Since the self-immolation of blazon, Braves Journal has been short of poetry content. (Blissfully short, I hear many of you say.) But in Mrs. Warren’s 6th grade class, we were required to learn a poem every week and write it out by heart on Fridays while a classmate was selected each week to recite the week’s poem aloud. That was 56 years ago, but I still remember a half-dozen or so in toto, and bits and pieces of another dozen.

One of the latter category was Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, best known for its last line: “Good fences make good neighbors.” But it begins “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” It was one of the harder ones to memorize, since it didn’t rhyme. In any case, the theme of the poem is that it’s unclear whether you need a Wall or not. Sometimes you obviously do, but even where there’s no obvious reason for a Wall, some people may be pretty adamant that you need to keep them around.

How Robert Frost knew about Forrest Wall when he wrote the poem in 1914, I have no idea. But he’s right.

Forrest finally made The Show in 2023 after nine years in the minors. He wasn’t given much to do, but what he did he did fine.

If Forrest Wall makes the 2024 Braves, he’ll be the last guy to make the team and the first to be jettisoned if jettisoning is required. Back when we signed the Kung Fu Panda, Alex thought it was a bad idea. My response was that it may or may not be a good idea, but if we actually turned out to need Pablo Sandoval, $1 miilion dollars was a small price to pay. As it turned out, Sandoval was almost exactly a wash. Forrest Wall will make the minimum next year if he makes the team. He can run, he can field, and he can pinch hit. I see him as a cheap Sam Hilliard, and definitely a better idea than Pablo Sandoval.

We’ll give old Bobby Frost the last (paraphrased) word:

Before I sign a Wall I’d ask to know

Who Walling in was Walling out,

And where I was going to find offense.