Allegiance

Allegiance

Elizabeth Bales Frank

Illustration by Michael C. Paul


He was born the year the Cardinals first won the World Series
And died the year no World Series was played.
“Baseball killed my father,” I announced to wintry smiles.
But his heart gave out the first week of October, the week
That would have decided who would go into the postseason.
The strike, the stroke, meant no one went on.
 
In the last play of the 1926 World Series, the mighty Babe
Was thrown out trying to steal second.
That’s how they told it, the old krauts on the stoop
Relaying the fatal play against the Yankees, a play made
When my father was a days-old baby, now the one they sent to fetch beer in a pail
From the corner tavern. “Take a sip, don’t spit in it, kid.”
 
This was his grandfather, fearsome Old Joe, who came over in 1886
And signed away his allegiance to the Emperor of Germany. I inherited that deed
And all the treasured programs, ’26, ’34. The one in ’44 with its ad that read
“Victory is in the Cards. But not for you, Adolf!”
All loyalty devoted to fandom. No other patriotism, no other pride.
The home team is where the heart is. All hearts give out in the end.
 
Between them was my grandfather, Phillip Joseph and his brother,
Joseph Phillip. Imagination less important, in the family tradition
Than memorizing ancient plays. We had recordings, on vinyl, of the calls
Of ’64 and ’67. Highlights of the summer, played all winter, waiting for spring.
The lore of the stoop replaced by the din of the hi-fi, the announcers, radio pros,
Not an immigrant with his funny accent, his shared pail of tavern beer.

Elizabeth Bales Frank, a fourth-generation St. Louis Cardinals fan, is a novelist and essayist from Astoria, NY. She earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, her MLIS from the Pratt Institute, and is pursuing her MFA from SUNY Stony Brook. She is working on a microhistory of her neighborhood. 

Michael C. Paul is an illustrator, writer, and historian. He grew up outside of Kansas City, has moved around a bit over the years working as a history professor, illustrator, and occasionally an editorial cartoonist, and now lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter. For more, visit https://mikepaulart.com or @MikePaulArt.


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