If it’s Monday, and there’s music, then it must be…Music Monday!
I know, just try to contain your excitement!
So it is halfway through baseball season, which means the Home Run Derby, the All-Star Game, and even the ESPY Awards. And possibly, a week where you break out all the baseball movies you watched as a kid. If you have the MLB Network, they usually air a pretty good rotation of the better baseball-themed movies during the winter months, and I believe during the All-Star Break.
I was thinking this would be a great week for a song that moves with the theme of the All-Star Break, and came up with a song all about baseball that isn’t “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
That would be waaaay too predictable!
I was thinking the 1985 John Fogerty song about baseball, called, appropriately enough, “Centerfield.” The song is from the album of the same name, with inspiration drawn from the centerfield of Yankee Stadium. The song combined Fogerty’s passions for rock-and-roll and baseball, and initially made him nervous on how it would be received. In his words:
“Over the years it seemed like sports songs just didn’t qualify into the rock-and-roll lexicon. There was that unwritten distinction. It was never considered rock-and-roll.”
(Quote source)
The song reached #44 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and #4 on Billboard’sTop Rock Tracks, has sold 734,000 digital downloads, and is a fixture of baseball stadiums and facilities on every level.
Not bad for a song Fogerty wasn’t sure would pass muster as rock-and-roll.
So now, for your Music Monday enjoyment, the 1985 song people probably know more for the line “Put me in coach! I’m ready to play!” than anything, the John Fogerty song “Centerfield.”
From this baseball fan (New York Yankees!!!) to all the other baseball and music loving folks out there, enjoy both today’s song and the All-Star Break!