America’s Favorite Pastime (Todd Snider, Doc Ellis, LSD and a no-hitter)
Posted by cuorange on July 4, 2009
Todd Snider is my favorite entertainer. Notice I said entertainer, not musician or singer. Snider’s not a good guitar player, nor does he have the best voice. But he does have the gift of storytelling whether in a song or in conversation. He can make a mundane story about high school football or spray painting his name on a water tower come alive and make you feel like you were there with him when it happened.
Snider’s not a nobody. He’s been on the late night shows including Leno and Letterman and has been interviewed by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and NPR. He’s just not famous. He likes it that way.
Snider recently released “The Excitement Plan”, which includes a song titled “America’s Favorite Pastime” (here’s a live version) , which is a story about Doc Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates throwing a no-hitter vs. the Padres when he was on LSD.
Even funnier than Todd’s story (he’s Todd to me, I met him in Charlotte behind the Neighborhood Theatre he had just played one memorable night) is listening to Doc Ellis describe the day leading up to the game and what he felt like during the game. Apparently, Doc was just a good a storyteller as Todd is. Enjoy.
For the most complete history and info on Todd anywhere in the world visit eighteenminutes.com (of course there’s a story about the site name, too).
