Most ads are interactive -- click on them to visit the folks who make The Panama News possible

fun

Also in this section:
Sparky the Wonder Dog
Poetry, Mariano
Changing standards of radical chic

Mariano

by Diego Santiago

They see in me when I’m about to begin
A look in my eye and a confident grin.
A sign from the catcher tells me this guy is dead-
A mission accomplished at the nod of my head.

When I arch my arm and let the ball fly
I’m Mariano Rivera and not any old guy.
I practice the game in front of a mirror,
Mixing my pitches and drinking my beer

In the top of the Ninth with just one run ahead,
There is one name in baseball that the players all dread.
He’s making a list he’s checking it twice
He wants to find out who’s naughty and nice.

Why can’t it be me that makes them all cower?
MARIANO just once with his squint and his glower.
That I accomplished, that was my plan,
I somehow changed places with that game closer man.

I now wear the pin stripes right under my clothes
and stand ready to end all of those last minute woes-
If anyone blinks and is heard oft’ to mutter
I’ll send him a message and give him a cutter.

When men come with beards and funny Red Sox,
I’ll call class in session for the school of hard knocks.
If they come back again I can make matters worse,
I’ll get the Bambino to send them a curse.

I have this secret it’s changed my whole life.
I’m Mariano in public and “Mo” to my wife.
I’ve earned no great fortune or gained no wide fame
But I’m now a believer in what’s in a name.