Piazza New York Catcher

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Elope with me Miss Private and we’ll sail around the world
I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl
How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
How many nights of limping round on pagan holidays?
Oh elope with me in private and we’ll set something ablaze
A trail for the devil to erase

San Francisco’s calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we’ve got no place to stay
We hung about the tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest ending of a book you ever had to read
The statue’s crying too and well he may

I love you I’ve a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you my responsibility has found a place
Beside you and strong warnings in the guise of gentle words
Come wave upon me from the wider family net absurd
“You’ll take care of her, I know it, you will do a better job”
Maybe, but not what she deserves

Elope with me Miss Private and we’ll drink ourselves awake
We’ll taste the coffee houses and award certificates
A privy seal to keep the feel of 1960 style
We’ll comment on the decor and we’ll help the passer by
And at dusk when work is over we’ll continue the debate
In a borrowed bedroom virginal and spare

The catcher hits for .318 and catches every day
The pitcher puts religion first and rests on holidays
He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
He knows the drink affects his speed he’s praying for
a doorway
Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
Life outside the diamond is a wrench

I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend
I know it wouldn’t come to love, my heroine pretend
A lady stepping from the songs we love until this day
You’d settle for an epitaph like “Walk Away, Renee”
The sun upon the roof in winter will draw you out like a flower
Meet you at the statue in an hour
Meet you at the statue in an hour

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

the tenderloin = neighborhood in san francisco which used to be the gay center of town in the 60s/70s

the statue = willie mays statue in front of pac bell park.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

This could be a 6ths song (sung by Barbara Manning naturally).

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"well he may" = play on "willie mays"

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

who is it?

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't realize the title was a pun until someone mentioned it on the best song titles of 2003 thread

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

When I saw Belle & Sebastian September 2001 in San Francisco, Stuart Murdoch mentioned that he was a Barry Bonds fan and that he'd gone to a few games on that tour. When interviewed by KALX this past summer, he talked about baseball and seemed fairly knowledgable.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

what is this song about? who is the narrator?

is the "pitcher" shawn estes (former SF giant and NY mets teammate of piazza's, current ChiCub rated this year by baseball prospectus as one of the 5 worst pitchers in the league, reputed alcoholic who's performance is plagued by alc.consumption, attempted to "defend" piazza's honor vs. clemens in interleague play and missed badly?)

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, Stuart is a big baseball fan -- in Chicago, he wore a Cubs cap and showed off his Sammy Sosa-autographed ball.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

http://sportsmed.starwave.com/i/magazine/new/steve_bartman.jpg

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i would think the pitcher -- or at least the pitcher described in that one line -- is sandy koufax, who refused to pitch on jewish holidays throughout his career, and who was quite controversially outed in the gossip pages of the ny post last year. the post eventually apologized and claimed it got the item wrong, but not before koufax severed his lifelong ties with the los angeles dodgers, who are owned by post owner rubert murdoch.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 7 November 2003 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooh good call, fcc.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 7 November 2003 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yes, the sheer horror of homosexuality corrupting the morals of american athletes! thank you!

I didn't focus on the religious part so much as the drinking part + the piazza's defense connection.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah, Koufax doesn't work, other than being religious - and then being the wrong religion to boot. He never had any kind of speed problems or personal problems.

Estes is the best bet, and the rest is just fiction.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 7 November 2003 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

or perhaps the pitcher is a composite character. i find it hard to believe that koufax wasn't at the front of stuart's mind when he wrote about a pitcher who rests on holidays, whatwith koufax being the other most famous baseball player, along with piazza, who's found it necessary to deny that he's gay in the past couple of years. and then maybe he had somebody or something else in mind when he went on to write the next few lines.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 7 November 2003 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

estes likes gbv and pavement = possibly belle and sebastian?

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Erm, what's the pun in the title? I don't see it.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 8 November 2003 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

a catcher is somebody who gets fucked in the ass

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 8 November 2003 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.lambdashopping.com/shopping/indexf2.cfm?SubCat=13

― Sam J. (samjeff), Saturday, 8 November 2003 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 9 November 2003 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i love the well he may/willie mays pun

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 9 November 2003 07:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The pitcher is so ridiculously Sandy Koufax that it isn't even funny. "Life outside the diamond is a wrench" is about all the shit he had to put up with before and after he pitched because of his injuries.

Say! Is it true that Sandy likes boys?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 9 November 2003 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 9 November 2003 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

Well, I stumbled onto this looking for chords and i've come away with a completely different perspective on one of my favourite belle and sebastian songs. does anyone know who stuart murdoch roots for, anyhow?

― dalton spencer lang, Sunday, 30 November 2003 01:23 (twenty-one years ago)

he says his other dream job is shortstop for the san francisco giants so i imagine he's a giants fan.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 30 November 2003 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Knobheads.

― Harmony Griefstud (MichaelJ), Sunday, 30 November 2003 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a good song. Melodically, I like it now a lot more than I did the first few times I heard it. And for a Scot to write a song and weave into it this awareness of obscuro innuendo hung upon two marquee players . . . from different eras, now that's something.

― gusbot (eternal_fields), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 06:54 (twenty-one years ago)

But it's related to the fact that the pitcher is an alcoholic -
"He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
He knows the drink affects his speed he’s praying for
a doorway
Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
Life outside the diamond is a wrench"

Koufax never had a drinking problem or major personal problems.

(And the fact that Koufax is, you know, Jewish.)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 07:01 (twenty-one years ago)

That Bartman picture haunts me to this day.

― gusbot (eternal_fields), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 07:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry . . . to scroll up for lyrics requires passing that strange photo . . . Interesting, milo, but maybe are you being too literal?

― gusbot (eternal_fields), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I agree that Koufax may have entered into the thoughts somewhere (if Murdoch, a new fan, knows that much history) - but it's not _about_ him.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still trying to figure out the Shawn Estes ref abvoe. How did he defend Piazza's honor? And how is it that my world of sports and music are crossing in such a way that Shawn Estes is part of some Belle & Sebastian cipher being discussed on ILM? Crazy.

― gusbot (eternal_fields), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 07:58 (twenty-one years ago)

June 15, 2002 @ Shea Stadium

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

haha: Joe Morgan's advice

also, just a reminder to y'all about the i love baseball forum.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I love baseball = a dream come true.

― gusbot (eternal_fields), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

are you who i think you are?

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

it's the only song I like on that album

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw, c'mon. The title track is catchy. I find it works better the more chances you give it.

And it's hard to say gygax! I have "introduced myself" so perhaps you can connect more dots over at i love beisbol.

― gusbot (eternal_fields), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/38447.htm

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

"He used to be a regular at 14th Street hotspot Lotus until Mets players started boycotting it after one of the team's second-stringers was refused entrance."

"Beyond that, the couple also shared a cutesy pre-game ritual: Piazza would bite a Halls cough lozenge in half, and share it with Bernaola."

He's a very nice man.

― danh (danh), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

beard

― robots in love (robotsinlove), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

Maybe he'll start hitting again and credit his new wife. That'd be sweet of him.

― danh (danh), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/29/sports/29mets.3371.jpg

― caek, Sunday, 28 September 2008 23:58 (sixteen years ago)

what's that from

― cankles, Monday, 29 September 2008 00:03 (sixteen years ago)

Probably earlier today

― Andy K, Monday, 29 September 2008 00:57 (sixteen years ago)

take it to ILB nerds.

― ian, Monday, 29 September 2008 00:59 (sixteen years ago)

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