Sunday, August 26, 2007

Immaculate Concepcion

Dave Concepcion had his number retired by the Reds yesterday.

Dave was a classic "back in my day" guy. Every year you could expect to see him in his Reds uniform on your baseball cards (and stickers!). 19 seasons with one team. This was back when shortstops were there for defense only, essentially, and he was a great one. But, hey, his career batting average was higher than what JD Drew is hitting now, so....good to see the guy honored.

In a completely unrelated story, Jonathan Papelbon has a new entrance song. Kind of. You may remember how I felt about "Wild Thing"--a fine song, fits in with Jon's personality, but...does not have what a closer's song should have: buildup. In fact, after it's loud start, right at about the point Pap reaches the infield, it hits a lull, leaving the crowd hanging. Fenway tried turning down "but I wanna know for sure" in hopes that we'd sing along, but it just didn't work.

Pap may have finally come to realize this. Because now, they'll play Wild Thing for the run in, but right after that lull in the song, as he starts actually throwing his warmup pitches, they break into a much better-suited song for the occasion. You know that Dropkick Murphys song? The one that's like "SCHWAna SCHWAna schwinnalee schwinalee, SCHWAna SCHWAna schwinnalee schweee"? Come on, it's everywhere. It was in The Departed. You know it.

Here's the video for it. I'll let Matty tell you the rest of the details of the tune if he wants in the comments. But I will say the lyrics are by Woody Guthrie.

Red Sox at White Sox, 2 o'clock-ish. Tavy vs. Javy.

Comments:
Yeah, the song is perfect...he's done it pretty much since the movie came out, though...unless you're not talking about what i'm talking about!
 
Well, the movie came out last October. It was at some point last year Wild Thing became Pap's song--I could check my own archives for the date. Then, as of earlier this year, it was still JUST Wild Thing. On this last home stand, I noticed the Wild Thing followed by Murphys song. It could've started on a previous home stand this season, though.
 
For the record (and it was a terrible record) the song is called "Shipping Up To Boston," from the aforementioned terrible "The Warrior's Code" record- their last studio release before the next abomination that will be released in September. Before the Murphys made the "Blackout" record, Woody Guthrie's daughter contacted the band and asked if they'd like to see some unreleased song lyrics that Woody had never put to music. They used a song called "Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight" for the said "Blackout" record, and "Shipping..." on the latest record. They wrote the music for both tunes.

Why Scorsese picked it for "The Departed," I don't know. But the Murphys have become the Forrest Gump of punk rock- always in the right moneymaking place at the right moneymaking time...A World Series and a boatload of Oscars are their version of "buying stock in some fruit company."
 
The song is called "I'm Shipping Up To Boston"--I had no idea Woody Guthrie wrote it. Even better.
Been entertained by your blog for awhile, by the way.
 
Thanks for the scoop, Matty. (I'd guess Scores Easy picked it because Boston is in the title....) Still, a good buildup song.

Glad you like the blog, Amy! Thanks.
 
Jere, it's been "Wild Thing" followed by "Shipping up to Boston" for a good couple of months now. Not sure exactly when it started though.
 
I checked a vid I shot of him entering the game (from the game we went to together, actually). Of course, my vid stopped before Wild Thing ended. But he'd already started throwing warmups, and I'm pretty sure they just let the whole song play out. That was April, and I don't remember another song coming on after it, but maybe it did and I just figured it was just some random song to fill in the time, not knowing it was the same song every time.

But yeah, I only went to a couple games in July, and if I didn't see Pap pitch, that means I wouldn't have seen him live in months...

Thanks.

Two songs for one guy, what are the odds?
 

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