Soundtrack for Baseball: May, 2012
Back by popular demand, today I offer you Part 2 of my monthly series, Soundtrack for Baseball.” Here’s the link to Part 1 if you missed it, or if you want to go back and have another listen.
A lot has happened in baseball over the past month, and I hope this video soundtrack captures just a bit of the flavor of this season up through the first week of June.
As a Mets fan, I have to say that the first couple of months of the 2012 baseball season have been more fun than I can remember having in years. At the beginning of the year, my only hope was that the Mets would just play competitive baseball, and lose fewer than 90 games. As of this writing, the Mets are in a three-way tie for first place in the tough N.L. East, an amazing eight games over .500.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, Johan Santana became the first Mets pitcher in the half-century history of this franchise to throw a no-hitter.
Yes, it’s been a truly magical year thus far at Citi Field. Hopefully this magic bubble won’t burst during the dog days of August. The question is, do you believe in magic? Back in 1969, when the Amazin’ Miracle Mets won their first World Series, Jay and the Americans had a hit single with “This Magic Moment.”
One of the teams keeping up with the Mets is the Florida Marlins, who are apparently attempting to steal their way to a pennant. Generally, I think stolen bases are overrated as a strategic weapon, and most teams that run a lot seldom go on to become World Champions (yes, there have been some exceptions.)
The Marlins have stolen 62 bases as a team this year; no other team has reached 50. Emilio Bonifacio leads the Marlins, and the Majors with 20 steals. Maybe the Marlins will run into a pennant with their speedy legs. I’m guessing Marlins fans hope their favorite team stays hot, even if it means they’ll have to leg their way into the playoffs. Hmm, hot legs. Why does that sound familiar? Maybe Rod Stewart can help us out.
If, incidentally, some future anthropologist decides to mine Rock n’ Roll for a glimpse into the psyche of late-20th century Western Civilization, he could do worse than to display this video as Exhibit A. Please excuse the damned commercial that might pop up.
Has anyone noticed what a great year Carlos Gonzalez is having for the otherwise winning-impaired Colorado Rockies? (23-30.) It took me by surprise that this 26-year old star is having a big year, leading the N.L. in total bases (128), slugging percentage (.634), and runs scored (45) through 50 games. After an off-year last season, Gonzalez is reasserting himself as one of the top young players in the game.
I wonder what Gonzalez hears in his head when he’s rounding second base, digging for third, and being waved around to score. Is he thinking just one word, HOME? How exactly does that sound in his head? Perhaps something like this:
Back on May 2nd, I picked up this story on CBS This Morning about Roger Clemens’ old friend and teammate, Andy Pettitte, testifying against his former mentor in the trial to decide if Clemens has committed perjury regarding the use of HGH and other banned substances.
One has to consider these drugs a kind of high for athletes who are addicted to success from which they don’t ever want to come down. Most of us will never know the kind of fame and fortune that was Clemens good fortune at one time, so it is perhaps impossible for us to ever know what it was like to be faced with the end of a brilliant career. What then? The broadcast booth. Endless rounds of golf for the next 35 years?
But worse, how must it feel when your former best friend testifies against you in open court, in front of thousands of witnesses. One can only guess that Clemens must be feeling that he hopes Pettitte will never let him down again. Or perhaps it is Pettitte who feels let down by Clemens alleged behavior. Either way, here’s a song by Depeche Mode called “Never Let Me Down Again” that captures the sinister nature of a friendship turned sour.
But long before the ugly, inevitable breakdowns of age, there is the limitless potential of youth. For most young people, especially for those who have been marked at an early age for greatness, there is a tendency to cockiness, a natural inclination to eschew nuance and moderation in favor of the simple and the bold.
Such has been the start of the Washington Nationals’ young star outfielder Bryce Harper. When Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels pointlessly plunked Harper in the back, the completely unimpressed Harper later stole home off Hamels. Take that, old man! (Hamels is 28, nine years older than Harper.) Harper is part of a new generation of young talent (Angels outfielder Mike Trout is 20) that is ready to very quickly make their collective mark on Major League baseball.
For my money, no song has ever quite captured the brash, emotional intensity of the teenage male the way The Who’s song “5:15” did on the highly underrated album “Quadrophenia.” Play it loud, and picture Bryce Harper stealing home, or slugging a fastball out of the park.
When Kerry Wood announced his retirement on May 18th after a 14-year Major League career, I think many of us immediately remembered the then 20-year old Wood’s fifth career start when he struck out 20 Houston Astros in a one-hit pitching performance that, at the time, seemed to herald a long, dominating career.
In a way it did, though not exactly as we expected.
Wood struck out the last batter he ever faced in the Majors, the White Sox’s Dayan Viciedo, then left the field to a standing ovation. After 14 years in the Majors, Wood ranks second all-time in strikeouts per nine innings (10.317.) Only Randy Johnson averaged more strikeouts per nine innings.
Yet Kerry Wood finished his career with a record of only 86-75, and he spent most of his career either on the Disabled List or pitching in relief. The complete game shutout Wood tossed against the Astros as a 20-year old was one of only eleven complete games and just five shutouts he would throw in his entire career. Wood led the N.L. in strikeouts in 2003 with 266 — one of four 200 K seasons in his career — then was essentially finished as a starting pitcher at age 26.
But boy, in his glory days, he could throw that speed-ball by you (and that curve ball, too.) Just 34-years old now, Wood should have plenty of years left to tell boring stories of his glory days to his kids and grandchildren. And maybe he’ll think of himself whenever he hears this Bruce Springsteen classic called, appropriately enough, “Glory Days.”
That’s all for tonight, folks. Hope you enjoyed this particular playlist. We’ll probably do it again in about a month.
Related articles
- Andy Pettitte on Clemens: ‘We just hit it off’ (newsday.com)
- In Courtroom Pitching Duel, Andy Pettitte Testifies in Roger Clemens Trial (legaltimes.typepad.com)
- Cole Hamels Says He Threw At Bryce Harper [Bryce Harper] (deadspin.com)
- Cubs reliever Kerry Wood retiring (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
Underrated / Overrated: Baseball and Other Stuff – Part III
Image by late night movie via Flickr
Back in March, and again in April, I did a couple of posts that I had intended to turn into a regular series called “Underrated / Overrated – Baseball and Other Stuff.”
For better or worse, other blog-post topics relegated this idea to the bench for several months.
But I am here today to tell you that we are back in business.
The idea was to combine in each post people and things in baseball that are either overrated / underrated along with something or someone from the wider world outside of baseball that is overrated / underrated.
Thus, the prior pair of posts went something like this:
Overrated: Field of Dreams
Underrated: Eight Men Out
Overrated: The Revolutionary War
Underrated: The French and Indian War
Overrated: David Wright
Underrated: Ryan Zimmerman
And so on and so forth.
The first two posts in this series were well-received and have generated continuous traffic to my website during the course of this year. Apparently, people like to measure their likes and dislikes against those of others. It’s always prime fodder for a debate.
So here begins the third chapter in Underrated / Overrated – Baseball and Other Stuff. Hope you enjoy it.
Overrated: Abbott and Costello – “Who’s On First” is the best schtick they ever performed. For many years, I got a kick out of this one. Then one day, it just stopped being funny. And it occurred to me, hey, maybe these guys just aren’t that funny after all.
Underrated: Elvis Costello – One of the most consistently creative talents in Rock music for over 30 years now. You don’t think he can still knock you down and stomp all over you? Listen to this 30-second clip from a song called “Needle Time” from an excellent album called “Delivery Man.” Buy it. Download it. Play it loud. You WON’T be able to sit still.
Overrated: Lou Brock – His 75% career success rate as a base-stealer is decent, but unspectacular. He stole 939 bases in his career, but he was thrown out over 300 times. That’s 300 needless outs he made, possibly costing his team run-scoring opportunities. In fact, he led the N.L. in caught stealing seven times. He also struck out at least a hundred times in a season nine times. His career OPS (.753) and OPS+ (109) are decidedly unspectacular. Career WAR: 39.1
Underrated: Tim Raines – His career stolen base success rate was an excellent 84%. The Rock stole over 800 bases in his career, but was caught just 146 times. He never once lead the league in times caught stealing. He also never struck out even 90 times in any one season. His career OPS (.810) and OPS+ (123) are obviously better than Brock’s marks. Career WAR: 64.6
Overrated: Friday Nights – Every one gets home from work tired and cranky after a long week. You rush around on the way home getting last-minute errands done, the traffic is heavy, and you still don’t even know what you’re going to do about dinner. You badly want to relax and unwind, but the kids are fighting and the dog needs to go out for a walk. And, oh fuck, it just started raining out.
Underrated: Sunday Mornings – There is a fleeting moment early Sunday mornings when you are drinking your coffee, reading your newspaper (or a baseball blog), and the kids are miraculously quiet. Maybe you’ll go to the park later. Maybe you’ll sort through some old baseball magazines in the garage. You might even wash and wax the car. You feel nearly whole and human again, before the Monday morning American grind pulverizes you for another week.
Overrated Christmas Song: The Little Drummer Boy – Not even David Bowie and Bing Crosby could rescue this damned slow death-march of a song. Cloying, boring and melodramatic all at the same time, like a Russian poet standing in front of a Tsarist firing squad, the end can’t come soon enough.
Underrated Christmas Song: Fairytale of New York (The Pogues) – The most cynical, unusual, and unabashedly romantic Christmas song you’ll ever hear. Pogues front-man Shane McGowan‘s duet with the late Kirsty MacColl is one for the ages. If you’ve ever been to NYC with someone you love at Christmastime, you’ll be able to feel the cold, the wind, and the delicious warmth of possibility in this one. Hold your cursor over the above pic, and join us at the bar.
Overrated: The Babe Ruth Yankees – The Yankees won four World Championships in the fifteen seasons Ruth wore pinstripes: 1923, ’27, ’28, and ’32. Good, certainly, but by way of contrast, Mickey Mantle’s Yanks won seven world series. But I would never call The Mick’s Yanks underrated, so…
Underrated: The Joe Rudi / Sal Bando Oakland A’s – This team won three consecutive World Series: 1972-74, but they also had to win the A.L. Championship series each time. Ruth’s Yanks never had to go through that extra round of playoffs. Also, Ruth’s teams played before baseball was integrated, so the degree of competition was watered down in his era. Finally, there were more teams competing for the World Championship in the 1970’s (24), than there were in Ruth’s day (16.)
Overrated: New Year’s Eve – The shrimp ring has gotten rather soggy and warm by the time that damn crystal ball finally descends into the throng of frozen drunks in Times Square. There are about four cops and 12 security cameras for every poor bastard who just paid eight dollars for a glass of sparkling wine at the bar in lobby of the local three-star hotel . Meanwhile, you are already half asleep on the couch, zoning in and out of the Dick Clark Pantomime Zombie show.
Underrated: Labor Day – No, this is NOT a day that was intended to celebrate all Americans who happen to be employed. It was specifically intended to recognize the legacy of Organized Labor, meaning the trade unions. There was a time when working class Americans were overwhelmingly Democrats, and the Labor Unions ensured these men and women a livable wage for a hard days work. The American working class can trace its hard, precipitous decline to the undermining of Labor Unions which began in the early ’80’s, and has continued unabated on a downward trajectory ever since. Both major political parties are to blame.
Overrated: Andy Pettitte‘s Playoff Performances – In his career, Pettitte has posted a 19-10 record in the playoffs, with a 3.83 ERA, and a 1.304 WHIP. In 265 innings, he has surrendered 271 hits, has struck out 173 batters, and has averaged 5.9 K’s per nine innings. Solid performance, but not as good as…
Underrated: John Smoltz‘s Playoff Performances – In his career, Smoltz has posted a 15-4 record in the playoffs, with a 2.67 ERA, and a 1.144 WHIP. In 209 innings, he has surrendered just 172 hits while striking out 199 batters. He has averaged 8.6 K’s per nine innings. He also has four saves to his credit. Few pitchers in history can match those playoff numbers.
Overrated: Climate-Controlled Offices – You get to breath recycled air all day. The hum of the machinery supplies the white noise that is the dull, mind-numbing soundtrack of corporate America.
Underrated: Screens – You get to enjoy the fresh air while keeping the bugs out. Great invention.
Overrated: Willie Stargell – Everyone loves Pops Stargell. I love Pops Stargell. Here are Stargell’s career numbers:
475 home runs, 1,540 RBI, 2,232 hits, .282 batting average, .889 OPS, 1,195 runs scored, two home run titles, five 100 RBI seasons. Career WAR: 57.5. First ballot Hall of Famer, 1988. Fine, his numbers merit HOF induction. But how are they substantially different from, say…
Underrated: Fred McGriff – It is becoming increasingly apparent that Crime Dog will have to pay for a ticket to the Hall out of his own pocket if he wants to get in the door. Yet, here are his career numbers:
493 home runs, 1,550 RBI, 2,490 hits, .284 batting average, .886 OPS, 1,349 runs scored, two home run titles, eight 100 RBI seasons. Career WAR: 50.5. I suppose Stargell was a little better than McGriff overall, but not by much. So where’s the love for Fred McGriff?
Overrated: Grace Slick – Former lead “singer” for Jefferson Airplane / Starship. Bellowed out her vocals like a foghorn in heat. Stoned baby-boomers mistook her cat-wailing for aggressive sexiness. As artistically satisfying as listening to a domestic disturbance in the kitchen of your neighbors apartment.
Underrated: Chrissie Hynde – The Pretenders lead singer / songwriter set the standard for confident, strong-yet-vulnerable sexiness among female Rock stars. Her band, the Pretenders, exemplified the energy of the post-punk New Wave sound of the early ’80’s, the most underrated period in Rock n’ Roll history. Several of Hynde’s songs have become classics of Album Oriented Rock (AOR) radio. And they are as listenable today as they were a generation ago.
Well, my friends, that completes the third edition of Underrated / Overrated. I hope you found it entertaining. I look forward to reading your comments. Thanks for having a look, Bill
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