PITCHERS’ DUEL

By Terry Downes

The pitcher hurled with all his force
A fastball blazing true;
The batter blinked in disbelief
The speed with which he threw.

So it went that sultry day
The last week in July,
No breath of air was moving there
A hot sun scorched the sky.

The batteries for both the teams
Each worked as in a race,
The home team man threw hurriedly
The other twice the pace.

Batters best could scarcely make
Slight contact with the ball
To bloop a single into right,
Most had no luck at all.

Batters average prayed to bunt
A trickler up to third,
While batters worst could have no hope
The hurls they simply heard.

All through the early innings
No runner went on base,
To be aboard and threaten to
Slow down the hurlers’ chase.

By the sixth and seventh
The small crowd hoped to see
The hits pick up and bats connect
To start a scoring spree.

But purists scattered through the stands
Marveled at the sight,
Knowing that a pitchers’ duel
Is such a rare delight.

Then inning eight and inning nine
Swept by with scarce a hit,
Still all the action on the field
Was mound-to-catcher’s mitt.

When finally as the twelfth approached
With nightfall’s dim commence
A desperate swing high launched the ball
Just clear the right field fence.

And as the players left the field
They shook each hurler’s hand,
So proud were they to know that day
The finest in the land.

****

Terry Downes is an attorney and retired District Court Clerk/Magistrate who went on to found and direct the MCC Program on Homeland Security, and long served as an adjunct professor at Suffolk Univ. Law School and UMASS-Lowell. He lives in Lowell with his wife Atty. Annie O’Connor.

This is the second in a series of nine poems about baseball (nine, like in nine innings of a game, or nine players on the field, etc.) which will appear on the first Friday of each month through the baseball season. Here are the previously posted poems in this series:

March – Spring Training

April – Opening Day

May – Early Season

June – Postponed!

July – In the Minors