by Rich Watson
In recent years, Andrew McCutchen has become one of the game’s biggest stars, mostly as a Pirate. He’s at the tail end of his career now, but his achievements to date include being a five-time All-Star and a former National League MVP. He also competed on the international stage in the World Baseball Classic in 2017.
As a Pirate, he met and dated Maria Hanslovan, the woman who would become his wife in 2013. How he proposed to her, though, took her and his fans by surprise.
One of the greatest rock albums of all time puts a baseball spin on a power ballad about teenage romance.
by Rich Watson
He was born Marvin Lee Aday, but the world knows him as Meat Loaf, the plus-sized rock star with the bombastic voice and operatic songs. He has toured with Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Bob Seger and more. He has also acted on TV and in movies such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.
In 1977, after appearing on stage in musicals such as Hair and touring as part of several acts, he released a debut solo record, Bat Out of Hell. It wasn’t a big hit at first but it would eventually go multi-platinum.
One of the best-known hits from that album was “Paradise By the Dashboard Lights,” a song about teenage lust with an unusual twist: a spoken-word movement halfway through performed by a baseball Hall of Famer.
Sherryl Woods’ women’s fiction series of books, mixed with a little baseball, is turned into a TV show.
by Rich Watson
Earlier this year we discussed the Sherryl Woods novel Stealing Home, the first book in the “Sweet Magnolias” series (eleven books and counting). I had mentioned the series had been adapted into a Netflix program. I gave it a watch.
The soap opera aspect is greater as a TV show than as a book, but the baseball elements remain, so it’s worth mentioning here.
