National Baseball Poetry Festival, May 3 - 5

The National Baseball Poetry Festival is a creation of Biondolillo Associates, since 1984 a leading developer of branded special-event fundraising programs for nonprofit organizations. The Festival was set in motion by the following individuals and their teams: Richard Burke, CEO, Fallon Health; Tim Murray, CEO, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce; Joe Bradlee, Vice President, Community & Player Relations, Worcester Red Sox; Mark Sickman, Founder and Owner, BaseballBard.com; Jake Sanders, Project Executive, Worcester Memorial Auditorium and past-Chief of Staff, City of Worcester; and Jeff Reppucci, Knight-Hennessy Scholar, Stanford University.  Once it was set in motion, an Organizing Committee of business, civic, and educational leaders was formed to spearhead the Festival’s implementation.

Last year, after the inaugural National Baseball Poetry Festival, some of the attendees/participants sat down together to talk about their experience here in Worcester before heading home. It was agreed that this was an important celebration & as good as it was there are always ways to improve it. A memo was drafted with suggestions & sent to the organizers, &, I’m happy to say some of the suggestions were adopted. & so this year we were glad to be back at Polar Park for the Worcester Red Sox & for baseball poetry.

Friday, May 3

There was a welcoming reception at the Polar Park DCU Club, with snacks, a cash bar, welcoming remarks by the organizers & local politicians, including a reading the the quintessential baseball poem “Casey at the Bat,” written by Worcester native Ernest Lawrence Thayer. This was followed by a Stadium Tour, & a game between the Woosox & the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs; the Woosox won 4 to 2.

Photo courtesy of Poets at Large Facebook page

Saturday, May 4 was the big poetry/baseball day with events starting at 2:00PM with poetry readings by contest winners in grades 4 to 12, & Little Leaguers. Over 160 young poets submitted their work, with 20 students in each category (elementary, middle school, high school & Little Leaguers) were selected as Winners, with many attending to read their poems out at the Berm in the Polar Park outfield. It was a stunning display of young people, boys & girls, reading their poems to proud parents, teachers, & the rest of us Baseball Poets from near & far.

Later, there was an Open Mic at the Worcester Public Library, within walking distance of Polar Park. The open mic hosts were Karen Warinsky & Laura DiCaronimo, who also read in the open mic.

Herbert Munshine read a trio of baseball poems, including “A Breath of Art” about baseball players as super heroes, & "You Should Know His Name" for which he was recognized in the adult contest. Esther Munshine’s baseball poem was titled “Take Me Out.” Angela Tomasin read poems by her grandfather, Herbert Tomasin, who was in the audience. Bill Moorhead read a poem in baseball slang, “The Pitcher’s Creed,” & even a baseball villanelle. 

Karen Elizabeth Sharpe had been a host last year for one of the open mic sites, & this year worked on the student poets contest; she read Robert Frost’s “Birches” as about someone who didn’t have a baseball team to play on, then humorous instructions on how to eat a Fenway frank. Rex Arrasmith read poems about being an umpire at amateur baseball games. Tom Lagasse read a couple of baseball poems of the past. Laura Di Caromino read what she called a “stoner villanelle, titled “Team.” Ivan Smason was here from Los Angeles, started with baseball poem in rhyme, then one on the Toledo Ohio minor league team, the Mud Hens (he had also been recognized in the adult contest for his poem "Triples"). 

Patricia Biron read a poem, “Nelly What a Catch,” about her mother, the 1st girl on a boy’s high school team in 1935. Karen Warinsky, whose Facebook page Poets at Large has photos from this reading, & from the Festival, read “Little League Moms” (for which she was recognized in the adult poetry contest), others, including one on baseball & war. 

Photo courtesy of Poets at Large Facebook page

Since this open mic was in a library I read “Decomposition” a poem about why used bookstores smell like they do, then one of my baseball poems, “Waiting for Jacqueline Robinson.” Carol Hobbs read baseball poems by some of her 9th grade students, including a golden shovel “Who’s On First?” based on the famous comedy routine by Abbot & Costello, as well a one of her own poems,”Gods of August.” Pamela Gemme read poems by others including one titled “Sisters of Mercy Play Ball.”

Photo courtesy of Poets at Large Facebook page

Robbie Gamble read his only baseball poem “Short Season Single-A Ball.” Ed Dzitko read Sara deBeer’s poem “Batting Practice” from the baseball poetry anthology Who’s Your Team? (Orenaug Mountain Publishing, 2024). Sandy Lee Carlson, editor of Who’s Your Team?, read the title poem, a sonnet that she wrote.

Steven Biondolillo, the driving force behind this Festival, recited 2 of his baseball poems, “In Center Field” & “Black Blue & White,” a confrontation between Mets fans & Yankee fans.’

There was another game later that afternoon, in which the Woosox beat the Iron Pigs again, 4-0. But I opted to take some time off, get a nice dinner at Volturno Ristorante.  

A night of more baseball poetry at Steel & Wire on Millbury St. where I’d read in this same bar last year & rather liked its gritty edge, reminding me of Albany’s QE2 (long gone). There were 8 on the list, some of us who had read earlier at the Library. Sandy Lee Carlson & Ed Dzitko (from Orenaug Mountain Publishing) served as hosts/MCs, along with Pam Gemme. 

Jeff Brain, from San Franciso, was back again this year, started off with a poem about the physics of baseball, then “Candlestick,” “What Satchel Paige Would Throw to Willy Mays the Next Time,” & “Vampire Pitch” (a poem that was recognized in the adult poetry contest).

I read “The Cardinal” from my Baseball Poems (A.P.D., 2019), then from Poeming the Prompt (A.P.D., 2011) a political poem “What Really Happened.” Tom Lagasse read “The Bat,” then a memoir piece about his high school baseball team with a line from Rilke at the end. As he did earlier in the day, Rex Arrasmith read poems about being an umpire, “Diamond Three Umpire,” “Eyes on Ben,” & “Umpire’s Dilemna.”

David (from Maryland) read  “Señorita Baseball,” in English & Spanish (read by Jina Ortiz), a funny piece mixing baseball & love, then “Pre-season Report” about forgetting students’ names. Zvi A. Seline read from his book titled Simple Games: Ghosts of Fenway “Sam the Jet,” "Kennesaw’s Revenge” (on banning the infamous Black Sox), “How Many Angels,” “The Ghosts of Fenway,” & one about Jimmy Piersall “Politics & Baseball Do Mix.”

Jina Ortiz was back to read her poems, with David reading the translation, “The Last Pitch of the Night,” “The Baseball Player Blues,” & “Baseball in the Skate Park.” & once again Steven Biondolillo batted last reprising “Black Blue & White,” always good to hear.

& that, folks, was like a bases clearing homerun in the bottom of the 9th — good baseball & good poetry & everyone had fun. I hope to be back again next year.