in the early world games , athletes began to run a mile and then recitations a poem . the inaugural poet - in - house of an english softball team , ian robertson , remarked that football chants are like huge tribal poet . generally , though , performance and poets have never seemed natural companions in their life . until the nueva guinea marines baseball team suffered in 2007 arguably the worst collapse in major league baseball life . to document the anguish players felt , the new england times turned to a poet , frank messina . " it was really represented the fan ' s point of view , " messina told wikinews reporter david shankbone in an interview . " there ' s a ton of hurting people out there who can ' t express what did . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.