Twisted Mixed Tape Tuesday: Play Ball!

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I got very involved, as I often do, with the opening of the Major League Baseball season. So much so that I neglected my Mixed Tape Tuesday blog post. That simply won’t do! Especially because this is wild card week, more especially because there are only three more weeks left of Mixed Tape Tuesday before Jen over at jenkehl.com puts it on hiatus for a while! (Stay tuned to Ambling & Rambling for a Jen-approved alternative —- Coming Soon!)

Don’t forget. This is a blog hop!

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I love music. I love baseball. So, I thought, why not combine the two?

The first song that comes to mind is, of course, Take Me Out To The Ball Game. It’s a classic. I love a classic. I also love a twist. So, someone thought, why not combine the two? Those someone’s? Goo Goo Dolls, that’s who! (Sorry. Alvin. Sorry, Chipmunks. I know yours was the “go to” cover for quite some time, but on the adorableness scale, Johnny and the boys just edge you out!)

While he may not be adorable, John Fogarty can take us back to the days when we itched to grab a mitt and get in the game. Put me in, coach, I’m ready to play Center Field…

The washed up athlete in all of us can certainly identify with Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days. Heck, you don’t even have to have been an athlete to be sympathetic to the hero in this song. I’d settle for returning to a time when I could make out the writing on the back of a Rice-A-Roni box without my reading glasses! Yeah. Those were my Glory Days!

Baseball is all about tradition. You can’t have a baseball game without a seventh inning stretch. And you can’t have a seventh inning stretch without Kate Smith’s God Bless America.

Sure, there are other versions, but why? Even I, anarchist that I may be, wouldn’t dream of selecting any other rendition of this song.

How many times have you heard this instruction? At this time we ask that you stand and remove your hats for the singing of The National Anthem.

It never gets old, though, does it?

Wanna know a secret? I have, over the years, chosen my favorite players based on whether or not they sing along to The National Anthem. I’ll drop them like a hot potato if they don’t at least mouth the words! (I am happy to report that David Wright ALWAYS sings along.)

Although Whitney Houston wasn’t opening up a baseball game when she sang it, I’m including her Superbowl XXV version here. Because I have to. Because it’s breathtaking.

PLAY BALL!