Arthur “Bud” Goodrich still remembers being taken out of his first-grade class along with his twin brother Charles (“Chuck”) by their father to go to a Yankees-White Sox game at Comiskey Park hoping to see the great Babe Ruth hit a home run. However, the Sultan of Swat struck out four times, and the boys had to wait for a future game to see him get a hit. In retrospect, as lifelong White Sox fans the brothers shouldn’t feel too bad—hopefully the Babe’s performance allowed a Sox win. (Their real love, though, is for the Cubs.)
Bud learned about haiku in the 1970s from an article in The Writer that mentioned Modern Haiku magazine. After a year or two Bud’s haiku and senryu began to be accepted by MH editor Robert Spiess. In 1992 his first baseball haiku, “Squeeze play,” appeared in The Midwest Haiku Anthology (High/Coo Press). It is actually a senryu and all of his poems in this selection are senryu. His chapbook Rhubarb! The Collected Senryu and Haiku of Bud Goodrich was published in 2003 by Deep North Press.
Born December 20, 1919 in Winnetka, Illinois, Goodrich has lived there all his life, except for prep school, Oberlin College, and four years in the U.S. Army during World War II. In the 1930s he attended the Asheville School in Asheville, North Carolina, where he played first base for the school team. The coach proclaimed him the “First Baseman of the Decade.” He throws and bats right-handed.
Just when the rhubarb begins
—TV commercial
Manager, umpire
shadow-boxing
jaw to jaw
Intentional walk—
each fan winding up
his own boo
World Series replay—
the boy squeezes an umpire’s
home run call
Rookie’s first hit—
picked off at first
Squeeze play
the umpire whisk brooming
home plate
Home run trot—
the batter’s eye a tape
measuring the distance