A Musical Countdown to Baseball Season

When you grow up in New England you find all sorts of ways to pass the long, cold and lonely days of winter.

For me, it was counting down to the beginning of Baseball.

I enjoy most sports but baseball has always been like a religion to me, either by nurture or nature, I really don't know.
What I do know is that when The Boys of Summer take to the fields in April I feel reborn. As if it wasn't enough that I love baseball, I'm also a Boston Red Sox fan which, in case you didn't know, puts me in a completely separate category, but that's another story.

Anyway - the season starts in April and I'm already counting the days (60 at the time of this writing) and as an added boost to my spring fever (not that I need one) I created a playlist for my iPod this morning filled with songs that pay tribute to the Great American Pastime and I'd like to share it with you.

Bear in mind that this is not intended to be a "best of" list or a ranking of any kind. First, there aren't very many songs in "modern" pop culture about baseball for that to be practical, and second, music is a matter of taste and I would never presume that my taste is anything special.

That being said...let's get started.

My playlist has 14 songs on it and they are, from bottom to top;

"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf

Granted, this song has about as much to do with baseball as a Playboy magazine has to do with journalism, but nevertheless Phil Rizzuto's classic play-by-play announcement during the interlude portion of the song is, in my mind, one of the most creative combinations of double-entendre, metaphor and euphemism ever put into a pop song.

"If You Can't Make a Hit in the Ballgame, You Can't Make a Hit With Me" by The National Pastime Orchestra

This is a very catchy ditty with a swing feel to it and some more of that double-entendre stuff.

"Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)" by The Treniers

Recorded in 1954 with The Say-Hey Kid himself singing background vocals, this song, with its infectious big-band, finger snapping, toe-tapping sound is a great tribute to a true baseball, as well as an American, icon.

"3^rd Base, Dodger Stadium" by Ry Cooder

For those of you who have never heard of Ry Cooder, I'm sorry because he is considered a virtuoso on any stringed instrument and has probably influenced much of what you already listen to. His style is generally defined as blues-rock and he has played with The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison and John Hiatt, just to name a few.
3^rd Base is sung with great feeling about a man who parks cars at Dodger Stadium while he reminisces about his former neighborhood, which was torn down to build the ballpark. Listen to it and tell me you can't see the tears in the old man's eyes.

"Joltin' Joe DiMaggio" by The Les Brown Orchestra

Les Brown wrote and recorded this song in 1941, the same year DiMaggio set perhaps the one record in baseball that will remain untouched.
An unfathomable 56-game hitting streak.
Another classic from the Big Band era, the song chronicles the streak from the first hit against the Chicago White Sox right up to its end in Cleveland. Despite the fact that Ted Williams hit a historic (and also still unbroken) .406 that year, it was DiMaggio's 56 game streak that had the country talking, and singing.

"Joe DiMaggio Done It Again" by Billy Bragg and Wilco

We might as well put the two DiMaggio songs together, just because.
In 1998 a band called Wilco teamed up with Nora Guthrie (daughter of American folk singer and icon Woodie Guthrie) to put music to 15 previously unrecorded Guthrie songs. The album was such a hit that they released a second one in 2000, this one containing a tribute to The Yankee Clipper. Best guesses are that Guthrie penned the lyrics in 1949 but for some reason never recorded them. Wilco (with guest Billy Bragg) does a superb job of staying true to Guthrie's style while paying homage to a legend.

"Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" by Count Bassie

Recorded in 1949, Bassie salutes Jackie Robinson, the man who broke baseball's color barrier, with a song that, much like the spectacular career of Robinson is too short.

"A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request" by Steve Goodman
I think that only a Red Sox fan can truly empathize with the pain and despair that Steve Goodman captures perfectly in this song. First aired on a Chicago radio station in 1983, this acoustic lament to the "Cubs Curse" tells the story of a dying Cubs fan who realizes that he'll have the last laugh when he goes to Heaven and never again has to utter those agonizing words... "wait 'til next year". You can watch Steve perform it here.

"The Cheap Seats" by Alabama

Released in 1993, Alabama's tribute to the die-hard fans who inhabit the bleachers at a Triple-A stadium was a classic (as far as baseball songs go) from the day it was recorded. Close your eyes and listen and before long you'll feel the sun on your face and smell the hot dogs and popcorn. Sadly the cheap seats aren't cheap anymore, but for those of us who remember them, this song will bring it all back.

"The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley

Another song that really isn't about baseball per se, but it references it plainly enough. Sort of like an '80's version of "See You in September", Henley tells his ex-girlfriend that he'll still love her when baseball season is over. I wonder if she left him because he spent all summer in the recliner watching "the game"...

"Baseball" by Michael Franks

Here's another "baseball as a metaphor for relationships" song, but since the entire song is devoted to it I placed it higher on the list (not that this is a ranking). Franks is very gifted when it comes to the old double-entendre (remember "Popsicle Toes"?) and he really does a fine job of it here. With a light, smooth, airy jazz feel to it, this song sounds as though it should only be listened to while lying in a hammock stretched between two tall oak trees and sipping a nice cold beverage.
Funny, that's also how I like to listen to a baseball game.

"Take Me Out to the Ballgame" by Jimmy Buffet

All right, let's be honest, no list of baseball songs would be complete without this staple. This particular version made the list for a couple of reasons other than its lyrics though...
First, it was recorded by Jimmy Buffet, 'nuff said.
Second, it was recorded at Fenway Park during the (historic) 2004 season.
There really isn't much I can add to that.

"Tessie" by The Dropkick Murphys

Tessie is a song about a song.
In the 2004 season the Boston Red Sox made baseball history and The Dropkick Murphys provided the rally song.
It tells the story of the Royal Rooters who cheered the Boston Americans (later to become the Boston Red Sox) to victory in the first World Series in 1903 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The history behind this song (or these songs if you will) is fascinating, but for a member of Red Sox Nation there is only one event associated with it that matters - and we all know what that is.
Watch the Murphys perform at Fenway here.

"Centerfield" by John Fogerty

This song gives me goose bumps every time I hear it not only because it so brilliantly describes the rebirth that a new baseball season delivers, but because it captures the essence of what it feels like to be a boy (of any age) who lives for the day when he can take his mitt from the depths of the closet and oil it up for another season.
Released by John (Creedence Clearwater Revival) Fogerty in 1985, it has a timelessness that only a baseball fan can appreciate.
With references to Casey at the Bat, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays as well the eternal plea for playing time "put me in coach, I'm ready to play" this song evokes powerful baseball feelings while invoking some of its royalty.
If this were a ranking, there should be no doubt that this song would be number one.

Click here to hear Fogerty's classic played against a backdrop of baseballs best.

So there it is, my musical tribute to the greatest game on the planet. I believe that all of the songs listed are available for download as mp3 files so get started and create your own play(ball)list.

Is it April yet?