Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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I promise to getting back to talking about ballplayers soon. But I'm fascinated by Bob Timmermann's e-mail to me, revealing the complete lyrics to "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame."
Let's go! Batter up!
We're taking the afternoon off!
It's a beautiful day for a ballgame
For a ballgame today!
The fans are out to get a ticket or two
From Walla Walla, Washington to Kalamazoo!
It's a beautiful day for a home run,
But even a triple's OK!
We're going to cheer
And boo
Or raise a hullabaloo
At the ballgame today!
Batter Up!
Strike one!
Hey, the game has just begun
And the home team's out to win!
There he swings!
STRIKE TWO!
At the pitcher's dipsy-doo
See his fastball pop right in!
This is it!
STRIKE THREE!
The fans are tearing up the chairs
But what the heck who cares?
It's a beautiful day for a ballgame
For a ballgame today!
If you and I are out of dollars and cents
Oh honey we can always share a little hole in the fence!
It's a beautiful day for the ladies,
So throw all your dishes away
We're going to cheer
And boo
Or raise a hullabaloo
At the ballgame today!
At the ballgame, the wonderful ballgame
Today!
Timmermann, who raised an e-mail eyebrow at the verse about the ladies and their dishes, also adds:
Some of those verses were never played to the best of my knowledge.
Back in the days when the Dodgers were on KFI, they switched around the verses. Or sometimes they would play more of the song if they had time to kill.
Back in the days when a player hit a home run and Vin would say, "For that home run, Union 76 is proud to donate two $20 books of Union Oil Auto Scrip to the Boys Club of Downey in the name of Willie Crawford ..."
And the only games televised were from San Francisco or Sunday afternoon road games.
Dang I'm old.
Not much older than me. Timmermann's reminiscences immediately brought to mind the Union (not Unocal) 76 commercials during Dodger telecasts of the 1970s. They took place at a fictional gas station. There was father figure Murph, ingenue Jill, trouble-finds-him Nick, and the "earnest guy," whose name Timmermann and I forget but who was played by future CHiPs hot-rodder Larry Wilcox.
You guys remember those? I do seem to remember seeing the Jill actress get some roles beyond pumping gas - if anyone knows her name, or Nick's, or Earnest Guy's character name, or has any other recollections of these commercials, feel free to share.
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