John Lennon plays for the Tokyo Mist
Ralph Waldo Emerson pitches at home for the Devon Sun.
Byron pitches for Harvey Weinstein’s club from Westport, Connecticut—they visit Virginia to take on David Lynch’s the Strangers.
Shakespeare pitches at home in New York City for the War.
John Lennon and the Tokyo Mist host the Kolkata Cobras.
~~~~
Visiting Devon, England, the Banners flew in from Florence yesterday, as Lorenzo d’ Medici’s team, led by second baseman John Keats and starters Dante, Shelley, and Virgil, prepared to take on Lord Russell’s The Sun, and its opening day anglophilic American twirler, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The home team is always the favorite in Poetry Baseball—poetry has a profound disadvantage when performed for an unsympathetic crowd.
Emerson’s fastball had a lot to say, and he set down the first 13 batters he faced, to an appreciative Devon crowd, noisy and restless in the chilly spring air.
But Dante was just as good, if not better, his inside stuff breaking bats, his outside curve paralyzing the likes of Kipling, Wordsworth, and Matthew Arnold.
It was 0-0 after nine innings.
In the bottom of the 9th, Dante beaned Basil Bunting and then aimed one at Emerson, who just got out of the way. Home plate umpire Werner Heisenberg immediately tossed Dante, to the delight of the Devon fans.
The Banners went to the top of the tenth with the score still tied, however, after Medici’s relief pitcher William Rossetti struck out Southey and got Kipling to pop up.
Emerson walked Christina Rossetti to start the 10th, who promptly stole second. Emerson retired Keats and Schiller, and with two outs, the stoic writer from Concord faced Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who poked a 3-2 curve ball into right for a single, scoring his sister.
1-0 Banners.
William Rossetti loaded the bases in the bottom of the 10th with two outs, but got Horace Walpole to lift a short fly to left—charging to make the catch and end the game, Christina Rossetti.
The Rossetti siblings didn’t have a lot to say after the game. They were obviously happy.
~~~
David Lynch’s Strangers hosted Harvey Weinstein’s the Actors in Alexandria, Virginia on a beautiful spring day, blossoms surrounding the park.
Alexander Pope delivered a complete game shutout as the Strangers beat Byron and the Westport Actors 4-0.
Byron couldn’t figure out Theodore Roethke, who walked, doubled and homered against the Actor starting pitcher, to lead the Stranger attack; Mary Shelley, playing third base and batting lead off for the Strangers, chipped in with a triple and a run.
The Strangers, dressed in black, gave out black roses to all the fans entering the stadium on opening day.
Weldon Kees disappeared for an inning in the fifth. No one was in right field. Pope didn’t seem to notice, and no one hit the ball to right field—fortunately for the Strangers. We’ve never seen that in a professional ball game before. After the game, Kees said it was all a misunderstanding and he would never do it again.
David Lynch didn’t seem too concerned. Pope allowed only 3 hits and didn’t walk a batter.
~~~
In another opening day contest, J.P Morgan’s War easily took care of the visiting team—P.T. Barnum’s Animals—-on Madison Avenue, in the War’s beautiful new ballpark, by a score of 8-3.
New York’s Shakespeare was solid, walking two and fanning six. Edward Gibbon finished up for the War.
Rupert Brooke reached base four times, and Philip Sidney broke the game open with a grand slam in the seventh, chasing Ovid, the Animals starter.
Stephen Crane, Harry Crosby, and Keith Douglas also scored for the War. Ovid, who throws a variety of pitches, showed great stuff, but he had trouble finding the plate, and the War took advantage.
~~~
The Kolkata Cobras visited Tokyo for their first game of the season, Rabindranath Tagore pitching against Matsuo Basho of the Mist.
The shortstop for the Cobras, Anand Thakore, hit a homer right down the line to give his team a 1-0 lead in the second, and a two run single in the 5th by Tagore gave the Cobras a 3-0 lead.
The Mist battled back, however. Second-baseman Yoko Ono started the scoring with a homer in the 6th. Then with 2 out, Hilda Doolittle took Tagore deep with Richard Brautigan aboard, tying the score.
Basho left with arm stiffness in the 7th, and reliever Kobe Abe doubled in a run in the bottom of the eighth to give the Mist their first lead of the game, 4-3.
With two outs in the 9th, and Vikram Seth and George Harrison on base, Thakore hit a bullet, which a jumping Ono snared in the top of her glove, to end the game.
John Lennon, shortstop for the Mist, who congratulated his teammate, Yoko, after the game, went 0 for 4, grounding out to George Harrison of the Cobras at third four times. John and Yoko turned a couple of double plays in the close contest. “This one could have gone either way,” John said. “I think Yoko was the difference in this one.” Yoko quietly changed the subject, “I hope Basho is okay.”
~~~