Here we go. From WCOL in Columbus, Ohio, circa 1963:
1230’s doubleheader
(15-second instrumental bed)
And a pair of jingles from 1970, from a no-longer-in-existence Washington, D.C., station:
Double play, WEAM
Triple play, WEAM
True, they’re not directly related to baseball, but they are more grist for my upcoming thesis “An All-American Pick Hit: Baseball Imagery in PAMS Radio Jingles, 1958-1975.”
I’ve gone through two of the nine CDs from the grab bag, and already have two baseball-related jingles…
From 1973:
WFIL, the Phillies
And from some indeterminate time in the ’70s:
WBAL, sounds like Baltimore sports
(7-second instrumental bed)
WBAL and the Orioles
(7-second instrumental bed)
WBAL, sounds like Baltimore sports
Unfortunately, neither of these is anywhere near as good as the awesome KDKA “World Champion Pirates” jingle I have, which Levi has already heard. There is, however, a 1974 series of jingles for WMAL in Washington based on the bizarre theme “we’re living in a city of song”; their longtime slogan was “where all is said and done,” so one of these jingles calls them “the saying and doing station.”
(P.S.: In case you’re curious after looking at their web site, yes, WFIL has a slightly different format now than they did back in 1973.)
I’m not sure if I’m going to have room on my iPod for any additional Johnny Cash songs beyond the handful I have (“Ring of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and a couple others). This purveyor of radio station jingles has a special this month: a “grab bag” of nine random CDs for $99, which was a deal I couldn’t pass up, since those CDs are normally priced at $39(!). It won’t be such a good deal if I end up with duplicates of CDs of theirs that I already own, but still…
Anyway, the comments should be functioning properly now, thanks to some remote troubleshooting by Sandy. We lost one comment in the process, unfortunately, so perhaps the person who posted said comment would like to repost her words of wisdom.
Dan: If you don’t want Cash overload, yet still want to appease Levi, just bring along the Waco Brothers’ fine cover of Big River — it’s on Cowboy in Flames, which you should own, anyway.
Go Mets!
-Dan
Jim: Yeah, there’s a lot of music I should own but don’t. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to drink that much Pepsi between now and April 30th.
Lest anyone think I’ve forgotten that this site isn’t supposed to be solely about the Cardinals, how about them Tigers? Or those first-place Brewers?
Oh, and Jim: I have one more song request. When we enter the Quad Cities, we really need to be playing “Big River.” The lady who loves the big river more than she loves Johnny Cash, you might recall, does some cavortin’ in Davenport.
I was able to see a couple of Cody McKay’s pitches on ESPN last night. The knuckler was a thing of beauty, floating up there all wobbly, whispering seductively to the hitter, “C’mon. Take a hack. Pound me into the ground.” And the hitter did.
The “fastball” on the other hand, was lacking not just most of what is best known as the “gitty,” but it was also a little short on the “up” and the “go.”
Still, two scoreless innings, right now, are enough to put McKay in the running for our fifth starter job.
Oh, and Hector Luna deserves some attention for hitting a long home run in his first major-league at-bat. The last Cardinal to do that? Gene Stechschulte, a relief pitcher, whose baseball-reference web page is sponsored by www.firequipmentpics.com, with the tag line, “Large fire truck picture website that recognizes Gene for the great pitcher he is.”
While you slept, Levi, you missed the game I watched on TV tonight, in which David Wells had to run from first to third (but, alas, didn’t end up making it to home).
Oh, yeah, Jay Payton climbed the wall in the 5th to prevent Barry Bonds from going down in history as the first person to hit a home run in Petco Park, and the Padres came back to tie in the 9th and then came back to win in the 10th, both times on Sean Burroughs singles.
Also, in the top of the 1st, the Giants announcers were making fun of the scoreboard that was listing the count as 5 strikes and 3 balls. Then they realized it was the pitch count scoreboard. I would obviously have rather watched the game with the Padres announcers, and DirecTV usually goes with the home team version of the games in their Extra Innings package…but only when the home team is on a regional sports network that DirecTV carries. The Padres are on a cable-only network.
Suddenly, this blog has become a 2-way communication, much like an argument between a manager and an umpire. You, the readers, now have the ability to make comments on any or all of the posts. However, you do not have the ability to kick dirt on us.
Edited later to add: Hmm, something’s not quite right, since there’s been at least one comment added to this entry, but it still shows “0 comments.” But I swear, the comments are there.
maura: break up the tigers!
Well, the Cardinals lost to the Brewers today, dropping their third game of their first four. In doing so, they managed to give up ten home runs and thirty runs.
But I can take a few shreds of hope from the good things about this series.
1) It’s not so bad to lose three of four to the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, right?
2) Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds all hit very long home runs. More to come.
3) Mike Matheny, who every year, it seems, comes to Spring Training with a new batting stance, a new determination, and a story about how he worked all winter on his hitting, then hits very well in Spring Training and in April, only to fall off the face of the earth in the summer heat, has done all of those things so far. That’s one of the things I love most about baseball: it’s a reliable tie to the seasons. The same things happen every year at around the same time. (I probably won’t feel so good about the seasonal appropriateness of his slump in August.)
4) Down by seven runs, the Cardinals sent Cody McKay to the mound. If you follow the link, you’ll see that Cody McKay is a catcher. He’s also been known to stand in the vicinity of third base with a glove. Until today, I had not heard of him being a pitcher. But he went out there and threw two innings, no hits, one walk, and no runs. He committed a balk, but you kind of expect one or two of those from a non-pitcher. He threw eighteen pitches (ten for strikes), using a “fastball” and–this is the best part of the whole day–a knuckleball. Who doesn’t love a knuckler?
Cody McKay is the son of Cardinals first-base coach Dave McKay, and there has been some talk among Cardinals fans that McKay got the backup catcher job because of that relationship rather than because of his skills. But if he’s also a knuckleballer, I’ll take him. He may not be Brooks Kieschnick, but he’s already established that he’s a better pitcher than Jose Oquendo, Gary Gaetti, or Mark Grace, just to pick three. Two scoreless innings–especially given how few of those the Cardinals have had so far this season–is nothing to scoff at.* When he batted with two outs in the ninth, he got a standing ovation. Then he struck out.
5) No Cardinal seriously injured himself during any of the games.
*I suppose it’s possible that nepotism got Cody McKay not just on the team, but on the mound today, too. But I don’t think first-base coaches–even those working for Tony Larussa–have that kind of pull.
thatbob: Also makes him a better pitcher than Billy Sunday, to name one more.
thatbob: http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sundabi01.shtml
A correction from today’s L.A. Times: “The box score from Monday’s Chicago White Sox-Kansas City Royal baseball game in Sports on Tuesday incorrectly gave the pitching line for Chicago pitcher Damaso Marte as 1 inning pitched, 0 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts, 0 pitches, 17.00 earned-run average. The correct line is 0 innings pitched, 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 17 pitches, earned-run average of infinity.”
Much like the Washington Senators moving to Minnesota, or perhaps Texas…we have now indeed moved to baseballrelated.com. We’re no longer beholden to any sponsors, so there are no longer ads taking up space at the top of the page.
The time stamps on the posts are now Central time, which seems to make slightly more sense.
And for those of you who know what this means and what to do about it: we have a site feed.
