Today is Opening Day. I love Opening Day of the baseball season. There is no more hopeful day on the modern calendar. Every team is tied for first and all things are possible. Yes, even the Cubs could win the World Series (as revealed in Back To The Future II). Who knows? Your favorite team could even run out of players and pick you out of the stands to play for them. It could happen. Because all things are possible today.
I know that football has become the nation's sport of choice. Come to think of it, that may be where the whole country went off the tracks. Football is a game of violent collision played in cold and usually miserable weather on a strictly measured grid, and the goal is to demolish the opponent. No wonder we've become a nation of grumpy Gusses. But baseball.....baseball is a game of hope played on a field of green in the sunshine of spring and summer.
I love Opening Day.
A few years back, we ran through a whole bunch of baseball songs and those are still good suggestions (though some of the links may be out of date). This year, I just want to give you three of my personal favorites--a baseball Triple Play, if you will (and even if you won't). First up, David Frishberg's brilliant Jazz piece built upon the names of old time baseball players--"Van Lingle Mungo". Then Orchestra Luna's surreal take on "Heart" (originally from Damn Yankees). And, finally, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game", something of an eighties cult single, by Bruce Springstone (the actual vocalist is Tom Chalkley).
To paraphrase Ernie Banks (who passed away earlier this year)..."It's a beautiful day; let's play three."
I know that football has become the nation's sport of choice. Come to think of it, that may be where the whole country went off the tracks. Football is a game of violent collision played in cold and usually miserable weather on a strictly measured grid, and the goal is to demolish the opponent. No wonder we've become a nation of grumpy Gusses. But baseball.....baseball is a game of hope played on a field of green in the sunshine of spring and summer.
I love Opening Day.
A few years back, we ran through a whole bunch of baseball songs and those are still good suggestions (though some of the links may be out of date). This year, I just want to give you three of my personal favorites--a baseball Triple Play, if you will (and even if you won't). First up, David Frishberg's brilliant Jazz piece built upon the names of old time baseball players--"Van Lingle Mungo". Then Orchestra Luna's surreal take on "Heart" (originally from Damn Yankees). And, finally, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game", something of an eighties cult single, by Bruce Springstone (the actual vocalist is Tom Chalkley).
To paraphrase Ernie Banks (who passed away earlier this year)..."It's a beautiful day; let's play three."
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