baseball's hot foot

i learned like the buddha about old age, dying, disease,
but i learned it all at county stadium.
i was a kid holding my dad's hand
looking for autographs.
i had no idea about...
paper beer cups exploding,
people making out under the bleachers,
giant urinal troughs,
drunk boxing matches,
and everyone eventually having to exit.

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chemistry on a baseball team
is like any other chemistry.
it's invisible and yet,
so many people take about chemistry
as one of the keys to success.

they might be right,
but why even talk about it?
it's like trying to describe a feeling between two people,
better left unsaid.

what gets me is people who preach that
chemistry has to be positive.
what about the yankees in the 70's?
and all the cat scratching between reggie and martin.
or what about the pirates in 1979?
that "we are family' hype was apparently an irony.
those guys were a mixture of ethnic upbringing variety,
inevitably loud and combative
or so phil garner remembers
in the book,
"The Pirates" by Lou Sahadi.

bert blyleven was on that 79 pirates team.
i met him a few years later as an indian.
i was hanging out beside the indians dugout at county stadium,
whining for autographs,
"mr. blyleven, mr. blyleven, will you sign this ball?"

next thing i knew mr. blyleven pointed to my shoe.
he had pranked me a hot foot.
i was initiated.
that's the only baseball chemistry i've ever known.