The Peanut Gallery

The Peanut Gallery

"Just Talking to Myself While the Bat's on My Shoulder"
Ken Gamble - editor

I believe hitting a round ball with a round bat
is the hardest thing to do in all of sports.
I believe that Roberto Clemente is the patron saint of baseball.
I believe in the sacrifice fly.
I believe that pitchers should buy catchers lunch.
I believe batting practice makes perfect.
I believe Lou Gehrig's birthday should be a national holiday.
I believe in the designated hitter.
I believe Tony Gwynn sleeps with his bat.
I believe the squeeze play should be taught in public schools.
I believe walls are hard.
No one is bigger than the game except maybe Boog Powell.
I believe somebody, somewhere, understands the infield fly rule.
I believe it's time to sing "Take me out to the ballgame.."
I believe, even I, sign better than Don Mattingly.
I believe that.
And I believe every player should have a day off after two thousand, one hundred and thirty games.
I believe domed stadiums are great .. for tractor pulls.
And I believe the two greatest words
in the English language are Play Ball!
Play Ball!
Play Ball!
Play Ball!
-- Nike ad, All-Star Game '95.

6-28-98
        The Minor A Dixie Youth Baseball team that I help coach just finished second in the city tournament and I'm already looking forward to next season which will be my son's first year in the Majors League (ages 11 & 12). Actually it will be my first also as I was never a good enough baseball player to play in the Majors. But thinking back on the great year our team had made me realize why I like baseball so much - as opposed to other sports.
         You never (or at least very seldom) see a player in baseball taunt the other team's players. When you watch basketball you see Dennis Rodman with his finger in someone's face. When you watch pro football you see Deon Sanders running backwards down the sideline taunting the other team's sidelines. You never see Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa hit a home-run and then point their finger at the pitcher. Why?
         One reason is that he may have to face that same pitcher that he just showed up again in an inning or two or in another game. Pitchers are know to throw high, hard and inside to those players that can't control their grandstanding. A Roger Clemens 90 plus mile an hour fastball aimed at your head can make a batter think twice about dancing around after hitting one out.
         But the main reason is that baseball is a game that humbles even the best players in the game. Two out the three times that the best hitters go to the plate they never even make it to first base! And when the batter bats the focus is solely on him. Everyone sees him strike out or ground out. The best player can't hide in the background and pop out two or three times a game and put all his effort into one or two show stopping plays the way he might in other team sports. He has to go to the plate three, four or five times a game and face the pitcher and eight other players by himself. Its the sort of humbling experience that makes baseball a different sport than others. It is also the type of sport that builds character in children.
          I grew up in Alabama during the era of Bear Bryant who always admonished his players to "Act like you been there before." when they score a touchdown. A "finger-taunting, disco-dance, finger gun-shooting" show like those seen now a days in the NFL would earn the best player on his Alabama teams a seat on the bench for the rest of the game.
          Baseball is certainly not a game without emotion. But the emotion in baseball is a restrained joy aimed towards positively celebrating one player's or team's accomplishment not the negative put-down emotion of pro football and basketball. And that's something all coaches should want to cultivate and see in their players. Thanks Baseball.
Ken Gamble

Why "Sports Scholarship" is an Oxymoron !

"You guys pair up in groups of threes, then line up in a circle"
--Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach
"That's so when I forget how to spell my name , I can still find my clothes."
--Stu Grimson,Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker
" I know the Virginia players are smart because you need a 1500 SAT to get in. I have to drop breadcrumbs to get our players to and from class" --George Raveling, coach
" The ballparks have gotten too crowded. That's why nobody goes to see the game anymore." --Yogi Berra
" I'm going to graduate on time , no matter how long it takes."
--Senior basketball player at the the Univ. of Pittsburg
"Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy named Norman Einstein." --Joe Theisman, Football commentator and former player
"You guys line up alphabetically by height." -Bill Peterson, a Florida St. football coach

1-1-98
Best pitcher in baseball in the last fifty years was Bob Gibson in 1969. I recently read Dr. Stephen J. Gould's statistical argument about why we don't have any .400 hitters anymore and his notes about Gibson have sold me that he had the best season of any pitcher. I am going to ask Dr. Gould to allow us to reprint an excerpt of that article here.

12-26-97
Finally got this cd for Christmas.
Here are the words to a great baseball song,
"Centerfield"
We'll beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We're born again there's new grass on the field
A-'roundin' third and headed for home
It's a brown eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel
Put me in coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield
Well I spent some time in the Mudville Nine
Watchin' it from the bench
You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Case struck out
So Say Hey Willie tell the Cobb
And Joe Dimaggio
Don's say it ain't so
You know the time is now
Put me in coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield
Got a beat-up glove a homemade bat
And a brand new pair of shoes
You know I think it's time
To give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all
A moment in the sun
It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye
Put me in coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield
Centerfield by John C. Fogerty.

7-4-97 (Revised 12/9/97)
My Favorite Baseball Songs - Let's Play Two!
This is just IMHO (in my humble opinion). If you have favorites of your own let me know what they are and I will post them here. Some of these songs (like Taking Care of Business) don't even mention baseball but have become identified with baseball and other sports because they are heard so much at stadiums around the country.

Centerfield - by John C. Fogerty, 1985 - "Put me in coach - I'm ready to play" - what more can a coach ask for than that kind of desire. This is by far my personal favorite. For those of you that don't care for this song consider yourself lucky I can't find a version of it to play on this website or it would be on every baseball page.
. Take me out to the Ballgame - 1908 See below. I also really like the jazzy version that plays when you first open this page. Jack Norworth wrote this in 15 minutes after seeing a poster on a New York City subway. He had never actually seen a baseball game when he wrote it.
A Dying Cub fan's last Request - a great song by Steve Goodman (same guy who wrote "City of New Orleans" and "You don't have to call me" and other great songs) when he was dying of leukemia. In 1984 Steve was invited to sing the national anthem at the first game of the playoffs when it appeared that the Cubs would make the playoffs. Steve didn't get to sing or even see his Cubs clinch. The Cubs magic number was 3 when Steve died at the age of 36. If you have never heard this you owe it to yourself to find a copy. Rhino records has it.
The Star Spangled Banner - Francis Scott Key - Gotta have this one to start every game. In Atlanta its "and the home of the Braves".
O' Canada - Gotta have this one to start every game in Canada. Actually a much prettier song than the U.S. anthem.
Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen, 1984 - actually a song against remembering about old sports and glory days. There is also a great spoof by Bruce Springstone (Tom Chalkley) of "Take me out to the ballgame" done like the Boss' "Born to Run".
It has all the Nelly Kelly verses like:
Nelly Kelly loved Base Ball games
Knew the players, knew all their names,
You could see her there every day,
Shout "Hurray" when they'd play.
Her boy friend by the name of Joe
Said to Coney Isle, dear, let's go,
Then Nelly started to fret and pout,
And to him I heard her shout
Willie, Mickey and the Duke and Talkin' Baseball - Terry Cashman (of Cashman and West), 1982. Terry wrote 30 different versions of this song - one for every major league team except Seattle. This song has sold over a half million copies. Cashman also wrote several big hits in the 50's, 60's and 70's and produced Jim Croce.
Rock & Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter - a.k.a The "Hey Song"
There used to be a Ballpark - Frank Sinatra, 1973
Takin Care of Business - Bachman Turner Overdrive - This song is usually played when the best closing pitcher comes in or when a pitcher like Greg Maddux is cruising through the batters at a quick pace.
YMCA - The Village People - Makes everyone want to get up and move.
Brown Eyed Handsome Man - Chuck Berry's great song about Hank Aaron. This is a better Hank Aaron song than Move Over Babe (Here Comes Henry) by Bill Slayback
Thank God I'm a Country Boy - John Denver - not sure why but it seems to be a 7th inning stretch favorite.
Right Field - Peter, Paul & Mary - A new perspective on the position that the worse player on the team always got to play.
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? - Count Basie and his Orchestra.
Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song) - The Treniers featuring Willie Mays.
Van Lingo Mungo - an obscure but really good 1970 song by David Frishberg (Only two words in the whole song are not the names of baseball players.)

Other Songs Heard at Baseball Parks

"Hit Me With your Best Shot" after a batter has been hit with a pitch,
"I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash after a walked batter
"Bad to the Bone" after a player gets hit by a pitch or line drive
Its not a song but - While the opposing manager visits the mound play Bubba Blue's recitation of all the many ways you can "do" shrimp. "Let's see...there's boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, popcorn shrimp, shrimp stew...
(When tossed by the ump) "I fought the law and the law won.
"I Shot the Sheriff", sic, Ump...after another bad call
"Free Ride" by Edgar Winter when someone walks.
The theme to 'Jeopardy' is played whenever there is a discussion at the mound.
"Pressure" by Billy Joel in a tight late inning situation for the opposition...
"Three Blind Mice" for a bad call
"Catch Us If You Can" for a stolen base by the home team
"Cotton-Eyed Joe
" Louie Louie"
"You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'" for fights, brawls, and vehement disagreements with the umpire
"I Did It My Way" for celebrating a win after the game
"Rainy Night in Georgia" for those boring rain delays

My Favorite

Baseball Movies

Again this is just my opinion. If you have favorites of your own let me know what they are and I will post them here. (revised 1-1-98)

Field of Dreams - Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster - This is probably the best overall baseball movie. The only problem is that there is very little actual baseball in the movie. Its the love of baseball that makes this movie so great.
Bull Durham - What real minor league baseball is really like. And Susan Sarandon rivals Gwen Verdon (from Damn Yankees) as the sexiest woman in a baseball movie. At times I've thought that both Bull Durham or Field of Dreams should be #1.
The Pride of the Yankees - The Lou Gehrig Story - Lou's one of my all time favorite players and the speech at the end at Yankee Stadium gets me every time. Previously I rated this #1 but I saw it again in December of 1997 and it didn't hold up as well as I thought it did. The baseball scenes weren't as realistic as I remember.
Damn Yankees - The dream of a washed up older fan being changed into a great ball player is a great musical movie.
Bang the Drum Slowly - Robert Deniro and Michael Moriarty - a great movie and a great book.
The Stratton Story - Jimmy Stewart as one-legged White Sox pitcher, Monty Stratton and June Allyson is terrific. Its so sappy I can't believe Disney has not done a remake.
Major League - Charlie Sheen (as Wild Thing), Tom Berenger and Corbin Bernsen make this a great comedy.
The Natural - Robert Redford and his bat and a dozen other great actors make this a movie I can watch over and over.
Eight Men Out - The Black Sox Betting Scandal
Soul of the Game - This is a recent HBO movie about Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson and Satchell Paige and how Jackie Robinson was chosen by the Dodgers over the other two to be the first Negro League player to play in the Majors.

Click here for other's opinions.

The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bull pen.
-Bob Lemon, Yankee manager, 1981

I believe if Shoeless Joe Jackson were playing today, he'd have a shoe contract.
--Don Mattingly, for Nike Shoes, 1995
There are a thousand good umpires in the winter, but only a few in the summer. - Harry "Steamboat" Johnson, Standing the Gaff, 1935
I found this the other night and thought others might like to know that the song, "Take me out to the ballgame" has a first verse. I had never heard or seen it before. By the way it is the third most popular American song. Only "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Happy Birthday"
have been sung more often in the United States.

Take me out to the ballgame
Katie Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad;
Just to root for the hometown crew,
Ev'ry sou, Katie blew.
On a Saturday, her young beau,
Called to see if she would like to go,
To see a show but Miss Kate said, "No,
I'll tell you what you can do":

Take me out to the Ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and crack-er-jack,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win its a shame,
For it's one, two, three strikes,
You're out at the old Ball game.

         -Jack Norworth & Albert Von Tilzer, 1908

Jack Norworth wrote this in 15 minutes after seeing 
a poster on a New York City subway.  He had never 
actually seen a baseball game when he wrote it.

 (I've also see the following verse attributed
   to the song but I can't seem to make it work.)

Nelly Kelly loved Base Ball games
Knew the players, knew all their names,
You could see her there every day,
Shout "Hurray" when they'd play.
Her boy friend by the name of Joe
Said to Coney Isle, dear, let's go,
Then Nelly started to fret and pout,
And to him I heard her shout: - (Chorus goes here.)

5-18-97
Well, the Decatur Sports Page has been up and running for about six weeks. Like any venture you aren't sure what to expect and what kind of reception you will get. We have gotten lots of positive feedback and the website is averaging about 50 or more hits per day. To say that Mark and I are pleased is an understatement.
There are things that we did wrong. We did not do any trial runs on our software (we relied on Bill Gates' word) and unfortunately quite a few of our best features, including an automatic scoreboard which can be updated by coaches and a message board have yet to work.
However, the most important thing we did wrong caught us totally unexpected. We were so rushed to get the website up and going that we assumed all the leagues would welcome us with open arms. I mean - there was no cost to the leagues and we would do most of the work ourselves so why wouldn't they want this.
We were wrong. I had forgotten the first principle in business that when you implement a change you always ask the opinion of those involved - out of courtesy. Also quite often they may have valid concerns which should be addressed. We didn't ask anyone and in fact we did not have any connection to the officials of two leagues. Consequently they had no person who we could rely on for information. There were some additional concerns that players' names and coaches' phone numbers should not be on the internet. Also we found out that Dixie Youth Baseball does not allow any individual awards during the regular season with the exception of over the fence home run recognition.
Starting with the soccer season we will not list team rosters. We will still list team names, scores, standings, coaches and coaches' and league officials' phone numbers unless they ask us not to list them. We will not list team rosters. We will still recognize individual players but only if the leagues involved do not have a rule prohibiting that recognition.
Most importantly, from this point forward, we will ask to make a presentation to each league involved before the season begins to clear up any concerns that they may have. As more and more people get computers and go on-line we know that our acceptance will grow.
A final point - the goals of this website will remain the same. We hope to provide a place where all youth sports in Decatur can have a forum of their own and where coaches, players, parents, etc. can go to find articles to improve their knowledge of sports and what benefits sports can provide for those involved.
4-28-97
I am a big fan of Chris Berman and ESPN and the way he uses nicknames to add humor to his ESPN Sports Center updates. Someone posted a list of a lot of the nicknames that he has used over the years on a baseball chat board. I have copied it here for your pleasure. Click here to go to Chris Berman's Nicknames.
4-27-97
I was helping coach the Minor A Cardinals on Friday night when it occurred to me why I liked youth sports so much better than professional sports - specifically the major leagues. I was yelling at the players to help out their pitcher with a little noise, a little chatter, when I realized that I hadn't heard chatter at a professional game or minor league game or even at the college games that I have attended the last few years.
For those of you unfamiliar with chatter it is the sing-song "Hey batter batter batter swing batter batter batter" that baseball players yell to get the batter to swing at a pitch too early. Its not the words that count - its the cadence.
My thinking is that the older players feel that it is beneath them to chatter and that is the reason that they no longer do it. Also my real feeling is that it probably actually helps the younger batters - as opposed to the dead silence that can cause a player to tense up and not be able to swing. But never-the-less I ask the players to do it because I think it can put a pitcher at ease and it keeps the fielder's minds on the game as opposed to watching the cars drive around the fields or the girls in the stands.
Also I do it because it reminds me of the way baseball used to be not so long ago. In truth that is one of the reasons that most of us coach youth sports - to try to pass on the love of the amateur game of baseball that we grew up with - not the "Albert Belle - spit in your face game" that kids get to see on television today.
Oh, I'm sure the day is coming when even the tee-ballers will look at us funny when we ask them to make some noise but until that day I will be doing my part to teach the younger players how to chatter.
3-28-97
(Until someone gives me something to post in this space I'm going to use it for my own ramblings.) I borrowed the "Just Talking to Myself" from Studs Terkel, an author, whose style I really like. Unfortunately my writing will never be confused with Studs'.

A fellow with the Pleasant Grove (near Birmingham) Dixie Youth Association was in my office on 3/25/97 and we discussed fundraisers and such. He was most proud of a league that they had added in 1996 called the Achiever's League. It is a league devoted to physically challenged kids. In 1996 they had two teams. This year they have four teams. He said that the only real adjustments they had to make were to make the dugouts handicapped accessible. He said that the crowds for the Achiever's League games had been huge. With the close proximity of L.B.W.D.C. and our local support of the Special Olympics I thought this might be a great idea for Decatur. If anyone is interested the man to contact to learn about the Pleasant Grove Dixie Youth Association Achiever's League is their president, Rick Gregg, 205-744-4649. The league had gone over so well that several large corporations and their money and prestige had become involved. The Boy Scouts had also become involved.
Please e-mail me with old stories and trivia about baseball, Decatur sports, etc.. (Actually we'll publish anything that doesn't cause us to become the focus of a nationwide boycott or an FBI probe.) Until our website becomes the center of youth sports in Decatur, as Mark and I believe it will be, I will use this PEANUT GALLERY as my personal soapbox. I apologize in advance for anyone I offend - I have never been a person that anyone called politically correct. (I got that from my dad.) So, in the proud tradition of Studs Terkel and Dave Barry, I will stretch one or two ideas into a column.
I was talking to a fellow coach, Rick Sanders, last year and he mentioned the name Wingfoot Park. It was a name I hadn't heard in years. Now Wingfoot Park is where youth baseball games in Southeast Decatur were held years ago. In fact, the park, is still in the same place as it was years ago and it is still used for softball. If you are as old as I am (40) you might remember it. If you are younger you probably have never heard of it. But if you think of what the name "Wingfoot" signifies you know exactly where the park is. If you still can't remember the answer is below.
I love stories of Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Dizzy Dean and some of the other old-time baseball players. Here is a story I heard about Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle. It was told as truth but you never know......
Billy and the Mick were big fans of hunting. It seems that Billy had made arrangements to hunt on some land in upstate New York. He and Mickey left NYC in the wee hours of the morning headed to a farmer's property - a farmer who had previously offered to let Billy and some friends hunt on his land. Billy drove and Mickey who had "had a late night" slept. They arrived before daybreak and Billy left Mickey sleeping in the cab and went up to the farmhouse to let the owner know they would be hunting. The farmer asked Billy to do him a favor while he was there. It seems he had an old horse, a family favorite, that needed to be "put down" and he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Since Billy had his gun the farmer asked "Would he put the animal down for him?" Billy agreed and headed back to the truck to wake up Mickey. Now Billy couldn't resist a chance to pull a joke on Mickey so feigning anger he woke up Billy saying, "I can't believe that we drive all this way out here and that farmer won't let us hunt on his land!" Billy then picked up his shotgun and loaded it and said to Mickey, "I'm so @!#$#ed off I'm going to kill his best horse." Waiting for the full effect to hit Mickey, Billy then turned around, raised the gun and shot the horse. He was about to turn around to what he expected would be shock on Mickey face when he heard two shotgun blasts and Mickey's voice saying, "and I got two of the @#$%@'s best bulls, too."
Bill Werle was pitching and he got Bill Nicholson to hit a high pop-up to the infield. As he had been instructed, he called out for an infielder to make the play. "Eddie's got it!" "Eddie's got it!" "Eddie's got it!" he yelled out. Then, he watched as the ball fell untouched for a base hit as catcher Eddie Fitzgerald, third baseman, Eddie Bockman, and first baseman, Eddie Stevens looked on.
Answer: Wingfoot is the softball field at Goodyear Mills. Wingfoot is/was Goodyear's logo.