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Continuing our celebration of Opening Day, this is a fun song from the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which was adapted into an animated TV special.
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Continuing to honor Opening Day, here are Peter, Paul and Mary singing Noel Paul Stookey's great tribute to those who couldn't really play the game all that well, "Right Field." I love the song, but I particularly like this version which comes from their 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert on PBS. (Which is just now being released on DVD for the first time.) The reason is not only that the three of them really throw themselves into the song, but two specific moments. One comes when they make the first joke about how such incompetence manifested itself on the schoolyard -- and the camera cuts to two women who have such a lovely reaction that you know they're taking that moment very personally. And the other comes near the end of the "story" when it hits its resolution and they whole audience reacts -- and you know that they all are taking it personally, since it's such a silly, little fun song. But quite wonderful. To start the baseball season, earlier today we had Maestro Riccardo Muti of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra throwing out the first pitch before a Cubs game in 2012. But to bookend the moment and make it all official, this is one of my favorite first-pitch videos. It comes from May 8, 2025, just five weeks after Alysa Liu won the World Figure Skating Championship. Yes, this is Alysa Liu throwing out the first pitch. But only as Alysa Liu can. The St. Louis Cardinals had invited her to the game, and not shockingly, she couldn’t just walk to the mound and throw the ball. So, she did this instead. By the way, it’s worth noting that – though she’s standing a bit in front of the mound – she did get the pitch to the plate. Something that’s all the more impressive when you consider it’s almost astounding she was able to locate where home plate was. Trust me, that will be clear. And as a baseball bonus, we return you to maestro Riccardo Muti, from 2012 when he threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game. I find it adorable that Muti seems to love the Cubs, particularly since he's from Italy and didn't grow up on baseball or perhaps ever played it at all. But we know now that he's a lefty. Not the same form on the mound (or front thereof) as on the podium, but he did get it to the plate. By the way, listen closely in the background as he walks to the mount. The P.A. is playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony. To help celebrate the day, we'll start the year as is our tradition -- with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti (in a Cubs jersey) playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” I think it was done in honor of the Cubs 2016 World Series, their first in 108 years, since the video was posted on November 6, 2016. And the musicians are in street clothes, but many are wearing Cubs paraphernalia or blue. It's a wonderful and fun arrangement, too, not trying to overwhelm such a small, charming song with orchestral bombast, but arranged with an almost old-timey feel. And Muti seems to be having a good time with it all. It's hard not to close out Opening Day with what I think is the best (and perhaps most famous) song from the baseball musical Damn Yankees. What you gotta have? "You gotta have "Heart." (Contrary to what they wrote below, the title of the song is "Heart.") |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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