Location: Canada
Member Since:
Sep. 29, 2014
Dave Baldwin
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Website: http://www.snakejazz.com/
Smashwords book reviews by Dave Baldwin
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9-Carat Baseball Poems: Roger Connor, Ted Williams and Others
on Oct. 03, 2014
Review of: 9-Carat Baseball Poems: Roger Connor, Ted Williams and Others: by Thomas M. McDade In this remarkable book dedicated entirely to baseball Tom McDade’s expertly-crafted poems tell tales about the characters, some famous and some unknown, whose adventures and idiosyncrasies have enlivened the game. One of McDade’s poems describes an imaginary visit to a cemetery by 19th-century home run champion Roger Connor who has been eclipsed by Babe Ruth and is now forgotten. Connor compares the gravesite of a Civil War hero to the unmarked one he anticipates he will have soon. “Monuments are for soldiers, handy for holidays,” Connor muses. He decides that July grass which “looks double play quick” is “all a dead infielder needs.” McDade is a master of the economical and surprising metaphor. In his poem “Players” McDade describes a young American sailor on liberty in France. The sailor is on a beach where he imagines he is a pitcher. His pitches are stones he skips off the Mediterranean. A nearby “topless beauty” leaning over, hands on knees, to check her daughter’s braid, serves as “a base runner who just edged off first.” He is checking her lead when their eyes meet. And in that pulse beat the reader feels the metaphors shatter into reality. 9-Carat Baseball Poems comprises fifty-eight poems, each shaped with great care and ingenuity. You’ll want to read each poem several times to discover the insight and humor it contains. Rarely has baseball poetry been composed with such skill.