We once sat in luxury seats
laughing, shouting, drinking beer
sitting behind the visiting team’s dugout
urging on the New York Yankees
in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
home of Charley Finley’s Athletics.
His former moribund team transformed
into the “Swinging A’s”; World Series
champions from 1972-74, their future
seemed golden as the Bay Area favorite
but the perpetual winners exhausted Lady Fortune’s
favor when Charley O lost Catfish Hunter’s arm.
1979, Mark, Carole, Scott, and I were in attendance;
Finley had hired Billy Martin to work coastal magic
so we cheered him on during introductions, humored
A’s fanatics dominating the sparsely attended stadium.
Two-strikes, two-out in 0-1 game,
we hit the Yankee’s dugout, calling for Roy White;
his fly ball lost the game.