“Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke)“ is a 1981 song written and performed by Terry Cashman…. in a song describes the history of American major league baseball from the 1950’s to the beginning of the 1980’s…..when the song was originally released during the 1981 Major League Baseball strike….while being inspired by a picture of the three New York City centerfielders Willie Mays for the Giants….Mickey Mantle for the Yankees….and Duke Snider for the Mets. The original sheet music for the song is a part of the Cooperstown Collection….while Cashman was honored at the 2011 Hall Of Fame weekend…..a ceremony that we have in our library here at ImaSportsphile. Each version begins with a synthesizer version of the first ten notes of the song “Take me Out to the Ballgame”….before the singing starts….as each version ends on a fade.
A modified version of the song entitled “Talkin’ Softball,” also sung by Cashman….appeared in a 1992 episode of The Simpsons (“Homer at the Bat”)……and it can also be found on the 1999 CD compilation Go Simpsonic With the Simpsons…..and “Talkin’ Baseball” also closes out the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “The Gang Beats Boggs“.
Terry Cashman (born Dennis Minogue, July 5, 1941, in New York City) is a record producer and singer-songwriter, best known for his 1981 hit, “Talkin’ Baseball”. While the song is well recognized today, it was all but ignored by typical Top 40 radio during its chart life, making only the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
Cashman was the lead singer for a band called The Chevrons in the late 1950’s through the early 1960’s…. who played Minor League Baseball in the Detroit Tigers organization at around the same time…..when in 1967, Cashman teamed up with Gene Pistilli and Tommy West to form the pop-folk group Cashman, Pistilli and West…..as their debut album, Bound to Happen in 1967….which included the Cashman-Pistilli composition “Sunday Will Never Be the Same”, a # 9 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for “Spanky and Our Gang” that year….plus it was # 7 in Canada…..then the trio had a # 22 hit single (#15 in Canada), “Medicine Man”, under the name The Buchanan Brothers in 1969…..while the follow-up “Son of a Lovin’ Man” hit # 50 in Canada. In November 1972, Cashman & West’s song “American City Suite” hit # 27 on the Billboard chart and # 25 on the Canadian RPM chart. Cashman, Pistilli and West (later reduced to Cashman & West) enjoyed modest success, recording six albums through 1975. The Cashman-West team also produced all the hit recordings of singer-songwriter Jim Croce. In 1975 they launched Lifesong Records, which would have hits including “Shannon” by Henry Gross and “Ariel” by Dean Friedman.
Inspired by a picture he had received of Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, Cashman decided to write a song dedicated to 1950’s baseball…..and the popular choral refrain in the song “Talkin’ Baseball (With Willie, Mickey, and The Duke”) immediately struck a chord with fans in 1981 ….who were disappointed by the Major League Baseball strike that summer.
Cashman has since recorded multiple versions of the song for different Major League Baseball teams. Because of this, he is now known as “The Balladeer of Baseball”….which simply means that this video seen herewith….which aired on “This Week In Baseball” with Mel Allen in 1981….is a very special “nuggett of gold” in our treasure chest of vintage memories here at ImsSportsphile.
