In the winter months
baseball, like chess,
moves its players
across the board
as executives from
major league teams
pitch and toss offers
trying to capture pieces
from opposing sides.
Some players are pawns
to be sacrificed and traded.
They have little say where
and how they will be moved.
Other, more valuable pieces,
weigh their direction
to seek a better position.
The goal is to capture a valuable man,
just like the Texas Rangers
who snared the king – Jacob deGrom,
thereby checkmating my New York Mets.
Will my team now
just surrender and resign,
or will they recoup, get new pieces
and live to fight another game?
THE POETRY OF THE GAME