Bluesball, Home Run

I kväll fullbordas baseboll-varvet och bloggen når hemmabasen. Det finns två skäl till varför jag lät Kalifornien slå an det sista ackordet. För det första så har San Francisco Giants vunnit tre av de fem senaste finalerna i World Series. Det andra skälet, ett musikaliskt sådant, får ni veta mer om i slutet av inlägget.

Hemmabasen: Kalifornien

I Kalifornien finns det för närvarande fem klubbar som deltar i Major League Baseball. De fem är: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres och San Francisco Giants.
I bloggen har jag redan berört det faktum att klubben började sin historia i New York City, först med smeknamnet Gothams och senare Giants, för att sedan flyttas till San Francisco 1958. Giants leder maratonligan med flest vinster i Major League-historien.
Den legendariske Willie Mays spelade för San Francisco Giants mellan 1958 och 1972. Många anser emellertid att den omdiskuterade Barry Bonds är klubbens främste genom historien.

Musikaliskt får vi en lektion i basebollplanens defensiva fältindelning. Vi börjar med att besöka Right Field. Folksångstrion "Peter, Paul and Mary" som framför låten kom visserligen från New York men det historiska nöjesbolaget Warner Bros som släppte skivan hör ju hemma i Burbank, Kalifornien.

Right Field, performed by Peter, Paul and Mary
Text & Musik: Willy Welch. (From compilation album: Around the campfire. Label: Warner Bros, 1998.)

Saturday summers, when I was a kid
We'd run to the schoolyard and here's what we did
We'd pick out the captains and we'd choose up the teams
It was always a measure of my self esteem

'Cause the fastest, the strongest played shortstop and first
The last ones they picked were the worst
I never needed to ask, it was sealed
I just took up my place in right field

Playing right field, it's easy you know
You can be awkward, you can be slow
That's why I'm here in right field
Just watching the dandelions grow

Playing right field can be lonely and dull
Little leagues never have lefties that pull
I'd dream of the day they'd hit one my way
They never did, but still I would pray

That I'd make a fantastic catch on the run
And not lose the ball in the sun
And then I'd awake from this long reverie
And pray that the ball never came out to me

Here in right field, it's easy you know
You can be awkward and you can be slow
That's why I'm here in right field
Just watching the dandelions grow

Off in the distance the game's dragging on
There's strikes on the batter, some runners are on
I don't know the inning, I've forgotten the score
The whole team is yelling and I don't know what for

Then suddenly everyone's looking at me
My mind has been wandering, "What could it be?"
They point at the sky and I look up above
And a baseball falls into my glove

Here in right field, it's important you know
You gotta know how to catch, you gotta know how to throw
That's why I'm here in right field
Just watching the dandelions grow

***

Willie Mays basebollhandske från 1954.

Den centrala delen av basebollplanen kallas förstås Centerfield. En av de populäraste låtarna som spelas i samband med basebollmatcher, är John Fogerty's "Centerfield". De berömda centerspelarna Joe DiMaggio (som föddes i San Francisco), Willie Mays och Ty Cobb omnämns i sången. John Fogerty är själv född i Berkeley, Kalifornien.

Centerfield, performed by John Fogerty (f. 1945)
Text & Musik: John Fogerty. (From album: Centerfield. Label: Warner Bros, 1985.)

Well, I beat the drum and hold the phone, the sun came out today
We're born again, there's new grass on the field
Just a-roundin' third and headed for home, it's a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel

Oh, put me in, coach, I'm ready to play, today
Put me in, coach, I'm ready to play, today
Look at me, I can be Center field

Well, I spent some time with the Mudville Nine, watchin' it from the bench
You know I took my lumps when the Mighty Casey struck out
So say "Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe Di Maggio"
Don't say "It ain't so", you know the time is now

Oh, put me in, coach, I'm ready to play, today
Put me in, Coach, I'm ready to play, today
Look at me, I gotta be Center field

Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all, a moment in the sun
It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye!

***

Mitt sista basebollinlägg avslutas med ett njutbart och värdigt, "Home Run". En av de assisterande coacherna i San Francisco Giants vid triumferna 2010, 2012 och 2014 var Tim Flannery. För bara tre dagar sedan berättade han att han drar sig tillbaka från basebollsporten. Tim Flannery (f. 1957) är också musikartist och har släppt ett dussintal soloalbum. Nedanstående sång är intimt förknippad med World Series och Tim Flannery spelar sången i välgörenhetssyfte för att samla in pengar till den supporter som blev svårt skadad i samband med oroligheter utanför Dodgers hemmaplan 2011.
Titeln, "21 days", anspelar på antalet slutspelsdagar laget avverkade vid segern 2012. Det är också det antal dagar som förflutit mellan mitt första Bluesball-inlägg och kvällens. 

Följ länken och lyssna till en stämningsfylld sorti.
www.csnbayarea.com/blog/andrew-baggarly/giants-tim-flannery-hits-right-notes-21-days

Bluesball, third base

New York, New York

För många räknas "The Big Apple" som nummer 1 av världens och USA:s städer, så även för basebollsporten. New York Yankees är den klubb som har flest vinster inom World Series. Fyra av de nuvarande klubbarna i Major League har funnits eller finns i New York. Två av dem flyttade till Kalifornien i slutet av 50-talet, San Francisco Giants [tidigare New York Giants] och Los Angeles Dodgers [tidigare Brooklyn Dodgers].
Med den bakgrundshistorien borde kanske New York presenteras i det fjärde avsnittet av Bluesball, Home Base. Men det avsnittet har jag vikt åt Kalifornien.

Tredje basen: New York

I New York finns för närvarande två klubbar inom Major League Baseball, New York Yankees och New York Mets. Yankees hör hemma i Bronx och Mets har sin hemvist i Queens.
Yankees har blivit mästare 27 gånger, senast 2009. Klubbens ursprung var faktiskt Baltimore men sedan 1913 har klubben hetat Yankees. Några av de mest kända spelarna genom historien är: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio och Mickey Mantle. 
New York Mets skapades som ett "substitutlag" för de bortflyttade klubbarna Giants och Dodgers, 1962. Klubben har vunnit World Series två gånger, 1969 och 1986. Mest kända spelarna i klubbens historia, Tom Seaver och Willie Mays (som avslutade sin karriär i Mets).

Första låten är en populär basebollsång som handlar om sportens historia från 50-talet till 80-talet. Titeln syftar på profilerna Willie Mays (New York Giants), Mickey Mantle (New York Yankees) och Duke Snider (Brooklyn Dodgers) som spelade på centrala spelfältet i de tre New York-klubbarna under 50-talets början.

Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey & Duke), by Terry Cashman (f. 1941 som Dennis Minogue)

Verse 1:
The Whiz Kids had won it,
Bobby Thomson had done it,
And Yogi read the comics all the while.
Rock 'n' roll was bein' born,
Marijuana we would scorn,
So down on the corner the National Pastime went on trial.

Chorus:
We're talkin' baseball (Kluzewski, Campanella),
Talkin' baseball (The Man and Bobby Feller),
The Scooter, The Barber and The Newk,
They knew 'em all from Boston to Dubuque,
Especially Willie, Mickey and The Duke.

Verse 2:
Well Casey was winnin',
Hank Aaron was beginnin',
One Robby goin' out, one comin' in.
Kiner an' midget Gaedel,
The Thumper an' Mel Parnell,
An' Ike was the only one winnin' down in Washington.

Chorus
We're talkin' baseball (Kluzewski, Campanella),
Talkin' baseball (The Man and Bobby Feller),
The Scooter, The Barber and The Newk,
They knew 'em all from Boston to Dubuque,
Especially Willie, Mickey and The Duke.

Bridge:
Now my old friend The Bachelor,
Well he swore he was The Oklahoma Kid,
An' Cookie played hookey to go an' see The Duke,
An' me I always love Willie Mays,
Those were the days.

Verse 3:
Well now it's the eighties,
An' Brett is the greatest,
An' Bobby Bonds can play for everyone.
Rose is at the Vet,
Rusty again is a Met,
An' the great Alexander is pitchin' again in Washington.

Chorus:
I'm talkin' baseball (like Reggie, Quisenberry),
Talkin' baseball (Carew an' Gaylord Perry),
Seaver, Garvey, Schmidt an' Vida Blue,
If Cooperstown is callin' it's no fluke,
They'll be with Willie, Mickey an' The Duke.

***

Tre gånger har Yankees och Mets möts i World Series-finalen. De matcherna kallas för Subway-series eftersom lagens arenor ligger inom räckhåll för tunnelbanans linjenät.

Den senaste gången 2000 blev Jim Nuzzo's "Subway" officiell sång för finalen. Det finns tyvärr inget bra ljudklipp som kan bifogas, men nedan presenteras texten.
I sången omnämns Don Larsens perfect game. Så kallas resultatet som uppstår när kastaren lyckas "bränna" slagmännen i en hel match utan att någon av dem når första basen (laget blir så klart poänglöst). Don Larsen är den enda kastaren som lyckats med det i en finalmatch (1956). 

Subway, by Jim Nuzzo
(Label: Nuztunes Music, 1998.)

I remember my Daddy talkin' 'bout the days gone by
When he started talkin' baseball I could see a look in his eye
I could reach out and I almost could touch
His cherished memories I had longed for so much
But he told me it could never happen again
Daddy raved about the Yankee Clipper, the things that he'd done
Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds, Jackie Robinson
Bobby Thompson's shot heard 'round the world
And the perfect game Don Larsen hurled
But he told me it could never happen again
Chorus:

I'm gettin' on a subway tonight
I'm headin' to the stadium, that 's right
The city's gonna rock tonight as we make history
Can't you smell the hot dogs, taste the beer,
Take me back in time to yesteryear
I wouldn't trade this ticket for the world oh not today
I'm gettin' on the subway

Daddy tell me 'bout the "Boys of Summer", the rivalries
And the ballyard in the Southern Bronx, October dynasties
But then the saddest days remembered by most
When the other teams left for the coast
And they thought that it could never happen again

Repeat Chorus

Daddy, Daddy what you doin' tonight
I got an extra ticket, just say alright
Cause we both know that this may never happen, never happen again

***

Ett mycket stort baseball-fan är Paul Simon. Han har vid flertal tillfällen uppträtt i samband med matcher och prisutdelningar. Han har skrivit en låt som heter "Night Game". Men jag tänkte avsluta med en mer bekant sång, "Mrs. Robinson", vars avslutande vers innehåller en referens till Joe DiMaggio.

...
Where have you gone, Joe Di Maggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you woo woo woo
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
"Joltin Joe has left and gone away"
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey

Mrs. Robinson, by Paul Simon (f. 1941) & Art Garfunkel (f. 1941)
(From album: Bookends. Label: Columbia, 1968.)

Bluesball, second base

I kväll löper vi vidare mot den andra basen i våra musikfredagsinlägg. Den här gången besöker vi "loser-town", eller ska jag säga Chicago. Det är nämligen så att Chicago Cubs (björnungarna) är det lag, bland samtliga lag i de fyra stora lagsporterna, som har den längsta sviten av tävlingsår utan någon finalseger. Senaste gången de blev World series-mästare var 1908.

Andra basen: Chicago

I Chicago finns det två olika baseboll-lag, "Cubs" och "White Sox". Chicago Cubs är den äldsta proffsklubben i USA, oavsett sport, och bildades 1870.
Den första sången anspelar så klart på den långa sviten utan mästartitel.

(Someday We'll Go) All the Way, performed by Eddie Vedder
Text & Music: Eddie Vedder (f. 1964)
(Från singeln. Label: Ten Club, 2008.)

Don't let anyone say that it's just a game
For I've seen other teams and it's never the same
When you're born in Chicago you're blessed and you're healed
The first time you walk into Wrigley Field
Our heroes wear pinstripes
Heroes in blue
Give us the chance to feel like heroes too
Forever we'll win and if we should lose
We know someday we'll go all the way
Yeah
Someday we'll go all the way

We are one with the Cubs
With the Cubs we're in love
Yeah, hold our head high as the underdogs
We are not fair-weather but foul-weather fans
We're like brothers in arms in the streets and the stands
There's magic in the ivy and the old scoreboard
The same one I stared at as a kid keeping score
In a world full of greed, I could never want more
Than someday we'll go all the way
Yeah
Someday we'll go all the way
Someday we'll go all the way
Yeah
Someday we'll go all the way
Someday we'll go all the way

And here's to the men and the legends we've known
Teaching us faith and giving us hope
United we stand and united we'll fall
Down to our knees the day we WIN it all

Ernie Banks said "Oh, let's play two"
Or did he mean 200 years
In the same ball park
Our diamond, our jewel
The home of our joy and our tears
Keeping traditions and wishes made new
A place where our grandfathers, fathers they grew
A spiritual feeling if I ever knew
And if you ain't been I am sorry for you
And when the day comes with that last winning run
And I'm crying and covered in beer
I'll look to the sky and know I was right
To think someday we'll go all the way

***

Ett annat stort Cubs-fan var countrysångaren Steve Goodman, mannen med den varma och mjuka rösten. 1981 spelade han in ett testamente som tog upp hans relation till basebollaget. Sången fick namnet "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request". Texten är väldigt fin och trots att den är lång så publicerar jag den i sin helhet (se nedan).
Tre år senare 1984 dog Steve Goodman i sviterna av sin leukemi, 36 år gammal. FUCK CANCER!!

Än idag spelas en annan av Goodmans sånger "Go Cubs Go" vid lagets hemmamatcher. Hans stora hit "City of New Orleans" kan avnjutas via länken.

A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request, performed by Steve Goodman

By the shore's of old Lake Michigan
Where the "hawk wind" blows so cold
An old Cub fan lay dying
In his midnight hour that tolled
Round his bed, his friends had all gathered
They knew his time was short
And on his head they put this bright blue cap
From his all-time favorite sport
He told them, "Its late and its getting dark in here"
And I know its time to go
But before I leave the line-up
Boys, there's just one thing I'd like to know

Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League

Told his friends "You know the law of averages says:
Anything will happen that can"
That's what it says
"But the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant
Was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan"
The Cubs made me a criminal
Sent me down a wayward path
They stole my youth from me
(that's the truth)
I'd forsake my teachers
To go sit in the bleachers
In flagrant truancy

and then one thing led to another
and soon I'd discovered alcohol, gambling, dope
football, hockey, lacrosse, tennis
But what do you expect,
When you raise up a young boy's hopes
And then just crush 'em like so many paper beer cups.

Year after year after year
after year, after year, after year, after year, after year
'Til those hopes are just so much popcorn
for the pigeons beneath the 'L' tracks to eat
He said, "You know I'll never see Wrigley Field, anymore before my eternal rest
So if you have your pencils and your score cards ready,
and I'll read you my last request
He said, "Give me a double header funeral in Wrigley Field
On some sunny weekend day (no lights)
Have the organ play the "National Anthem"
and then a little 'na, na, na, na, hey hey, hey, Goodbye'
Make six bullpen pitchers, carry my coffin
and six ground keepers clear my path
Have the umpires bark me out at every base
In all their holy wrath
Its a beautiful day for a funeral, Hey Ernie lets play two!
Somebody go get Jack Brickhouse to come back,
and conduct just one more interview
Have the Cubbies run right out into the middle of the field,
Have Keith Moreland drop a routine fly
Give everybody two bags of peanuts and a frosty malt
And I'll be ready to die

Build a big fire on home plate out of your Louisville Sluggers baseball bats,
And toss my coffin in
Let my ashes blow in a beautiful snow
From the prevailing 30 mile an hour southwest wind
When my last remains go flying over the left-field wall
Will bid the bleacher bums ad?eu
And I will come to my final resting place, out on Waveland Avenue

The dying man's friends told him to cut it out
They said stop it that's an awful shame
He whispered, "Don't Cry, we'll meet by and by near the Heavenly Hall of Fame
He said, "I've got season's tickets to watch the Angels now,
So its just what I'm going to do
He said, "but you the living, you're stuck here with the Cubs,
So its me that feels sorry for you!"

And he said, "Ahh Play, play that lonesome losers tune,
That's the one I like the best"
And he closed his eyes, and slipped away
What we got is the Dying Cub Fan's Last Request
And here it is

Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League

***

En som drömde om att bli baseboll-proffs var den store bluesartisten Luther Allison. Han, som fick tilltalsnamnet "The Bruce Springsteen of the Blues" av tidningen Chicago Sun-Times. När han var elva år flyttade familjen till Chicago och Luthers bröder bildade så småningom en gospelgrupp. Men det var först efter att han blivit vän med Muddy Waters son som musiken fick en större plats i Luthers liv.

Sweet home Chicago, performed by Luther Allison (1939-1997). Text & music: Robert Johnson. 
(From album Sweet home Chicago. Label: Charly, 1995.)

Bluesball, first base

Jag har haft datorstrul och inte lyckats ladda ned de poesialster som jag behövde för veckans inlägg. Därför lät jag onsdagens Tunnelbana och gårdagens Utblick vila. I dag blir det emellertid music-time, en återgång till Musikfredag, under titeln "Bluesball". Vad döljer den, tror ni? Läs vidare får ni se.

*

När det gäller de fyra stora lagsporterna i USA är det utan tvekan baseboll som märks mest i sångtexter och lyrik. Det tänker jag delge er under fyra fredagar.

Första basen: Boston

Boston Red Sox's hymn heter "Tessie". Här får ni en cover på den av punkrockbandet Dropkick Murphys (gruppen bildades 1996).

Tessie, performed by Dropkick Murphys. Text & Music: Barr, Casey, Kelly, Lynch, Orrell.
(From album "Tessie". Label: Hellcat Records, 2004.)

Tessie is the Royal Rooters rally cry
Tessie is the tune they always sung
Tessie echoed April through October nights
After serenading Stahl, Dinneen and Young
Tessie is a maiden with a sparkling eye
Tessie is a maiden with a love
She doesn't know the meaning of her sight
She's got a comment full of love

And sometimes when the game is on the line
Tessie always carried them away
Up the road from "Third Base" to Huntington
The boys will always sing and sway

Two! Three! Four!

Tessie, "Nuf Ced" McGreevey shouted
We're not here to mess around
Boston, you know we love you madly
Hear the crowd roar to your sound
Don't blame us if we ever doubt you
You know we couldn't live without you
Tessie, you are the only only only

The Rooters showed up at the grounds one day
They found their seats had all been sold
McGreevey led the charge into the park
Stormed the gates and put the game on HOLD
The Rooters gave the other team a dreadful fright
Boston's tenth man could not be wrong
Up from "Third Base" to Huntington
They'd sing another victory song

Two! Three! Four!

Tessie, "Nuf Ced" McGreevey shouted
We're not here to mess around
Boston, you know we love you madly
Hear the crowd roar to your sound
Don't blame us if we ever doubt you
You know we couldn't live without you
Tessie, you are the only only only

The Rooters gave the other team a dreadful fright
Boston's tenth man could not be wrong
Up from "Third Base" to Huntington
They'd sing another victory song

***

Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams (1918-2002) spelade under hela sin karriär (19 säsonger) för Boston Red Sox. Han anses vara en av de bästa slagmännen i basebollens historia.

Ted "Fucking" Williams, performed by "The Baseball Project"
Text & Music: Steve Wynn. Gruppen bildades 2007.
(From album "Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails". Label: Yep Rock, 2008.)

Everyone's so kind and humble
Don't you know that I can see right through it?
Keeping all their comments down
You know it ain't a boast if you can do it
And everyone says "Say hey"
And everyone says "Did you see that kid play?"
I've got to give the kid a hand
But there's nothing that he can do better than I can
I'm Ted Fucking Williams

People say it's hard to like a man
Who doesn't fail and show he's a human
But failure's not a sign of grace
It only means you don't know what you're doing
And everyone says "Hey, Mick"
Mantle this, Mantle that, it makes me sick
It's just so hard to see
Why do they like him better than me?
I'm Ted Fucking Williams

And everyone says "Hey, Duke"
Like everything I did was some kind of fluke
I gotta give the Duke a hand
But there's nothing that he can do better than I can
I'm Ted Fucking Williams

***

Jag avslutar nattmatchen med en riktig hit, framförd av en talangfull baseboll-spelare som gick över från "andra basen" till bluesscenen. Under en period i slutet av 70-talet var George och bandet "Destroyers" baserade i Boston och spelade på klubbarna där. 

Move it on over, performed by George Thorogood (f. 1950) & The Destroyers. Text & Music: Hank Williams.
(From album "Move It On Over". Label: Rounder, 1978.)