St. Petersburg Calling
ST. PETERSBURG — Well, that turned out to be the most expensive haircut of my life. There was a 45-minute wait to take some off the top, so I headed over to the local Borders book establishment.
I wound up with three CDs and one book. I was pleasantly surprised with Borders’ music selection — could’ve easily walked out with more. But I limited myself to three albums I’ve wanted for years, but never got around to buying:
The Clash’s London Calling
Depeche Mode’s Violator
Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans
Plus, since I was such a huge fan of There Will Be Blood, I picked up Oil! by Upton Sinclair. I figured if PT Anderson read it and felt compelled to make TWBB, then I wanted to finally sit down and read it, too. Problem is, I’m always reading four or five books at once. So it’s waiting its turn on the pile of novels back at my condo.
I listened Death Cab’s smooth stylings on the way to Al Lang Field, which is by far one of my faves for taking in a spring game. Nothing like working in an outdoor pressbox in Florida with a sweet view of the Bay. This ballpark will be missed, but the designs I’ve seen for the new Rays park look fantastic. Blow up the Trop already.
The Jays aren’t here yet, so I’m planning on listening to some Clash to drown out the obligatory pregame rap that’s blaring through the speakers here. Other CDs sitting in my rental car include Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy (my favorite album of all time), PJ’s latest release, all three albums from The Killers, Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights, Sparta’s Threes, With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, the best of Johnny Cash, The Beatles’ Revolver, and two albums by the late, great Elliott Smith (may he rest in peace).
Lineups Calling:
TORONTO (0-2) at TAMPA BAY (1-0)
Progress Energy Park at Al Lang Field at 1:05 p.m. ET
BLUE JAYS
Reed Johnson, CF
Shannon Stewart, LF
Alex Rios, RF
Aaron Hill, 2B
Marco Scutaro, 3B
Rod Barajas, C
Russ Adams, 2B
John McDonald, SS
Curtis Thigpen, 1B
PITCHING: RHP Dustin McGowan, RHP Casey Janssen, among others
RAYS
Akinori Iwamura, 2B
Carl Crawford, LF
Carlos Pena, 1B
Cliff Floyd, RF (Thornwood High School, baby!)
Rocco Baldelli, DH
Willy Aybar, 3B
Hector Gimenez, C
Jason Bartlett, SS
Fernando Perez, CF
PITCHING: RHP James Shields
I was hoping to see Rays third baseman Even Longoria today — ah, well. He could very well be this year’s Rookie of the Year in the American League. Jays third baseman Scott Rolen was originally down to be the DH, but Hill traveled to St. Pete instead.
More later…Jays just arrived at the ballpark.
Major League Bastian 
Let’s hope there are no screwups with the lineup card today, prompting references to the Clash’s criminally underrated “Card Cheat”.
Oops, too late….:)
Hey Jordan.
I started reading Oil! before I TWBB even came out because I was so excited for the movie. (deserved more at the oscars). Sparta 3’s is definitely a good album. I think they finally put it all together with that one. If you get a chance definitely try to catch them live. I saw them at lollapalooza in chicago in 06 and then in toronto october of 06. Which Elliott Smith albums are you listening to? From a basement on the hill is my personal favourite, its such a heartbreaking album.
haha forgot to mention about oil! Its a great book, but the first half (the part the movie is based on) is much stronger in my opinion. The second half kind of goes off track but overall still a great book. Im gonna pick up Sinclair’s The Jungle next. I heard the Rolen is reading that one right now too.
I saw Sparta live when they opened for Pearl Jame at Melon Arena in Pittsburgh during PJ’s Riot Act tour. That was when Sparta had just released their first album, following the collapse of At the Drive In. I’ve loved them ever since. Threes is definitely a solid album — probably my favorite of the three they’ve had. The two Smith CDs I have with me are From a Basement on a Hill and the two-disc New Moon. Either/Or is my favorite of his, though.
~JB
The Trop is bad, I know. Though I’ve never been, there’s hardly a good word to be found on it. And despite that the Rogers Centre isn’t the greatest park in the majors, it’s hardly the Trop and the difference on a warm Saturday afternoon in July compared to any game at the Trop is vast.
That said, both stadiums were started and finished at about the same time. Both when compared to other MLB stadiums, are clearly social outcasts. And with Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Oakland, NYM, Florida, and Washington all expecting beautiful stadiums by 2010…that certainly would leave the Rogers Centre on its own a bit. Now a 20 year stadium life does seem a little short, and I know Rogers has put a good chunk of 30 million dollars into the Dome already, but I’ve got to think that in the next five or so years, some talk comes up in regards to a new stadium and/or significant, architectural renovations to change the entire look of the stadium.
All the bureaucracy aside in getting a stadium built, I’ve got to think the issue will at least pop up in the next few years.
Good lord Jordan, you have some horrifyingly bad taste in music! Good thing you know your baseball, because you’d make me cringe as a music critic!
I suppose that might be a bit harsh, because about half the stuff you mentioned was good, but the other half was so terribly, terribly bad that I can’t even give you a pass for Johnny Cash. Death Cab For Cutie? Interpol? Good lord, talk about all hype and no substance! Vitalogy is your favourite album of all time? And here I was thinking Pearl Jam gave up being anywhere near decent about halfway through “Vs.”
Anyways, I’ll just have to keep in mind that if you ever hand me a CD and say “you’ll love this!” that I should politely decline and just read your baseball articles. 🙂
ONEOFTHETOOLS: Nice. Isn’t it great how taste in music can vary? Vs. is actually my least favorite of PJ’s albums. I probably have over 30 PJ CDs and the grunge-era music is what I grew up on. I don’t mind if you don’t care for what tunes I dig on one bit. I have a wide range of groups across many genres I like. I just brought some of the recent stuff I’ve been cruising around to down to Florida with me — left all the Zeppelin and Stones back home for the spring.
~JB
Jordan, nice game today…
Anyways, You, my friend, need to get yourself some Pixies, some Rush and some Tool… Then you’d have some music to enjoy!
BTW, the name is Brandon, just so you don’t have to address me by some weird Email address thing…
Anyways, I wasn’t crazy about Vs., but there were a few decent songs on it, Ten was the only record of theirs that I actually liked cover to cover, and since then I haven’t much cared for them at all.
I’m not going to be one to judge one on their musical tastes, as I do still appreciate your posts on Baseball, but I am a huge music snob as music is where I make my living, and really the way I live my life!
Anyways, keep up the awesome baseball posts, you’re the only source for spring training Jays news.
BRADON TOOLS: I love the Pixies, have a few Tool albums and saw Rush live at SARSstock in Toronto a few years back. That concert was amazing, minus the fact that Justin Timberlake crashed the party. AC/DC by far put on the best show, and the Stones played that night, so that’s saying something.