Yes, there were sports heroes,
bad boys and playboys who
graced the back pages of my youth.
I was seven.
Now in my seventh decade,
I bear witness to the coronation,
Jeter’s year-long farewell tour.
I am not similarly smitten.
He is lauded for staying out of jail,
for not being arrested,
for not being involved in some drunken brawl.
Would it be mean of me to suggest
he is doing exactly what
99% of the citizenry is doing?
Is he any more the hero
than firemen, policemen, teachers?
We have become the applauding seals
at the three-ring circus of his media life.
We need heroes, not of the pinstripe variety,
but ones made from ordinary whole cloth.
THE POETRY OF THE GAME