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
