UCL Dialogue & Anagram

Shohei: How many years did you pitch?
Tommy: 26.
Shohei: How many after Tommy John surgery?
Tommy: Lucky 13.

Shohei: How many career home runs?
Tommy: 5.
Shohei: Oh. 166 less than me.
Tommy: And counting.

Shohei: I’m trying to unscramble my right arm.
Tommy: My left arm felt like it flew out to right field.
Shohei: Any advice?
Tommy: Dr. Frank Jobe said, “Replace the UCL.”

Shohei: Replace what?
Tommy: Elbow ligament with forearm tendon.
Tommy: Low odds of successful reconstruction.
Shohei: Let’s re-scramble.

Tommy: Ulnar.
Shohei: Lunar.
Tommy: What?
Shohei: Playing both ways was a moon shot!

Tommy: Collateral.
Shohei: LA call: “Tore.”
Tommy: Come again?
Shohei: Angels doc calls it a torn UCL!

Tommy: Ligament.
Shohei: Gilt amen.
Tommy: As in gold?
Shohei: Yes, amen to all the gold forsaken!

Shohei’s Plea

In memory of “Fiddler on the Roof’s” Sheldon Harnick, 1924-2023

Trademaker, Trademaker
Find me a team,
Catch me a win.

Trademaker, Trademaker
Look to your scouts.
And make me a perfect trade.

Night after night on the Halos I’m alone
So find me a match,
Of my own.

I’ll bring my arm,
My big bat, too.
Bring me a ring
For I’m longing to be,
The envy of all I see.

For Papa,
Make me a winner.
For Mama,
Make me rich as a king.

For me, well,
I wouldn’t holler
If just once I wore a World Series ring.

Trademaker, Trademaker
Find me a team,
Catch me a win.

Trademaker, Trademaker
Look to your scouts.
And make me a perfect trade.

Baseball Burglary Blotter

A Cinci hit
and three thefts
in Milwaukee’s broad daylight.

Elly struck a single off Elvis;
the manager didn’t call the paramedics.

De stole second;
the Brewers’ stadium security stood still.

La stole third;
the rattled fireman turned his back to the plate.

Cruz stole home;
the fans cried, “Crime wave!”

Elly De La Cruz:
the Reds’ thrilling base stealer
achieves Mission: Impossible.

Shunya to Zero

They all wear Zero
On the back of their uniforms.

Mathematics’ invention of nothingness
Was a team effort!

Mesopotamians around 3 B.C.
Mayans circa 4 A.D.
Indians named it shunya in the mid-fifth century.

Onward to Cambodia,
China, and Islamic countries,
Before 0 joined 1 in the West.

Baseball’s exclamation of a perfect game
Is a team effort!

A catcher calls the first pitch;
A pitcher throws the last one.
In between, fielders play flawlessly.

For sharply hit balls, groundskeepers must keep the field free of bad hops;
On a 3-2 count, umpires shall not erringly call a strike a ball.
And the weather gods will contain the rain in pregnant clouds.

The scoreboard wears Zeros
Across nine innings of perfection.

Baseball in Mexico City Feels Like Football in California

As comedian George Carlin famously said,

“Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything’s dying …

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap …

Football has hitting … and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.”

So what did the Giants and Padres sacrifice
In Mexico City’s elevation?

The beauty of a 1-0 shutout;
So many flailing arms in spent bullpens;

And a congested scorecard that seemed to replace
Baseball’s home runs with football’s touchdowns.

As the Giants’ announcer Jon Miller said repeatedly,
“¡Adiós pelota! ¡Adiós pelota! ¡Adiós pelota!”

Cultivating Buddha’s Garden with Tattered Gloves

Oh, Buddha-ji,
may I share a story
about a filial moment
in your fragrant garden’s embrace?

My son and I
cycled through
the morning’s toil:
cut mesh,
move soil,
plant lavender,
and pat fir mulch.

He wore
bright, supple, and
what he called “OG”
bike gloves.

I wore
drab, weathered, and
what I called “hole-y”
work gloves.

He asked me,
“How do those holes
protect your hands?”

I chose to answer a
different question:
“Why do I wear tattered gloves?”

Neither of us were
satisfied
with each other
until
together we
cut mesh,
moved soil,
planted lavender,
and patted fir mulch.

An old woman,
hunched from bones
accustomed to
carrying loads, said,
“Your garden looks good.”

She returned with a smile
to her stroll on the sidewalk
that her ancestors might have
poured, smoothed, and cured with
bare hands determined to work and suffer.

We thanked her,
appreciated her neighborly
appreciation, and returned
to the soil, breathing in the sweet
perfume of a familial curve of purple plants.

My son felt
me groan as I bent to
shovel mulch;
he pointed to the
terracotta Buddha,
in repose beneath a garden ficus,
and suggested I rest.

I declined,
protesting that I had 
many years remaining,
insisting that it was not my wont
to sit while others worked.

In years to come,
perhaps my son,
and his wife,
and their children
will see the lavender
encircle maturing trees:
fig,
olive,
avocado,
persimmon.

Or perhaps
some other
family will make
this garden their
home to food that
will be their luxury.

Decades on
when the trees bear fruit,
the brownish Buddha crumbles
back to unbaked earth,
and my bones hunch
from carrying loads,

Buddha-ji, you will serenely bless us:
“May you long enter the gardens of
your children and grandchildren.
May you remember the gift that your
son presented you in that morn’s fertile, dark soil.
May you always know that life is enriched
by a determination born of samsara’s struggle.”