Best of the Welcome Columns


Best of the Welcome Columns

Author: Alston, Ed
Slow Lane --11 Items or More

This column’s title reeks of rank audacity, true. For one thing, it may invite comparisons with the...er...incomparable, polished prose of esteemed colleague Brooks Judd, author of that monthly journalistic gem, “Express Lane -- 10 Items or Less”. For another, coming up with 11 worthy items won’t be easy. So I’ll cheat…or resort to a shamefully simple stratagem: using items drawn from a couple of books. One book provides a seasonal angle, along with an unlikely, but catchily alliterative title: “Baseball, Barns and Bluegrass”. [collection of 19 essays edited by George Carney -- hereafter BB&B] Such disparate topics as baseball and bluegrass combined in a single tome? Some CBA folks maintain that bluegrass and baseball occupy wholly separate worlds. They feel these two subjects should never be mixed. Hence, our PTB's mandate that an “NBGC” (no bluegrass content) warning must be appended to the heading of any baseball-themed CBA message-board thread. Other folks -- those a bit more folkish, by BB&B’s definition -- recognize and appreciate that the development of bluegrass took place in a baseball-pervaded milieu. They don't think it's conicidence that bluegrass is deemed uniquely American music, while baseball is called the great American pastime. It’s pretty well known that bluegrass music‘s founding father, Bill Monroe, himself was a baseball fanatic. Neil Rosenberg’s “Bluegrass -- A History”, documents that Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys, beyond their musical virtuosity, were somewhat talented ballplayers. Weather permitting, evening bluegrass music performances routinely were preceded by afternoon ballgames against teams drawn from host towns’ populace. Yes, miixing baseball and bluegrass seemed the natural thing to do in those halcyon days of yore. So, too, with today's 11-items list: 1. BB&B -- with title by-line “A Geography of American Folklife” -- notes that bluegrass music originated and flourished in the “Upland South”, where rural, isolated, impoverished residents favored music performed with relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated stringed instruments -- just as they favored the sport of baseball, which was well-suited for play in pastoral settings without expensive equipment or infrastructure. [Naysayers who disdain any connection between bluegrass and baseball might reconsider if they learn that BB&B posits just two other “sports” which appealed to Upland South folks: fox hunting and cockfighting. For those interested, the Upland South primarily encompasses areas with a strong bluegrass tradition: Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia; parts of several adjacent states, notably the western halves of North Carolina and Virginia, plus southern tips of Ohio, Illinois and Indiana; and the tri-states Ozarks region.] 2. Baseball helped boost the popularity of Bill Monroe’s new musical style during the mid-to-late 1940s. [For those skeptical souls who demand proof of this preposterous claim, see Neil Rosenberg’s “Bluegrass -- A History” at page 59: “Fiddler Jim Shumate, with Monroe in 1944-45, recalls that ‘we had good crowds just for a ballgame…[w]e had a good team…uniforms and everything…I played shortstop’…Not only was [baseball] an outlet for the band and crew, it was good show biz, for it attracted its own audience, including people who might not otherwise come to the [bluegrass] show, thus creating additional revenue.” Plus, see p. 68: “[Monroe’s bluegrass] tours were enlivened by the baseball team which by 1949 had become so popular that he created a second club and was hiring professional players.”] 3. During the 1930's thru the 1950's, baseball and bluegrass evinced a somewhat intertwined relationship, as Rosenberg’s treatise suggests at pages 20-21: “Running through the narratives of the musicians…who helped create bluegrass is a thread of allusions to baseball. Like the music, it was a team activity requiring practiced coordination and a series of standard roles, each with special skills. It too was performed before an audience; the ball diamond was a kind of stage…Like music, baseball was a manly art which held some promise of fame and fortune for the very best and most persistent.” [Sorry ladies, this was the era of stay-at-home moms, and distaff-deficient bluegrass bands.] 4. While Monroe probably provides the best example of an accomplished baseball player who excelled as a bluegrass performer -- with honorable mention to Clyde Moody, singer/guitarist who had played minor league baseball before joining the Bluegrass Boys -- other musical genres have featured pro ballplayers who starred in recording studios as well as on ball diamonds. “Gentleman” Jim Reeves, a country music hall-of-famer, pitched three years with St. Lous Cardinals minor-league teams before pursuing a musical career. Lee Maye, major league outfielder from 1959-71, meanwhile sang in that marvelous urban acoustic music genre now called “doo-wop”, recording some eminently collectible classics as Arthur Lee Maye & The Crowns. 5. As just a glance at the last few weeks' message board posts will confirm -- look for threads with double-digit “hits” -- CBA’s membership features numerous baseball fans. Inexplicably, most of them swear allegiance to the perennially overrated San Francisco Giants...who lately managed to luck into post-season play-offs for the first time in seven years. 6. SF Giants fans essentially are the West Coast’s version of Chicago Cubs fans -- just as excitable, and almost as long-suffering -- just not so lovable (excepting CBA's contingent, of course) 7. Beginning with San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1958, six major league baseball franchises have been established on the West Coast. Just one of those six has gone more than 50 years without winning a World Championship. Can you guess which? 8. Hint: it’s the same team that eight years ago blew the biggest late-innings lead ever (5 - 0) in a game where a win would have clinched the World Series. 9. As of this writing, the National League championship has not been decided. If justice prevails -- so that the Giants lose -- please, dear readers, do what you can to console our orange-and-black brethren and sistern. Alas, I’ll be 2000 miles away and unable to pat their backs, serve them a drink, and gently assure them, “just wait til next year!” (when you do that, try to sound sincere) 10. No way would I shamelessly troll for message board posts…but note that anyone starting a thread which refers to this column can discuss baseball and NOT have to put “NBGC” in the title. 11. TRIVIA QUESTION: The message board’s latest baseball thread features a post referring to Tommy Edwards’ 1958 pop song, “It’s All in the Game” -- name the U.S. vice-president who earned song-writing credits for that classic hit. PRIZE (to first correct responder who does NOT use the internet to find the answer): CD featuring that song, compliments of yours truly. Go Phillies & Rangers!

Posted: 10/21/2010