101 Poems, Number 72

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

72: “Casey at the Bat,” 1888, by Ernest Thayer (1863–1940)

“The outlook wasn’t brilliant for

The Mudville Nine that day”—

I learned this for a grandson,* who

Just really loves to play

That diamond sport. He loves to hit

And pitch and run and slide—

And even better yet? Well, all

Of this goes on outside,

The place he loves the most on earth:

So much to do out there!

And so he loves—when school is out—

To get out in the air.

And I was cut from cloth that was

So very much the same:

I loved to pitch and run and slide—

All aspects of the game.

I memorized this very fast—

I knew the poem well.

Had read it first in boyhood when

I was (well, truth to tell)

More interested in baseball than

In any other thing.

To get outside! To throw the ball!

The gold that was the spring!

*Logan Thomas Dyer, b. 2005

Link to poem.