At a Loss to Eternity

About the Book

            In direct contrast to the plethora of “winning is everything” material that has incrementally grown since the 1990’s, Thomas Porky McDonald, poet and writer, offers up At a Loss to Eternity, an admittedly arbitrary look at a number of fine baseball teams that, as the subtitle states, “…Didn’t Win it All.”  Spanning from the early days of the modern World Series Era to the present, McDonald attempts to enlighten those who are willing, as well as those seemingly scarred by the burgeoning attitude that everyone is a loser except the one that wins the ultimate Championship.  League Champions who lost the World Series, like the legendary 1906 “Tinker to Evers to Chance” Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee’s “Brew Crew ‘82” take their proper place amongst the elites that they ultimately lost the Fall Classic to.  Remarkable second place teams, such as the 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers and the 1961 Detroit Tigers, each winners of 100+ regular season games, are also afforded a forum here.  Storied franchises currently in the throes of long Championship droughts, from Chicago’s Cubs and White Sox to the Cleveland Indians, are considered, along with their former baseball purgatory roommate, the Boston Red Sox, who finally took it all in 2004.

At a Loss to Eternity asks the reader to simply recall what professional sports, and baseball in particular, are really about.  The joy that those who love the Game get from it cannot be dismissed by a growing inane “win or die” attitude fostered by mass media and accepted incoherently in too many places.  Winning is wonderful, and all athletes should certainly strive to win every time they enter the playing field.  Nonetheless, any player that gives every ounce of effort they can toward the goal of winning could never be a loser, despite what those who’ve probably never accomplished anything themselves would have you believe.  Winning isn’t everything, though aspiring to win surely should be.  The Red Sox 2004 World Championship exorcized many ghosts for some, but the truth is that many wonderful teams and a number of All-Time stars that did not win a World Title will always shine, even though they never managed to secure a ring. So much so that At a Loss to Eternity is, in fact, ultimately a tale of winners.

About the Author

            Thomas Porky McDonald is a poet and writer whose poems and narratives often cross through the ballpark venue.  His recently released Series Endings…a Whimsical Look at the Final Plays of Baseball’s Fall Classic, 1903-2003, was a distinctly different view of baseball’s modern World Series than most informational volumes of that American icon usually are.  A previous work, Where the Angels Bow to the Grass, A Boy’s Memoir, taken mainly from the writers’ childhood days of the 1960’s and 70’s, described the bond between McDonald and his father, Bill “The Chief” McDonald.  In addition, his three-book anthology Irishman’s Tribute series, which paid homage to many heroes of the past, also honored his father, the de facto Irishman noted in the titles of this collection.  An Irishman’s Tribute to the Negro Leagues, Over the Shoulder and Plant on One: An Irishman’s Tribute to Willie Mays and Hit Sign, Win Suit: An Irishman’s Tribute to Ebbets Field each contained short stories and historical material, as well as a small dose of McDonald’s trademark baseball poetry.  McDonald has also published a book of short stories, Paradise Oval, and his unique New Yorkers take on 9/11, The Air That September, which tried to equate the effect that baseball could have as a healer and a source of joy, one this lifetime City resident obviously reveres.  He also recently released his second of four poetry collections which chronicle the 1990’s, Downtown Revival: Poems 1994-1997, which picked up where the first, Ground Pork: Poems 1989-1994, left off.  Two remaining volumes, Closer to Rona: Poems 1997-1999 and Still Chuckin''’ Poems 1999-2002, will arrive in the very near future, to complete the poet’s retrospective look at the final decade of the 20^th Century.  Born in St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens, McDonald has lived in nearby Astoria his entire life.