Yeah, that doesn’t sound completely bizarre. And interesting!
Basically, I believe in peace, and bashing two bricks together.
Yeah, that doesn’t sound completely bizarre. And interesting!
Fogerty played some grade-school baseball in the Catholic Youth Organization. After his years in Creedence Clearwater Revival and two solo albums, he took about 10 years off from recording. He chose “Centerfield” as the name of his comeback album before he wrote the song.
“Basically, I was reconnecting with that very special feeling I had about center field as a kid,” said Fogerty, who will release a 25th-anniversary edition of the album next month. “People didn’t know what it meant, but it was important to me. It took me a while to remember about center field and how I felt about it, but once it came into my mind, I thought: ‘Oh, that’s perfect. That’s exactly what I want to say.’”
Writing the title track was easy for Fogerty, who would say, “Put me in, Coach” as part of his everyday conversation. He loved the poem “Casey at the Bat” – he read it to his children – and imagined himself as a member of the “Mudville Nine, watchin’ it from the bench,” a reference to his absence from music.
Mays, DiMaggio and Ty Cobb are mentioned in the song, and Fogerty borrowed from Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” in describing a hitter on a home run trot.
“The brown-eyed, handsome man is probably Jackie Robinson,” Fogerty said. “Even if Chuck didn’t say so, it was in my mind.”
Up yours, NBC.
After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school.
“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,” reports the study, recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.
“This is a large effect, both absolutely and in comparison with other influences on education,” adds the research team, led by University of Nevada sociologist M.D.R. Evans. “A child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a comparable child growing up without a home library.”
After Deadline is my friend. Make it yours.
"The thing about Kersh is he’s the most mature 21-year-old I’ve come across. He’s a really good kid. He wants to get better. There’s not a part of him that thinks he’s figured it out. But at the same time, he’s stubborn, and that’s good. I don’t want a pushover guy on the mound."
Randy Wolf on Clayton Kershaw (via New York Times)
This might be how you get me to pick up a second hockey team. Vivez les Nordiques!
"It’s baseball, as never taught by Prof. Vin Scully."
Richard Sandomir on Chip Caray (via New York Times)
