Thayer’s ‘Casey at the Bat’ captures the instability of baseball, where Mudville’s hero, Casey, strikes out, turning hopes into despair.
The fictional game of baseball in 'Casey at the Bat' functions as a fable for life and a warning against excessive confidence. Casey believes he is the only one with real ability and thus deliberately squanders his first two chances to hit the ball, only to miss his third and final chance, thus consigning the team to defeat. The poet thereby reminds the reader of the need to always apply oneself to the task and not simply rest on one's reputation.
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
">
73/100
Johnson’s ‘A Poem about Baseballs’ delves into life’s unpredictability and fear of failure through the lens of a baseball game’s suspense.
Denis Johnson uses the game of baseball as a metaphor for life, with all its unseen permutations and unexpected twists. The narrator's sense of fear with regard to catching the ball is intended to represent our everyday worries bout life. Will we get that job, or that romantic partner? Have we saved enough for our retirement? Like a sporting event, these things are only ever partially within our control.
for years the scenes bustled
through him as he dreamed he was
alive. then he felt real, and slammed
">
31/100
‘The Freaks at Spurgin Road Field’ by Richard Hugo describes how everyone is at risk from going along with a group’s actions and not thinking for themselves.
The poem's events take place at a baseball match but the game simply functions as a device to explain the gathered crowd who clap when events take place within it. The poem could equally have taken place at a football or basketball game, for its gaze is directed towards the crowd rather than the events on the field. It is concerned with the mob mentality that often occurs in crowds.
The dim boy claps because the others clap.
The polite word, handicapped, is muttered in the stands.
Isn't it wrong, the way the mind moves back.
">
20/100
‘Black Hair’ by Gary Soto is a contemporary poem that offers an introspective look at a child watching a baseball game.
While the location for this poem is a baseball game and features a baseball player, the poem is not about baseball itself. Instead, 'Black Hair' uses the admiration the speaker has for baseball player Hector Moreno to comment on self-perception.
At eight I was brilliant with my body.
In July, that ring of heat
We all jumped through, I sat in the bleachers
Of Romain Playground, in the lengthening
