Braves and Breakups
Neil Diamond, the Michigan Rattlers, Jason Isbell, and Morgan Wallen
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool, boy
—Bruce Springsteen, Glory Days
You’re bound to hear this iconic song by The Boss come over the speakers at any live baseball game. Unfortunately, live baseball games will soon take a break as the leaves and temperatures begin to fall all around us. But the MLB Playoffs are in full swing, so we thought it would be fitting to swap a few songs that make us think of baseball, including a Bonus Track about the Braves and breakups.
Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond (Jonathan)
If you have ever been to a Boston Red Sox game and stayed until the middle of the eighth inning, you have heard loyal fans belt out Neil Diamond’s 1969 hit Sweet Caroline like you’ve never heard it. Sweet Caroline was first played at Fenway Park in 1997 after a Red Sox employee in charge of music at the park played the song as a tribute to a friend who had given birth to a baby named Caroline. The song caught on and was played often, and has been played before the bottom of the eighth of every game since 2002. It is a wonderful addition to an already amazing experience at historic Fenway Park.
Also available on Apple Music.
Baseball by Michigan Rattlers (Ben)
I featured these guys before, but with the theme this week - I had to circle back. Baseball is often a game of place. You might remember your first Little League field or trip to Fenway or Wrigley (Go Cubs!). This song captures a life of dreams, place, and the decisions (relationships) we make around place.
Also available on Apple Music.
Relatively Easy by Jason Isbell (Kody)
This is my favorite of all the great songs in Isbell’s catalog. It swept me into the revival of quality country music that Isbell and his friends pioneered more than a decade ago. While this song isn’t about baseball, it mentions America’s pastime:
Not for me to understand
Remember him when he was still a proud man?
A vandal's smile, a baseball in his right hand
Nothing but the blue sky in his eye
What a striking image to describe someone’s glory days - a vandal’s smile + baseball + blue sky. It’s ultimately a song about perspective - “Still, compared to those a stone's throw away from you our lives have both been relatively easy” - a perspective I’ve needed time and time again.
Also available on Apple Music.
Bonus Track: Braves and Breakups by Jason Dees
The worst thing about being happily married is that I can’t listen to breakup music like I used to. Sure, I can still listen to Otis Redding’s “These Arms of Mine,” or Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright,” or even my all-time favorite breakup song, “Raining in Baltimore” by the Counting Crows, but it’s not the same with a loving wife and happy children. You have to be alone; you have to be single; you have to be broken to really feel these songs. This is why I love breakup music. It’s so powerful. It cuts so hard to the soul.
There is no pain like breakup pain, but one comes close - that is the pain that you experience after a disappointing end to your favorite team’s season, which is why I love the song 98 Braves by Morgan Wallen.
In the song, Wallen tells the story of the disappointment of the 98 Braves who won 106 games in the regular season but got put out by the Padres in the playoffs. And then he compares that season to a promising relationship that ends with a breakup.
We got close, but close doesn't cut it
Had a good run and end up with nothin'
But a three by five that you hide in a drawer
We swung for the fences and came up short
As Wallen points out there are a lot of similarities between a great romance and a great season that both end in disappointment. I love the second verse:
Had that whole town believin'
Damn girl, I even had that talk to your dad man to man
But just like that season
Girl, you and me didn't end with a ring on a hand
In a relationship and a great sports season, there is a whole community of people around you cheering you on but if it doesn’t end with a ring, it’s a disappointment for all.
As a lifetime Braves fan, I will never forget the 98 season, and as a romantic, I will never forget the comfort that a good breakup song brought me after some fun, hopeful, and great relationships ended in disappointment in the decade that followed 1998. I really love this song and for some reason, it kind of redeems much of the pain I felt in 1998 when the Braves lost and it also kind of redeems the years that followed which included the great breakups of my youth.
Ultimately, the song is about how life doesn’t always go how you hope, or how you think it might go. It’s a great song and it brings a lot of comfort to any disappointed sports fan or lonely lover. As Wallen says, “You win some, you lose some. It ain't always home runs. Girl, it could've gone either way. But if we were a team and love was a game. We'd have been the '98 Braves.” Or the 2023 Braves for that matter.
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Jason Dees is a pastor in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s the best at bringing people together and getting the most out of life. His all-time favorite baseball song is “Cheap Seats” by Alabama and he really wants to go to the Las Vegas Sphere for his next live show.
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What songs make you think of baseball? We’d love to hear from you. And if you’re enjoying the Music Swap, please share it with a friend.
Ah. Breakup songs used to be just there for me until I went through one.