“You can’t pee here,” Brendan tells me as I climb inside the doorway leading into the belly of the Green Monster. What he... more

The girl wonders how he went from a boy with big league dreams to selling booze at a store on Long Island.

Breathing heavily, we make it to the corner of the vacant dry cleaner’s. Still no one has rented it, I say. 

Wrigley had put out a study claiming that gum chewing increased performance on assessments and my elementary school took it as gospel, sending letters home asking for us to bring it on test days. Marshall brought Big League Chew. 

The first doctor who called said I couldn’t play. The scan showed stress fractures and the only remedy was rest. It would... more

The first time this happened, I sighed when he walked away, squinting my eyes to see if he had a wedding ring.

When I am young I wish I were invisible so that the white boys will stop screaming, “Go back where you came from.”

Kinsella, Annie: Cinnamon-haired romantic lead in Field of Dreams. Played with zeal by Amy Madigan. Equal parts romantic and pragmatic, she raised a farm and a daughter, vanquished small-town Nazism, and offered unconditional support to her crazy-ass ghost-loving husband.

In 1974 or 1975 my father took my sisters and me to our first baseball game. It was always going to be a Yankee game, wherever that might be.

You cannot think of baseball without thinking of your grandpa. The two forever tangled in each’s DNA.

Later that evening, Ken Caminiti died alone in a bug infested Bronx drug house.

“I’ll be right up,” I said, seeking the comfort of the remaining parental arms. But no, he told me, “wait until morning.”

Mike and I sat in our separate seats and waved to each other. I’d texted him the night before and asked “Wanna see Don Giovanni tomorrow... more

Scream and jump out, I said, watching us slide toward the water, letting the safety belt hold me in place.

The bracelet tells someone where she is, honey. But it doesn’t tell you why.

Sitting still can be tough on a body, just as the shifting earth, and plunging and thawing temperatures can be hard on a pipe.

The world does not write enough odes
to in-betweenness—the way you can be
together / feel apart / apart / feel... more

I didn’t realize, when we were falling in love, that her father was a pathological extrovert.

3) Almost all seemingly-ruined meals can be salvaged if you add something. About 80 percent of the time, that something is wine. And if a meal is going to fail, let it fail spectacularly.

There is a ceramic pot full of my mother’s cigarette butts on the front steps of my childhood home, hot-glued back together by my father after one of our cats saw a chipmunk, and went for it.

The first time I went to the opera I went because I wanted to see a man go to hell. My dad got us tickets to... more

A dog would live too long. An axolotl would stink the house. Reptile equipment is confusing, complex. I’m allergic to cats. What I really... more

I have a tattoo on my back that’s almost a secret. My partner is the only one who has looked up close. It feels like it’s sometimes... more

My dad says the sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day. He says if you ain’t the lead dog the scenery never changes. If you can’t run with the big dogs then stay on the porch. 

“You should just ask yourself what your needs are,” Stephanie says. She raises an eyebrow, takes a sip of sangria, swallows... more