leather handed

       In my neighborhood
       even if you never played
       any organized baseball
       growing up, you had
       a glove
       and you knew that glove
       You didn't have to print
       your name on it
       You KNEW it
       You knew how it looked on the end
       of your out-stretched arm... making
       a back-hander
       or how it felt... catching
       a short-hopper on hard dirt in a parking lot
       or how it looked
       just lying there in the grass
       in foul territory 
       when you were batting
       How it took to your fingers
       How to use it to block the sun and.....make the catch
       The style
       The lacing
       The make
       The pocket
        I used to like to throw my mitt, try to
        hit stuff.....a tree trunk a can or a
        cat
        when i wasn't using it for
        baseball work
        I used to like to stick my nose right up
        in the pocket
        and really sniff that leather
        Inhale it
        Bite it
        When it needed it i
        oiled it
        I maintained that glove
        It wasn't a pure-bred
        Nope
        not an expensive Wilson or
        Rawlings model
        It wasn't a celebrity
        Not like that one in Hearts in Atlantis
        or Opie Taylor's black and white mitt
        or even......
        whatever Roy Hobbs wore
        when he set Wonderboy down
        Ha, no tale like that to tell
        But we made some catches, me
        and mine
        We did.... for real
        Of course, there is no record ANY of these " got it " catches EVER
        took place on ANY summer day
         But one-time Oak Park apartment house
         neighbor john raad and his cousin
        were standing right next to me
        on the 1st base side, when
        i caught that *foul ball
        at Comiskey,
        the only real-game ball i ever caugh, did it
        Without my mitt
        Damn
        I never took my glove to a Major League baseball game,
        ever...sorry
        
                      * It was a hooking line drive in the
                           middle of the game by some
             veteran been-around on the Angel's that
                           batted right and let-me-tell-you that ball
         just kept coming arcing in this slo-motion split-second kinda way to EXACTLY
                       where i was sitting soon standing wide-eyed
                                                              breathless Oh Baby ,  i'm
                                        yelling out ....." got it "
                         
                                   man oh man oh man oh man