Brand New Season

By Maryann Abdo and Joseph Adomavicia

Poetry builds community. This collection, Orenaug Mountain Publishing's second baseball poetry volume, demonstrates that in the simple fact that the writers are from around the country, with a handful from outside the United States. But it also highlights the connections one can make through poetry in this story. A short time ago, we met a poetry contributor named Michael Garry at one of our live readings. In the course of getting to know Michael a little, we discovered he had written a book, Game of My Life New York Mets: Memorable Stories of Mets Baseball, which takes a personal look inside the Mets' greatest moments and most beloved players. While writing the book, Michael met a former player named Ed Charles, who was originally signed by the Boston Braves in 1952. Charles spent eight years in the still-segregated Deep South playing in the Braves farm system. He wrote poetry concerning baseball and racism. For this collection, Michael reached out to Edwin, Ed Charles's son, to see if he would contribute a piece of his father's to this collection. Thus, that connection of Michael to the Charles family is where we'll start our second look at America's national pastime and poetry. Michael kicks us off with a poem he wrote about Ed Charles, and Ed Charles's poem about Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier 15 years before Charles reached the majors, follows. From there, poets write about ballparks, growing up with the game, their kids, and players. Some contributions in this anthology are about cricket, softball, and stickball. We didn't want to leave out tributes to any games that included a bat and a ball.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F91W6XFV
• ISBN13: 9798992536935
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Orenaug Mountain Publishing
• Length: 74 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 8.5"