"Lining-Up (for Charles North)" [by David Lehman]

"Lining-Up (for Charles North)" [by David Lehman]

This poem was inspired by a dream I had in which Amy Gerstler and I were on the same softball team, with her in lead-off position playing shortstop. Charles North has written many great “line ups” – for example, an all-philosopher team as well as teams consisting exclusively of diseases, vegetables, and famous couples – so I thought I would dedicate the poem to him, a confirmed Gemini, born on June 9. Charles tells me he is happy to be in the lineup, though he has reservations about the wisdom of playing him at first base. “I’m a righty,” he points out. But so were Gil Hodges and Steve Garvey, no?  But we took his reservations seriously, and are (as you will see) swirtching him to right field and Tony Towle to first base for game two of the series..

Lining Up
for Charles North 

SS Amy Gerstler
2B David Lehman
3B David Shapiro (L) 
LF David Trinidad
IB Tony Towle
RF Charles North *
CF Elaine Equi
C Ted Berrigan
P Ron Padgett (L)
Relief pitcher Vincent Katz (ROY)**
PH NL / DH AL Jerome Sala ****

General manager: Harry Mathews
Front office wise men: Bob Hershon, Mitch Sisskind
Scouts: Edwin Denby, Tim Dlugos, Maxine Chernoff, Paul Hoover, Angela Ball

Manager: Paul Violi
Bench coach: John Ashbery
First base Koch: Kenneth Coach
Third base coach: Frank O'Hara
Trainer: James Schuyler
Pitching coach: Joseph Ceravolo
Batting coach: Larry Fagin
Bullpen coach: Bernadette Mayer
Press Relations: Terence Winch
TV announcers: Paul Auster (and a former player to be named later)
Radio play-by-play persons: Phillip Lopate, Andrei Codrescu, Anne Waldman
Broadway adaptation: Lehman Engel, Kenward Elmslie

Uniform design: Joe Brainard
Critic: Tom Clark

L  Left-hander
* To be played by Chris Noth in the TV version.
** Winner, rookie of the year award.
*** Switch hitter; to be deployed as a pinch hitter in the National League and as a designated hitter in the American League.

Posted by The Best American Poetry on June 09, 2020 at 12:01 PM in Adventures of Lehman, Birthday Poems, Feature | Permalink

From the archive; first posted June 09, 2020

Comments

[nellie fox]

DL's a good pick for second base. He can turn the double entendre with the best of them.

[Peter Krumbach]

Awesome lineup! Groundskeeper: Paul Muldoon?

[Michael Palma]

I can see a right-hander at first, but a left-handed third baseman?

[Robert McDowell]

Ha! It's fun to discover this. In 1990, Joseph Bednarik and I decided to join a men's senior hardball league (30 & Over) in Eugene, Oregon. A year later, we started our own team--the Brownsville Brooklyn Dodgers. We recruited poets and writers, outfitted ourselves in authentic Brooklyn Dodgers uniforms (the envy of the league), and proceeded to lose all 16 games in our inaugural season. The Eugene Register-Guard ran a big weekend story, headlined "The Poets of Summer." We almost packed it in after that ignoble season, but in our brilliant uniforms, we decided to give it another try. We lost our first 6 games in season two. In our seventh game, we were down 5 runs in our last at bat, when suddenly the Goddesses and the Gods reached down and gifted us with two-out hit after hit. I scalded a line drive to right field, driving in the tying run, and moments later, Ken Hampton (K-Ham, our fearless centerfielder) blooped a hit into left for the walk-off. Our opponents that day punished us 21-2 in the second game, but we didn't care. We were still giddy. We'd broken the streak. It was one of the happiest few hours of my life. From then on, we played .500 ball. The next season (our third), we reached the play-offs and the championship game, which we lost. After that, we won 3 championships in five years and finished as the runner-up in the other two. We became the class of the league. It was marvelous. The league had a mix of very good and mediocre players--some having played pro ball. A few climbed as high as Triple A. The league was always competitive--and fun. I started out catching but soon surrendered to age and played first base (nickname--Scoop). I hit .325 in nine seasons (.414 one year--my best). And yes, I'm right-handed, and wore #14. When I caught, it was #39.