Friday, February 20, 2009

Baseball Honeymoon # 4

Well gang, we just keep outdoing ourselves. Every episode of Baseball Honeymoon sets the bar higher, and I am sure you will agree that #4 continues the trend. Of course, when the original bar is somewhere below Death Valley, it’s not too hard to pull off this feat.

Fair warning: there will be no discussion of performance enhancement or steroids on this show.

It’s Oscar time, no not Oscar Gamble, but the Academy Awards-- and the theme of Episode 4 is movies and baseball. We kick things off with Bagels and Boxscores, discussing the remaining thin crop of Free Agents. Lisa and Wayne divide them up into guys who should get multi-years, guys who should take a one-year deal if they get the offer, and guys who should stay home and take care of their grandchildren.

Our first interview comes at 9:12, when Lisa gets erstwhile big league manager Grady Little to talk about his experience on the set of “Bull Durham”. Grady also discusses life after baseball for him and his wife, and their cookbook. Wow…a husband and wife doing a project together. I wonder what THAT feels like.

18:05-Music: “The All-American League Theme” from “A League of Their Own”.

Next at 18:34 comes Trivia, and Lisa gives the answer to last week’s question about “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. Instead of a new question, we imitate our podcasting idols, Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson of “Filmspotting”, and do a version of their usually hilarious “Massacre Theatre”. We’ll call it “Murderer Theatre”, and you’ll see why. Lisa and Wayne do their very best to destroy the dialogue from a baseball movie, and you guys have to guess what movie that is.

At 24:43 Lisa then gets ex-Minor Leaguer Jim Betzsold to discuss his role in the 1996 epic “The Fan”. We get some insight into what it’s like on a movie set, and what it feels like to beat the crap out of Wesley Snipes repeatedly.

31:50-Music: “I’m Forever Blowing Ballgames”, sung by John Sayles in “Eight Men Out”.

At 32:18 Wayne and Lisa read some Listener Mail; the good news is somebody liked Wayne’s “Song With Orange (and Blue)”. Bad news is somebody also liked “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. Worse news is, Wayne sings a bit of “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. Oh, the humanity!

Curly W (aka Bill Heid) gives us some insight at 38:40 into his unique dialect. Bill has always liked to use baseball metaphors for other items of interest; music and women, in particular.

42:37- Clip: Trailer from “Field of Dreams”.

Our Top 5 baseball movies commences at 43:40 with a guest on hand to do the listing with us. It’s Matty Robinson of the aforementioned “Filmspotting” podcast. To quote Lisa, “We’re not worthy”. Wayne talks to Matty for a bit, gets him to promise that he and Adam won’t sue us for using all their ideas, and then the three of us list our favorite baseball movies. There is much overlap to be sure, but the BH crew do stump the FS guy with their co 2nd ranked pick. Matty provides some great insight into why it is that inaccurate baseball movies irk fans so much.

The three then close things out with a wonderful and heartfelt salute to “The Fan”, which they all agree is the finest film about baseball ever made, maybe the finest film of the last 50 years.
Ain’t sarcasm great?

64:13-Music: “Long Gone”, Hank Williams.

64:23-The honeymooners close out episode 4 with a preview of the next show…kids, we got the immortal Jim Bouton to do a great interview for our books about baseball show, Baseball Honeymoon 5. Raise that bar again!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Baseball Honeymoon # 3

We’re very proud of our 3rd episode of Baseball Honeymoon. We actually have a theme this time, and it’s music and baseball. There are 4 interviews in the podcast, which explains why we couldn’t keep it under an hour. We promise brevity will be observed on our next show, but when you see how much great stuff we have here, you’ll understand why we go a bit long.

We start out with Bagels and Boxscores, where Lisa and Wayne get into the great free agent freeze of 2009, and discuss the possibility of whether this is a new form of collusion or not.

At 8:55 Lisa interviews Fernando Perez, Rays OF. Fernando tells of scoring the winning run against the Red Sox in the 2008 ALCS, and he also discusses the Rays clubhouse. Perez is quite the alternative music expert, and he names a favorite baseball song from that genre.

18:42: Music- “O’Brien/O’Brien’s Nocturne”- M. Ward

It’s Trivia time at 19:08. Lisa announces the winner of last week’s contest, and then posits the question for this week, and of course it’s about THE baseball song. No, not the National Anthem, but Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

Wayne interviews jazz legend/songwriter Dave Frishberg at 22:57.
Even if you’re not a jazz fan, you might know some of Dave’s classic tunes, like “Peel Me a Grape”, “My Attorney Bernie” or “I’m Hip”. Dave’s phone was very low in volume, so in order to hear him, we had to do some sound editing magic. If it sounds like Wayne is a heavy-breathing stalker, it’s just that when Dave was talking, we had to crank it up, and that brought Wayne’s background noise way out in the mix. Wayne is a fan, but not a freak, OK? Dave tells some great stories, so don’t miss this, and try to ignore the mouth breather.

29:15: Music- “Van Lingle Mungo”- Dave Frishberg

Definitely one of the highlights of the show comes at 29:38. Lisa introduces our guest correspondant, author and expert on all things Red Sox, David Laurila from Baseball Prospectus. David captures Boston prospects Lars Anderson and Zach Daeges interviewing each other. The questions they ask each other make Media Day at the Superbowl seem like a Gerald Ford press conference. They both play guitar, which explains why they are so out there.

38:15: Music- “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio”- Les Brown and his Orchestra

A Curly W appearance comes at 38:57, and Bill decides to go for the irony, giving us a hip-hop tune about why we should stop blaring pop music at the ballparks. You think if they played some Jimmy Smith during the 7th Inning Stretch, Bill might be OK with it?

At 43:14, Wayne regales (or annoys, you choose) us with his original paean to the Mets, “A Song With Orange (and Blue)”. At 46:18, Wayne apologizes for the indulgence, and audially excoriates himself. At 46:30 Wayne breaks out into sobs and begins to blame it all on his childhood traumas. At 46:35, Wayne checks into rehab.

Seriously, at 46:18 Wayne begins his interview with Jeff Campbell, creator of “Hungry For Music”, the very successful charity that brings musical instruments to needy children. Jeff explains how he started the endeavor, and why he got into producing CD’s featuring baseball songs.

55:27- Music-“Take Me Out To The Ballgame”- Bruce Springstone

Lisa and Wayne list their Top 5 favorite songs about baseball at 55:38; they bring back a familiar artist from an earlier show (albeit from a different period in her life), plus some songs that play a special part of their history. Lisa makes a joke that goes way over Wayne’s head….well more like under his posterior. In answer to her question, yes—we ARE six years old. You see, it IS possible to go scat and scatological in the same show!

End music: “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?”- Count Basie