Paul McCartney And The Casual Fan Of Baseball
Paul McCartney is, of course, best known as a member of the Beatles and as a prolific songwriter. At the age of 74, he tours the world relentlessly playing songs old and new to the delight of fans young and old, mostly in ballparks across America. It’s not by accident though that he finds himself on second base for a two and a half hour show…
Here’s a portion of a interview conducted by the Boston Herald just prior to a concert appearance at Fenway Park in 2009: Herald: With two nights at Fenway and dates at New York’s Citi Field last month, you’re spending a lot of time at ballparks. Are you a baseball fan?
McCartney: Baseball to us is a game called rounders we played as kids. Actually, I accidentally broke a girl’s nose when I was a kid with my back swing. I still remember her name. Shirley Prytherch. P-R-Y-T-H-E-R, um, C-H, I think. I don’t know, but it sounds Welsh to me. It’s something like this that accounts for all the armor you guys wear now playing baseball. She didn’t have any and look what happened to her.
Does that mean you’re not really a baseball fan?
No, no, my friend. (“Saturday Night Live” producer) Lorne Michaels took me to my first game years ago. It was a Yankees game, so I became a Yankees fan.
So, it is with some levity that McCartney describes his attachment to baseball. He is not a diehard fan of the game by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, he uses it as an outlet to attend a game in between his busy schedule. It’s a night out and a source of entertainment where he is not the one “on stage”.
By: Steve Contursi
Source: Call to the Pen
