Three Up Three Down is about rediscovering a love of baseball in mid-life that had gone dormant for a few decades in the hustle of post college to modern time. Looking back at the first time holding a ball glove, the pickup games with kids in the neighborhood, teammates, making the high school team.

The little details and things that get remembered with fondness. Finding in hiking a filling of the void left in the activity once baseball playing had passed and what that rekindled in lessons learned on the diamond.

The memories that came back on the trails reminded me of what I loved about baseball. Probably, when people who love the game, stop and think about their time playing or being around it that they love too.

Writing long-form about those moments seemed like it would take a few pages to get to the point of a memory that is often very specific and can be reduced to a few seconds or minutes. Since poetry is the language of love, I wanted to write the story as a love story in a three-part structure using poetry.

Some of them are deeply personal. Some are observations of teammates that I have been blessed to know over the years.

All are written as someone looking back with fondness and gratitude on all of the moments in baseball wins and losses, highs, and lows. .