Meet The Nominees Vol. 14

Warren Zevon

The dark prince of the Los Angeles music scene, Mr. Bad Example is the final nominee for this year’s Hall of Fame class, and this is clearly a nomination that was long overdue. His often morbid lyrics and excessive lifestyle combined to make him a premiere songwriter as well as a charismatic performer. Casual fans may not fully appreciate his talent as his only real hit single was a novelty song, but he had a passionate fanbase, and that is the kind of thing that usually impresses voters.

He certainly was not the only songwriter to explore the dark underbelly of life, just one of the most effective. He had a great knack for mixing upbeat melodies with darker subject matter, sometimes tongue in cheek. It was always striking to see how frequently he wrote and sang about death, which became more noteworthy in the final 18 months of his life.

He was the subject of one of the most compelling hours of television I can remember. After publicly announcing a diagnosis of terminal cancer he was determined to record one final album. Longtime friend David Letterman - who is an obvious choice to act as his presenter should he be elected - decided to devote an entire show to Zevon, making him the sole guest. This was the night in which he introduced the phrase “enjoy every sandwich” into the vernacular. The affection Letterman held for Zevon was apparent, as was Zevon’s struggle to make it through his performance, but it was moving to see him be able to take a final public bow.

His record sales weren’t quite as high as his talent merited, but he had a tremendous amount of respect within the industry. So many of his fellow artists loved the guy; he is likely to have a great deal of support. As always, the question is will there be enough.

How will the Hall handle his possible induction? - I’ll repeat what I said about George Michael. Event organizers have been criticized for the way they presented posthumous inductions the last 2 ceremonies. I have to believe this time there will be an appropriately respectful on-stage tribute; I can foresee someone like Don Henley or Jackson Browne performing in his place.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit - Werewolves Of London

My personal favorite - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Possible Side Category Inductee - Carol Kaye

You really dive deep into a rabbit hole when contemplating the candidacy of members of The Wrecking Crew. If you find yourself in a crowd, look to your left and then to your right. Chances are that one of the people on either side was once a member of the Crew. There were dozens of musicians that were part of that collective at some point, and a few of them have been inducted so far. The argument can be made that Jack Nitzsche deserves to be near the front of the line as well, but there should be little argument that Carol Kaye has earned the right to be the next Wrecking Crew member inducted.

The Crew were the studio musicians behind countless of the most beloved Los Angeles based hits of the late 50s through early 70s. Most closely associated with the Phil Spector Wall of Sound, they also contributed to major recordings from the likes of The Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Mamas & The Papas and so many others. Kaye was the chief bass player, and her work was a key component of what made those records so special. Still, why her as opposed to so many other worthy Crew members? You can’t overlook the pioneering aspect of her career. There were so few prominent female musicians in that era; her importance as a trailblazer cannot be ignored. Kaye is well into her 80s; the Hall needs to make this happen before it’s too late. Which leads to the next bullet point.

The Hall Of Fame & Gender

It’s undeniable that the gender disparity in the Rock & Roll HOF is wide and inexcusable. To its credit the institution is aware of the problem and seems to be trying to correct it, but since it was ignored for so long it’s going to take years to attain anything resembling gender equity. At this moment the percentage of female inductees runs at only around 8%, and there is no way to justify such a poor representation.

This came to the forefront again with a recent article that Courtney Love wrote for The Guardian. She called out the Hall for its minuscule percentage of women, and expanded on that in several social media postings. She posted screenshots of the (largely male) members of both the nominating committee and the board of directors, punctuated with comments such as “19 confirmed misogynists.” Whether or not those specific accusations are completely accurate, it’s also true that she has had to deal with a lot of sexism in the industry, so she knows of what she speaks.

To be fair, the disparity is also partially due to institutional issues within the music industry that the Hall itself has little to do with, although it’s equally true that many of the industry bigwigs that perpetuated these issues are also important figures in the Hall hierarchy. The music business is filled with glass ceilings of all kinds. Who knows how many talented producers and engineers who could have put together hallworthy careers were held back from fully demonstrating their talents? The same is true for record company executives, so much potential talent was held back by old men metaphorically shutting doors in their faces.

Additionally, many of the inductees have gotten in as members of bands. The standard band origin tale is of a group of friends, once again virtually always all male, jamming together for fun until it develops into something more than that. Furthermore, when they replace a member, it’s almost always one guy replacing another. So when you see a band inducted with as many as 8 or 9 members, that greatly affects the male to female ratio. The number of female inductees that have followed the Tina Weymouth path to the Hall is terribly small.

Still, the institution need to keep its foot on the pedal and keep on pushing to induct more women. This year’s list of 14 nominees includes 4 solo women + 2 bands that each contain 1 female member, so there is at least the possibility of progress depending on how the large voting body makes their selections. And there are clearly several noteworthy women who could be chosen in the various side categories.

Once again, the issue did not develop overnight, it‘s the result of several years of negligence and it will take even longer to properly correct. All those with the power to do something about it need to proactively do so. Finally, to revisit a point I’ve previously made, most of those “that’s not rock & roll!” comments are made in response to inductions of female artists. Limiting honors to the denizens of such a narrowly defined format as classic rock practically insures that the annual festivities will mostly be sausage parties. No one wants or needs that.

Diaz & Cohen

An 8 month recovery for Edwin Diaz still appears to be the most likely prognosis, but as an article by Will Sammon in The Athletic stated, there is a least a sliver of a possibility that he returns on the shorter end of the potential timeframe. Basically, there was a perfect set of circumstances that helped him get his surgery done immediately. A Mets team doctor happened to be at LoanDepot Park the night of the injury and was able to take a look at him and determine it was likely a patellar tendon tear. And since there is a Hospital For Special Surgery location in Miami, the Mets got a second opinion and scheduled surgery the following day. He was actually back in his Port St. Lucie home less than 24 hours after the injury.

Here’s what stands out to me. When he arrived at his home, waiting for him was a trainer, nutritionist, and personal chef, all supplied by team owner Steve Cohen. Trust me, other players notice that type of care an owner shows, particularly when he could have easily taken the attitude that he would only do so much, being that the injury occurred at an outside tournament. That’s quite a contrast from previous team ownership, whom I will not name out of fear of accidentally summoning them Candyman style.

Remember when R.A. Dickey climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for a charity that fights human trafficking? And the team informed him ahead of time that they might void his contract if he got hurt in doing so? Classy. Or how about the time the team blasted Carlos Beltran for missing a non-mandatory team wide visit at Walter Reed Hospital? Even though his excuse was that he had a previously scheduled meeting with his foundation that was building a school in Puerto Rico?

I’m under no illusions about Steve Cohen. You don’t build that huge of a fortune without leaving a path of destruction. I wouldn’t even say that he has milkshake duck possibilities because everybody already assumes he’s got skeletons in his closet. But it is nice to root for a team that has an owner who gives a s***.

World Arozarena Classic

“Japan advances, but the world of baseball won tonight.” Team Mexico manager Benji Gil, following the unforgettable Japan/Mexico semifinal

For fans of the Mets & Astros, the WBC has a slight “other than that Mrs. Lincoln” vibe to it, but the tournament met every expectation I had and then some. The games were exciting, played with passion, and met with extraordinary enthusiasm from the fans. It was heartening to hear how much the players enjoyed the experience and how universal those positive feelings were. And my goodness, that Monday night semifinal game was epic. I can’t wait to see Roki Sasaki move over to MLB in a few years. And what I wouldn’t give to have Randy Arozarena’s swag for just one day. The championship game could not have ended any better. Ohtani facing Trout with 2 outs in the 9th holding a 1 run lead? Perfect.

Of course there are unavoidable structural issues with the tournament. In an ideal world it could be held mid season when all of the pitchers are stretched out enough to go full throttle, but MLB, NPL, KBO, etc. would neither shut down for the couple of weeks nor would they release top players for a similar period of time. I suppose it’s advantageous that the next tourney will be 3 years from now. We still won’t have the jet packs or flying cars we were promised, but perhaps by that point someone will have discovered a way to bend the laws of space and time to establish a mid season WBC without disrupting league schedules.

If I could make one tweak to the format it would be to better balance the pools. I recognize that it’s not ideal to send too many North & South America based teams to play in Asia, but the 2 pools that played in Tokyo and Taiwan were considerably shallower than those that played in Phoenix and Miami. The competition would have been much better had a couple of stronger Latin America based squads played in Asia.

Congrats to Team Japan. The next edition of the WBC comes in 2026. One can only hope that one will be just as memorable. Even after the post Diaz angst, I’ll bet that even more of the game’s top stars will be eager to participate.

March Madness Breather

Remotes and multi-screen setups have gotten quite a workout the last two weeks as the NCAA tournaments are also underway. Perhaps because I’m a bit distracted by the WBC, but so far they haven’t been quite as memorable as usual. There was the amazing ending to the Furman/Virginia game, and the Fairleigh Dickinson story was a lot of fun to follow. Otherwise we’re still waiting for those shining moments that make the event so special. Perhaps with both tournaments taking a couple of days off the sports gods will shake the Etch-A-Sketch and deliver some games that will be long remembered.

One thing I’m enjoying is the fact that many of the traditional blue blood programs bowed out early, so we’ve got a lot of new faces in the Sweet 16. This applies to the women’s tournament as well. The women’s bracket tends to be much chalkier than the men’s, but this year 2 #1 seeds lost in the second round. That’s even more striking because early rounds are held in home gyms, so the Stanford loss to Mississippi was even more shocking. There are 4 schools that made it to the second weekend in both tourneys - UConn, UCLA, Miami, and Tennessee, so there’s still a chance that a campus can have a double celebration in a couple of weeks.

#19

I only started watching basketball towards the tail end of Willis Reed’s career, so I didn’t see him at his best. So to me any remembrance that I have of him lies more with his legend than any real memories I have of watching him play. But that mythology was something else. Almost two decades before Kirk Gibson gave us the impossible, Willis Reed became an easy reference point for inspiring your teammates by overcoming serious injury in a championship series. He shrugged off a torn thigh muscle to emerge from the tunnel at the start of Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, hitting his first two shots and demoralizing the Lakers, which helped set the stage for Walt Frazier to produce one of the most spectacular Game 7 performances in league history.

Of course, his career was much more than that one magical moment as he collected significant hardware over the years. He won Rookie of the Year as well as MVP awards for both regular season and for the 1973 NBA Finals. He was also also named to both the NBA 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Those early 70s Knicks squads were one of the most admired teams in league history and fans of a certain age continue to speak rhapsodically about that era. Reed was the captain of that squad which speaks volumes about the man. I can vouch for that; as an adult I ran across him a couple of times by chance and he had a regal presence about him. We’ve lost one of the legends of New York sports history.

Wrapping It Up

Thanks as always for reading. See you all again on Friday. Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.