Forecast Calls for Human Rain Delay

Just got word that Sport Literate will publish my new poem, “Early Exit,” later this year. It’s my tribute to former Indians First Baseman Mike Hargrove, my favorite player from the “bad old days” of ’80s baseball in Cleveland and one of the few, precious bright spots in the lineup. Mike batted .290 with 80 home runs and 686 RBIs in his 12-year Major League career.

But those are just numbers. What I loved about Hargrove was the way he drove pitchers bananas with his deliberate routine at the plate. Before each pitch, he’d pull up each shirt sleeve about an inch, press tightly down on his helmet, and then go to work on his pants, his socks, his batting glove – a series of prolonged ticks and gyrations that earned him the nickname “The Human Rain Delay”. As sportswriter columnist Terry Pluto said in his book, The Curse of Rocky Colavito, “it often seemed as if a Hargrove at-bat lasted longer than the Gerald Ford administration.”

Another reason why I like Mike? He got us close to a title – twice – when he later managed the Indians. Once in 1995, and then again in 1997 when we were one strike away from winning the World Series against the upstart Marlins. For a Cleveland fan, close is the cigar.

My humble thanks to Sport Literate for buying first publishing rights to the poem. A subsidiary of Pint Size Publications in Chicago, the journal focuses specifically on life’s leisurely diversions. But as its editors say, Sport Literate is “less interested in the final score than in figuring out why we play in the first place.”

Pieces first published in Sport Literate have been recognized in anthologies such as The Best American Sports Writing and The Best American Essays. Robert Lipsyte, author of The Contender, also had this to say about the journal:

Sport Literate is as welcome as the start of a fresh season, filled
with those breath-taking swings of phrase, catches of insight,
and the assurance that, yes, this year the word will win.”

Look for it in October!

Go Tribe!

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