Songs performed by “Doc,” as Wood is known by his friends, included Talking Baseball written by 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor of English Don Kunz and Baseball is America鈥檚 Game written by friend J. David Pincus. Right Field, a baseball song made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary rounded out the set of music.
Talking Baseball puts tongue firmly in cheek as lyricist Kunz pokes fun at the language of baseball:
Baseball is played in a park without trees,
In fields never plowed,
On a diamond with no sparkle.
Baseball players face pitchers with no handles,
Swing bats that don鈥檛 fly,
Steal bases they have no intention of returning.
Baseball fans know that the batter鈥檚 box has no lid,
That a hit and run is no crime,
And the stands are for sitting.
Baseball is America鈥檚 Game traces baseball from the sandlot, “a kid鈥檚 game played on hot, lazy summer nights played with a brash innocence for the sheer delight,” to the corporate world, “baseball鈥檚 a business too, team owners are quick to whine鈥� a victim of run away salaries and pinched bottom lines.”
Baseball is America鈥檚 Game is also included on Doc Wood鈥檚 newest CD, Muley Point Mud, from Neoga Music (www.neogamusic.com). J. David Pincus, the author of the lyrics, is also Wood鈥檚 co-author on a forthcoming book entitled Reel Baseball. The book is due for release in the spring of 2003 by McFarland Publishers, and includes interviews with Kevin Costner, Penny Marshall, James Earl Jones, James Belushi, Vin Scully, Jeffrey Lyons and others associated with the intersection of baseball and film.
Wood has presented research at the “Symposium for Baseball and American Culture” since 1990, but this was the first time he was invited to perform. Doc Wood described the experience as a thrill. “To perform at the mecca of baseball, was both an honor and privilege–not to mention a lot of fun!” he said.
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