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.
March 10, 2026
On the World Stage
by Fred Lovato
Meaningful March games
global bragging rights in play
World Baseball Classic
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.
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
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.







So happy to see an E Ethelbert Miller poem today!