YouTube Gold: Willie, Mickey & The Duke

One of the greatest baseball songs ever recorded

Baseball in the 21st century is not what it was in the middle of the 20th century but it’s still a great game.

In the 20th century though, particularly from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, baseball was nearly a holy thing, revered by nearly everyone.

The other day we featured the classic baseball song “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?”

That song was an exultation written about the man who finally broke the color barrier and made baseball much more America’s game than it had been when it was segregated.

So to follow up on that, we thought that today would be a great time to feature another baseball song, this time from the 1970’s: Willie, Mickie and the Duke (Talkin’ Baseball).

It’s a very sweet song about baseball at a time when it was deeply ingrained into American life, a nostalgic look back at the 1950’s with a tip of the hat to some 1970’s players who stood a good chance to make it to Cooperstown.

It was a novelty song that tapped into something special, possibly because it was released in the summer of 1981 while MLB was on strike. It harkens to a sweeter, less complicated time when you could slip into a park and enjoy a game in the afternoon.

Over time, it has gone from a novelty song to a baseball classic and deservedly so.