PLAY BALLLLLLL!!!!!!

"In our sun-down perambulations of late, through the outer parts of Brooklyn, we have observed several parties of youngsters playing "base", a certain game of ball. We wish such sights were more common among us. Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms... The game of ball is glorious!"

-Walt Whitman, 1846

Jerry, Bobby & Vince
"The Star-Spangled Banner"
Candlestick Park, San Francisco
SF Giants Opening Day - April 12, 1993

Today is the greatest day of the year... the Final Four is set.
Wait... that's not it... watching paint dry is more exciting
than college basketball! It's Opening Day, baby!!

Once again this year for Opening Day I have arranged my work schedule to make sure that I had yesterday afternoon off from work (for last night's game) and today, as well.

At 8 a.m. this morning it was time to have some baseball for breakfast -- Toronto Blue Jays at the New York Yankees -- final Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, well, at the one that has had games played on the diamond since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. (Unfortunately it's rainin' in The Bronx and they're in a Rain Delay but ESPN's got on the Kansas City Royals at the Detroit Tigers... borrr-rinngggg. On ESPN2 the Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs just came on... but it looks like another Rain Delay. Yup. Sheesh!)

Anyway... games will be on all day long up until about 10 or 11 o'clock tonight. That means all day long (for the most part) I'll have my butt firmly planted in place watching games on this Opening Day 2008. Now where's my peanuts and Cracker Jack?

There may have stupidly been a couple games already played in Japan, but last night in our nation's capital it was the celebratory Opening Night for North America. The former owner of the Texas Rangers threw out the first pitch... and Ryan Zimmerman gave the fans an exciting ending as he hit a game-winning Home Run in the bottom of the 9th for the Washington Nationals in the very first regular season game at the brand new stadium there.

Unfortunately the New York Mets, my one and only favorite team, they won't be on TV today. Hooray, I say sarcastically. Normally they're on ESPN on Opening Day... but after last September's, ummm, most unfortunate collapse, they really do not at all deserve to be on national television today. Let's face it -- they suck. First place all year and then they blew it BIG TIME. Part of me thinks the Mets can just kiss my ass... but I can't turn my back on 'em. I grew up goin' to Shea; the Mets are my team. It's not gonna be easy to regain confidence in them this year. Things could be great all season long but no matter what, there's still September. Ugh.

Yet somehow I'm still excited for the season. All through the winter I complained that we'll have 162 games that are once AGAIN this year filled with talk of steroids and human growth hormone and what deserving players will NOT get elected to the Hall of Fame because of allegations of possibly using banned substances. It's still kind of a bleak time for our national game ... but I'm gonna take what excitement that I do have and watch what games I can. In October, a World Series victory for The Amazin's would make everything a whole lot better. But it's gonna be a long (and hopefully not too agonizing) time between now and the push for the Playoffs. This initial excitement will wear off some, the season will go on... and on and on and on... then come September, oh yeah, gonna get exciting again! Until then, today will be a great day of baseball!

Well — it's our game; that's the chief fact in connection with it; America's game; it has the snap, go, fling of the American atmosphere; it belongs as much to our institutions; fits into them as significantly as our Constitution's laws; is just as important in the sum total of our historic life.

-Walt Whitman

	Baseball A Film By Ken Burns Original Soundtrack Recording 1994
196 kbps Baseball - part 1 Baseball - part 2

	Walt Whitman (Quote) -- Garrison Keilor			Kansas City Call (Quote) -- Ossie Davis
	Take Me Out To The Ballgame -- Jacqueline Schwab			The Star-Spangled Banner -- Jacqueline Schwab
	The Star-Spangled Banner -- Big League Orchestra			The New Black-And-Tan Fantasy -- Duke Ellington
	Hurrah For Our National Game -- Jacqueline Schwab			Jackie Robinson Radio Call (1956 World Series) -- Bob Wolff
	Take Me Out To The Ballgame -- Harvey Hindermyer (1908)			Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? -- Natalie Cole
	Gee, It's A Wonderful Game -- Dodworth Saxhorn Band, -- vocal: Juliet Lambert			Baseball Boogie -- Mabel Scott
	Sol White (Quote from History Of Colored Baseball, 1907) / Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground -- Ossie Davis / Blind Willie Johnson			Bobby Thompson's Shot Heard 'Round The World -- radio call by Russ Hodges
				Take Me Out To The Ballgame -- King Curtis
	Steal Away -- Bobby Horton			Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song) -- The Treniers
	Babe Ruth Radio Call -- (circa 1927)			Take Me Out To The Ballgame -- George Rabbai
	Clubhouse Stomp -- The New York Hawks			Hank Aaron HR #715 Radio Call / When You And I Were Young, Maggie / New York Times (Quote) -- Milo Hamilton/Jacqueline Schwab/ -- Studs Terkel
	If You Can't Make A Hit At The Ballgame, You Can't Make A Hit With Me -- National Pastime Orchestra
	Pound Cake -- Lester Young with Count Basie -- and His Orchestra			Take Me Out To The Ballgame -- Dr. John
	The Minstrel Boy -- Jacqueline Schwab			Eulogy for Jackie Robinson/ Steal Away -- Jesse Jackson/Jacqueline Schwab
	Joe DiMaggio Radio Call (1937) -- Red Barber			Take Me Out To The Ballgame -- Carly Simon
	Joltin' Joe DiMaggio -- Les Brown and His Orchestra -- featuring Betty Bonney			The Sporting News (Quote) -- Amy Madigan
The Star-Spangled Banner (320 kbps) Bruce Hornsby & Branford Marsalis

Eddie Vedder -- Take Me Out To The Ballgame
(Wrigley Field ... I think 5-14-06)
mp3 download grateful dead jerry garcia vince welnick bob weir ratdog phil lesh brent mydland mickey hart bill kreutzmann pigpen ron mckernan

Let's Go Mets (1986)
Let's Go Mets 12"
Meet The Mets (1963)
Meet The Mets (1999)
unfortunately the quality of these blows and there's no Ralph Kiner.

Top of the scoreboard at Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens (NYC)
(image opens a little bigger but not much)
Notice the ribbon on the twin towers of the World Trade Center