What are the best sports songs ever? Not songs that are employed during games (such as Rock & Roll Part III, Whoop There It Is, etc.), but songs that are about sports?
Some of my favorites come from a CD that I’ve long-since lost, called Baseball’s Greatest Hits. It includes a peppy number by Danny Kaye about the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers ("…and that’s the Miller/Hiller/Haller Hallelujah Twist!"), some 16-year-old girl singing a duet with Mickey Mantle ( :eek: ), and a few other classics.
Recently, I’ve learned (thanks, Papa Joe Chevallier) about a polka number entitled The Bears Still Suck. Its references to Ditka and Jim McMahon make it rather dated, but the title is oddly appropriate to this day :D.
My second-favorite is by Geoff Moore and the Distance and is entilted Home Run. It’s basically a fun tune about basebally, but on some weird level it’s also about how baseball is a metaphor for the Christian Life ( ); at least, that’s what Mr. Moore says. Still, its lyrics are cool:
Gotta keep your eye on the ball,
Swing straight and true and follow through,
Don’t be afraid, whatever the call,
Because we’re never alone,
Our Coach is there to cheer us on…
But my first choice for best sports song has to be The Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request, by Steve Goodman. In it, we learn of every Cub fan’s simultaneous love and disdain for his team. I listen to it every now and again to this day, and when I’m not laughing I’m crying.
Rats. I saw the thread title and I come in here and you’ve already beaten me to it.
Do they still play the blues in Chicago,
When baseball season rolls around?
When the snow melts away,
do the Cubbies still play,
in their ivy-covered burial ground?..
I found that album when I did a couple of fill in gigs on my old campus radio station. And that song was on the air more than once.
After thinking long and hard (ok, 5 minutes) the only 2 I could think of were Centerfield by John Fogerty and The Super Bowl Shuffle by the 1985 Chicago Bears.
I’ve never heard Kurt Jackson say “Whoa, Nellie, that boy can run!” for a Harvard lad that I can recall.
In retrospect, seeing the Crimson take on a powerhouse like Nebraska or Auburn would be sort of entertaining in a car-crash, can’t pull my gaze away from the carnage kind of way. “Look, the linebacker just picked up the fumble. No, sorry, my mistake. That’s the Harvard player’s head.”
How 'bout a rousing chorus of “Boola, Boola!”? Makes you want to put on your raccoon coat, fill your hip flask with bathtub gin, and hop in the Lizzie.
Keith Jackson. My preference was the Keith Jackson “Whoa, Nellie!” followed by his broadcast partner (Frank Broyles) saying <heavy Arkansas accent> “That was a fine, fine football play.” </heavy Arkansas accent>
Have you all forgotten “The Blind Man in the Bleachers”?
Well, here we are, well, here we are!
Just watch us rolling up a score.
We’ll leave poor Harvard behind so far,
They won’t want to play us anymore.
We’ll roll the score so very high,
That you will hear them sigh:
Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,
When we “rough-house” poor old Harvard,
They will holler Boola Boo.
Rah! Rah! Rah! Yale, Eli Yale!
Oh! Yale, Eli Yale!
Oh! Yale, Eli Yale!
Oh! Yale, Eli Yale!
– Allan M. Hirsch, '01 (that would be 1901)
Christ, what a stupid song that is. Don’t EVER ask me to do that again.
From the late, sorely-lamented Shel Silverstein, performed by Bobby Bare:
chorus:
Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life
End over end, neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life.
Make me, O make me, Lord, more than I am
Make me a piece in your master game plan
Free from the earthly temptation below
I got the will, Lord, if you got the soul
chorus
Bring all the brothers who’ve gone on before
All of the sisters who’ve knocked on your door
All the departed dear loved ones of mine
Stick 'em up front in the offensive line
chorus
A lowly benchwarmer I’m contented to be
Until the time that You have need of me
To put on the big scoreboard that shines from on high
The Great Super Bowl way up in the sky
I like a song by Kenny Rogers about a kid playing baseball by himself:
I am the greatest…
I can’t remember the title or much of the lyrics, but basically the boy is trying to toss the ball up and hit it, and keeps striking out. He says “I am the greatest hitter in the world”…until he strikes out, and then he changes it to “I am the greatest pitcher in the world”. It’s really cute…
); at least, that’s what Mr. Moore says. Still, its lyrics are cool: