This Week's Doggerel

Some classics: Patti Smith, Wilbur Wood and the WBC

March 9, 2026

Butterfly Ironman WW

by Dr. Rajesh C. Oza

(RIP Wilbur Wood, 1941-2026)

In 1973, Double W
Started both games
Of a double header

Against the Yanks on that day,
Wilbur threw few flames,
Relying on his knuckler

Pitching for the White Sox,
Wood didn’t have claims
Over kids like me, a Northsider

But I did try to emulate him:
Throwing his pitch in stickball games;
Fooling batters with a butterfly floater

That same year, he won 24, lost 20;
WW, pitching all those frames,
Was an amazing workloader

Dr. Oza’s novel, Double Play on the Red Line, is currently available from Chicago’s Third World Press.

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March 10, 2026

On the World Stage

by Fred Lovato

Meaningful March games
global bragging rights in play
World Baseball Classic

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March 11, 2026

Till Victory

By James Finn Garner

Patti Smith’s fourth album was “Wave”
While it looks like she cheers for the Braves,
The place where she found
True love was Motown
Where she and Fred were Tiger Town faves.

In her book M Train, Patti explained that her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith was a passionate Tiger fan, and they often listened to games on the radio while hanging out on their boat. Fred was a great infielder in his youth and was scouted by several teams, including the Tigers.

And here she is again, last night at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, with John Shanahan and her son Jackson Smith. This is a picture of her closer, “People Have the Power,” in which she pleaded with us all to stand together in the current crisis.

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March 12, 2026

MLB All-Bo Team

1B Bobo Osborne
2B Bozo Jackson
SS Bo Bichette
3B Boze Berger

LF Bo Jackson
CF Beau Allred
RF Bo Porter

C Bo Díaz

LHP Bo Belinsky
RHP Bobo Newsom, Bobo Holloman, Bo Schultz

MGR Jumbo Latham

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March 13, 2026

The Knuckleball

by E. Ethelbert Miller

Every black man should be born
with a big mitt.
How else can one catch the world
that flutters in unpredictable ways.

The sound of a knuckleball
is Parker on his horn.
When Ella scats don’t try
to copy her.

Oriole Hoyt Wilhelm in 1958 threw
a no-hitter against the Yankees.
It was like Douglass being Lincoln
for a day. It’s impossible to dance
to slavery anymore. It ended with
the hangman’s swing.

The knuckleball is Bebop.
Don’t be baffled by its strange beauty.
Just keep hitting it with your ears.

Copyright E. Ethelbert Miller. All rights reserved.

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