Greatest Song Evah 7/21/23

Mayor Of Simpleton

Andy Partridge doesn’t get quite enough credit for being the ideal pop craftsman that he is. There are a few reasons for that. First off, he has always had a uniquely British sensibility which does not always translate well stateside. Second, due to his intense stage fright, XTC rarely performed live, not even for TV appearances. They have stray early career BBC Top Of the Tops performances, but very few TV slots that could have raised their profile a bit more in the US. They were still at a creative peak when alternative rock began to penetrate the mainstream, but due to their relatively low profile they were unable to capitalize on that. They had no appearances on MTV Spring Break, or the David Letterman show, or Lollapalooza. Their videos were a 120 Minutes staple, but they were never able to break out of alternative radio and into American Top 40.

Which is a shame, because they produced more than a dozen years of stone cold pop classics. They perfected Britpop before that sound had a name. This week’s selection is a perfect example. A modern update of Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World, the narrator freely admits he’s a bit dumb, but he is fiercely devoted to his lover. More than not knowing much about history, he doesn’t know how to tell the weight of the sun. Her friends may not approve, but that’s their problem. What he has to offer is more valuable than any smarts. “What you get is all real, I can’t put on an act it takes brains to do that anyway.”

The guitar line that runs throughout the track is infectious, and the video earns some bonus points as well. Circling back to XTC’s inherent British vibe, the video pays a wonderful homage to The Avengers.

The Imposters Of Cooperstown

When I began my project of going through boxes of old magazines and comic books that I had in storage, I had a mental checklist of items that I hoped I still had. With Hall Of Fame Induction Weekend coming up, it’s a good time to look at one of my primo finds. This one was practically my personal superhero origin story. My lifelong interest - some may say obsession - with the baseball Hall was largely sparked by reading this piece.

This is an article from a baseball annual called Popular Sports Grand Slam that was published in 1976. By that year I was well aware of the significance of the Hall Of Fame, and I had even at that young age begun to develop an interest. Reading this article helped me understand the process better, in particular how there are so many often-heated disagreements over who should and should not be in.

Just take a look at some of the names of omissions. All of the men listed have eventually been inducted, some posthumously. But these long waits were inexcusable. BBWAA voters in the 70s & 80s were notoriously stingy. The 2 biggest WTF results from the 70s were the fact that Yogi Berra was not a first year inductee and the fact that Willie Mays fell 23 votes shy of unanimity. 23 alleged experts didn’t believe that Willie Mays was worthy? Not far behind is the fact that Eddie Mathews needed to wait until his fifth year of eligibility. The guy was only one of the top 3 third basemen in history, he should have been one of the easiest first year calls in voting history.

A big chunk of the article was devoted to Jack Lang and Dick Young complaining about the Veterans Committee. To be fair, this was in the period when the committee was filled with Frankie Frisch cronies who constantly selected Frisch’s old teammates. Frisch had already passed away by 1976, but his fingerprints remained all over the committee for years to come. I hold no sympathy for the grievances expressed by Lang, Young, and their ilk. It’s well within each individual voter’s rights to hold high standards, but there was no need to be as dickish about it as many of them were.

For the longest time many prominent writers took sadistic pleasure in keeping guys out. I recall the period when Jim Bunning, Orlando Cepeda, and Nellie Fox each fell fewer than a dozen votes shy of election. You could almost feel the glee coming from the writers. Why act like that? It was made worse by the fact that the loudest people were most often prominent New York based writers. In other words, men who had a large platform.

Which leads to this weekend’s induction. Fred McGriff was passed over on the writers’ ballot 15 times, only to be voted in unanimously the first time he appeared on an era committee ballot. The guy needed to wait until he was almost 60 years old to become a Hall Of Famer. The biggest tangible benefit to McGriff is that he can now write “Hall Of Famer” when he signs autographs and can charge higher appearance fees when he appears at card shows. What purpose did it serve to make him wait this long for that?

I do see a bit of change in that negative attitude from the baseball writers. I believe that Ryan Thibodaux’s ballot tracker helps. Voters can see how much support candidates have been getting, and most of don’t want to be the one responsible for candidate X falling three votes shy, whereas an earlier generation of voters wore that negativity proudly.

The Rest Of The World Is So Inconsiderate

When will the planet realize that the world revolves around the eastern time zone and adjust all of its schedules accordingly? At this moment multiple major sporting events are taking place overseas and it’s simply not right that they are held at times convenient for east coast viewers. The day is 24 hours long, is it asking too much for organizers to schedule starting times when it’s most convenient for me to watch?

The Women’s World Cup is being held in Australia and New Zealand this quadrennial. In this case it’s only a minor hurdle, matches held locally in the late morning fall within the primetime window in the states. The final, however, is an evening match so it’s a 6AM eastern start, and even worse a 3AM start on the west coast. That means unless a viewer wants to keep vampire hours they’ll need to immediately fire up the DVR upon awakening without checking one’s phone for fear of spoilers. Of course, there are also the people filling up pubs at odd hours to catch the games live, but that’s another issue.

This is also the weekend of the British Open, or if you prefer to use the accurate name, The Open Championship. I have no interest in golf, so this doesn’t affect me, but in the first two rounds tee times are as early as around 1:30AM for those who are really committed. It’s not as much of an issue in the weekend, as the leaders tee off later, so a casual viewer need not wake up obnoxiously early. To me the solution is simple, schedule the tournament so that the 18th hole of the final round ends around 5PM eastern time. But wait, won’t it then be dark in Great Britain? The solution is obvious. Supply each golfer with a miner’s helmet! You want to challenge the best golfers in the world, then force them to find their ball in the dark with minimal illumination.

The international event currently underway that I personally have the most interest in is the World Aquatics Championship, which is taking place in Japan. The time difference is not much of a hassle. Results are not prominently placed on homepages of websites, so it’s surprisingly easy for me to avoid any spoilers before I watch the events several hours later.

Workloads

Last season, in addition to winning the NL Cy Young Award, Sandy Alcantara led the league in innings by a healthy margin. This season he has struggled, which suggests that he is suffering from a version of the year after affect that frequently happens to pitchers that had made deep postseason runs the previous season. It’s not an exact parallel because the Marlins didn’t make it to the postseason, but it still raises the question concerning his workload. Is this another sign that old school workhorses will be even more of a vanishing breed?

Any time there is discussion about pitch counts or innings limits the usual crew complains about the alleged softness of the modern athlete. Ex-players come out of the woodwork claiming they used to routinely throw 400 innings, followed by an offseason barnstorming tour and a stint in the Caribbean Winter League coming out no worse for the ware. In reality, the talent level in the sport is higher than it has ever been, which requires pitchers to work that much harder. It is simply not possible for pitchers to be used the exact same way they had been in the past.

It’s human nature to overly romanticize the way the sport was played in one’s youth. My generation was spoiled; we got to see pitchers from the Seaver/Carlton/Palmer era annually toss 250+ innings per year. But, as many people note, it’s more than just the number of pitches thrown, it’s the amount of stress required. Think back to how thin many of the lineups were in those days. Most shortstops were light hitters, that would often be the case with second basemen and catchers as well. It wouldn’t be unusual for a pitcher being able to relax as early as reaching the #6 spot in a lineup. It’s easier to pace yourself if you can save your best stuff for only a select number of your opponents. And it’s not as if those pitchers didn’t face criticism of their own. The 5 man rotation emerged at this time. I’m sure that older pitchers mocked the 70s generation because they benefitted from the lighter workload. Pitchers from the Bob Feller era could accurately point out that it’s “easy” to succeed with that extra day of rest.

The current era has its fair share of weak hitters in many lineups as well, but even many of the poorer hitters in the bottom third still have the ability to grind out at bats and wear out the pitchers. I’d love to see more complete games just as much as the next guy, but as long as pitchers need to expend max effort with practically every pitch, it is a physical impossibility.

A Man With The Job Security Of a Supreme Court Justice

Ken Rosenthal reports that MLB owners will re-elect Rob Manfred to a new 5-year term as commissioner next week. Once again my stealth campaign for the job falls short. Maybe next time.

Perennial reminder that the job of the commissioner is not to please the fans or even to serve the game. His chief duty is to make sure that the cash flow continues and that the wealthy owners grow ever richer. It’s true that the game pace rule changes have significantly improved the product, so he deserves credit for pushing that through. It’s also true that he presents an unfriendly public face. He continually insists that he despite his condescending demeanor that he loves the game - and I have no reason to disbelieve him - but he sure knows how to appear like someone who merely tolerates baseball. If you want to see an image of pure charisma, just watch him at the Hall of Fame induction. He reads the plaques with about as much enthusiasm as he would use if he were reading IKEA instructions out loud. He could at least fake it a little better. He often makes it look like he hates baseball even more than John Smoltz does.

For better or worse (it’s for worse) we’re stuck with the guy for the foreseeable future. When will his next “piece of metal” unforced error occur? When will his next tone deaf statement similar to his dismissiveness of the complaints of Oakland fans take place? The possibilities are endless.

Until We Meet Again

This is how much I care for you, my readers. I didn’t purchase a Powerball ticket so there would be no risk of winning the jackpot and running away from this newsletter. Have a wonderful weekend everybody, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all again on Monday.