Well it’s that time of year again. With the start of Spring Training, just saying it makes me smile, we are once again assured that Winter is on the run and even better yet our favorite baseball team still has a shot at greatness-the regular season hasn’t started yet. Baseball season when I was a kid started in April or March if the baseball gods were on our side. We didn’t have formal teams in my neighborhood we just played pick-up teams from other neighborhood on vacant lots and in back yards. No uniforms or Umpires just a few grass stained balls and some taped up bats. This time of the year always evokes pleasant memories. This week we’ll hear some baseball classics from Craig Bickhardt, Count Basie, John McCutcheon and of course Steve Goodman.

LISTEN:

Artist / “Title” / CD / Label

Pete Seeger / “If I Had A Hammer” / Songs Of Hope And Struggle /
        Smithsonian-Folkways

Doc & Merle Watson / “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” / Guitar
        Album / Flying Fish
Greg Brown / “Laughing River” / Dream Café / Red House
Garrison Keillor / “Walt Whitman” / Baseball: A Film by Ken
        Burns / Elektra Nonesuch
Count Basie / “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball” /
        Baseball’s Greatest Hits / Rhino
Wheaties / “What Sparks a Champion” / Baseball’s Greatest Hits-
        Let’s Play II / Rhino
Bob Warren / “A Boy, a Glove, a Ball and Bat” / All the days of
        the World / KBW

Hanneke Cassel / “The Curse Reversed” / Glow / Cassel Records
Craig Bickhardt / “The Real Game” / Live at the Sellersville
        Theater / Stone Barn
David Olney / “Satch’s Six Basic Rules” / Ol’ Diz- A musical
        Baseball Story / Dead Beet
Chuck McCabe / “Grampa Played Softball” / Sweet Reunion / Woodshed
Duck Baker / “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” / There’s Something
        for Everyone in America / Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop

Peter Cooper / “715 (for Hank Aaron)” / Mission Door / Red
        Beet
Milo Hamilton / “Hammerin’ Hank’s Historic Homer” / Baseball’s
        Greatest Hits-Let’s Play II / Rhino
John McCutcheon / “Doin’ My Job” / Sermon on the Mound /
        Appalsongs
Matt Watroba / “The Used to Play Baseball Here” / Shine Right
        Through the Dark / Yellow Room
Jacqueline Schwab / “The Star Spangled Banner” / Baseball:
        A Film by Ken Burns / Elektra Nonesuch
Steve Goodman / “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” / Baseball’s
        Greatest Hits / Rhino
Pete Seeger / “If I Had a Hammer (excerpt)” / Songs of Hope and Struggle /
        Smithsonian Folkways