Attended a T-Ball Game, Got This Poem as a Souvenir
Five-year-olds on first and second, two outs,
batter steps up to the tee,
hits the ground with his bat
he’s so excited,
he might score some runs.
Shouted advice from parent and coach alike
echoes around his clunky helmet.
Keep your eye on the ball,
swing level, swing hard,
choke up, you got this.
Batter does a test swing, slow motion,
getting a sense of where the real swing should be,
his aluminum bat nudges the ball.
He does it a second time.
He
does
it
a
third
time
then swing!
Grounder to shortstop
one of the ten percent
that doesn’t roll through a pair of legs.
Runner from second to third
doesn’t have a prayer.
Shortstop can beat him in a footrace.
Coach wants the easy out,
THREE! THREE! THREE!
Shortstop sets his feet,
raises his glove to line up his throw
and fires the ball to first base.
Tomato-faced coach
is just beside himself,
YOU’RE OTHER THREE!!!!
But a strangely accurate throw for a five-year-old
bounces
just once in the dirt
and lands
in the first baseman’s glove.
Batter is out, inning is over.
Coach’s screaming stops.
He exhales
shrugs
shakes a poem off his shoulders,
wisdom as presented by a t-ball game:
life doesn’t always go the way you want
so take your victories where you can get them.
19 thoughts on "Attended a T-Ball Game, Got This Poem as a Souvenir"
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I loved the actions and images here. “Tomato faced coach”
and “shakes a poem off his shoulders” Awesome!
Thank you so much!
So many delightful beats in this poem. I was there savoring each delicious bite.
This poem was so much fun to write and I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Poems are everywhere! Good poetic commentary on the game.
The best part of this comment was that the game this is based on was played almost a month ago. It just all of a sudden hit me that there was something beautiful about the moment.
I really enjoyed the kinetic energy of your lines here!
I have never wanted to read a poem out loud at an open mic more than this one because of that reason right there. I want to just scream those CAPS-LOCK lines!
Pacing is great! I heard the announcer calling the game throughout. Love a baseball poem!
I’ll be honest, I never considered the announcer voice. But this is very much what they do, and I’ll keep that in mind if I rework the poem later. Thank you for the comment!
liked it, captures the moment
And it waw such a great moment. The coach in this poem is a really awesome dude who is great with kids. YOU’RE OTHER THREE had both sides of the field laughing.
Great depiction of T ball game! Love it!
T-ball games in general are great, if not the most exciting thing to watch. But there’s a certain magic that can only be found there. Thank you for the comment!
And, you take your poems where you find them! A great littel story, and I could feel the atmosphere of the T-ball game.
This poem basically gave itself to me, too. It was so much fun to capture it.
Yes, lots of energy in this poem and I could almost feel those kids facing the challenges.
I love this poem —the descriptions and rhythms and watching 5 year olds play t-ball is a blast —I have one grandson already watched—he’s now 10 and two more to go…there still babies!!! Real life = best poems
So glad you enjoyed this! Hope the other grandchildren also pick up t-ball as well.
Also, shameless plug, one of my later poems, “Everybody Can Hit, But Nobody Can Catch,” covers the t-ball championship. You might like that one as well!