AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Fans of a pretty niche literary genre gathered over the weekend in Worcester, Massachusetts. WBUR's Andrea Shea has more on the National Baseball Poetry Festival and its origins.
ANDREA SHEA, BYLINE: Baseball bards from across the country descended on Polar Park, Worcester's Minor League stadium, to celebrate America's national pastime at games and workshops and open mics.
STEVE BIONDOLILLO: It's a giant hidden tribe, right? There are poets everywhere, and then baseball just becomes a just great subject matter.
SHEA: Steve Biondolillo founded the National Baseball Poetry Festival, now in its fourth year. It all started after the published baseball poet read an article about another genre-specific event.
BIONDOLILLO: And just like that, I went, fisherman's poetry festival? My goodness, how many poems are there about fish? What about a baseball poetry festival? That was the trigger.
SHEA: He says it had to be based in Worcester because it's home to the most iconic baseball poem.
BIONDOLILLO: "Casey At The Bat" was written by Ernest Thayer, who was born and raised in Worcester.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Reading) There was an ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place. There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face. And when responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat. No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.
BIONDOLILLO: Worcester has very deep roots in baseball, the industrial leagues of the 19th century, first perfect game, and of course, the WooSox had just moved to town.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Worcester even makes the claim, birthplace of the perfect game.
SHEA: The WooSox, or Worcester Red Sox, are based at Polar Park. The team's president, Charles Steinberg, got behind the poetry festival and even shared some of his own writing with this year's crowd.
CHARLES STEINBERG: Worcester even makes the claim, birthplace of the perfect game. "Casey At The Bat" is in the Hall of Fame.
SHEA: More than 500 adults and school students from 42 states submitted their own baseball poems to contests, including 14-year-old Angel Lukong.
ANGEL LUKONG: Normally, I write about just history and stuff. So this was a new thing for me, but I was open to trying it. And I'm really glad I did.
SHEA: Lukong is a ninth grader at Worcester's Doherty Memorial High School. Her winning poem, "This Is What Together Sounds Like," is about the unity she experiences during games here.
ANGEL: (Reading) When the lights rise at Fuller Park, so do we. Strangers sit side by side, carrying the same hope in different hands. The pitch flies through the air. Time slows down. The bat answers, sending hope into the sky.
SHEA: Founder Steve Biondolillo hopes the growing festival helps young people connect to the arts through sports, and he says baseball poetry is always about more than the game.
BIONDOLILLO: It's not just all about the fun, the heroes, the wins, and the home runs and all that. It's life itself.
SHEA: For NPR News, I'm Andrea Shea.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALBERT VON TILZER AND JACK NORWORTH SONG, "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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