Spring Training Is Here!

Quite a few baseball cards depict players in spring training. This is for two reasons: First,

it is easier for photographers to get close to the players when they are playing meaningless games than when they are, and also to get shots of players in new uniforms (See 2008 Tampa Bay Rays Upper Deck cards) or posed shots for various sets. The alternative for this second reason is airbrushing, which is a whole 'nother story.

Along with this rather random Trot Nixon card, here is an interesting poem I came across that seemed appropriate for today.

William Carlos Williams, "At the Ball Game" (from Spring and All)

At the Ball Game

The crowd at the ball game

is moved uniformly

by a spirit of uselessness

which delights them--

all the exciting detail

of the chase

and the escape, the error

the flash of genius--

all to no end save beauty

the eternal--

So in detail they, the crowd,

are beautiful

for this

to be warned against

saluted and defied--

It is alive, venomous

it smiles grimly

its words cut--

The flashy female with her

mother, gets it--

The Jew gets it straight--it

is deadly, terrifying--

It is the Inquisition, the

Revolution

It is beauty itself

that lives

day by day in them

idly--

This is

the power of their faces

It is summer, it is the solstice

the crowd is

cheering, the crowd is laughing

in detail

permanently, seriously

without thought

We're underway with the 2012 baseball season everyone! Go Braves!