Dick Flavin’s baseball poetry is not suffused with deep symbolism and meaning. It is however fun and entertaining and delightfully encapsulates many of the memorable moments and players in Red Sox history, as well as in the sport generally. As a boy, Flavin fell in love with “Casey at the Bat,” which he memorized and continues to draw inspiration from it. Over the years his association with the Red Sox has grown, in part because of his friendship with some of the team’s past greats, including Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky. Flavin’s “Teddy at the Bat,” originally recited privately to Williams and pals in Williams’s last days, has become a classic that helped prompt the Red Sox to make Flavin, Boston’s day-game PA announcer, the team’s poet laureate. Not that he ever needed it, but being the Bard of Fenway Park has only provided Flavin with more motivation to turn out verses that swing for the fences.
Here’s an excerpt of a poem titled “Long Live Fenway Park” from Red Sox Rhymes:
“For a hundred years she’s stood there,
Heard cheering, seen our tears;
Through all the good times and the bad
Fenway perseveres.
“She’s baseball’s great crown jewel,
A treasure – this is why.
Look out there on her field, you’ll see
The ghosts of games gone by.
“There’s Babe Ruth standing on the mound,
Ted Williams at the plate.
And someone’s great-grandfather
Just came in through the gate.
“That’s Yaz patrolling in left field,
In center, Freddie Lynn;
Cronin’s playing shortstop
But Pesky’s coming in.”
