edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura

It is difficult to pinpoint the birth of baseball. Many experts believe the first official game took place in June 1846 along the Hudson River in Hoboken, N.J. An American teacher introduced the game to Japan about a quarter century later, in 1872. The sport has thrived in both countries ever since, and the two nations occasionally swap players. Japanese natives like the Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki and the New York Yankees’ Hideki Matsui have established themselves as elite players in the Major Leagues, and the Boston Red Sox bolstered their pitching staff this year by adding Japanese prospects Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima.

Pinpointing the origins of haiku is virtually impossible, as the art form goes back thousands of years. The first baseball haiku was penned in 1890 by Japanese master Masaoka Shiki. Baseball haiku did not spread to the United States until the late 1950s, when beat pioneer Jack Kerouac learned the art of haiku from fellow poet Gary Snyder. In 1958, the Lowell, Mass., native wrote the following:

Empty Baseball Field
— A  robin
Hops along the bench

Editors Cor Van Den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura have united haiku and baseball in a contemporary setting with “Baseball Haiku,” a collection of more than 200 haiku written about the sport by Japanese and American poets. Released earlier this year, the book provides perfect reading in the wake of the All Star game, which occurred on July 10. In addition to the poems, the book includes an introduction with a brief history of baseball haiku, along with short biographies of each of the 45 authors.
“Haiku and baseball were made for each other,” Heuvel writes in the introduction. “While haiku give us moments in which nature is linked to human nature, baseball is played in the midst of the natural elements—on a field under an open sky; and as haiku happen in a timeless now, so does baseball, for there is no clock ticking in a baseball game—the game’s not over until the last out.”

Haiku and baseball seem to have many parallels. While haiku encapsulates singular moments with sparse and concise syllables, baseball is composed of individual frames that fit the haiku mold—a pitch, a swing, a hit, a slide. Baseball and haiku captivate audiences with their majestic simplicity. While sports like hockey, basketball and soccer maintain a frenzied back-and-forth pace, and free verse poetry meanders in dizzying directions, baseball and haiku slow things down, condensing the action into short bursts.    

Another similarity between the sport and the art is their seasonal dimensions. According to Heuvel, traditionalists do not consider a poem a haiku unless it includes “kigo”—a word hinting at the season in which the poem takes place. An example comes from Heuvel himself, who included 36 of his own haiku in the book.

summer afternoon
the long fly ball to centerfield
takes its time

Similarly, a baseball fan cannot accurately convey how a team is doing without providing the context of the season. Spring indicates that the baseball season is just kicking off. Summer connotes the heart of the season, divided down the middle by the July All Star break. Autumn means the season is winding down, which induces either depression or excitement, depending on the team’s standing.

But many of the haiku featured in the book speak beyond the game of baseball. Some reflect feelings of nostalgia or personal emotions only loosely connected to the game, such as this piece supplied by Ed Markowski:

summer loneliness
dropping the popup
i toss to myself

Others depict evocative images of scenes that surround the sport, exemplified by this submission from Mizuhara Shuoshi:

a night game’s
bright lights across
the great river

Still others serve as a sort of social commentary on the time and place in which the game is played, such as this haiku by Suzuki Murio:

My legs are chilly
I stand watching the orphans
play baseball

The book is divided into two main sections, beginning with American authors and then transitioning to Japanese poets. An additional section titled “Extra Innings” includes brief histories of baseball in both countries. While the subject matter of the haiku is focused, the book also offers general insights into the art of haiku and the game of baseball.

The end result offers something to fans of sports and poetry alike. Baseball fans will find their emotions and senses stirred by each concise snapshot of the game. Haiku fans will come to appreciate the grace and poetry of baseball. The next time you visit Fenway Park and see the pitcher raise his knee in a slow windup, you may even find yourself penning a haiku in the back of your mind.