Baseball Poems 6: That Year

Before that year, they were still the team of
Gorman Thomas and Mark Langston,
Ruppert Jones and Alvin Davis.
Munchkins in the Emerald City.

That year we learned new names:
Randy, Tino, and Edgar,
a rookie named Alex,
and, of course, Junior.

Before that year, in 18 years of history,
they still had no real history.
As idle as a painted ship
upon a painted ocean.

After that year, they were known
from California to New York
(especially California and New York)
from Gene Autry to Donnie Baseball.

The Double began a couplet
that still remains unrhymed.
And even with wins everywhere,
they could not win it all.

From Kingdome to King Felix
and the return of the Prodigal Kid.
Perhaps we will look back in time
and see this year may also be that year.

(I would be remiss
not to include Ichiro
in his own haiku)