Poetry Friday: Baseball

The scene: The front yard. (After a current-event homework discussion of the historic last game at Yankee Stadium, it was decided that a game of baseball is needed.)

The baseball players: Junior (representing the Yankees) and Mom (the Mets).

Mom (pitching and announcing the game): Batting for the world-famous New York Yankees is...

Junior: Janet Jackson!

Mom: [Pause.] Reggie Jackson?

Junior: I mean, Reggie Jackson!

Mom pitches, and Reggie hits big, out of the ballpark/beyond the holly bush.

And such is the run-scoring segue to today's Poetry Friday selection: Kenn Nesbitt's "If School Were More Like Baseball," at Poetry4kids.com. 

If school were more like baseball,
we'd only have to play.

Read the rest here.

The Miss Rumphius Effect rounds up all the Poetry Friday posts. To read more about Poetry Friday, take a look at this article. Do join the game! Everyone is welcome.

Comments

[TadMack]

*snicker*
Um, yes. Janet. World famous baseball player, didn't you know? Her uniform has gold sequins...

That Poetry4Kids website has been a lifesaver before -- all those homework assignments my younger sibs had that started with "find a poem" finally stopped inciting them to riot.

[Susan T.]

TadMack, yes, the famous right fielder Janet Jackson. Ha! I like that Poetry4kids site; it offers a lot of helpful resources in addition to the funny poems.

[Kelly Fineman]

"and best of all, we'd cancel
whenever there was rain."

God forbid.

[Susan]

Ha.

There wouldn't have been school (or baseball) here earlier today. So much rain!

[Mary Lee]

And in the back of mom's mind, when Junior quips "Janet Jackson," --
Where did THAT come from?!?!!?

Very funny. Superb timing in your storytelling. Do you moonlight as a stand-up comedian?

:-)

[To Edmisten]

Very fun! I must've missed Janet, though, in that last Yankees game. (My husband is so sad -- he never made it to Yankee stadium, though he's been a fan since he was 6. Ironically, I actually did see a game there, and I didn't care ....) :-)

[Susan]

Mary Lee, it was all I could do to keep a straight face. Jr. and NT (his dad) do listen to a lot of dance music in the car. NT teaches an exercise class where he uses lots of music, so the two of them are often listening for good songs from Napster downloads and such. In other words, I live in the House of Disco.

[Susan]

Karen, Janet was in right field, with her headset, dancing along to "Rhythm Nation." Hee hee.

I went to one game at Yankee Stadium. Reading about that historic last game did make me wistful. Of course I said, "Ooooh, Babe Ruth. We should get a book about Babe Ruth!" Babe Ruth's ninetysomething daughter threw out the first pitch. Amazing.

[Tracy]

I couldn't bear to watch the last Yankees home game on TV. Even Monday morning looking at the front page of the paper made me sad!

[Susan T.]

Tracy, I confess to getting sentimental about Yankee Stadium, too. Today was the last game at the old Mets Stadium, but that didn't strike as much of a chord. And I like the Mets.