Yesterday, I was blowing off steam after reading SEC reports and calculating percentage declines in same-store sales for a well-known retail chain, and posting on MATH+1 vis a vis my regrettable tendency to see Johnny Damon and instantly begin humming "Johnny Angel."
Only I make up my own lyrics about Johnny Damon. Many of them now have to do with his hair.
Damon isn't the one one who makes me hum. Whenever Jose Guillen comes up to plate, I end up taking the "Olé, olé, olé, olé, /olé, olé" chant that (European) football fans do and singing, "Jose, Jose Jose Jose/ Guillen, Guillen."
This is probably not what any of the people associated with professional baseball had in mind when they got it into their heads to make people bat to theme songs.
Some players are immune to songs. Barry Bonds is one of them. I've felt warmly toward Bonds as a player since reading a Sept 01, 02, NYT profile on him (the abstract is here and a copy of the article is here; you can also find it in The Best American Sportswriting 2003) that was deeply polarizing (one commentator wrote that it whipped up racist conspiracy where little existed; another wrote that it illustrated how Bonds is affected by media-institutionalized racism) and left me liking Bonds for his seemingly quaint belief that as a professional baseball player, his job was to play ball well, not to make people love him for himself.
I could be projecting my own convictions onto Bonds' approach to personality-driven media coverage, but I liked the idea that he was all, "Hey. I'm a ball player. Cover me as someone who plays ball." I also liked watching Bonds play.
In any event, earlier this week, I read another NYT piece, "On And Off the Baseball Field, Bonds Prefers to Go for Distance." (April 20, 04) And I only liked Bonds more.
Here's why:
"Barry Bonds makes minimal concessions to the baseball constituency," said George Will, the political commentator and prominent baseball fan. "He does his craft and he thinks that exhausts his obligation. It's cost him, and probably cost baseball, that he's made so few efforts to be congenial. But there is something to be admired in Bonds, in this sense: There is no shortage of American celebrities eager to pander, and here you have one who doesn't care a fig about pandering. There is a refreshing aspect to that."
Plus he's a pleasure to watch on the field. And thanks to what I don't know about his personal life, thanks to the lack of public image massaging that doesn't spring to mind when I watch him play, I feel like I have more mental space to simply appreciate watching a baseball player excel at the game.
Speaking of poor choice of musical introductions as players head to the plate, try this one on for size. As Mark Loretta makes his way to the batter's box here in San Diego, the P.A. system cheerfully thumps out the opening strain to War's "Low Rider."
Can you hear it in your head yet? Sing it with me:
Lo-ret-ta, swing a little lowa'.
Lo-ret-ta, line drive to left.
*doo doo doo doo doo doo DOO... doo doo DOO doo doo*
Posted by: Steve-O | 2004.04.23 at 16:35
Well, thanks. Now every time the Padres are on our Baseball Cable Package That Ate The Dial, I will be singing along.
Heh.
Posted by: Lisa | 2004.04.23 at 17:18