Ode to Sam Fletcher

Ode to Sam Fletcher

By Matthew Pritt

Sam Fletcher had an unremarkable career.

A complete list of Fletcher’s games
as a major league pitcher:

One complete game loss for the Brooklyn Superbas in 1909,
two relief appearances for the Cincinnati Reds
three years later.

Most notable about him
is that he is the latest baseball player
whose date of death
is completely unknown.

How can sports not matter,
if the only things that survive
from a person’s entire life
are a date and city of birth
and 18.2 innings pitched?

After retiring Fred Luderus
on June 10, 1912,
Fletcher walked off the mound
for the last time.

What he did next, nobody knows.
He never pitched again,
at least not in the big leagues.

But what a feat, to throw a ball
60 feet, 6 inches, for a few hours

and somehow become immortal.

Matthew Pritt‘s poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Vast Chasm, Star*Line, and The Sunlight Press. He is a fan of the Colorado Rockies, and when he was a kid, Dante Bichette threw him a baseball (Matthew probably remembers this better than Dante). Matthew lives in West Virginia with his five cats. You can see pictures of them on his Twitter @MatthewTPritt.

Jason David Córdova lives in Puerto Rico as an illustrator and painter. Some of his art can be seen on Instagram at @jasoni72. You can visit his shop on Red Bubble.

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