by Wayne Scheer
Baseball isn't Hollywood
Where aging stars remain
Clint Eastwood tough
Harrison Ford rugged
Cary Grant suave.
No. In the world of baseball
You can't fool Mother Nature,
No matter how much you work out
Or how many steroids you inject.
Alex Rodriguez's bad knee will end his streak
Of thirteen seasons with thirty or more
Homeruns and one hundred or more
Runs batted in.
Just a couple years ago, he had
An operation on his hip
At the start of the season
And still managed to keep the streak alive.
But now he's mid-thirties,
Ancient for dogs and athletes.
His teammate, Derek Jeter,
Just past the 3000th hit mark.
His reward? When the hoopla dies down
He'll probably be dropped
From lead off to the inglorious
Eighth spot in the order.
Clint Eastwood can still
Scare kids off his lawn
By narrowing his eyes,
But sluggers who no longer slug
Don't scare anyone,
Least of all a twenty-three year-old pitcher
With a mid-nineties fastball.
There's a lessen in this for all of us,
But I'd rather not contemplate it right now.
Wayne Scheer has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and a Best of the Net. He's published hundreds of short stories, essays and poems, including Revealing Moments, a collection of flash stories, published by Thumbscrews Press. A film adaptation of his short story, "Zen and the Art of House Painting," can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/18491827. Wayne lives in Atlanta with his wife and can be contacted at wvscheer(at)aol.com.
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