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Posted By: Julie

Do not be remembering the most natural man ever to
wear spiked shoes,
The canniest fielder and the longest hitter,
Who squatted on his heels
In a uniform muddied at the knees,
Til the bleacher shadows grew long behind him.
Who went along with Chick and Buck (sic) and Happy
Because they treated him so friendly-like,
Hardly like Yankees at all.
With Williams because Lefty was from the South too,
And with Risberg because the Swede was such a hard guy.
Who made an X for his name and couldn't ague with
Comiskey's sleepers,
But who could pick a line drive out of the air ten feet
outside the foul line
And rifle anything home from anywhere in the park

For Shoeless Joe is gone, long gone,
A long yellow grass-blade between his teeth
And the bleacher shadows behind him..."

Nelson Algren