Sports Archives - chimesfreedom

The Gang’s All Here: Muhammad Ali & Sam Cooke

Muhammad Ali album

In 1963, boxer Cassius Clay, who soon would become known as Muhammad Ali, recorded the album titled, I Am the Greatest. The title may not really describe the great boxer as a singer. But Ali was aided on one of the songs by one of the world’s greatest singers, Sam Cooke.

In this short interview, Cooke explains to Dave Clark that he had been working with some young singers. And the subject of his song with Ali, “The Gang’s All Here” comes up.

The combination of the music star and the rising boxer garnered some attention, with The New York Times covering the recording session of the song, which was arranged by Horace Ott. During the session, according to Peter Guralnik’s biography of Sam Cooke, Cooke provided guidance while keeping everyone’s spirits up. And Ali played around on the drums and recited poetry.

While Ali and Cooke were working on the song for the album, Harry Carpenter interviewed Ali for the BBC sports TV show, Grandstand. During the interview, Cooke showed up and exchanged some quips with his friend Ali. Then, the two sang a segment of the song they recorded together, “The Gang’s All Here.”

Here is the recording of “The Gang’s All Here” from the album. The tune add some tweaks but is based on the old classic “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here,” which was written in 1917.

The original song features lyrics by D. A. Esrom based on a tune written by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 show The Pirates of Penzance. Check out Muhammad Ali’s take on the song.

Six months after releasing I Am the Greatest, Ali lived up to the title of the album. The twenty-two year-old boxer became champion of the world by beating Sonny Liston in the ring on February 25, 1964.

(Note: In Peter Guralnick’s excellent and well-researched biography of Cooke, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, he describes that the above Grandstand interview with Cooke and Ali took place after the Liston fight in 1964. But in the video, Ali says that he and Cooke are working on the song, which was released in 1963. So it seems more likely that the Grandstand interview above took place after Ali fought Harry Cooper. That fight took place in 1963 at Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park.)

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Roberto Clemente: Twenty-One Feet Tall

Clemente PNC Park Hall-of-Fame baseball player Roberto Clemente was born in Puerto Rico on August 18, 1934. He grew up into one of the greatest players of all time, completing eighteen seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates before his untimely death. In addition to his greatness on the field, Clemente is also remembered for his humanitarian work.

Clemente did charity work during the off-season in Caribbean and Latin American countries. And he died on December 31, 1972 in a plane crash when he was traveling to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

At the time of his death, Clemente had exactly 3,000 hits. He was wonderful in all aspects of the game and a joy to watch. Clemente had a lifetime career batting average of .317 and 240 home runs. And many remember his speed and defensive play in right field, as he won the Golden Glove for twelve seasons. He helped the Pirates win two championships, in 1960 and in 1971, winning the World Series MVP Award in the 1971 series.

Posthumous Honors

In addition to his induction into the MLB Hall of Fame, Clemente received many honors during his lifetime and after his death. A statue of him that once at Three Rivers Stadium now stands outside the Pirates’ current home PNC Park, and a bridge near the ball park is named after him. As an additional honor for the player who wore number 21, the right field fence at PNC Park stands at twenty-one feet tall.

Major League Baseball honors Clemente’s work each year by giving the Roberto Clemente Award to the player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.” And finally, reportedly a feature film based on the book Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maranissis in the works.

Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via public domain.

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“Borg vs. McEnroe” On the Men and the Match (Short Review)

Borg vs. McEnroe I recall watching the famous 1980 Wimbledon men’s championship game between John McEnroe and Björn Borg. In what may be the most famous tennis match of all time, the two men battled back and forth, highlighted by a tie-breaker in the fourth set that was won by a score of 18-16. A new film, Borg vs. McEnroe (2018), attempts to capture that drama while also revealing more details about the two tennis players.

Borg vs. McEnroe, with a screenplay by Ronnie Sandahl, provides some backstory about the two men, especially Björn Borg. We see the Swede as a driven child with a bit of the temperament and lack of emotional control we associate with McEnroe. But Borg works to establish a more cool and calm persona, while the movie reveals trouble burning beneath the surface. As Borg, actor Sverrir Gudnason is the highlight of the film, presenting a realistic portrayal while bearing an uncanny resemblance to the tennis player who was attempting to win his fifth consecutive Wimbledon championship.

As the upstart emotional challenger John McEnroe, Shia LaBeouf gives one of his best performances to date. But partly because the film focuses more on Borg and partly because McEnroe had such a larger-than-life personality, it is more difficult to imagine anyone else as him.

Regarding the drama of the big match, Borg vs. McEnroe does a decent job capturing the back-and-forth of the match and the anguish and joy of the competition. Still, because tennis is a game of so many points scored and no ticking clock, filmmakers face a challenge to create a great sports movie about tennis. There is no one key football play as time runs out, there is no game-winning home run, and there is no rally in the final minutes in the boxing ring.

So, in the classic match, the movie version lacks the drama of watching the players in real time in a match where even today the main parties remember every point. Still, director Janus Metz Pedersen keeps the viewer engaged in the Borg-McEnroe battle until the end, helping explain why the film has a decent 83% critics rating and 72% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Regarding the match and the relationship between the two men, HBO produced an excellent 2011 documentary McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice. I recommend that film, which features extensive interviews with the two key players, for anyone interested in learning more about Borg and McEnroe and their relationship after watching Borg vs. McEnroe.

Overall, Borg vs. McEnroe will not go down as one of the all-time great sport movies and it never quite completely captures one of sports’ all-time great rivalries. But if you wish to re-live the famous match or do not know anything about it, you may enjoy spending 100 minutes with this well-directed and well-acted film.

Borg vs. McEnroe is available in theaters, pay-per-view, and on Amazon Prime.

Below is video of the actual match from 1980, although you may want to wait to watch it until after you see the movie. Check it out.

Do you remember the famous Borg-McEnroe match? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Peter, Paul & Mary’s Ode to Playing “Right Field”

baseball card Ruth — Some right fielders are good.

It is that time of year when winter turns to a season of hope. We hope for a beautiful spring as we welcome warm weather. Also, we hope that this year will be “the year” for our baseball team. But no matter what happens with the season, every team at least has a chance on opening day.

For anyone who played baseball growing up, there is one position where they would stick the kids who were not very skilled at the game. These were the kids who were hopeful enough to play the game. But the coaches did not have much hope in them. I know, because I was one of those kids.

I still love baseball. So it is worth celebrating those of us who grew up in right field.

Peter, Paul & Mary wrote a touching ode to playing right field “watching the dandelions grow.”

I’d dream of the day they’d hit one my way;
They never did, but still I would pray,
That I’d make a fantastic catch on the run,
And not lose the ball in the sun;
And then I’d awake from this long reverie,
And pray that the ball never came out to me,
Here in . . . Right field.

Below, Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers perform “Right Field” at their 25th Anniversary Concert. Check it out.

Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo of Ruth card via public domain.

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Say Hey: Willie Mays and “The Catch”

Say Hey

On September 29 in 1954, Willie Mays made one of the greatest and most famous catches in baseball history. During the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Cleveland Indians player Vic Wertz hit a drive that centerfielder Mays chased toward the wall of the Polo Grounds to make an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track.

“The Catch” prevented two runs from scoring in a tie game. Mays’s throw also kept the runners from advancing. And the Giants went on to win the game in the tenth inning. Then, the team completed a sweep of the World Series. The win was the Giants’ last championship in New York.

The Season

Mays’s catch and the Series helped cap a great season for Mays. During the year, he hit 41 home runs and led the league with a .345 batting average.

What makes the season even more amazing is that Mays had not played Major League Baseball the previous season or for most of 1952. Mays, who started his professional career in the Negro Leagues, had his rookie year in Major League Baseball in 1951 after a short stint in the Minor Leagues. But in May 1952, the United States Army drafted Mays during the Korean War. He missed most of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season, although he did play some baseball while in the Army.

“Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)”

There is another reason 1954 was a big year for Willie Mays. Early in the season he became a part of one of the greatest baseball songs of all time, “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song).”

When Mays returned from the army, a New York public relations man, Ted Worner, thought it would be a good idea to have a song about the player known as the “Say Hey Kid.” So Worner arranged for columnist Dick Kleiner to write some lyrics and then for Jane Douglass create the music and the chorus.

Epic Records liked the song and gave it to the R&B group The Treniers, but insisting that Mays participate in the recording. Mays agreed, and he ended up adding some dialogue to the song. Quincy Jones produced the recording.

“Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” did not become a hit that summer, perhaps because it had to compete with at least three other songs about Willie Mays. But like few other baseball songs, “Say Hey” would live on as one of the most popular baseball songs of all time.

Say hey, say who?
Say Willie,
That Giants kid is great.