Diamond Reflections

About the Book

          Taken from twenty-seven collections of poetry written between the years 1989 and 2006, Thomas Porky McDonald offers up Diamond Reflections: Baseball Pieces For Real Fans, 291 poems about and fueled by the once and future National Pastime.  Reflecting on a joyous childhood, the poet’s deep-rooted love for baseball, first instilled in him by his father, Bill “The Chief” McDonald, flows vibrantly throughout this volume.  As in previous poetry books, McDonald divides Diamond Reflections into workable sections, giving the reader a guide that proves most helpful to those similarly inspired.

In Heroes, personal favorites from a child of the late 60’s-early 70’s (“My Pal Willie,” “Able to Find Cleon,” “A Single Classic Swing”) meld seamlessly with historical figures (“When the Man Came On Waving His Wand,” “Me and the Splinter,” “Waiting For Jackie Robinson”) latter-day luminaries (“Safe Harbor,” “San Diego’s Pride”) and often forgotten stars of the Negro Leagues (“Ol’ Satch,” “Mule in the Sky,” “Thinking About Josh”).  In Playing Fields, this formula continues, with the old (“The Park That Isn’t There,” “A Church I Never Went To,” “Across Dimensions,” “Merely Sunny Yesterday”), the new (“Outskirts,” “Rockin’ By the Lakeside,” “Stillwell, Surf to Shore”) and the personal memories of childhood (“The Peaceful Joy We Had,” “Faith Between the Lines,” “The Fields of the Lost, Scattered Youths,” “Queensbridge”) each checking in.  In Lessons, personal beliefs and feelings inspired by or corroborated by baseball round out the collection.  The most evocative of these include “A Big Small Town Known as Childhood,” “Rainbows in Need of a Storm,” “The Boy From Down the Hall,” “Wooden Bats” and “When We Were All Poets.”  A Final Tour, whose singular piece, “Farewell to a Season,” may most properly define the scope of the work (“….Laughter every inning, here to the beginning; Reach out youngster aging for the light.”), closes out a sincere and thoroughly positive volume of poetry unique unto itself.

          Inspired by the long ago work of Grantland Rice, McDonald the adult is still most at home at the ballpark, which brings him back to (among others) childhood friends (“Faith Between the Lines”) his maternal grandfather (“Ellwood Would Have Loved It”) and his father (“A Lefty Catcher,” “Just We Two”), all still clearly a part of the poet’s life.

About the Author

            Thomas Porky McDonald has written extensively about baseball and the inherent meanings that it can entail, most notably in verse form.  His first four poetry collections, which spanned the 1990’s on into the early 21^st Century, each contained diverse pieces on what he still believes is the National Pastime.  Ground Pork: Poems 1989-1994, Downtown Revival: Poems 1994-1997 and Closer to Rona: Poems 1997-1999, already published and Still Chuckin': Poems 1999-2002, which will arrive in the near future, all present a writer whose work is often distinguished by the use of baseball and the ballpark venue.  Diamond Reflections, Baseball Pieces For Real Fans, takes the most vibrant baseball-related poems of these collections from the many other life-related pieces contained in each five-book set.  A fifth collection, In the Cameo Shade: Poems 2002-2005, which will begin the poet’s second decade of work, also has representation in Diamond Reflections.  Beyond the poetry landscape, McDonald has also released Series Endings: A Whimsical Look at the Final Plays of Baseball’s Fall Classic, 1903-2003, a distinctly different view of baseball’s World Series than most mainstream histories, Where the Angels Bow to the Grass: A Boy’s Memoir, taken mainly from the writer’s childhood days of the 1960’s and 70’s, describing the bond between McDonald and his father, Bill “The Chief” McDonald, At a Loss to Eternity, which recalls successful teams of the past that are often overlooked and Never These Men, which considers a number of unfairly branded figures.  His three volume “Irishman’s Tribute” series paid homage to various heroes of the past.  An Irishman’s Tribute to the Negro Leagues, Over the Shoulder and Plant on One: An Irishman’s Tribute to Willie Mays and Hit Sign, Win Suit: An Irishman’s Tribute to Ebbets Field each contained short stories and historical material, as well as a small dose of McDonald’s trademark baseball poetry.  McDonald has also published a book of short stories, Paradise Oval and his singular New Yorkers’ take on 9/11, The Air That September.  Born in St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens, McDonald has lived in nearby Astoria his entire life.