred Pierce, Judge Dredd, and 50s science fiction films, on the fringe of 80s Hollywood. Graduate of the University of Michigan, which only added Kawabata, Krazy Kat, and William S. Burroughs to the mix. Marks time as a paralegal in sunny California.
