Van Lingle Mungo - Updated

[Frayed Knot]

I've forgotten how, but at some point Van Lingle Mungo's came up during one of the games last week which led Gary to bring up the song of the same name. Keith seemed ignorant of it although I assume

most here are at least somewhat familiar. If not, Van Lingle Mungo (and, yes, that's his real name) pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and later the NY Giants throughout the 1930s and into the ‘40s. Then,

in 1968, musician/composer/baseball fan Dave Frishberg was thumbing through his then first-ever copy of the door stop-sized Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia (my father also jumped on that early edition)

when he came across VLM's name. He liked the lyrical quality of the name and thought it would fit in well to a jazz tune he had already written but one that was still short of lyrics. The result was a tune

filled with nothing but a recitation of the names of major leaguers from around the time of Mungo's era / Frishberg's childhood.

Eddie Basinski, a little used infielder for the Dodgers in the 40's and the final player name-checked in the song, is the sole one still living (98) although Frishberg himself is also still kicking at 93.



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So why am I bringing this up now?!? Because, by total coincidence, I had learned just a few days earlier that there was a 2018 re-writing of that song. Musician Daniel Butterfield realized that

the challenge of updating the song was not just finding a name as musical as Van Lingle Mungo but also one with the same number of syllables so it would fit in with the tune.

Enter https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pocorbi01.shtml Biff Pocoroba

Butterfield further challenged himself to filling out the song using only players whose careers overlapped with the former Atlanta Braves part-time catcher who played from 1975 through 1984,

aka: the sweet spot of MLB knowledge for a lot of you here. And the result, was this:



[media=youtube]Q-2IFMVoIuw[/media]



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-2IFMVoIuwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-2IFMVoIuw



Pocoroba died right around this time last year at the age of 66



* I don't seem to be able to get the YOUTUBE links to work properly

Edited April 28, 2021 by Guest

[seawolf17]

Haven't heard this in years. Love the new version!

[Chad ochoseis]

About fifteen years ago, when I first found this forum, I joined as Van Lingle Mungo. I think I only posted once. I later rejoined as Mendoza Line and evolved into Chad Ochoseis.

[Frayed Knot]

The names of Barry Bonnell and Charlie Moore were paired in the song and also were the only two unfamiliar to me from the update even though they had 10 & 14 year careers,

Bonnell with the Braves and Jays, Moore almost entirely with Milwaukee (when they were AL). Not sure if I never knew them or have simply forgotten since, but neither rang a

bell upon hearing them in the song or even after looking them up.

[Edgy MD]

My first Strat-O-Matic game came with the 1978 Braves and Brewers, so I remembered both of those guys warmly. Biff Pocaroba, of course, was part of the 1978 Braves' three-headed catcher corps along with blink-and-you-miss-him-former-Met Joe Nolan and prodigiously whiffing rookie Dale Murphy.

[G-Fafif]

What a shame for the sake of the song that John Boccabella didn't quite overlap with Biff Pocoroba.

[Frayed Knot]

=G-Fafif post_id=62350 time=1619628803 user_id=55]
What a shame for the sake of the song that John Boccabella didn't quite overlap with Biff Pocoroba.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Guest

[MFS62]

What a shame for the sake of the song that John Boccabella didn't quite overlap with Biff Pocoroba.

Boccabella hit 30 home runs and hit .360 or so when playing in Pocatello, ID.

My friend and I wrote a song that included the words "Boccabella from Pocatella".



Later

[Double Switch]

Van Lingle Mungo --> Tommy Lasorda (one of my all-time favorite Dodger Blue bleeders).