While particular teams in most every sport will get a song or five written in their honor and played often during a game, few iconic pursuits can match the sheer musical output of baseball.
There are the sing-along tunes played in the park -- you can not go to a game for twenty years and still remember all of the lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" -- and there are the beloved organ interludes, pieces that summon the spirit of the mound, catcher's gloves, and home base.
It's a sport rife with sound, and not just ball hitting bat or crowds cheering, as audiences the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts will explore for three nights only. Those nights fall during the oh-so-baseballian time of year, the first week of April, April 4 to 6 to be specific.
And the tunes? It's Baseball Swing with the All Star Baseball Jazz Band. The nights are co-commissioned by the Baseball Music Project and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and special baseball-batty guests? There'll be a few of 'em, including Fred Willard and Adrian Zmed.
Lou Moore, Executive Director of the Wallis, says "I was amazed to find that there are hundreds of songs written over the past decades about baseball and a few of the sport's greatest players, and we are happy to share a few of them here at the Wallis."
A singing foursome and a nine-piece jazz outfit will perform stadium-sweet ditties like "Knock It Out of the Park," "Baseball Boogie," "Say Hey," and, you betcha, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
Ready to immerse yourself in all things cleatian and grassy? It isn't simply about cheering on your favorite players. The music and culture of baseball, and memory, too, are powerful things. Best make for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to further stoke those heightened, early-April emotions.
