Overcast and Downcast

 As if to compensate
for staring at the eclipsed sky
during Monday's game,
Wednesday brought
barely sufficient cloud cover
to filter the sun.





More notably,
more seriously and worryingly,
Dan Price, a runner at third,
was forced to hot-foot it toward home.

He did not make it all the way,
but nosedived short of home;
hurt, hurting a lot.




Billy,  not a medical doctor,
'though with a career as a dentist,
was quick to offer help,
together with everyone near,
and it soon became the consensus
that Dan had torn a hamstring,
high up on his leg.

It was not the first rip heard
when the Tucson Old Timers
were on the field.
A posse of torn hamstring veterans
provided analogies.




Stouter, younger TOTs,
one at each arm,
helped Dan to a comfy bucket
at the dugout.

It was agreed
that Dan would be taken,
at game's end,
to a doctor doctor,
and someone else
would drive his car home.



Joe O., recalled that,
in his first game as a TOT,
he experienced almost
the same injury.

His backside, he said,
was streaked for days
with something like bruises and,
searching for a comparison,
looked at me and said that
"his butt looked like my shirt".

I . . .

I suppose I ought to care more
how I dress.

The game went on.  Who cares who won?
We all wish Dan well.