Subject: The Daily Double
From: Christopher W. Thomas (poetlaureate@poetic.com)
Host: 209-150-40-113.s113.tnt1.spg.ma.dialup.rcn.com
Date: Sat June 12, 1999 at 1:30PM

The Daily Double


On this day in nineteen thirty-nine
A museum was dedicated, just in time
With the hundredth anniversary of the day
A Union General said the idea just came his way

To have a sport in which there'd be a diagonal square
Fielded by nine players, distributed everywhere
And another nine players would take their turns at bat
Then running around the square as fielders then spat ...

On their way, as they ran around after the hard ball
Attempting to catch it, or pick it up using their tools ...
To get the man out, either by touch or beating him to base
Thus creating the sport most American, on the face

For all of the others were borrowed in some way
From other countries which already had them in play
But after Abner Doubleday said he had invented it
The game of baseball became the nation's prime hit

And now the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Built in Cooperstown, N.Y. ... is a tribute to the game
Right where the Union General lived when he played
The most American game ... that just stayed and stayed

- Tristram

© Christopher W. Thomas
12:12pm Sat. June 12th, 1999