Not Go Away Is My Name by Alberto Ríos

Author:Alberto Ríos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Baseball on the Mexican Border

Baseball in the fifties was a fever on the border,

Semipro leagues in bloom all over Sonora—

The Tomateros, the tomato growers,

The back-and-forth of the desertlands championship,

The battle of bats between big families in small places,

The Ostioneros de Guaymas, the Naranjeros de Hermosillo—

The oyster workers and the orange growers,

The Cañeros de Los Mochis, los Yaquis de Obregón—

Though everybody’s favorite team was always American,

The Pittsburgh Pirates, so far was the reach of Roberto Clemente.

In those days, Tucson was baseball, American baseball,

The spring training home of two memorable teams,

Who were, in those years, the terrible terrible Cleveland Indians

And the horrible horrible Chicago Cubs.

They would, several times during spring training,

Send teams down to the border at Nogales for exhibition games.

They were big news, the only news, the best news.

One spring in the late fifties, it occurred to civic officials

They should gather up all the town’s kids

Then send them to a game for free.

The bleachers would be full,

Certainly encouraging the teams to come back.

What nobody knew then was that each team had B and C squads

And this is who they sent

So that the terrible terrible and horrible horrible teams

Were even more terrible and more horrible.

We kids watched and, as I remember it well, we laughed.

Perhaps sending these squads should have been seen as an insult

To the town, to the kids, to baseball itself—

But this event was, instead, something else.

The Tacuarineros de Culiacán and the Mayos de Navojoa:

They were much better than these Cubs and Indians.

I was much better. I thought: I can do what these guys are doing.

What might have been an insult was instead an encouragement,

An inspiration. We were so close to those players in our good seats,

So close we saw ourselves out on that field.

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