Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things. ~Robert Frost, poetWESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY - The table is set, I'm in the hot corner, and Wednesday's Lisa Tolliver Show guests are winding up (illustration) for our on air celebration of National Poetry Month and baseball. It will take place at 1:30-2:00 pm, Eastern Time, on New York Radio WVOX AM 1460 and www.wvox.com. If you have time, join in 1/2 hour earlier when I host SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business at 1:00 to discuss the business sides of sports and poetry.
Don't just sit in the stands! Play ball: step up to the plate and join the vocal part of the game! Share your favorite baseball poem, song or quotation via our call-in line at (01) 914 636 0110. If you prefer doggin' it, or fear you'll whiff it, email your contribution to info@360meridian.com or fax it to (01) 309 279 7528. Please don't use that line to spectate (as we sometimes encourage out of area listeners to do); we need to keep the lines open for contributors on April 12. (If you're too shy, pass your contribution to me at info@360meridian.com.) Everyone is welcome except the wacko loco who's been stalking me.What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability. ~George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist & socialist
Here are some exercises to get in shape for the big day:
- Read "How to Read a Poem" at Poets.org
- Peruse "Baseball season opened this week and it's April, National Poetry Month" by Yours Truly
- Check out the "Baseball Poetry & Songs Menu" at Baseball Almanac
- Chase down the search results for "baseball" at Poetry.org
- Visit Baseball-for-Parents.com
- Google "baseball poems," "baseball poetry," and "baseball sayings"
Here are some gratuitous quotations to doctor the ball for Wednesday:
- Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence. - George F. Will (1941 - )
- If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like. - Phyllis Diller
- For people to judge a man's worth and his very manhood according to the way he feels about sport, and not to recognize it for the piddly, inconsequential goings on that it really is... - Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Birds of a Feather, 1993
- I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out. - Rodney Dangerfield (1921 - 2004) - Ask me on air, and I'll tell you why this quote's relevant to Wednesday's show
- If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work. - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), 'The First Part of King Henry the IV'
- Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical. - Yogi Berra (1925 - )
Image attribution: Baseball Poetry & Songs Menu image.###
