Melvins Cover “Take Me Out the Ballgame,” Vince Neilstein and Phil Boozeman Make a Bet
Ahhhhh, Opening Day! Hope is in the air. Even the shittiest of teams with the most skeptical of fanbases clings onto that shred of faith that maybe, just maybe, if everything goes right, your team can do it! Perhaps that aging slugger brought in to mentor a young team will return to form; that once highly-touted pitcher coming back from surgery will set the radar ablaze; that young phenom will have a breakout season; that shaky defense will be just good enough. Anything is possible!
No one knows this mindset better than me and MS intern Phil Boozeman, whose two teams, both formerly full of scrubs and perennially down in the cellar — the Metal Mets and the Royals — squared off in last year’s World Series! ‘Twas an epic battle, one that MetalGF and I stayed up way past our bedtime to watch (thanks to stupid national TV scheduling), but in the end I must admit the best team won. The Mets over-powering starting pitching was just no match for the Royals’ pesky, station-to-station offense and superb defense. It was a helluva run, though; most Mets fans (this one included) never expected them to make the playoffs at all, so we just enjoyed the ride. The NLDS game MetalGF and I attended was nothing short of a magical experience. There’s nothing like the energy of playoff baseball.
But with a new season comes new chances, and as pure luck would have it (the schedules were drawn up before the playoffs) the season’s opening series features a rematch of the World Series for the first time ever in Major League history. And so a bet was made: if the Royals win the opening series, I have to write an article all about how great the Royals are. If the Mets win, Phil has to pen a piece about the Mets and the merits of drinking milk (don’t ask). It being a two-game series, in the event of a tie… uhh, I forget what happens then.
Stay tuned, as the action resumes today at 4pm EDT / 3pm CDT after the Royals eked out a win Sunday night. For now, enjoy this version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” from the Melvins’ bass-heavy new effort Basses Loaded. It’s not very bassy, but just listening to it fills me with pride and hope and dreams of things born anew. Opening Day is so fucking great. Happy baseball, everyone!
[via Pitchfork]
