It’s Literally Time To “Play Ball”
Dave | April 4, 2012 | 10:00 amMajor 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).
Best Baseball Book Ever: The Natural, by Bernard Malamud.
Best Baseball Movie Ever: “The Natural,” screenplay by Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Robert Redford. It hardly resembles the book, but that’s okay.
Newest Baseball Book: Calico Joe, by John Grisham (4/10/2012). If you’re a fan of Grisham and of baseball, then this book makes for great summer reading. Events revolve around a fictitious beaning that occurred between the Mets and the Cubs in 1973. (A beaning involves a pitcher intentionally throwing at, and hitting, a batter.)
Worst MLB Beaning Ever: August 16, 1920 – Ray Chapman (Cleveland) by Carl Mays (Yankees). Chapman died the following morning, becoming only the second major leaguer killed as the result of a professional baseball injury. Mays pitched in the bigs for another nine seasons.
Worst non-MLB Beaning Ever: April 23, 1999 – Anthony Molina (University of Evansville) by Ben Christensen (Wichita State). Christensen was perhaps college baseball’s best pitcher. Second baseman Molina was also a pro prospect. While warming up on the mound before the start of the game, Christensen thought Molina, standing on the on-deck circle some 24 feet from home plate, was trying to time his pitches. Christensen threw a 92-mph fastball at Molina, breaking three bones around his left eye and altering his vision from 20/10 to 20/400. Suspended for the remainder of the season, this incident ended Christensen’s college career and, while he was drafted in the first round of the draft by the Cubs ($1,063,000 signing bonus), he was hampered by injuries and retired in 2004 having never made it up to the big league. Molina played some for Evansville the following year, but was not drafted by the pros.
Do you have any baseball favorites / superlatives?
This Week
Robert J. Cook, author of Troubled Commemoration, April 4th at 8 pm, Atlanta History Center, free.
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative, April 11 at 7:15pm, Decatur Library, hosted by Georgia Center for the Book, free.
Winston Groom, author of Shiloh, 1862, Wednesday April 11th at 7pm, Carter Library, free.
Terrific recent baseball novel: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.
Baseball book: “Moneyball”
Baseball movie: “Major League” (Honorable mention to “A League of their Own”)
Next Friday will be my 22nd Braves home opener in a row.
I started in 92, but count 96 twice. I went to both the scab ball opener and the real one.
That’d be 1995.
Oops.
Wait. You are a scab? You never let me know this? This changes everything.
The cheesy ’80s era electronic handclaps of “Centerfield” haven’t aged well. Also, every time I hear it at the ballpark I mentally picture Fogerty walking out to his mailbox to pick up the check.
What about “Catfish Hunter” by Bob Dylan or the inspiration for “Centerfield”: Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man.” Also, for full album-length baseball goodness the two albums by The Baseball Project on YepRoc Records are excellent (and include the immortal pick hit to click: “Ted F***’in Williams”).
Fun “The Natural” fact: Robert Redford was 46 when he played the 35-year-old Roy Hobbs. Wilford Brimley, who played his ready-to-retire ancient coach: 48. Great post, btw. Take me out to the ballgame…
I take great pleasure in imagining John Fogerty picking up those checks. He had been stripped of nearly all the CCR money by Saul Zaentz, and emotionally terrorized by all the lawsuits. Centerfield was such a personal triumph for him, such a rebirth, that it has come to feel like an anthem of Spring to me.
Even the handclaps remind me that he put the whole thing together in his home studio (a radical thing in the early 80s), with no other musicians. He showed up at the Warner offices with the completed album under his arm, hoping he could get a meeting with someone.
One of my favorite things in the world is a poster that he signed “To Daren, Put me in coach, John Fogerty”
I agree with all your points re the evil Mr. Zaentz, Daren. (I think I have a case of sour grapes).
One of my favorite memories is seeing Fogerty from the front row of the Fox thanks to a friend’s tickets. I was wearing a cotton plaid (but not flannel) shirt. At the end of the show, he reached down, handed me a pick and said, “Nice shirt.” Good times…
He didn’t know you were a scab.
Best Baseball Radio Promotion: 1979 Disco Demolition Night at Comisky. 98 cents admission if you brought a disco record. Blew up all the records between a double header with the Tigers. Cleared the stands, wrecked the field. Had to cancel the second game. Put Steve Dahl and Garry Meier and the whole event in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This probably does get the nod just because it involves disco AND dynamite, but you’ve got to give a close second place to 10 Cent Beer Night in Cleveland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night
Ah yes…the 70’s! The last waiver free, no helmet wearing, pickup bed riding, roaming the neighborhood, riding your bike wherever you want decade. Glad I had the chance to grow up during it…except for the disco part!
Best baseball song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkgAKBljXfU
(Pop Fly from Justin Roberts)
Paradise by the Dashboard Light. It features the Scooter, Phil Rizzuto, for crying out loud! You could also call it a Hall of Fame, or at least All-Star, cast of musicians, with Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg from the E Street Band, Todd Rundgren and Edgar Winter all playing on the original recording.
Holy cow, I think he’s gonna make it!
+! I can hear Karla DeVito screaming, “STOP RIGHT THERE! I GOTTA KNOW RIGHT NOW….before we go any further– Do you love me? Will you love me forever? Do ya need me? Will ya never leave me? Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life, will you take me away, will ya make me your wife?”
Ah, those were the days. Now I have to go pull this clip up on YouTube.
Meatloaf had two of greatest lines in rock and roll history. One in this song after swearing he would love her ’til the end of time….”So, now I’m praying for the end of time, to hurry up and arrive.”
His other line was: You took the words right out of my mouth. It must have been while you were kissing me.
Love it!
Curious as to why this particular comment has been held in moderation for the last couple hours?!?
Actually, that was the lovely Ellen Foley. You might remember her as the attorney on Night Court before Markie Post. Devito was in the video and the tour, but not the recording.
+1 for extreme music fan geekery.
Thanks Michael,
Coming from a Skylark, that’s a great honor.
Of course, I left out the part where she was the inspiration for The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” But you probably already knew that.
That may be true, but the video is what’s indelibly etched into my memory…and Ms. DeVito is the better singer, IMO.
Hey Cuba,
To be both exhaustive and exhausting on this point, it’s EF’s voice on the video, and KD lip-synching. I don’t know of any studio recording of KD doing Paradise By the Dashboard Lights. I’m sure there are live something or others out there.
If I misunderstood you, and you’re talking about KD’s solo album, “Cool World”, then I apologize. She is a fine singer.
Actually, I apologize for this post in general. I have let a vinyl monster out of its cage, and it has taken over my keyboard.
And we got to this point starting with Meatloaf. #geekdomftw!
Stop It! You’re crushing high school memories. Next thing you’re going to tell me is I didn’t sound awesome every time I paired up with the closest female as we belted out our respective parts in the basements of every single one of my friends parent’s homes.
KD is on the video of the song done on the tour, right? The one where she & Meatloaf are making out on stage? ‘Cause it doesn’t sound quite like the voice on the record (which I owned at one time, believe it or not)…but if you’re wanting the prize for out-geeking me, it’s yours, amigo!
This video?
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK-FRac7m58
Yep, that’s Ellen Foley’s voice.
Yahoo! I win the geek prize!
(just call me the killer of Keith F.’s dreams)
“Music video:
Although Ellen Foley is recorded on the album, another woman, Karla DeVito, was used for the music video and for live performances. This would also happen for Meat Loaf’s 1993 hit “I’d Do Anything for Love (but I Won’t Do That)”, where Dana Patrick mimed to Lorraine Crosby’s vocals.”
The things I’d have learned if there’d been YouTube when this video came out! (But it still sounds different to me than the record, and I still think KD is a better vocalist, even if she did marry Robby Benson!!)
Robby Benson? I think he was in a basketball movie, not baseball.
Robbie Benson gets the nod in ice skating movie (Ice Castles!) and in biking movie in Indiana, but what is the basketball movie? I’m wracking my memories of bad saturday afternoon movies…
I don’t know the biking movie, but I’m thinking of One on One. You’re not thinking he was in Breaking Away, are you? I don’t think that’s right.
For best movie I’d add a documentary category just to include Ken Burn’s “Baseball”.
I can’t choose which baseball novel I prefer more, The Southpaw or Bang the Drum Slowly, both by Mark Harris, both about pitcher Henry Wiggen. They’re beautiful, poetic books, written by a guy who knows and loves the game.
The movie of Bang the Drum Slowly is another favorite, from 1973. One of DeNiro’s first roles, one of Michael Moriarty’s best performances, and Vincent Gardenia soaking nude in a whirlpool with a mound of cigarette ash collecting on his chest.
I knew I would find you here if I kept scrolling, SHB. I am grateful to you for turning me on to Bang the Drum Slowly, a lovely book.
A college professor of mine, and a fantastic writer, Joe Schuster, just released a new baseball book (publisher: Ballantine Books): The Might Have Been.
He’s a diehard baseball guy, living and working in a diehard baseball town: St. Louis. Should be treat.
My favorite promotion was July 9, 1979: “Skylab Night” at old Atlanta – Fulton County Stadium. It was the night Skylab was supposed to crash, and if you wore a hard hat you got in for a buck or two! They probably hadn’t sold 7,000 advance tickets to the game. The Braves really sucked back then and Turner would do anything to get bodies in the seats.
Funny you should mention that, because the same DJ responsible for Disco Demolition Night, Steve Dahl, also had a parody song called “Skylab” sung to the tune of The Stones “Shattered.”
Tomorrow afternoon when the first pitch is thrown at approximately 1:05 PM at Citi Field, Braves baseball will be back and all will be right with the universe.
The non-existent Winter has had me jonesing for baseball for what feels like an eternity!
I’m thrilled to be in a place where the team matters, they’re in contention all year and people actually talk about it. As a native of Pittsburgh, I haven’t had that since I was a young kid. Beautiful stadium, yes, but that’s about it. My son has been converted into a Braves fan already. It’s still taking me time to get over that 1992, Sid Bream thing but I’ll get there the longer I live here.
Ha! Fraaaanciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisco Cabreeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrra!
I watched that game in the basement tv room of Atherton Hall my sophomore year at Penn State. I had been a huge Braves fan for years at that point thanks to the Superstation and was the one Atlanta fan in the midst of a hundred or so Pittsburghers. I’ll never forget my good friend Dave Mozer standing right next to me and saying, as Leyland walked out to the mound to make the pitching change, “Jesus, please, anyone but Belinda. We put Stan Belinda in and the game’s over. Oh fu*k, they’re bringing in Belinda. Fu*k, Fu*k, Fu*k!” At least in my memory, he was still yelling “FU*K” when Bream slid across the plate three batters later. Of course, I was the idiot running up and down the halls with my foam tomahawk, doing the chop for the next hour. Fortunately, the Pirates fans were too stunned and depressed to kick my ass.
I suppose this explains why, even though I became a huge Steelers and Penguins fan, I never did root for the Pirates. In hindsight, given the standings over the past 20 years, this was very fortuitous for me.
Thanks for the awful memories. You realize that’s the exact moment when the pirates became irrelevant and the braves moved into the glory years. Things were never the same after that.
Another favorite tune, Ballad of a Ballgame by Christine Lavin:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpMRD24ps8I&w=560&h=315%5D
Best Baseball Joke: I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
When I was a kid, my favorite baseball joke was a long shaggy dog story about an alcoholic pitcher named Mil Famey. After he got loaded (and loaded the bases) the victorious opposing team walked by his car in the parking lot and spying many empties therein proclaimed: “That’s the beer that made Mil Famey walk us.”
+1
And that reminds me of my favorite Skip Carey-ism. Ole Skip used to be quite the boozer and eventually had to give it up due to diabetes.
Even after he stopped drinking he continued to offer up some great quotes, especially in the days when the home team was a perennial loser.
My favorite was “the bases are loaded…and I wish I was too!”
Dad was even better. My favorite from Harry was, as he howled: “How could he lose the ball in the sun. He’s from Puerto Rico!!!”
Oh…I got it wrong. Just went and looked it up. I was close, but the quote was:
“Aw, how could he (Jorge Orta) lose the ball in the sun? He’s from Mexico.”
Favorite baseball player quote from recent-ish history.
After Maddux wins the Braves season opener 12-1, Glavine wins the second game of the season by 13-2 or some similarly egregious score. A reporter asks Tom something insipid about the number of runs scored in the first two games. Glavine speaks at length about how it’s a long season and he’s fortunate that the bats came alive and he’s glad that the fans got a good show. And then he sums up, in a perfectly deadpan pro-ballplayer drawl, “but yeah, if we can score 12 or 13 runs a game this season, I like our chances.”
What’s wrong with you people? It’s run up to the Stanley Cup time. Baseball gets exciting in July, no August, no….actually it never gets exciting.
No, I am not trolling. Just missing my hockey team.
How dast ye, sir? Are ye Canadian???
I agree with you a little. I miss my Penguins a lot but it’s great seeing folks excited about baseball at this time of year. Maybe there’s a bar for hockey ex-Pats somewhere around here?
If only McTighe’s in Buckhead was still around to watch with fellow Pittsburgh fans! Used to have some great times there. There’s no great local option for hockey watching now. The Twains folks are hockey fans but they make it way too hard to actually watch a game there. Trackside will likely have a few Pens fans for most of their playoff games and Famous Pub in Toco Hills is probably the best place to watch on big tvs with sound.
The Flyers/Pens series is going to be brutal. I say we find out where the Philly fans are going to be and go kick their asses! Or at least throw up on one of their kids…
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Off-Duty-Officer-Daughters-Assaulted-at-Phillies-Game-90983739.html
All this baseball art: literature, painting, film, poetry? And no one is mentioning the immortal Damn Yankees? saw it on afternoon TV many many years ago and never forgot it. Gwen Verdun, Don Fosse, Tab Hunter, Ray Walston, Way more: two songs in particular: You’ve gotta have Heart and Whatever Lola Wants. Loved it and someday I hope to see it performed live.
Best baseball song: “Two Bass Hit” on Miles Davis’s “Milestones” lp.
And I know it’s sappy, but my favorite baseball song is “right field”, sung by Peter, Paul and Mary. Followed not so closely by “Cheap
Seats”.
Best baseball essay:
Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu by John Updike
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/hub_fans_bid_kid_adieu_article.shtml
Best baseball documentary: A Player to be Named Later
The film follows a Triple A team throughout an entire season, focusing on a few of the more interesting players and their stories, including current major league player Marco Scutaro. You come away with a real feeling for these guys and their families and what that dream jump to the majors can mean for all of them.
Any baseball fan will love this documentary. You can rent it on Netflix.
My favorite nonfiction baseball book: October 1964 by David Halberstam.
I didn’t know there were so many baseball books, loved all I’ve read, pleasure on the horison(?). Hopefully
as usual I’m late to the game…
sorry to see that no one has mentioned here The Worst Literary Death by Baseball.
C’mon, Daren, surely you know this one.
$10 Little Shop gift card to the first person to get it right. And my complete and total respect.