{"id":2985,"date":"2023-04-27T19:59:02","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T19:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/?page_id=2985"},"modified":"2023-04-27T19:59:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T19:59:02","slug":"sunday-league-by-daniel-romo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/sunday-league-by-daniel-romo\/","title":{"rendered":"“Sunday League” by Daniel Romo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
for Jason<\/em>\n\nAs men age, we wear gray in our beards like \n\t an errant fastball to the ribs \n    that escaped the pitcher\u2019s hand\nbecause we\u2019ve learned not to rub it\nand acknowledge the pain \nno matter how hard the hurt \n\t\t\twe absorb.\n\nI\u2019ve had my share of traumatic, post-game at-bats \nand the satisfaction in getting on base from a hit \nvs. four wayward pitches \nis sweeter because earning your way \nis always greater than being \nrewarded for another man\u2019s \n\tfailure. \n\nWe play games of some sort all our lives \nbecause guys like us have DNA composed of \nadrenaline and competitiveness, \nand I\u2019ll bet even though my knees \nmay disagree,\nI can still run down any fly ball\nand get down for any grounder \nI failed to field in my past.\n\n\tJason\u2026<\/em>\n\tyour name means healer,<\/em>\n\tand I still recall the way you used to \n\twalk to the mound from behind the plate \n\tto tell your pitcher to simply relax \n\tas if your reassuring words \n\tcured the flatness of his curve,\n\tthe unsteadiness of his nerves. \n\nThere will come a day when we, too, \nplay our last game in this life\u2014\nrounding third,\ndeciding if we should take our chances \nand stand up,\nor if we need to slide \nand pray\nour way \n\tinto home.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Daniel Romo<\/strong> is the author of Bum Knees and Grieving Sunsets (FlowerSong Press 2023), Moonlighting as an Avalanche (Tebot Bach 2021), Apologies in Reverse (FutureCycle Press 2019), and other books. His writing and photography can be found in The Los Angeles Review, Yemassee, Hotel Amerika, and elsewhere. He received an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, and he lives, teaches, and rides his bikes in Long Beach, CA. More at danieljromo.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
for Jason As men age, we wear gray in our beards like an errant fastball to the ribs that escaped the pitcher\u2019s hand because we\u2019ve learned not to rub it and acknowledge the pain no matter how hard the hurt we absorb. I\u2019ve had my share of traumatic, post-game at-bats and the satisfaction in getting … <\/p>\n
Continue reading ““Sunday League” by Daniel Romo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2310,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2985","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}