As a kid, chewing bubble gum always seemed to me as much a part of baseball as wearing a baseball cap. Published in 2010 in Spitball magazine, this piece seems to agree with me.
*
The antique gumball
machine tech patted
his little globe dispenser
saying it was “the gum”
that really got each
baseball game started
and helped a fastball
burn hot as a fireplace
front or brought out a
cartridge box boom
at the crack of the bat
or helped the coach
keep up maintenance
on all our game gear
stored in that Nicaraguan
coffee gunny sack
season after season,
so in baseball’s brief
little league time line
it’s the chewing gum
that may be going down
into history with the
chomping rest of us.