#1 A Pleiades

SOFTBALL

Sports is not my long suit, yet
something like a softball catches
summer visions of my dad,
sainted, with a wad of gum
sanctified to one purpose:
stuffing it in the umpire's
short-winded, surprised pie-hole!



My dad loved baseball. He loved to listen to it on the radio, he loved to play. He once pitched a no hitter against the great Satchel Paige. He had an opportunity to play for the Los Angeles Angels, but passed it up because he loved mining more (or thought he would get rich quicker). He chewed a wad of gum like some players chewed tobacco. Once, when the umpire was yelling at him for something, my dad calmly took the wad of gum from his mouth and shoved it into the umpire's gaping, wide-open mouth, stopping the tirade instantly. Whatever works!

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