Back in high school, I began a secret love affair with poetry.
I still remember when my classmate, football player (and incredibly gifted writer) Kyle Glenn McLaughlin suggested I start submitting work to the Literary Magazine, and it didn’t take long for a serious admiration for truly special writers developed.
So imagine my pleasure to learn that Frank Messina’s “Full Count” an amazing collection of Mets poetry, found its way into my hands!
This is no wannabee sportswriter trying to muscle his way into the press box by penning something that resembles a sports book. This is a “classic” poet, as the New York Times calls him, and he just happens to be an insane Mets fan. The combination of gifted writer meets the tortured soul of a franchise that can be powerfully intoxicating and maddeningly obtuse at the same time, is perfectly bound together in “Full Count”
My favorite? The Haiku entitled simply, “Jesse Orosco”
Weary, mound he kneels
sweat, blood to soil in drops
Autumn joy explodes
Need I share any more? It’s a treasure chest of the written word, and rather than be intimidating to those who think poetry is something that requires a “sports dude” to say, “Meh, I’m not a poetry kind of guy”, this is eminently accessible to any sports fan. It’s also a master work from a brilliant poet.
If you are one who prefers to experience baseball at home with those you love, or who goes to a ballpark just to smell the freshly cut grass, or perhaps just sit in the stands at Central Park on your lunch break during summer softball games, bring this book on the way. You will savor every baseball moment more. You will immediately choose several of your own favorites that you will return to time and time again on a cold wintry day for a smile, a tear, and those times when one needs to be young again.
To hear my recent interview with this incredibly talented writer, please click the link to the Baseball Digest LIVE podcast below:
Topics: Foley's NY, Frank Messina, Holy Cross High School, Jesse Orosco, Kyle Glenn McLaughlin, New York Mets, Tom Seaver
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Man, who knew? I have got to get my hands on this book.
That Orosco haiku, and I’m not particularly enamored with haikus is brilliant.
Adding one more baseball book to my beach-read list this summer.
cool funky stuff dudeness\
i like the poem about mrs brickman ripping up your baseball cards funny as all heck
[...] said, I just want to call attention to, without commenting on, Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry, by Frank [...]