Big Hair and Plastic Grass

Beisbol, Bikel, Chocolate Strawberries and more!

Wrote a lot of fun stuff this week, so just in case you missed any of it...

In light of the thawing relations between the United States and Cuba, I wrote this piece for Rolling Stone on the ten greatest Cubans to play major league baseball, and topped it with El Tiante, above. (Sadly, the limited size of the list precluded the inclusion of Jose Cardenal, Tito Fuentes, Leo Cardenas and El Duque.)

Earlier in the week, I wrote a Rolling Stone piece on Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, one of my favorite current players and MLB's "Secret MVP".

Because there's no rap battle like an 80s Mets rap battle, I wrote this piece for Fox Sports' Just a Bit Outside on the various rap records produced by the '86 Mets, including "Chocolate Strawberry," the immortal collaboration between U.T.F.O., Whistle, The Real Richie Rich and Darryl Strawberry.

I recently did an interview with Paul Francis Sullivan for his great Sully Baseball podcast. We gabbed at length about the Hall of Fame's Golden Era vote, steroids and Fantasy Island, so he broke our chat into Part One and Part Two.

And on a non-baseball-related note, check out my Jewish Daily Forward interview with the legendary Theodore Bikel — 90 years old and still going strong. I asked him about Bob Dylan's controversial electric set at the Newport Folk Festival, but ran out of time before I could ask him about 200 Motels.

Hey, did you know that there's still time to give copies of Big Hair and Plastic Grass and Stars and Strikes to your favorite baseball fan for Christmas? Philadelphia radio host Phil Allen says, "When I was 16, I read Five Seasons by the great [Roger] Angell. Stars and Strikes is the best since... get Big Hair and Plastic Grass too!!" Considering that Five Seasons is my favorite baseball book of all time (well, other than Joe Pepitone's autobiography), that is high praise, indeed...

And finally, today is the birthday of the great Oscar Gamble. I hope you will all celebrate it in a supremely 'fro-tastic fashion.

 

"Veterans Stadium is the hippest place in town!"

In this week's edition of Bloop Hits, my regular column about music and baseball for Fox Sports' Just a Bit Outside site, I spin the collected recorded works of Larry Bowa. Those of you who have read Stars and Strikes (or were in the Philadelphia area during the 1976 season) already know about "Phillies Fever"... but did you know that Bowa and Dave Cash waxed an earlier single, as well?

Click HERE to find out more!

The Hall of Fame, Fat Lefties, Baseball Songs and Other Personal Obsessions...

Well, the Hall of Fame's Golden Era Committee has spoken, and they somehow found this year's ten-player ballot entirely wanting. This is disappointing news to me on a number of levels — I was especially rooting for Minnie Miñoso, Dick Allen and Luis Tiant — and you can read my take on the announcement for Rolling Stone HERE. And while I forgot to mention it in the piece, it especially grinds my gears to think that Bud Selig has a better chance of getting into the Hall at this point than most of these guys do.

And speaking of baseball injustices, I've long suspected that Mickey Lolich got a bum rap over his 1976 stint with the Mets, a suspicion that grew larger while I was researching and writing Stars and Strikes. I couldn't get too deeply into it in the book, since Lolich was little more than a bit player in the fascinating drama that was the 1976 season, but I was able to expound at length about it in this piece for The Hardball Times.

In other news, I've started writing regularly for Fox Sports' Just a Bit Outside site. My weekly column, "Bloop Hits," examines the many amusing, endearing and flat-out awkward ways that baseball and music have crossed paths over the years. The entries thus far have featured the 1969 Cubs, the 1981 Dodgers, Mark Fidrych tribute songs, and (most recently) Dick Allen's 1968 doo-wop single. Look for new installments every Thursday (and please leave a comment if you're so inclined)...

Hmmm... what else have I been up to since I last updated this blog? Oh yeah — I wrote this piece on the rise and fall of the "Concrete Donut" stadium for the new website Sphere. Some folks have taken issue with me calling the Oakland Coliseum "the last of the concrete donuts," since Toronto's Rogers Centre still stands. And while they technically have a point, the Coliseum is certainly the oldest one still standing, as well as the only one that is still called home by both MLB and NFL (as opposed to CFL) teams...

Other than that, I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who bought, reviewed, interviewed me about and/or otherwise supported Stars and Strikes this year. I'm still a little worn out from all the book signings and promotional events I did this spring, summer and fall, but it was totally worth it — just for all the incredible folks I met along the way. And of course, the book would make a lovely present for that baseball fan on your Christmas list...

Happy (and Funky) Holidays to you all,

Dan