Winter baseball meetings
always make me nervous.
Where can I find the best bargains?
It’s like Christmas shopping
at your local, crowded mall.
It’s the holiday season of
buying and selling of
merchandise in the market.
Oh, you have a relief pitcher
with a gaudy ERA in Aisle 5,
and a journeyman infielder in
pinstripes at the perfume counter?
stanidng by the men’s department?
Maybe I can trade up.
for a bona fide ace, a stud
standing by the men’s department.
Or maybe I should head
to the bargain basement
to pick up some broken toys
hoping to fix them in time
for Opening Day.
They have blown up my team,
shifting my favorite players
like unwanted packages
to other smaller venues,
players summarily dispatched,
re-gifted to waiting rivals.
I feel it will be a long,cold off-season
as fans realize they have been given
nothing but lumps of coal;
that will be stashed
in their Christmas stockings.