Lamentation: California Angels, October 1986
This article was written by Jean Ardell
This article was published in The National Pastime: Endless Seasons: Baseball in Southern California (2011)
Lamenting the Angels’ 1986 playoff loss.
Lamenting the Angels’ 1986 playoff loss.Baseball
timeless game of inches
precise geometric marvel
from dusty clay and grassy turf
The wonderful certainty
of the final strike
but the gods mock—
it’s over when it’s over
Dreams of what might have been
linger, drifting through the dreams
and warming the bones of child-fans
who know better
But still, still
all winter long
wait for next year
JEAN HASTINGS ARDELL lives in Corona Del Mar, California, where she works as a writer, editor, and teacher, with baseball a continuing subject of interest. She is author of “Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), and received the Baseball Weekly/SABR award in 1999.