The Ultimate Collection

I've done it!!!! After weeks of trying to think how I could incorporate two of my most favorite things in life into one ginormous blog entry, the time has finally arrived. This post will pay tribute to one of the greatest American Musicians of all time, Bruce Springsteen. I will use his songs to describe the good, the bad, and the ugly in sport past and present. The songs I use will present an Ultimate Collection of the Boss's music sure to leave some of my readers with tears of joy, hopefully. Here's the track listing:

Start off with arguably his best and most well known song:

1. BORN TO RUN- Jose Reyes----The young phenom has done nothing but cause horror for opposing teams on the base paths. He stole a Met franchise record 78 bases in 2007 and looks to continue to put up impressive theft numbers. " Everybody's out on the run tonight
but there's no place left to hide." The everybody is Jose Reyes and there is no place to hide because he will most likely be on second base.

2. THE PROMISED LAND-Jerry Rice and Brett Favre----The end zone in football is often referred to as the promised land. Well no two other NFL players have been more prolific getting the oblong shaped ball into the promised land. A combined 644 touchdowns between these two warriors lands them on this very promising list.

3. DANCIN IN THE DARK-Mark Madsen----It is always a joyous occasion when the team you play for wins the world championship. Maybe it was a little too joyous in the case of Mark Madsen, who will forever be known not for how he played basketball, but for how poorly he dances in public. I guess he thought the lights were out or it was night time cuz he he definitely thought he was Dancin in the Dark. " You sit around getting older
there's a joke here somewhere and it's on me." Yes Mark you are getting older and the joke is still on you.

4. WAITIN ON A SUNNY DAY- Pete Rose---- Charlie Hustle is still waitin for that sun to come out and here is name finally announced as a member of the baseball hall of fame. I don't think it will happen anytime soon, but at least he can listen to an excellent song.

5.LIVIN IN THE FUTURE-Minnesota Timberwolves----It was a toss up between this and Youngstown because the Wolves area very young team but by trading their franchise player this team will be Livin in the Future for quite some time. " We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet." This is probably what the T-Wolves fans are going to be saying when their team is 8-74 at season's end and they are pretending that KG never actually got traded only hurt and that he will be back next year.

6.MURDER INCORPORATED-OJ Simpson---I know I'm sick, I apologize, but it just fits too well.

7. I WISH I WERE BLIND-My life as a sports fan----I wish I didn't have to witness all the shortcomings and failures of my favorite teams. I wish I could say that a championship was thrown in there to make everything okay but it hasn't.

8.MY BEAUTIFUL REWARD-the 1986 Mets and 1968 Jets----This is my antithesis to the previous song. My teams have won championships, just before I was actually alive to witness them. I would probably belt out this song as loud as I could, if the Mets or Jets won it all.

9.REASON TO BELIEVE-Bill Buckner----Gave millions of Met fans worldwide the biggest reason in sports history to believe. " Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe." When the Mets woke up the next day after a hard earned victory, they still found a reason to believe. Poetry, people, poetry.

10.THUNDER ROAD-Jeff Gordon----No ultimate collection of Bruce songs would be complete without this song. Plus Jeff Gordon is the first athlete that came to mind that had any real direct connection to a road.

11.BRILLIANT DISGUISE-Bobby Valentine----The only manager ever to have the audacity to come back in the dug out after begin ejected and wear a disguise. A brilliant bit of humor but I can't really say the same about the disguise. Bobby V " Is that you baby
or just a brilliant disguise."

12.GLORY DAYS-2006 National League East Champion New York Mets----Boy were those the glory days. 2007 not so much.

13.MARY'S PLACE-Mary Lou Retton----She pretty much owned the 1984 Summer Olympics by winning 5 medals. It pretty much was Mary's Place. " Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party." She definitely let it rain during those Olympics, in a much different way than Pacman I'm sure and definitely had a party at her place after the event.

14.BORN IN THE USA-the sport of baseball----America's greatest game in tandem with America's greatest song. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I am pretty sick and tired of that annoying 3 total word John Mellencamp song we see in every commercial relating to America. Change it up and add some anger, fire, and pure emotion; all words that describe baseball and BORN IN THE USA.


I'd like to thank my main man Bruce Springsteen for being great and I credit www.brucespringsteen.net for the lyrics (all lyrics are in quotes). Hopefully I shed a different light on some of the great things this country has to offer, Bruce and sports. And I hope this blog is interesting enough that even Dan Cassavaugh will read it.

Peace!!