At a Loss to Eternity

In direct contrast to the plethora of winning is everything material that has incrementally grown since the 1990s, 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, Didnt 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 Milwaukees 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 Chicagos 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 whove probably never accomplished anything themselves would have you believe. Winning isnt 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.