OntheWilderSide

Our friend Sonny Meadows is a Long Island, singer-songwriting hero. One of his songs that I have always admired was “Clemens Beaned Piazza”, written way back in 2000.

Besides that it was a profound and insightful reaction to the incident, it also presents an even more insightful understanding that part of the reason the press hyped the incident–or any such incident–is part of distraction from the bigger injustices in the world.

While the song has the 2000 World Series as a backdrop, it is largely an attack on then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The song mentions how, with a baseball incident in the spotlight of major media, everyone stopped talking about the all of Giuliani’s injustices and attacks on civil liberties. (Hope people will start to remember, that before Giuliani won everyone’s heart by reassuring us it was safe to shop in NYC again–when it wasn’t–he did vile things, such as one time propose that police officers were going to go door to door and “check on voter registration.”)

It is so ironic, that as Giuliani runs for President, and start to get questioned on his record, suddenly, the Clemens/Piazza story rises to the surface. Could it be that Giuliani has a friend in the Major Leagues?

Sonny’s song “Clemens Beaned Piazza” is on his album Bibles, Guns and Flags. Meadows’ music has been described as “Progressive political, social, topical music with a folk blues flair.” So, you can only give it to the baseball fan on your holiday list if they vote Green Party, or at least Democrat.

Didn’t hear about the news about Clemens? Here is a report from Alternet:

Baseball’s Mitchell Report: Steroid Use Doesn’t Discriminate, But Our Outrage Does
by Tommy McDonald, AlterNet. Posted December 13, 2

Leading the list is revered pitcher Roger Clemens and other MLB stars, including Andy Pettitte and Miguel Tejada. Clemens is truly one of baseball’s sacred cows. Years ago, when he cowardly threw a blistering fastball at the head of Mike Piazza and later chucked a piece of a broken bat toward Piazza, no one batted an eye. Instead, baseball writers and fans effused that this only showed his fiery, competitive side. Never mind that Piazza could have experienced a serious head injury or even been killed by the torrid blast to the head.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting on the calls for Clemens and others to be stripped of their honors and banned from the Hall of Fame.

Filed under: Long Island Music, Long Island Politics, presidential race, progressive politics, rants, US Politics Tagged: | baseball, Mike Piazza, Mitchell Report, Roger Clemens, Roid Rage, Rudolph Giuliani, Sports, steroids