Canadian poet finalist for best baseball book of the year
Kingsville, ON, Canada, November 3, 2025
Joining such Canadian literary luminaries as W.P. Kinsella, whose work inspired the classic baseball movie Field of Dreams, the poet Simon Pole was pleased to announce today his selection as a finalist for the CASEY Award for the best baseball book of 2025.
“I’m just overjoyed to be included with all those who have turned their love of baseball into great literature,” Pole said, a resident of Kingsville, Ontario.
“Baseball is a grand stage for the greatest stories to be told,” Pole added, “Not least in verse, and has produced such timeless poems as Casey at the Bat and Tinker to Evers to Chance. To add my contribution is a dream come true.”
The CASEY Award is bestowed by Spitball: the Literary Baseball Magazine, based in Walton, Kentucky, and is considered the preeminent award given to distinguished baseball literature. Past finalists and winners have included, alongside Kinsella, such important writers as Roger Angell, John Thorn (the official historian for Major League Baseball), Roger Kahn, and Jane Leavy.
Pole was selected on the basis of his book-length poem The Black Bat: A Supernatural Baseball Epic. This epic poem tells the story of Ernie Thatch, a gifted pitcher who must undergo great sporting tests to redeem himself and the woman he loves from encroaching evil. The action is set in Southwestern Ontario, Canada’s historical baseball heartland.
Simon Pole is the author of six volumes of poetry, including the seven-poem epic cycle The Saga of Terminal City. He is a graduate of Harvard University, and a descendant of early Canadian poet Susie Drury. Pole is known for a brand of writing called Cosmic Poetry, which scales from the everyday to the spiritual heights beyond.
Spitball Magazine:
https://www.spitballmag.com/spitball-the-literary-baseball-magazine