Introducing Baseball Tonight's Battle Of The Bands

Friday, June 13, 2008


It's Summer programming time folks! Are you ready?! Oh, I'm not so sure. Of course Titletown is going to be annoying but how about a "Battle of the Bands" playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on Baseball Tonight? What if I told you Journey and Peter Gammons are involved???

But you won't see it from ESPN analyst Peter Gammons, who will play Ball Game on-air Sunday (7 p.m. ET) in a sort of homage to the late guitar legend Bo Diddley: "It's how Bo Diddley would have played it."

And ESPN's Baseball Tonight on Monday will begin airing music videos from nine musical acts — including REO Speedwagon — playing the 100 year-old anthem. (FYI: Lyricists Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer never went to a baseball game — and weren't even interested in the sport. Art needn't imitate life.)

The idea, says ESPN producer Jay Levy, is to create a battle of the bands decided by online voting, starting June 29, with a winner announced July 13: "Personally, I'm a huge American Idol fan, so I figured why not have our own little American Idol."

Other contestants: Jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli, bluegrass band Punch Brothers, rhythm-and-blues singer Lloyd, rockers The Cab, country singer Gretchen Wilson, Latin and salsa hip-hop group Ozomatli — "they're fabulous," Gammons says — as well as saxophonist Branford Marsalis and rockers Candlebox.
Wait, Candlebox?!?! I love Gammons, Journey, and Ozomatli, but f'ing Candlebox??? Actually, come to think of it....I might actually get into this. At least they tried to get a nice variety of different musical acts and this could be fun. If they hadn't tried to compare it to "American Idol" then I would definitely be on board.

(Yeaaaaaah. You left me faaaaaar behinnnd yind. Now may-a-a-be I dint mean to treat youuuuu oh sooooo ba-a-d, but eye diddddd it anyway yay!!)

Try to get that out of your head the rest of the day.

Old 'Ball Game' will get new treatments on ESPN (USA Today)

10 Comments:

Candlebox is also coincidently (or maybe not)the musical act playing at the Opening Ceremonies of the College World Series...

Jon Green said...
Jun 13, 2008, 1:32:00 PM  

Just stop already with all of this "extracurricular" shit. Just show the games, give your mostly flawed and inane analysis, and get on with it.




/you kids, get the hell off my lawn

UnHoly Diver said...
Jun 13, 2008, 2:08:00 PM  

put the guitar down and eat your oatmeal you crusty old man.

-dan

Anonymous said...
Jun 13, 2008, 2:37:00 PM  

You...dun duhduh duh dun dun.

Only you...dun duhduh duh dun dun.

E Buzz said...
Jun 13, 2008, 3:05:00 PM  

Candlebox > Three Doors Down

"Personally, I'm a huge American Idol fan, so I figured why not have our own little American Idol."

^^^There you go, there is your reason why ESPN has turned into complete garbage recently.

GMoney said...
Jun 13, 2008, 4:08:00 PM  

This jam shit was sooo lame 10 years ago. Who gives a fuck if PG plays guitar?

But the real issue is can PG report fairly on a GM that he plays "Born in the U.S.A" with?

Blech.

Unknown said...
Jun 13, 2008, 7:59:00 PM  

Gammons is a freaking attention-starved dork. Just another jackoff zhlubb sportswriter. Stop posting this schmuck.

Anonymous said...
Jun 14, 2008, 1:22:00 AM  

Go for Journey, check the new Revelations album from the Wal mart website --play "What it Takes to Win".

Anonymous said...
Jun 20, 2008, 6:13:00 PM  

Candlebox rules! Very cool regardless of some knucklehead's weak attempt at humor. They did a nice cover of "Ballgame" too.

Anonymous said...
Jul 3, 2008, 3:43:00 AM  

Why all the Candlebox bashing? Maybe if you pulled your head out of your ass you'd realize Candlebox has done more than Far Behind. They reunited in 2006, have been on tour, have new songs out, & have a new CD coming out 7/22/08. We've been to 6 concerts since 2006, they've been awesome, & the band is so personable, they actually hang out with everyone after the shows. "Keep on keepin' on"

Anonymous said...
Jul 3, 2008, 7:09:00 PM  

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