Closing the closet door on baseball’s skeletons

Play ball!

After all,
it’s opening day.

From behind home plate
a chest-protected umpire
stands erect and
(masking his beaming face)
belts a familiar phrase…

Batter up!

Two words that call an end
to an unbelievably long wait
that has lasted all winter.

But this year
it’s not only the batters
whose actions
are dictated by the second
of those two words
that is just two letters long.

Batter UP!

The batters may be up,
but we fans are up too.

We’re upset.
We’re up in arms.
We’re up to speed
on why home run records
have been disappearing
far too fast.

But that isn’t all we’re up to.
We’re fed up, too.
We’re fed up with a diet of deception
on which we’ve been forced to feed
for far too long.
It’s enough to make us sick.
And so we are.

We’ve been duped by buggers
who aren’t really the sluggers
they led us to believe they were.

Dopers are more like it.
Performance-enhancing druggies.
Players who’ve played a game
in pursuit of fame
and in the process
shamed the sport.

Heavens to Murgatroid!
At long last
steroids has been thrown out
attempting to steal the integrity
of America’s Pastime.
And all we can say is,
“It’s about time!”

Hey batter-batter,
you’d better do more than just
SWING!

In this season of new beginnings.
you’d better do better than that.
Don’t just play ball.

Play fair.