Your Timber Rattlers Music Video

The production crew has put together a music video to the song by 1st Degree.

Walk up music

Check out this story in the Post-Crescent on Walk-up Music for the Rattlers players.

When the subject was broached to Timber Rattlers manager Jeff Isom, he produced a deep chuckle that said he didn't really care what was played when his players strolled to the plate or took the mound.

"Whatever it takes to get them ready," Isom said. "If they think that's going to get them ready because they've got Miley Cyrus playing, then OK, so be it."

Go. Read.

Notes on Cutter

The once and future beat writer caught up with Cutter Dykstra after the doubleheader.

"I'm feeling great," Dykstra said, even after suffering through a doubleheader sweep against the Beloit Snappers on Friday at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. "Just confidence. I feel a lot more confident at the plate. Just feeling good."

And looking good. Really good, actually.

Dykstra followed a two-hit game in a 5-3 loss in the opener by reaching safely in all four trips to the plate in a 2-1, 10-inning setback in the nightcap, sandwiching a fourth-inning leadoff single with three walks.

The article mentions that Cutter has been taking grounders at third base.

It does not mention that he will be starting at first base today...Because that would have been impossible for Brett to know.

It also does not mention Cutter's at bat music...No...seriously...that's it.

Whatever works, Cutter.

Musical Interlude

Tough one for the team tonight. My brain is a little fried right now. So, I'm going to enjoy this acoustic Pete Townshend version of a song by The English Beat and take the advice from the title. Save it for later.



I'll be back in the morning...later this morning.

TILLMAN! PEGUERO! BoDEANS!

As I mentioned on Twitter, last night was a good night for ex-Rattlers.

Chris Tillman ('07) tosses a no-hitter for Norfolk at Gwinnett in the International League.

Less than two weeks after the Atlanta Braves were no hit, so were the G-Braves.

Chris Tillman did the honors for Norfolk at Coolray Field, allowing just two base runners and facing only one batter over the minimum thanks to a double play as the Tides won 6-0.

It was the first no-hitter in the International League since 2006 and the first thrown against Atlanta’s Class AAA team since Richmond was the victim in 1993.

Gwinnett’s Matt Young grounded out to end the game and touch off a Norfolk celebration at the mound as Tillman was mobbed by his teammates.

“It was amazing, man,” Tillman said afterward. “I felt really good and my team played great behind me. This is fun.”

Tillman, who turned 22 on April 15, finished last year in Baltimore’s starting rotation and was expected to be there at the start of this season.

The right-hander lost his spot during spring training, however, and was hammered in his first three starts with Norfolk .

Unfortunately, Tillman was already back on track before he faced the G-Braves after pitching eight strong innings in a victory over Charlotte last week.

“I was working on some things the Orioles wanted me to in the first couple of starts,” Tillman said of his rough outings. “Then they said just go out and have fun and do your own thing.”

Tillman's from California, right? If you blinked back in 2007, you may have missed his time with the Rattlers. He was 1-4 in eight starts - and maybe two or three of those eight starts were good ones. He was off to the California League before Memorial Day. Then, he was involved in the Erik Bedard trade that was going to win the M's the pennant...or something.

Carlos Peguero was a power prospect of the Mariners who played in Wisconsin in for 79 games in 2007. He hit nine home runs in 297 at bats and he was shutdown before August.

Last season, he hit 31 homers in High Desert.

This year in the Southern League...Well..

The 23-year-old left fielder hit the fourth pitch of the game from Mobile's Barry Enright (0-1) over the right-field fence. After lining out and singling, he led off the eighth inning with a shot over the right-center field wall, then capped his first four-hit game of the season with a two-run blast in the ninth.

Peguero has six homers in his last seven games and nine this season, tying him with Jacksonville's Mike Stanton for the league lead.

On freaking fire!

From the Mobile Press-Register

West Tenn leadoff batter Carlos Peguero was the main obstacle for the BayBears, blasting three home runs and driving in four runs. He hit four home runs in the series and now is tied for the Southern League lead with nine.

"I just stayed focused and didn't try to do too much," Peguero said. "The whole team pulled together, and good things happen when you do that."

Good things. Awesome BoDeans song, by the way.

Let the day begin

I made it to Arizona...with no problem. I made it through the Marquette game...barely.

I am two hours behind CDT, but that means it's only about 7:30 here. I'll be heading over to the minor league complex in about an hour.

Depending on wireless connection, I'll have updates on the blog during the day, including a little on the first Timber Rattlers spring training game as they face Lake County today.

Maybe a live blog...if possible. No promises.

Check back here around 2:50pm CDT to see if anything is happening.

If not, I'll keep you updated on my twitter feed. twitter.com/CMehring I'd use the Timber Rattlers one, but, that one isn't hooked into my cell phone.

Right now...I'll just let The Call take it away.

Changes around here

Well, not around here.

But, the Timber Rattlers home page will look a little different at lunch time on Monday.

We are told it will look awesome.

When I think awesome, I think David Bowie.



Awesome.

Thank you

To the 5,433 that were at tonight's game, thank you.




They're right. I don't want to come back down from this cloud.

5:15 really?

Sorry for the lack of updates. Had to tape the TV show today and there were a couple of releases that needed to get out. Plus....geez, I'm just wasting time try to explain. Regular posting, plus one of those releases are on the way.

By the way, 5:15

Awesome, song by The Who!

A short break.

There is still time to get in on the ticket giveaway below. Tickets available for the Famous Dave's Best Seats in the House (Seats four) and the Kolosso Toyota-Scion View From the Tundra Seats (For two).

I have to wrap up the column for SportsBubbler.com and probably a few other things, the regular afternoon postings will be up after I get to the stadium today.

Check for the latest This Week in Timber Rattlers Baseball around Noon CDT over at The Daily Drink.

It's a Beautiful Morning!

Why couldn't this be this weekend

The team will be in West Michigan May 29-30. That's a week too early.

It's the first event of the summer and it's absolutely FREE!

Saturday, June 6 the legendary classic rock band KANSAS will be performing at Fifth Third Ballpark.

I wonder if KANSAS loves this or hates this:



I really think that KANSAS and BLUE OYSTER CULT need to go on a tour.

May 19, 2009: Opposition Research

Here is a little tidbit from the Clinton Game Notes for tonight:

*Wisconsin Death Trip: After sweeping the Timber Rattlers in a three-game series at home in mid April, the LumberKings are off to an 0-4 start in this five-game, four-day series…it is their second four-game losing streak this year. Clinton has been out-scored 37-13 in the four games, and were nearly no-hit for the first time since 1996 in game one of the double-header on Sunday. Kings’ pitchers have allowed three home runs in this series after yielding just 13 through the first 34 games. While the offense is hitting a healthy .275 against Rattlers pitching, the Kings’ pitching staff has posted an ERA of 5.73 and an opposing batting average of .284.

Is that anything like classic Country Death Song by the Violent Femmes?

You knew it would happen

In honor of the headline of tonight's game story...

Green Day - New Music - More Music Videos

Two videos for tonight...

The Kid wanted to welcome the Mariners back to town with a video.



I did too. But, I went a different route...like always.

This week at the Bubbler

The new This Week in Timber Rattler Baseball has been posted.

Relive the week that was in Rattler baseball. Also, Dan was kind enough to pass along a website for a better version of my WSUP song at the end of the column.

Elvis Costello |MTV Music

Very Upset

I thought the hour episode of The Office after the Super Bowl was hilarious last night. Who knew heart attacks and cat throwing could be so funny?

But, I am pretty angry at them. If you have ever clicked on the My Favorite Muscian link on the left, you'll know about John Hiatt.

Now, every time I hear one of my favorite John Hiatt songs, I'll have the vision of Cloris Leachman and Jack Black meeting for the first time.

At least Jessica Alba was in the scene, too.

They were memorable

There has been a lot of talk about entrance music and baseball since the Brewers signed Trevor Hoffman. And why not? His Hells Bells entrance is one of the best ever.

In fact , it's second only to Frank Charles playing Rockin' Robin on the organ at County Stadium before Robin Yount stepped up to the plate.

In this post over at the Daily Drink, I admitted that Behind Blue Eyes by The Who would be my entrance music. Yes, it's mellow. But, it's all in the lyrics.

But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free

Yeah. I could close a game after that.

Anyway, here are some of the more memorable entrance/walk up songs I've heard over the years in the Midwest League.

Chris Snelling ('00) had Dragula by Rob Zombie.

TJ Bohn ('03) had Dirty by Christina Aguileria.

Michael Kesten ('02) had the SpongeBob SquarePants Theme.

Juan Done ('02) had Down with the Sickness by Disturbed.

There was a player with Beloit when they were a Brewer affiliate who used The Dukes of Hazzard Theme.

But, the all-time best walk up song belonged to another ex-Snapper who was a Brewer farmhand. Jeff Eure had this as his:

The link to the real video is here.

Another Christmas story

Ever wonder...?

Bing and Bowie: An Odd Story of Holiday Harmony

One of the most successful duets in Christmas music history -- and surely the weirdest -- might never have happened if it weren't for some last-minute musical surgery. David Bowie thought "The Little Drummer Boy" was all wrong for him. So when the producers of Bing Crosby's Christmas TV special asked Bowie to sing it in 1977, he refused.

Just hours before he was supposed to go before the cameras, though, a team of composers and writers frantically retooled the song. They added another melody and new lyrics as a counterpoint to all those pah-rumpa-pum-pums and called it "Peace on Earth." Bowie liked it. More important, Bowie sang it.

The result was an epic, and epically bizarre, recording in which David Bowie, the androgynous Ziggy Stardust, joined in song with none other than Mr. "White Christmas" himself, Bing Crosby.

...

How did this almost surreal mash-up of the mainstream and the avant-garde, of cardigan-clad '40s-era crooner and glam rocker, happen?

It almost didn't. Bowie, who was 30 at the time, and Crosby, then 73, recorded the duet Sept. 11, 1977, for Crosby's "Merrie Olde Christmas" TV special. A month later, Crosby was dead of a heart attack. The special was broadcast on CBS about a month after his death.

The notion of pairing the resolutely white-bread Crosby with the exquisitely offbeat Bowie apparently was the brainchild of the TV special's producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, according to Ian Fraser, who co-wrote (with Larry Grossman) the song's music and arranged it.

Crosby was in Great Britain on a concert tour, and the theme of the TV special was Christmas in England. Bowie was one of several British guest stars (the model Twiggy and "Oliver!" star Ron Moody also appeared). Booking Bowie made logistical sense, since the special was taped near his home in London, at the Elstree Studios. As perhaps an added inducement, the producers agreed to air the arty video of Bowie's then-current single, "Heroes" (Crosby introduced it).

...

The original plan had been for Bowie and Crosby to sing just "Little Drummer Boy." But "David came in and said: 'I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?' " Fraser said. "We didn't know quite what to do."

Fraser, Kohan and Grossman left the set and found a piano in the studios' basement. In about 75 minutes, they wrote "Peace on Earth," an original tune, and worked out an arrangement that weaved together the two songs. Bowie and Crosby nailed the performance with less than an hour of rehearsal.

Here is that performance:



There was a video of "Heroes" from the special on youtube.com. But, it wasn't of very good quality.

Merry Christmas

Musical Interlude

The guys from Brew Town Beat do a weekly post over at SportsBubbler.com called The Monday Morning Hangover.

They unveiled a 100-80 on their top 100 songs of the 90's in their latest post.

Good list with lots of flashbacks. But, the main one I wanted to point out was #100.

100. Del Amitri - Roll to me - The group wasn't exactly pleased that this was their most famous song. If you were stopped at a red light when hearing it, chances are the red light lasted longer than this tune.

I chimed in with a comment over there because, last week between scrounging for a caffeine fix and walking on the concourse staring at the bleakness of a baseball field covered in snow, I happened to mention Del Amitri to a co-worker. He looked at me like I had just started speaking like one of the Dead End Kids.

That's was just swell, Mac.

Anyway, here are a few Del Amitri videos.

From 1989's Waking Hours, Stone Cold Sober...which is not in the '90's and not eligible for the list as I mistakenly made a case in the comments:



From 1992's Change Everything, Always the Last to Know...which is in the '90's and not eligible for the list as I correctly made a case in the comments.


Link to the non-fan made video.

Also from Change Everything, Be My Downfall...technically a live version by Justin Currie

Be my downfall
be my great regret
be the one girl
That I'll never forget
Be my undoing
be my slow road to ruin tonight

Dissonance

Ben Hill from Ben's Biz Blog had a request for some Black Sabbath. He didn't by ticket packages. But, since he has something on either the blog or something on the main MiLB.com site involving the Timber Rattlers at some point in the next few days...What the heck.

Where does the dissonance come in?

Since I put Steve Perry to sleep with the BoDeans live version of Idaho...which is unpossible...and with a no-Journey policy on the blog that I just made up...Here is the one Steve Perry song that everyone knows.

I dare you to keep either song out of your head today...or any of the 111 days until Opening Day 2009.