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Pick Up the Ball and Throw it to Naturally

Yeah, yeah, I know, the baseball season officially began last night… but technically the White Sox didn’t beat the Indians until today (the game ended at 2:10am EDT). In my book, that makes today Opening Day, my favorite day of the year (next to National High Five Day, of course).

Actually, in the book of the 28 other Major League teams, and in the appointment book of President Bush, today is opening day. W is throwing out the first pitch here in Cincinnati, so downtown is more of a mess than it should be.

Which by the way, did you know that the visiting team is much more likely than the home team to win the World Series when the President throws out the first pitch of the season? Guess who the Reds are playing today? This could be your year, Cubs fans.

The Red Sox in 2004. The White Sox in 2005. The Cubs in 2006? That trifecta would certainly signify the beginning of the end of the world for me. We should all just join hands and start singing “Kumbaya.”

Better yet, since it is baseball season, whaddya say we sing a song that’s actually about baseball? And not a bad Harry Caray impersonation of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, let’s do something a bit more rocking, something more in line with Terry Cashman’s Willie, Mickey & the Duke (Talkin’ Baseball) or John Fogerty’s Centerfield.

Wabbit SeasonI grew up Saint Louis, also known as Baseball Town USA, and lived in Chicago on and off for almost 13 years. The Cards are moving to a new ballpark a week from today so to celebrate the opening of the new Busch Stadium and commemorate the old one, I’m gonna put on my best Sinatra impersonation and sing a sad, sad song that says so much, There Used to be a Ballpark Right Here.

As a Cardinals fan, I am sworn to hate to the Cubs. But part of me wants them to win just so their fans will shut the hell up. So I’m going to get a little more indie and more optimistic for the small bears and sing The Mountain Goats’ Cubs in Five.

What are you favorite baseball songs?

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This Post Has 8 Comments

  3. Great tracklist – I’ll have to give it a listen.

    Other great baseball songs:

    Fanatic of the B Word – De La Soul
    Moby Octopad – Yo La Tengo
    Look it’s Baseball – Guided by Voices
    Will You Be Ready (At the Plate When Jesus Throws the Ball) – Elmo & Patsy (of Grandpa Got Run Over By a Reindeer fame)

  4. Not really a song, but a lyric in Tribe Called Quest’s “Award Tour”:

    “Comin’ with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees”

    And there’s also a track on Ryan Adams’s “Demolition” cd, I think track four, maybe? where he intones,

    “and the Yankees lost to the Braves…”

    Then, of course, there’s Killer Mike (part of the OutKast clique)’s song “Home of the Brave,” which has as one of its opening lines,
    “Just because you wearin’ a Braves jersey doesn’t mean you playin’ on the same team we playin’ on.”

    I love the Braves; hate the Yankees (but doesn’t everyone?)

  5. “Piazza, New York Catcher” – Belle & Sebastian ??? I dig it anyways (grew up with a Mets hat attached to my skull)

  6. Chad, if you are a Mets fan, you’d like YLT’s Moby Octopad off of I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One.

    Eight o’clock, the lights are on at Shea
    Phone turned down, we’ve nothing much to say
    Dozing off the TV drones
    Huskey makes the turn and heads for home

    And Melvin, good point, can’t believe that I neglected to include Nelly. Batter Up off of Country Grammar would be a good start.

  7. Thanks for the reccomendation. I just so happen to have the majority of the Yo La Tengo discography on my ipod right now. *Checkin it out* Cheers!

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