Rooting for the Losing Team (dud's request)

pete incaviglia came in to pitch
i believe texas was the opponent
and i snapped a pencil in half.

my homework generally got half done
while i watched the yankees on WPIX
this was years before YES
and maybe a decade before i realized
baseball is better on the radio

i was born in 1977
but didn't understand baseball until 1981
laid up on the pull-out couch in
my parents' living room
cracked hips and a half-body cast
and an autograph book full of well wishes from family and friends.

mikey b was my boy
maybe 25 years older than me
but telling tales of reggie going deep
once
twice
thrice
in world series glory

by the time i was up on the feet i willed fleet
learning to be a weak-hitting, moderately slick fielding second base type
or conversely, in the backyard,
a monster power-hitting home run machine with
a toilet-paper stuffed wiffle bat and a tennis ball
the yanks
were not
worth watching.

reggie was not around.

and pete incaviglia was pitching mop-up duty
against i think the rangers
with something like a 17-8 score.

i was snapping pencils
hoping that donnie baseball would hit six grand slams
or home runs in eight games in a row
or something to make me feel like
baseball possessed the power to make me happy.