Me, I'm still on the road
Heading for another joint
It's Bob Dylan's birthday today. He's 67 years old. I'd say this should be a global holiday, and it already is in our northern land although I believe that's supposed to be in honour of Queen Victoria, or possibly my mother, who were also born on May 24.
Somehow, I'll tie this into baseball...
Well, Dylan shares his birthday with Bill Wakefield, a right-handed pitcher who got one year in the majors (he went 3-5, 3.61 with the 1964 Mets.)
Naturally, Mr Dylan is working tonight. The latest leg of the Never Ending Tour kicked off about a week ago. He's playing the second of two nights in St. John's Newfoundland tonight, and then is off to Reykjavik on Monday to start a three month swing through Europe. Did I mention he's 67 years old, and playing about 100 shows every year? Here's one of the differences between being a baseball player and being a musician. I myself am a much better guitar player than I was twenty years ago, but if I run around the bases really hard I want a defibrillator standing by...
Not that the years have left the master untouched. The voice is gone, gone forever. The startling wail of the 1960s, the mighty bellow of the 1970s... got to dig out the records to hear them again. His current voice was recently described as a "catarrhal death rattle," which sums it up rather well, I must admit. But otherwise, he's probably having his best decade since the sixties themselves. Since the turn of the millennium, he's scooped up some more Grammys, won an Academy Award, been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, released two remarkable (and remarkably well received) albums, published the first volume of his memoirs to universal praise and acclaim (it shouldn't be a surprise, but he can really write), and in the last few years he's also been at the centre of no less than three fascinating films: Martin Scorcese's documentary No Direction Home, his own strange project (Masked and Anonymous) with Larry Charles, and last year's truly amazing Todd Haynes flick I'm Not There. So he's on a roll.
He's also become a disk jockey in his dotage. He hosts a weekly radio program for XM Satelite Radio called the "Theme Time Radio Hour." Every show has a theme, and the one for his fourth program, broadcast two years ago this month, took baseball as its theme. Here's his playlist:
Take Me Out To The Ball Game - Bob Dylan (a capella) - (2006)
Take Me Out To The Ball Game - The Skeletons (with ukulele) - (1988)
Baseball Boogie - Mabel Scott - (1950)
Home Run - Chance Halladay - (1959)
Baseball Baby - Johnny Darling - (1958)
Baseball Canto - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Three Strikes And You're Out - Cowboy Copas - (1960)
The Ball Game - Sister Wynona Carr - (1952)
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball - Buddy Johnson - (1943)
Joltin' Joe DiMaggio - Les Brown & His Orchestra (with Betty Bonney)- (1941)
Joe DiMaggio's Done It Again - Billy Bragg & Wilco - (1988)
Don Newcomb Really Throws That Ball - Teddy Brannon Orchestra - (1950)
Newk's Fadeaway - Sonny Rollins - (1951)
Say Hey - The Treniers - (1954)
The Wizard Of Oz - Sam Bush - (2004)
3rd Base, Dodger Stadium - Ry Cooder - (2004)
Heart - Damn Yankees (Original Broadway Cast) - (1955)
And as I keep saying to myself in disbelief, he's 67 years old. Which makes him older than anyone who has ever played for the Toronto Blue Jays, except:
Ron Fairly, the Oldest Living Blue Jay, born 12 July 1938.
Phil Niekro, born 1 April 1939.
Rico Carty, born 1 September 1939.
Phil Roof, born 5 March 1941.
For the most part, Dylan's work doesn't often seem suitable as Striding-Up-To-The-Plate music. Although, speaking for myself, I think it would just be way cool to see Alex Rios coming up to the plate as the ominous minor chords of "Ballad of a Thin Man" rang through the air.
I also wondered if it would be possible to link a Dylan song to a current Blue Jay in some way...
For Gregg Zaun, we could have "Going Going Gone," (unless you'd rather save that for Shannon Stewart or Brad Wilkerson)
For Roy Halladay, how about "If Not For You?":
And for Kevin Mench... well, "I Shall Be Released" comes to mind.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080524024758437