Dennis Mahagin offers a snapshot of a jaded ballplayer.
—
One Minute Memoir of a Semi Embittered Lifetime AA Batter
In the dugout
I listened to a hell of a lot of Muddy Waters.
There was this one
vat they called a blue oil drum,
where bushers spat their bubble gum
and tobacco chew: it gave off
a cologne like pot roast, peppered
mostly to fool you.
My longest hit stint lasted two games;
a walk man, I couldn’t keep going
and going, lifetime average
about the same as my IQ.
Cary Fu was a middle reliever
in Sedro Woolley, a submariner
with a pretty wicked
sinker, too, and this crazy wind up
like Big Bird in the shoes
of an amputee, like Stagger Lee,
or Jeff Goldblum in The Fly
—his specialty
was making me
pop out
to short: towering pills
or spangled stars,
copper tops in the night lights
that took forever to return
from the sky.
***
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