Take Me Out to the POETRY READING (Baseball themed!) October 10th at 2 pm

Take Me Out to the Ballgame Poetry Reading

Presented by Ball & Socket Arts in partnership with Cheshire’s Poet Laureate, Pat Mottola

free and open to all!

October 10, 2026 @ 2 pm at Cheshire Public Library in the Mary Baldwin Room

Baseball Piano Music

Ron Dukenski

First Pitch

Pat Mottola

Opening Poem and Brief Intros

Sara deBeer, Ed Dzitko, Bill Moorhead

Opening Poet

Sara deBeer

Poets in Conversation
Ed Dzitko and Bill Moorhead

Seventh Inning Stretch

Music performed by Ron Dukenski

(complimentary baseball-themed refreshments)

Poem for Two Voices

Ed Dzitko and Sandy Lee Carlson

Open Mic

Audience and Invited Readers (please bring in only poems about baseball!)

Community Read of Casey at the Bat

Audience

About Ball & Socket Arts

Mission: Ball & Socket Arts is transforming an abandoned industrial campus into an innovative and dynamic arts destination for the central Connecticut region (and beyond). Built on the ethos of sustainability and historic preservation, Ball & Socket Arts offers vibrant arts & culture programming and provides accessible and relevant experiences to a broad public audience. 

Vision: The long-term vision for Ball & Socket is to transform the historic factory buildings and grounds into a welcoming hub for arts, culture, creative commerce, and community. Ball & Socket Arts will present curated exhibitions of contemporary visual artists with a focus on contemporary art in the Workshop Gallery, and once completed, inside Building 1. Ball & Socket Arts presents a range of multidisciplinary arts, culture, and history programming. On-site spaces in Building 1 will include: a grand exhibition hall; a flexible performance venue; an interactive history museum; an education wing; spaces for partnering arts organizations and creative commerce; and more. Our programming will include workshops, classes, and lectures for all ages, along with commissioned works of art for our exterior and interior spaces. We envision vibrant, accessible outdoor public spaces around our campus featuring art installations and spaces to gather. Our site features direct access to the Farmington Canal Linear Trail for easy pedestrian and cyclist access, as well as direct access to public transportation. Ballandsocket.org

About the Poets

Sara deBeer (www.storydebeer.com) of West Hartford is a versatile, experienced, and studied performer who delights audiences of all ages. Her family owned a baseball factory, founded by her great grandfather Jacob deBeer in upstate New York in 1889. Her grandfather Frederick Simon deBeer invented the Clincher, a patented seamless softball.

Edward Dzitko of Southbury (www.edwardiantimes.net), who has been writing professionally and for fun for more than 40 years, is a former baseball and men's league softball player, baseball and softball umpire, and sportswriter and editor. He is a managing partner of Orenaug Mountain Publishing, which has published three sports collections.

William "Bill" Moorhead has widely contributed to The Baseball Bard, a not-for-profit membership organization publishing online the poetry of the game, and has been published by Holt, Rinehart, Winston (Owl Books), Sport Literate, and various other literary and business journals. A knuckleball protege of Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four, he was co-MVP of the 2011 Men’s 55+ Senior Baseball World Series.

About the Music

Ron Dukenski lives in Heritage Village, Southbury. During his career as a freelance management consultant, he has traveled the world over, focusing on the human side of enterprise, organization culture change and executive coaching. He has appeared in numerous HV Theater Guild productions as well as in shows with the Goshen Players, TheatreWorks New Milford and the Warner Theater in Torrington. His favorites have been A Little Night Music, Lend Me A Tenor, Kiss Me, Kate and The Fantasticks.  Ron grew up in western Connecticut, is married to the wonderful Beverly Sager. He recently completed the script for a dramatic staged reading, My Dearest Friend: The Letters of Abigail and John Adams, which is being presented all throughout our area this fall.