This all started with a rain out.

It was Patriots Day, 2003, maybe 2004. I was scheduled to cover a high school baseball game, but it poured. We needed something local to run in the sports section. Everything local had been washed away. I remember Ben Sturtevant, the editor on the desk that day, asked if I had anything. A column would be fine.

Well, I had this one sort of goofy idea…

Better traditions than sports haiku have been born of less.

I can’t recall the exact year I made sports haiku a spring tradition, like the return of mosquitoes, icy rain and mud, but here it is, the 2016 edition. The sports world — particularly the New England sports world — has given me plenty of topics to cover this year.

As usual, my apologies to all the talented poets around the world.

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Pablo Sandoval

Belt-busting big boy

Worst free agent Red Sox signed?

Crawford says, looks like

David Ortiz

Do you have to leave?

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October royalty, you

Three rings, go for four

Deflategate

This is still a thing?

Go away petty Goodell

Take a science class

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Jordan Spieth

Shark relates and nods

Second nine spits out the best

New green jacket? Wait…

Kobe Bryant

Most hated rival?

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Not quite, but on the short list

That shot, man, that shot

Claude Julien

Employed, still, despite

Season that crumbled away

Like that — poof! — was gone

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Boston Celtics

Getting there, big green

Improvement will really come

With the Nets’ draft pick

John Farrell

Short leash, and so tight

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Each loss a box being packed

Win now, or over

Patriots Schedule

Primetime desert night

Jones glares at his old teammates

Will Brady be there?

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NFL Draft

North Dakota State?

QB from the cold prairie

LA beckons you

Villanova

Kill Tar Heel comeback

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Kris Jenkins lives immortal

Jay Wright plays it cool

Stanley Cup Playoffs

What the! No Canada?

Great White North O for seven

Lord Stanley stays south

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Kentucky Derby

Triple Crown drought snapped

A Grand Slam for the Pharoah

Sip a mint julep

Golden State Warriors

Well done, but know this

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Bird, McHale and the Chief would

Blow you off the court

 

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

@TLazarczykMTM


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