Baseball is Dead Question Mark

Baseball is Dead Question Mark

By Meghan Healy

Illustration by Jason David Córdova

But why don’t they love baseball?

Like I did, like my Pai did,

Like a good American did.

Does?

But the strike cut into the flow

At a critical time in my young life

My albums and boxes of cards

And shelf of books and head full of stats

Felt silly when people laughed at

Men with guts complaining about not getting paid enough

To play baseball for a career

And the steroids were the straw

They broke the baseball part of my heart

Especially with Clemens staring at me

From the wall above my bed

So despite my love for the grace and wonder

Of this sport, the only team one I played as a little one

Too, well, softball anyway,

My two 21st century progeny

Wear matching Messi jerseys and talk about

The Premier League and nutmegs and rainbows

And don’t have a clue about curveballs and triples and the pitch count and sliding into base and the
waiting, anticipating, and the crack of bat on ball and the whoomph of ball in mitt

But there’s always next season


Meghan Healy lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the former home of the Dukes and current home of the Isotopes.

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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