Shuffle #25 (August 30, 2014)

Evil Ways – Santana

Silhouettes – Herman’s Hermits

True Faith – New Order

Southern Man – Neil Young

If I Needed Someone – The Beatles

Free Your Mind – En Vogue

All My Tomorrows – Frank Sinatra

P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – Michael Jackson

#31 Drift Away -- Dobie Gray (1973)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuyDWzctgY

Dobie Gray had a wonderful voice but very little commercial success, so you have to be happy for him (and for the world) that he got this great song to record, hitting the top 10 with it in 1973. “Give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away” has to be one of the greatest sets of lines to grace a set of pop music lyrics in the late 20^th century. Unfortunately, the lyrics to his only other big hit, “The In Crowd” in 1965, were as forgettable as those of “Drift Away” were magnificent. (Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis had the right idea later that year, ditching the lyrics entirely and hitting #5 with his instrumental version.)

#32 Once In A While -- The Chimes (1960)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCiC1EX-x8g

Although the Brooklyn-based Chimes certainly weren’t one of the leading doo-wop groups of the 1950s and early 1960s, this haunting ballad is one of the greatest (and most underappreciated) classics of the genre.

Serendipity #20

Whenever You’re On My Mind – Marshall Crenshaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXo4vS-81a8

Heard 8/26/2014 around 6:15pm, at Jerry’s Subs in Gaithersburg (Fallsgrove)

August 23, 2014 – New Britain Rock Cats 6, Altoona Curve 1 – Peoples Natural Gas Field (Altoona PA)

Cat scratch fever (headline courtesy of the Altoona recap)

Umpires: HP: John Libka. 1B: Brian Peterson. 3B: Blake Felix.

Weather: 63 degrees, cloudy.

Wind: 6 mph, Varies.

T: 3:06.

Att: 6,278.

It’s been a down year this season for the Altoona Curve, and they lived down to their record Saturday evening. The Rock Cats struck first in the opening frame, when Curve starter and loser Zack Dodson hit the leadoff batter and subsequently gave up a walk and a run-scoring double. They added to their lead in the fourth on a single, double, RBI groundout, and RBI single. Meanwhile, the Curve didn’t record their first hit until Jarek Cunningham doubled with one out in the bottom of the sixth, later scoring on a single by Ramon Cabrera for the only Altoona run of the night.

Pirates reliever Stolmy Pimentel had a rocky rehab outing in the top of the seventh, being charged with the remaining three Rock Cats runs, yielding a double and three walks (two with the bases loaded), while also making an error on a bunt. Former Nat Collin Balester did pitch a scoreless top of the ninth for the Curve.

We had great seats (Section 212, Row 11, 3-4), in the first row of the upper level, looking right down the third base line (similar view to our regular Nationals Park location, but much closer). Several foul pops were in our general direction, although none came particularly close to us. Went with the pulled pork sandwich, which was quite a bargain at $5.00 (not to mention the bottle of water for just $1.75).

August 21, 2014 – Nationals 1, Diamondbacks 0 – Nationals Park

Oops, they did it again

Umpires: HP: James Hoye. 1B: Bob Davidson. 2B: John Tumpane. 3B: Bill Welke.

Weather: 87 degrees, overcast.

Wind: 3 mph, Out to RF.

T: 2:51.

Att: 32,311.

Well, if you have to be in a rut, a 10-game winning streak with 5 walk-off wins in the last 6 games isn’t a bad rut to be in. The latter hasn’t happened since July of 1986, when the Astros somehow managed 5 walk-off victories in a row.

The starting pitching was extremely effective on both sides. (Stop me if you’ve heard this before.) Gio Gonzalez, who was shaky in his previous outing on Saturday, matched Tanner Roark’s effort the night before with seven scoreless and mostly drama-free innings.

Meanwhile, the Nats collected 8 hits and 6 walks (one of which was intentional) off Arizona starter Wade Miley in his 6.2 innings of work, but somehow managed not to score a single run, wasting opportunity after opportunity. As destiny would have it, the game remained scoreless until the bottom of the ninth, when Denard Span singled with one out, stole second base, and scored when Diamondbacks third baseman Jordan Pacheco threw away Anthony Rendon’s ground ball.

This 4:05 game was not in our regular plan, so Terry and I were in our “bobblehead section” (107, EE, 12-13). We headed down early, had a leisurely lunch at Nando’s, and then walked down to the Park. We found our old friends (and former section-mates) the Schroeders waiting in line for the Ian Desmond bobbleheads, so spent some time socializing with them before the game began. Weather.com had claimed that there wouldn’t be any rain before 7pm, but it actually started around 5:00, ranging from light to somewhat less light. It never got heavy enough to stop the game, but we got tired enough of it by the fifth inning or so that we decided to find some unoccupied covered seats in our usual upper-level section. We still had some Washington Post coupons to use up, so filled up on $1 ice cream bars and souvenir sodas (and refills of same).

August 20, 2014 – Nationals 3, Diamondbacks 2 – Nationals Park

Ho hum, another walk-off win

Umpires: HP: Bill Welke. 1B: James Hoye. 2B: Bob Davidson. 3B: John Tumpane.

Weather: 74 degrees, cloudy.

Wind: 4 mph, Out to RF.

T: 3:04 (:12 delay).

Att: 24,113.

After scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday, and the bottom of the eleventh inning on Sunday and Monday, the Nats somehow put together an easy 8-1 victory behind Strasburg on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, however, they were back to their old tricks.

Like Sunday’s game, it started out as a pitcher’s duel, this time between Tanner Roark and Arizona’s Trevor Cahill. Roark was outstanding despite a high pitch count in the first couple of innings, holding the D-Backs scoreless through seven on just five hits and a single walk. Meanwhile, the Nats cobbled together a second-inning when with one out Desmond singled, took second on Harper’s single, stole third, and scored on a Wilson Ramos grounder when Harper’s hard takeout slide prevented Arizona from turning the inning-ending double play. They added a second run in the sixth on consecutive doubles by Asdrubal Cabrera and Jayson Werth.

Given the Nats’ recent history, however, late-inning dramatics shouldn’t have been surprising. The normally-reliable Tyler Clippard entered in the eighth and yielded his second game-tying homer in as many appearances, this one by light-hitting D-Backs centerfielder Ender Inciarte after a walk to the leadoff hitter. After neither team threatened in the next two half-innings, Harper led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and moved to third on a one-out single by Kevin Frandsen, in the lineup at third base to give Anthony Rendon a well-deserved rest. Fortunately, that meant that Rendon was available to pinch-hit for Rafael Soriano, and he lined a ball just inside the third base line to send almost everyone in the relatively sparse crowd home happy.

It was raining in Rockville when we left shortly after 5:00, and kept raining throughout the drive, although it had pretty much stopped (and fortunately did not resume) by the time we got inside the stadium. Decided to try the Arizona Quesadillas in honor of the visiting team – not bad, but somewhat on the sloppy side for eating in the stands, and the salsa was packed too tightly for convenient dipping.

#33 I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better -- The Byrds (1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIpAeLpIjVk

Unbelievably, one of the Byrds’ best songs ever – Rolling Stone put it at #237 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time – didn’t even break into the top 100 when it came out, “bubbling under” at #103. Naturally, there’s a story to that. Like “Ain’t No Way”, “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” was released as a B-side, in this case paired with Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want To Do”, which was expected to be a sure-shot follow-up to their chart-topping version of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”. Ironically enough, a version of “All I Really Want To Do” by Cher was released as a single at the same time, and had a lot more success than the Byrds’ rendition. “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”, despite its lack of initial chart success, became a classic of 12-string-guitar jangle-pop, spawning cover versions by Tom Petty and countless others.

 

#34 Ain't No Way -- Aretha Franklin (1968)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6HhtnxA4F0

 

Everyone knows about Aretha, of course, but she also had two younger sisters with musical inclinations. Erma Franklin hit the charts in late 1967 with “Piece Of My Heart”, several months before the better-known version by Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin) came out as a single. Carolyn Franklin never hit the top 100 as a performer, but she wrote my two all-time favorite Aretha songs: “Ain’t No Way” and “Angel”, both of which are great ballads. Of course, Aretha was so hot in 1967 and 1968 that “Ain’t No Way” didn’t even get its own release, coming out as the B-side of “Since You’ve Been Gone”.

 

August 17, 2014 – Nationals 6, Pirates 5 (11 innings) – Nationals Park

Winning ugly is sweet

Umpires: HP: Andy Fletcher. 1B: Mike Muchlinski. 2B: Tom Woodring. 3B: Mark Wegner.

Weather: 87 degrees, partly cloudy.

Wind: 3 mph, Out to RF.

T: 3:42.

Att: 34,430.

“Winning ugly is sweet” is the name of one of the ice cream stands at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, where I had seen a White Sox game two days earlier. It certainly applied to Sunday’s game, with its unusual 5:05 start time. Both teams took turns self-destructing, with the Nats falling behind, taking the lead, falling behind again after a 3-run top of the ninth, tying the game in the bottom of the ninth, and finally winning it in the eleventh. Each team committed two errors and tossed two wild pitches. It was a long, ugly victory, but we’ll certainly take it, along with the sweep of the typically-troublesome Pirates.

The first five innings moved along briskly, with Fister and Volquez giving up two hits each and neither one allowing a runner to get as far as third base. Things started getting weird in the top of the sixth – five batters in, the Bucs had scored twice and had the bases loaded with no outs, partially due to an error by Desmond on the Pittsburgh leadoff batter and a bad throw by Rendon two batters later. Fister managed to get two consecutive batters to ground into force outs at home, and escaped the inning without further damage.

Washington cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Desmond, who at least partially atoned for his error and two previous strikeouts. After the seventh-inning stretch, the Pirates reciprocated Washington’s earlier generosity. The Nats loaded the bases with one out, when Michael Taylor was ruled to have been hit by a pitch following a successful replay challenge, and pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen and Denard Span followed with singles. Jared Hughes came in to relieve Volquez and did his job by inducing ground balls from Cabrera and Rendon. Unfortunately for the Bucs, the grounders resulted in wild throws home by Ike Davis and then by Pedro Alvarez, allowing all three inherited runners to score.

With a 4-2 lead, Tyler Clippard shut down the Pirates in the eighth, but Rafael Soriano produced an ugly top of the ninth all by himself, hitting the first batter and eventually allowing one run to score on a wild pitch and two more on a double by Gregory Polanco.

The Nationals, however, were far from done. Against Pittsburgh closer Mark Melancon, Jayson Werth pinch-hit, drew a one-out walk, and scored the tying run on singles by Span and Asdrubal Cabera. After remaining in the game to play right, Werth struck again in the bottom of the eleventh with a leadoff double. Span advanced him to third on a grounder, and Scott Hairston (pinch-hitting for winning pitcher Ross Detweiler) hit a fly ball to left that was plenty deep enough to score Werth and win the game.

I drove down unnecessarily early to get a Bill Taft bobblehead – despite being delayed 5-10 minutes by slow traffic on the 270 spur and a stretch of the Outer Loop, still got to the parking lot around 3:00. Given the hot weather, I grabbed a lemon chill before heading upstairs, saving my sub for a little later in the day.