Music from the Mound
So were you guys looking for more news that totally makes sense?
How about Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka releasing a CD? Yeah, just like that.
According to Red Sox Public Relations: “Music From The Mound from Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka features a compilation of Matsuzaka’s favorite and inspirational songs from various American, English and Japanese recording artists.”
Normally, I wouldn’t really give much thought to this item, because Daisuke - sorry, I don’t use his media-approved nickname - is a professional athlete whose name happens to be attached to a project being done for charity. It happens all the time. Some efforts seem to come from an honest desire on the part of the athlete; most of the time, however, it feels like it’s another joyless part of their public lives. (One especially awkward moment was watching Carmelo Anthony during an NBA All-Star Weekend event for kids on television, when Ahmad Rashad asked him about reading, and Melo told the collected audience of kids that he didn’t really like reading, before a stern look from Rashad made him change his answer to something like, “but…reading is cool for some people.”) This looks to be of the latter variety, and I would be shocked to hear if Daisuke Matsuzaka had any input whatsoever about what tracks or artists should be included.
But being that this is Boston Progress Radio, and this does involve an Asian person in Boston releasing music, it’s only fair to at least mention it. So he’s no Kevin So, Vudoo Soul, Justine Ok, One Signata Nach, or Melissa Li, but he’s part of our community – if you use a relatively broad definition of community – and so we show him love.
I was hoping to review the entire CD, but it turns out only the first track is by him. “Gyro Ball” has Dice-K listed as the artist…but, wait, what the hell? Apparently, Dice-K is a band made up of Magic Dick of the J. Geils Band, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, and Red Sox television announcers Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo. That’s just ridiculous. That sounds like one of those dreams that don’t make sense but you try to explain anyway: “You were there, but it wasn’t you, you were Jerry Remy, and then I realized I was the harmonica player from J. Geils Band, and the guy from Extreme was playing guitar…”
The rest of the tracks are pulled from other – most likely more cohesive – albums, including songs from Jay-Z, LL Cool J, and Duran Duran.
So what the hell does this have to do with anything? I don’t know. I figured we’ve never posted a picture of my favorite Red Sox player, and it’s been a while since anyone posted anything up here at all.
Later kids. This snarky blog tone is hard to maintain.
Last 5 posts by giles
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Tags: News.
I’m not sure I’d listen to that CD… unless maybe Dice-K is spitting a piece about his experience as an Asian baseball player. Can you imagine him doing that? I think he and Chien-Ming Wang should form a hip-hop group. Or maybe not.
Ah man, I hope there’s a version of “Centerfold” by J. Geils Band up on there somewhere. Yo, I just noticed, you switch a couple of letters on Geils and it becomes Giles.
Giles, YOU’RE the J. Geils Band, ain’t you?! ADMIT IT!
daisuke should do a duo with yao. then they’d be the usher and r. kelly of the asian-sport-music empire. no one would be able to stop them.