Ogden Nash: Baseball’s Poet Laureate

Announcer Mel Allen was the subject of one of Ogden Nash’s famous poems

Ogden Nash was America’s most renowned humorous poet and lyricist in the twentieth century.

He lived in Baltimore 1934-1971 and was an avid fan of the minor league and major league Baltimore Orioles as well as the NFL’s Baltimore Colts, and composed numerous poems about those teams.

Mel Allen was the radio voice of the New York Yankees 1940-1964 and later on their TV network. He also was heard nationally on the numerous World Series broadcasts in which the Yankees played during those years.

“Mel Allen, Mel Allen // Lend Me Your Cliché” By Ogden Nash

In this poem, Nash poked fun at one of the clichés of baseball’s play-by-play announcers: “There’s activity in the bullpen.”

Let us sing of the unsung hero,

The pitcher too renowned,

Who is always in the bullpen,

But never reaches the mound.

It’s 3 and 0 on the batter,

The bases are bursting full,

A 4-run lead has vanished,

And the manager signals the bull –

Yes, the manager signals the bullpen

To unlimber another bull.

There’s MacTivity, MacTivity,

MacTivity in the bullpen!

He possesses every pitch in the book, 

He’s got the fast one, he’s got the hook,

Slider, glider, sinker and knuckle,

MacTivity’s master of many a muckle.

I know he’s the lad to save the game,

But when they announce the reliefer’s name

I can only guarantee that it’s not

MacTivity, the talented Scot. 

My hopes descend a deep declivity,

In the right field corner, there’s MacTivity,

Subsiding in the bullpen.

He can throw from the port or starboard,

He’s a regular pitching machine,

This wizard we all have heard of,

But no one has ever seen.

How the muscles bulge in his sweatshirt.

How his heart with hope is full,

When the manager beckons the bullpen

To send him another bull!

How he mutters a silent prayer,

Lord, let me be that bull!

There’s MacTivity, MacTivity,

MacTivity in the bullpen!

And he doesn’t warm up for only us.

MacTivity is ubiquitous,

MacTivity really gets around

For a pitcher who never reaches the mound.

Be it Baltimore, Brooklyn or Milwaukee,

There’s MacTivity, posed and pawky,

Even in Mudville, when straits are dire

MacTivity’s eager to quench the fire.

I know who I’d throw against Musial or Mantle,

But managers’ minds are so infantile,

Managers’ minds are flivverty-givverty,

In the right field corner, there’s MacTivity,

Subsiding in the bullpen.