Thomas Lux, director of the master of fine arts program in poetry atworse, a spy from another team. I explained that I was a Sarah Lawrence College and the first recipient of a Georgia Techbaseball nut and a writer, a poet primarily, and I wanted to hang around the team for several games, watch from the writing chair endowed by alumnus Bruce McEver, is an avid baseball fan. A former Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the dugout, talk to him and the players, and write about it. Kingsley Tufts Award for his book of poems, Split Horizon, Lux He said, "Sure." received a dugout seat for an intimate look at Yellow jacket baseball. And I thought: lucky life.
By Thomas Lux
1 ech played the first six games of the year on the road and went 5-1. On Feb. 23, the first home game of a three-game series was played against Elon College. "It's a great day for a ball game," I say to Hall during first visited Georgia Tech in the early winter of 1999. batting practice. I'd been invited to give a poetry reading and teach a class on poetry writing. I was given a tour of the "Beats a real job," he says. campus by Professor Allen Rausch, During batting practice, outfielder acting chair of the School of Literature, Brad Stockton was hitting ropes all over Communications and Culture for the Ivan the field. A big carrot-headed kid, Matt Allen College. Murton, took his licks in the batting cage, the ball exploding off his bat. Ditto out"I want to see the baseball field," I said. fielder Jason Basil and Brian Prince, an I had three primary motives: I love intense catcher who reminded me immebaseball. I knew Georgia Tech had a great diately of Carlton Fisk. A Bob Dylan song team. I'm a lifelong, live-and-mostly-diewas playing over the loudspeaker. by-the-Boston-Red-Sox fan, and Nomar One of the players walked by, Garciaparra and Jason Varitek, current Red absentmindedly knocking a baseball, to Sox players, played their the beat of the music, college ball at Georgia Tech. I wanted to walk where I wanted to hang around the team for several games, against his athletic cup. Nomar and Jason walked. The team seemed loose, watch from the dugout, talk to Coach Hall For luck, for baseball juju. off to a hot start, ranked No. 1, on the warmest day and the players, and write about it. He said, "Sure." of winter, first home game. Steve Kelly, an affable wo years later, I was back And I thought: junior from Ohio, was at Tech, this time for a pitching for Tech, and the whole semester, Spring Jackets were quickly 2001, as the first holder of down 3-0. the McEver Chair in WritIn the third inning, on a ing. I walked by Russ Chanshort fly ball to left field, dler Stadium on the way to Tech third baseman Mark Teixeira — the No. 1 college my office. In late January or early February, I heard the player in the country and everyone's bet to go first in the sound of a bat striking a baseball. spring draft — broke his ankle. This is a beautiful sound. Left fielder Matthew Boggs came in for the ball and It evokes sensory images of spring and summer to folcalled off Teixeira and shortstop Victor Menocal, who were low, evenings of fireflies and back yards and baseball games also going after the ball. Menocal veered off; Teixeira hit the over a radio, over a fence. Let us not quibble over the differdeck and slid into Boggs' planted feet. Teixeira stood up ence between the sound of a wooden bat vs. a metal bat. fairly quickly, but when he tried to walk, he went right They'll always use wooden bats in the big leagues, metal down again. There was an audible gasp from the dugout. bats on every other level. Everyone knew something terrible had happened. Either way, it's a beautiful sound. In a very short time — the student medical center is A month or so later, I was having lunch with Danny across the street from the stadium — Teixeira was back in Hall, in his eighth season at Tech and one of the most rethe dugout on crutches, his ankle heavily wrapped. The spected head coaches in college baseball. His team, always a word was surgery in a few days, a couple of pins in the powerhouse, had just been ranked No. 1 in major college ankle, at least two months on the shelf. baseball. He had a row of hitters that would scare the paint off bleacher seats. He had a couple of junior-transfer startOne of the finest things I heard him say was, "We better ing pitchers he had high hopes for and a couple of freshmen win this damn game." pitchers who threw the ball hard. Hall told me he'd seen me Teixeira sat on the bench in the middle of the dugout, his at the field. At the time, he thought 1 might be a scout or, ankle propped up, while his teammates approached him Photography by Curtis Compton
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GEORGIA TECH • Summer 2001
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