More on Miguel Batista

I did not expect the deluge of e-mail I received following my Miguel Batista piece on Tuesday. (Okay, it was one e-mail.)

Jon Daly of the excellent Designated Sitter blog linked me to his post about Batista, which reminded me that Batista is a writer– of a novel (with two excellent Amazon reviews), and a book of poetry (currently unavailable). And perhaps more, which we might know about if Batista had renewed the registration on his website domain. Millions of dollars in career earnings and he can’t throw GoDaddy $10 (often even less with a coupon code!).

Here’s an interview with Batista that includes a poem, his first in English, written in the Braves bullpen in 1998. Here’s the first stanza:

Do you remember?

The quiet nights under the moon
The holding hands in late September
The prettiest days of my childhood
I ask myself do you remember?

More on Batista’s writing from the Wall Street Journal last month. And he tweets. But, unfortunately, not very often.

Impressive, although Carson is far more qualified to actually pass critical judgment on the poem than I would be. I’m mostly just impressed by the mere production of writing from someone who is also a professional baseball player. I wish I could be in a writing group with Miguel Batista, Fernando Perez, and R.A. Dickey.

(And, yes, all you need to do to get me to mention your blog on NotGraphs is send me an e-mail.)