Serendipity #32

Do-Wah-Diddy – The Exciters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn6ho_R4soA

Heard 3/23/2015 around 7:00, playing in Old Town Kissimmee

Shuffle #52 (March 23, 2015)

Oye Como Va – Santana

The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff

Raise It Up – The IMPACT Repertory Theatre & Jamia Simone Nash

Bring Me Some Water – Melissa Etheridge

Been To Canaan – Carole King

The Way – Ariana Grande

Paper Thin – John Hiatt

Where The Boys Are – Connie Francis

Your Fire Your Soul – Dar Williams

Kiss This Thing Goodbye – Del Amitri

March 22, 2015 – Nats 7, Tigers (SS) 7 – Lakeland FL

Long balls and kissing your sister

 

Weather: 83, partly cloudy

Time: 3:10

Attendance: 7,027

Section 301, Row K, Seat 13 – lower level, shallow left field, bleachers, next to the top row in the section but not bad overall. No liners or popups into the section, but Tigers third-base coach Omar Vizquel tossed a ball in our general direction at one point and the guy sitting in back of me stumbled while trying to catch it (thought we might need to catch him instead). Quite warm again, but some clouds and enough of a breeze to keep it from being really miserable. Only one other member of the Maryland crew made it, understandable given the expected heat and lack of Nats star power at the game.

 

These same two teams played to a scoreless tie last Thursday, but each managed a touchdown this afternoon. The Nats struck first off Justin Verlander (not at his sharpest), with two runs in the second, then hit a leadoff home run in each of the next three innings – Michael Taylor, Ian Stewart (who also had two singles), and Taylor again. They added a single run in the top of the sixth, and one more in the eighth.

 

A. J. Cole, who was filling in for Strasburg (slightly sprained ankle), looked impressive on the hill for the Nats. He gave up only one hit (unfortunately it was a two-run homer by J.D. Martinez) in his 3.2 innings and notched four strikeouts, including Miguel Cabrera (who was making his spring debut) twice. Following Cole, Tanner Roark held the Tigers scoreless through the fifth, but he was the only Nats reliever to escape unscathed. The home team scratched out a run off Matt Thornton in the sixth, then went back to work with the long ball: two-run shot by Alex Avila off Blevins in the seventh, then solo shots by third baseman Wade Gaynor in the eighth (off Xavier Cedeno) and second baseman Joey Pankake in the ninth (off Manny Delcarmen) to tie things up. No extra innings, as is typical for spring training.

 

Joker Marchant (MARCH-ant) Stadium in Lakeland is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year, and while it has some charms, it is certainly not one of the more fan-friendly places in the Grapefruit League. The concourse is claustrophobically crowded with long lines for concessions even an hour before game time. The men’s room I visited before the game had 5 sinks, 3 of which had missing or broken soap dispensers. I stopped into a different rest room after the game, and 3 of the 7 urinals had plastic garbage bags over them. (Hey, I understand that the place is old, but at least put a little money into plumbing maintenance, folks!) However, it was the most pleasant drive so far – some traffic on I-4 and a brief slowdown at one point on the way there, but NO TOLLS! Joker Marchant is only a mile or two off the interstate, and since it’s in the middle of the town there are numerous private parking options (I paid five bucks), which are not only cheap but are much easier to get out of than the official lot (based on experience from last year).

 

I bought a Coney Island dog for $6.75 (sloppy, but seemed like the best choice among the places without a long line), along with a $4.50 bottle of Pepsi.

March 21, 2015 – Nats (SS) 4, Marlins 2 – Viera FL

Making four-run innings a habit

 

Weather: 87 degrees, sunny

Time: 2:27

Attendance: 4,622

Section 116, Row 6, Seat 16 – just beyond first base, lower level, 6 rows back from the field. Definitely needed to be paying attention to the game, although no balls came close to us. Out in the sun, but there were some clouds and a breeze, so it was much more comfortable than the temperature suggested.

 

Note that I actually wound up in seat 12 – as I was walking to the car to make the drive to Viera, I got a text from my Maryland friends who are also down for some ballgames. They were originally going to catch the other Nats game (against the Braves), but decided to make the trek to Viera instead due to cheaper ticket prices and the prospect of J-Zimm starting. (They were rewarded by getting a couple autographs and a nice chat with Denard Span.) They got tickets on StubHub in my row, so the 4 folks in the intervening seats were nice enough to slide down one so we could sit together.

 

Parking was a little cheaper than Kissimmee ($9.00). I had a decent Cuban sandwich (with chips and a pickle), also for 9 bucks, and a $6 souvenir-cup Coke. I was a little disappointed by the combination of not having cupholders in our seats, and also not having a plastic cup for the drink. Fortunately there were no spills.

 

The Nats scoring was limited to the bottom of the third, when the first 5 batters combined for 4 runs: Desmond single and steal, Harper walk, Zimmerman fly out to advance both runners, two-run single by Wilson Ramos, and a two-run homer by Dan Uggla. Miami scored a first-inning run off Jordan Zimmermann on a leadoff triple by Dee Gordon and an RBI single by Adeiny Hechavarria, but J-Zimm kept them off the board for the remainder of his 5 innings despite giving up 8 hits. The Marlins also touched up Rafael Martin for a tally in the top of the ninth.

 

“Shake It Off” was the seventh-inning stretch song. Oh well.

March 20, 2015 – Nats 7, Astros 5 – Kissimmee FL

Nats strike fast, hold on late

 

Weather: 85 degrees, sunny

Time: 2:46

Attendance: 4,060

Section 211, Row 15, Seat 3 – section just to the right of home plate, row just below the press box, fortunately in the shade, as it got much hotter than the listed 85 as the afternoon went on

 

Just because you’re staying in Kissimmee (west side) doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have an easy trip to Osceola County Stadium, in Kissimmee (east side). On my way there, the Google navigation app on my phone detected a traffic incident on the straight-shot route (192) and initially advised me to take a toll-road alternative. Having looked forward to a toll-free day, I resisted, willing to risk the slowdown. About a mile later, she calmly recommended I turn right on something called N. Poinciana Blvd. This time I decided to trust her and was rewarded by a smooth detour that didn’t add any mileage and got around the problem. Coming back on 192, however, was SLOW all the way, primarily due to the amount of time spent waiting at traffic lights. (The Clearwater-St. Pete area long ago lessened their congestion significantly by building interchanges on many of their busiest roads.) I guess this was the Kissimmee rush hour; not sure whether using the nav would have helped.

 

Parking was ten bucks – higher than I expected for parking on a grass lot, but at least close to the stadium. Passed on the $8 beer in favor of bottled water ($3), and picked up a decent southwest chicken wrap (with chips) for 9 dollars.

 

The Nats plated 4 runs in a lengthy top of the first, off a wild Sam Deduno. Espinosa looked good against the right-handed Deduno, hitting a hard double to right that scored Tony Gwynn Jr., who opened with a walk. After Harper’s groundout advanced Espinosa to 3^rd, Tyler Moore singled him home and Mike Carp followed with a single. Deduno then lost the plate entirely, walking Uggla and Lobaton to force home the Nats’ third run, and a sac fly by Frandsen finished off the early scoring.

 

Harper made the Nats lead 5-0 in the top of the 4^th with a massive shot to right off Houston reliever Jake Buchanan; Jason Castro answered back in the bottom of the frame with a homer off Max Scherzer, for the only run the Nats’ starter yielded in a tidy 5 innings of work. Scherzer’s hitting, to be charitable, is not as far along as his pitching – the Nats chose to let him hit rather than using a DH – although he did manage to work a walk in his second at-bat. Perhaps Buchanan couldn’t quite believe he was trying to bunt with two outs.

 

The Nats bullpen did manage to make things interesting after Scherzer departed. In the bottom of the sixth, Astros third-baseman Luis Valbuena, who typically struggles against left-handed pitching, hit a two-run shot off Nats’ southpaw Xavier Cedeno to cut the margin to 5-3. Jerry Blevins pitched a 1-2-3 seventh after Kila Ka’aihue hit a solo shot in the top of the frame, and in one of those only-in-spring-training moments, was pinch-hit for by “twin” Josh Johnson, who was also wearing #13. Heath Bell, however, was unable to retire any of the four batters he faced in the eighth (walk, error, single, single), but Manny Delcarmen came in to limit the damage to an additional run, getting top prospect Carlos Correa to ground into an inning-ending double play after giving up a sac fly to cut the lead to one run. The Nats got one back in the top of the ninth when Ka’aihue doubled in Delta Cleary Jr. (who?), and Delcarmen retired Houston in the ninth. (Appropriate that a former Boston pitcher got the save, since I had Red Sox fans sitting on both sides of me.)

Shuffle #51 (March 20, 2015)

My Generation – The Who

Little Red Corvette – Prince

That Girl Could Sing – Jackson Browne

I’m So Gone – Jackie Greene

‘Til Your Fool Comes Home – James Hunter

Bubbly – Colbie Caillat

Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes – Paul Simon

Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen

Bits And Pieces – The Dave Clark Five

Let Her Dance – The Bobby Fuller Four

Forget You – Cee Lo Green

Kiko And The Lavender Moon – Los Lobos

Beat Crazy – Joe Jackson

Get Off Of My Cloud – The Rolling Stones

LP #18 This Is Ryan Shaw (2007)

Rather than being a man ahead of his time, Ryan Shaw is a man behind his time. He’s a classic soul singer, who probably would have been a big star had he been working in the 1960s. He’s also an incredibly dynamic live performer – after the release of this album, I caught him at a pre-Preakness outdoor show in Baltimore’s Harbor East neighborhood, an outdoor show at Columbia’s Lake Kittamaqundi (on my birthday no less), the WXPN summer music festival in Philadelphia, and a little later at the Birchmere opening for James Hunter.

 

Shaw wrote my favorite song on the album (“Over & Done”), co-wrote two others (“We Got Love” and “Nobody”), and covered three well-known R&B tunes – the classic “Lookin’ For A Love”, which he makes his own; Wilson Pickett’s “I Found A Love”; and Jackie Wilson’s “I’ll Be Satisfied”. He also did some older but obscure soul tracks, most notably “Working On A Building Of Love”, a Holland-Dozier-Holland song that could have been a big hit for the Jackson 5 back in the day.

 

This Is Ryan Shaw got good reviews and a Grammy nomination, but didn’t do much sales-wise. Unfortunately, for 2012’s Real Love Shaw abandoned the canny mix of covers and a few originals that made his debut such a treat, co-writing 9 of the 12 tracks, only one of which (the concluding “Morning Noon & Night”) is particularly noteworthy. Appropriately, he also played Stevie Wonder in Motown: The Musical on Broadway.

 

Favorite tracks:

Over & Done

Working On A Building Of Love

Lookin’ For A Love

We Got Love

I Am Your Man

Shuffle #50 (March 14, 2015)

Cath – The Bluebells

I’ve Got You Under My Skin – The Four Seasons

Walk This Way – Aerosmith

The Love You Save – The Jackson 5

How Deep Is Your Love – The Bee Gees

Love Ain’t For Keeping – The Who

One Toke Over The Line – Brewer & Shipley

The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff

Sweet Surrender – Sarah McLachlan

Do You Love Me -- Guster

An obscure classic lives!

I was overjoyed yesterday to hear for the first time (although almost certainly not the last) the newest Geico TV commercial, “Free-range chicken”, which features my #21 favorite song of all time, the obscure 1965 Roy Orbison classic “Ride Away”.

 

Maybe I’ll have to switch my auto insurance now.   ;-)

Serendipity #31

Low Budget – The Kinks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ468ibpQ4M

Heard 3/10/2015 around 6:00, at Jerry’s Subs (Shady Grove)