Admitted Stopgap Post

Charlie T is off in New York City getting nuptialized. If Spike Lee weren't so busy dangling from Kobe's strap, surely he'd be filming "Charlie T Doin' Work." Good for Charlie T. Congrats to him and the new Mrs. Chuck T. Good folks.

It's perfect timing too, as I have neglected my blogging duties in the wake of trying to be a touring musician, trying to stay nonmusically employed, and other lame and unlame excuses that no other respectable blogger would even think of mentioning. Which is fine, because who ever said anything about being respectable around here?

Moving on.

I don't have much of an angle on anything today, but I have a couple of links:

Rick Paulus might as well write for us, with this piece comparing baseball players to 1994 rock radio. This is the kind of music/sports hybrid article that jumpstarted this blog. Well done, Rick. (Sidenote: Simmons doesn't like Pearl Jam's Vitalogy? Who cares? The guy thought Vampire Weekend was depressogoth.)

Speaking of Sports Guy, who now has one more ESPN commercial to his name than Alyssa Milano does, here he breaks down the breakdown in Game 4.

OK. Fine. Here you go:

The Ball Soared and The Crowd Roared

Baseball season started yesterday. Maybe you knew but maybe you were too busy wondering whether or not all 70,00 fans inside Ford Field could actually see the NCAA Championship game, or even the Jumbotron for that matter.

In honor of the guys who put on pants with elastic at the bottom and run around in the grass for 162 games, we have a couple presents for you today, since music and baseball seem to go hand in hand like no other sport. The Hold Steady are bonafide baseball fans. Joe Henry wrote a masterpiece of a song with a modern day Willie Mays as the subject. Baseball players get to pick songs to come up to bat to, however terrible they may be.

The first is a gem of the brand new Felice Brothers album. These guys got a lot of attention last year with their self-titled album, and the new album promises to get even more this year.

Oh Ty Cobb, you're dead and gone
you had a game like a war machine
and through the great hall of fame
you wander

The Felice Brothers - Cooperstown
DOWNLOAD FILE

Since I couldn't find the updated version by The Hold Steady, we are going back to the very roots of this song, featuring some lyrics about Casey at the Bat that you have probably never heard.

The Original Take Me Out To The Ballgame
DOWNLOAD FILE

"IT WAS A LOOSEY GOOSEY ERA."

Q: The quote above was said by:

a) Recent Grammy sweeper Robert Plant, in reference to his crazy, druggy, orgiastic blurry years (1970-who knows when) with rock legends Led Zeppelin.



b) All-Star Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, in reference to his MVP years (2001-2003) with the Texas Rangers.



c) Any number of soccer moms who had to explain their hippie-casual morals/drug use/sex life/lifestyle (1967-1972 aka "college") to their children on the way home from the maturation program.



d) Dr. Seuss





e) Somebody who wants to confess their mistakes but doesn't want to be held accountable for them.

*

Baseball has its asterisk. Even though I have my differences with the idea of the asterisk, it is force fed to me and the rest of the world. Apparently if you take certain substances you will be better at sports but if you take other substances you will also be better at sports but subject to banishment if anyone finds out. Right. Sounds perfectly reasonable.

Guns N Roses made some legendary rock. Mixed in with that they made some pretty crappy stuff too. They then faded out, farmed out their band memebers while Axl tried desperately to keep the name alive. He brought in other big names like Dave Navarro and Buckethead to replace Slash. While the talent may have kind of been there the music was definitely not. Anything from The Spaghetti Incident and after should be clearly marked with an asterisk, warning fans of tampering.

In 2001-2002 Isiah Thomas took over the Knicks and proceeded to make them a terrible team. Not just your run of the mill terrible, but epically terrible. They couldn't play defense and only occasionally could play offense. They drafted like they had their head you know where. Subsequently all kinds of records started to fall while teams played the Knicks. They now have a good coach, some direction in their franchise (even if it is about as wishful as my NBA dreams) but they still don't have great talent or anyone who plays defense.

So I decree, from this moment backward and forward, that ALL RECORDS SET AGAINST THE KNICKS IN THE LAST 7 YEARS BE MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK REMINDING FUTURE GENERATIONS THAT THIS TEAM WAS TO THE NBA WHAT P.E.D.s WERE TO MARK MCGWIRE AND SAMMY SOSA.

By the way...
Did anyone see Carmelo almost get a triple double on the Thunder, and set the scoring record or a visiting opponent at the Ford Center?