The Dutiful Dozen by Michael Ceraolo

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The Dutiful Dozen from Dugout Anthology

As I, Robert O. "Bob" Neighbors,
am currently, and hope to remain, the last,
I will take it upon myself to speak for the others:
Harry M. O'Neill
Elmer Gedeon
Robert G. "Bun" Troy
Ralph E. Sharman
Newton S. "Newt" Halliday
Edward L. "Eddie" Grant
Harry M. Glenn
LaVerne A. "Larry" Chappell
Henry E. Chapman
Alexander Thomson "Tom" Burr
William E. "Bill" Stearns
We all loved to play ball,
and achieved our dream of playing in the majors:
some of us for a few games or less
who were never going to play any more,
one or two of us with the potential to become stars,
only Eddie with a career of any real length
In a number of different ways,
including training accidents and various illnesses
in addition to those in combat,
in the course of four wars,
we each made the ultimate sacrifice
I apologize if I've missed any other players 
who did likewise
Michael Ceraolo is a 61-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had two full-length books (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press; 500 Cleveland Haiku, from Writing Knights Press) and several shorter-length books published, and has a third full-length book, Euclid Creek Book Two, forthcoming from unbound content press.

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