It’s Literally Time To “Play Ball”
Dave | April 4, 2012Major League Baseball’s 2012 season got off to an unusual start last week — in Japan — with the A’s and M’s splitting a pair. The Braves start play at the dysfunctional Mets tomorrow and have their home opener against Milwaukee a week from Friday. (Brewers … Friday the 13th … What could possibly go wrong?)
Baseball in Art
Best Baseball Song: “Centerfield,” by John Fogerty.
Best Baseball Painting: “Three Umpires,” by Norman Rockwell.
Best Baseball Poem (it is National Poetry Month): it will be forever hard to top Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat.”
Best Baseball Musical Extravaganza: John McCutcheon and Chuck Brodsky will meet for nine innings of ballpark songs in a sort of musical/athletic competition that has become an annual tradition in honor of opening day. (John, a highly accomplished multi-instrumentalist, is also a children’s book author.) They will be joined by Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski. Eddie’s Attic, Thursday, April 5th at 8 pm.
Not the Best Baseball Book Ever: The Great American Novel, by Philip Roth (great writer, great effort, but it just didn’t hit a home run for me; maybe a stand-up double).