Hack Wilson by Michael Ceraolo

 Hack Wilson

I started life with two strikes:

born to alcoholic, unmarried parents

and probably suffering from what would come to be called

fetal alcohol syndrome

Mom dying when I was seven,

Dad pretty much abandoning me,

leaving school after the sixth grade

and working dangerous jobs;

none of those managed to strike me out

Baseball saved me for a number of years,

especially my good fortune

in having Joe McCarthy as a manager

I had a fantastic five-year run;

you know the numbers, especially the one

When the Cubs fired McCarthy

and replaced him with Rogers Hornsby,

that was the beginning of the end for me

I was out of baseball a few years later,

and my alcoholism was the third strike,

taking me out of life at forty-eight

I started life with two strikes:

born to alcoholic, unmarried parents

and probably suffering from what would come to be called

fetal alcohol syndrome

Mom dying when I was seven,

Dad pretty much abandoning me,

leaving school after the sixth grade

and working dangerous jobs;

none of those managed to strike me out

Baseball saved me for a number of years,

especially my good fortune

in having Joe McCarthy as a manager

I had a fantastic five-year run;

you know the numbers, especially the one

When the Cubs fired McCarthy

and replaced him with Rogers Hornsby,

that was the beginning of the end for me

I was out of baseball a few years later,

and my alcoholism was the third strike,

taking me out of life at forty-eight