Beer For My Horses - An Obscure Willie Nelson Hit for His 93rd Birthday

According to Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, this song peaked at #22 on the Pop chart in 2003.  It likely peaked higher on the Country Music chart.  I don't think I ever featured a hit from the 2000s in this journal.  The video above is from a tribute to Willie on ABC-TV.  It was a duo with Toby Keith who sadly passed away in 2024 at the age of 62.

Happy Birthday Willie!

The 30 Greatest Living Songwriters - What is Your Choice? - Pick up to 10

 

There was an article in the New York Times discussing this unranked list.  Of course, it is very debatable who is the absolute best since the 30 chosen by the New York Times are from different genres of music.  Deceased songwriters were not evaluated for this list.

You can vote for your 10 favorites.  I even included Leonard Cohen who paased away.  I even included a few songwriting teams.

Congratulations to Mike Casiano for Attending His 10,000th Baseball Game

 

He made the message board at Citi Field

It Looks Like He Is Sleeping

I have observed Mike at Shea Stadium and Citi Field for years.  I assume that it took him about 60 years to attend so many games.  As I have followed him on X (formerly Twitter), I observed:

• Very often, he attends 2 games in one day.  He can go to a Mets game in the afternoon and travel to Philadelphia to see a night game.
• He often sees regional minor league teams, such as the Brooklyn Cyclones and Somerset Patriots.  There could be a Yankee game during the day and a Patriots game at night.
• He takes many road trips.  Perhaps he has visited all 30 MLB parks and many defunct stadiums.

He certainly deserves to be interviewed by Steve Gelbs on SNY.  It is a shame that game 10,000 was a loss for the 2026 Mets, who are rapidly becoming the worst team money can buy.  Game 10,001 will be the second game of a doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies.

Detailed article about Mike and his enthusiasm for sports.

Article in MLB.com about Mike's quest to attend 10,000 games

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Hugo Montenegro - Random Instrumental Hit of the Day

 

This movie theme actually hit #2 on the Billboard chart in 1968.  I don't remember seeing the movie.

Bob Dylan Will Play at Forest Hills Stadium in July and I Got Tickets

 

Bob Dylan will be 85 years old next month and continues to tour.  The Never Ending Tour will stop in Forest Hills this July, and I got my tickets today.  I paid close to $200 for each ticket, but I only see him once a year.  I reported in this journal last December that I am aware of some fanatics who travel to all ends of the earth to see him in concert.  To each his own.

We did see Dylan in Forest Hills in July 2016.  He was supposed to return in July 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of that concert.  There was a controversial concert at Forest Hills in August 1965, when he went electric while the folk music fans hated it.

There are 3 months to go.

Dave Mason - Founder of the Group Traffic and Solo Artist Passes Away at 79

 

Obituary from the New York Times

Thinking of 77 WABC Radio on My 77th Birthday

 

So, I am 77 years old today.  Where did all of these years go?  I remember listening to Music Radio 77 WABC all those years ago.  They had plenty of legendary personalities, including Cousin Bruce Morrow and Dan Ingram, but the playlist was very short.  You can read about Music Radio 77 in this detailed article written by Allan Sniffen.  In 1982, the station dropped the music and became a talk station.  Talk radio was never my "cup of tea," so I stopped listening.

In 2020, Cousin Bruce Morrow returned to WABC and is heard every Saturday from 6 PM - 10 PM.  I listen to his show whenever I can.

Bruce's Journal is Always Free - No Patreon or Substack for Me

 

Since October 2005, I have published this journal to freely share my thoughts with others, whether or not they are acquainted with me.  The entries may be about:

• My Background
• Baseball Games
• Bob Dylan
• Oldies
• Radio broadcasting
• Unusual experiences
• Anything else

I can consider it a vanity press.  I don't have to worry about fact-checkers or copy editors.

I never wanted to monetize this journal.  I write it mostly for fun and am not concerned about making money from it.  I always wonder if my writings have any impact on anybody.  Do people think I am some kind of a nut?

There are services called Patreon and Substack where writers charge readers.  They offer a few paragraphs for free and then ask the reader to subscribe, usually for a year, to read their entire articles.  This is just not for me.

Casey Stengel Chapter of SABR Holds a Meeting at the 14th Street Y

 

Every year, the NYC Casey Stengel Chapter of SABR holds an in-person meeting.  This year the meeting was held at the 14th Street YM-YWHA on East 14th Street.  There were several speakers on topics of interest to New York baseball fans.

• Eric Weiss ran his yearly trivia contest
• Jay Goldberg discussed his project, The Memory of America: Remember Your First Baseball Game. He interviewed many fans who talked about the first game they saw in person.  My first game was on July 15, 1957 as the Brooklyn Dodger beat the Milwaukee Braves 20-4 at Ebbets Field.
• Lee Lowenfish, a noted author, discussed his biography of Frankie Frisch who once played for the New York Giants.
• David Fenichel talked about his campaign to build a statue of Jackie Robinson at the site of Ebbets Field.
• Journalist Ken Davidoff discussed his book 101 Lessons from the     Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life
• Scott Tanenbaum, Professor of Sports Studies at Manhattanville University, discussed his book, Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites, which examines Americans’ changing understandings of urban areas, inclusion, and the body politic.

The turnout at this meeting was somewhat disappointing since only 30 or so people came.  When I was first involved with the chapter, it drew over 100 people to meetings held at the New York Public Library.  It remains a challenge for the chapter to get more involved in the society.

Are Mets Fans Too Critical Over the Lack of a Jewish Heritage Day?

This website lists Theme Games and Heritage Nights at Citi Field in 2026.  There is no Jewish Heritage Night.  Does this imply anti-semitism by the Mets management?  The last such event was held in 2023.  Was there an outrage in 2024 or 2025?  I have seen many posts on social media criticizing the Mets.

Sadly, anti-semitism has grown tremendously in recent years.  My only comment is that Met owner Steve Cohen should address this issue.  He was raised in a Jewish household, but I have never observed him expressing a Jewish identity.

OK, Steve - let us hear you.

 

I am Glad I Didn't Stay Up to Watch the Mets Last Night

 

The Mets just started a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on the West Coast, meaning the games start at 10 PM in NYC.  They lost 4-0 and were able to get just 3 hits as they lost their sixth game in a row. Will Sammon of The Athletic gives a good analysis of the Mets' woes.  Juan Soto is not expected back anytime soon, but one player can't turn the team around.  There are 145 games to go.

Athletics 1 Mets 0 as the Losing Streak Hits 5

 

The only scoring of the game was a home run by Nick Kurtz in the third inning.  The pitching of Freddie Peralta and Sean Manaea was good, but the offense was limited to 4 hits.  Posters on social media are already calling for manager Carlos Mendoza to be fired after a record of 7-9.  I think it is a little premature, but podcaster Kelley Franco, aka @threeinningfan, explains what the Mets need to do to turn things around.

Box Score

My Comments on Bruce's Journal

 

This is journal entry #5400 since October 2005, so I thought I should make some comments about this journal:

• There have been over 8,500,000 hits to this journal, but how many of them are real and how many of them are from robots?
• What people access this journal regularly?  I understand that people choose to be anonymous when they surf the web.  I am aware of a few regular readers who access it after I post the most recent entry on Facebook. Are my readers acquaintances or complete strangers?
• Very few people make comments either on the journal directly or on Facebook.  Does my journal have any impact on anyone, or is it just a vanity press for me?
• Some of the things I reported never happened.  Paul McCartney never teamed up with Bob Dylan.  There was never a movie based on Dylan's album Blood on the Tracks.
• Many of the YouTube videos I posted were taken down for various reasons.  It would be a very time-consuming project for me to revise the entries with "defunct" videos.
• Likewise, many of the linksin my entries are no longer valid.

Diamondbacks 7 Mets 1 at a Cold Citi Field

 

Last night's game was part of our 20-Game package, so we went and dressed warmly as the temperature was in the 40s.  The two earlier games in this series were moved up to 4 PM due to the cold weather, but Thursday's game started at 7 PM.

The game started well as Luis Robert Jr. hit a first-inning home run.  That lead held up until the 7th inning when the starting pitcher, Nolan McLean, began to falter.  The following relief pitchers, Luke Weaver and Luis Garcia, were ineffective.  The Mets lost 7-1.

Game Recap

Bob Dylan and Question Mark

 

The other day Bob Dylan performed in Saginaw, Michigan, the home of Rudy Martinez, professionally known as Question Mark.  His group, The Mysterians, had a big hit in 1966 called 96 Tears.

Len Levin of SABR Has Passed Away at Age 95 (Society for American Baseball Research)

 

For several years after my retirement, I was active in the SABR Games Project.  Authors would research and write accounts of professional baseball games.  As Coordinator of Fact Checking, I either reviewed the game myself or sent it to another team member.  After the game was fact-checked, I would send the manuscript to Len Levin to copyedit before publication.  I must have exchanged hundreds of emails with him over the years. I did meet him at two SABR National Meetings. It was always a pleasure to work with him.

Obituary by Jacob Pomrenke, SABR's Director of Editorial Content

Comments about Len by John Fredland, Coordinator of the Games Project:

Sad news for the Games Project and SABR in general: Len Levin, who served as copy-editor on a remarkable variety of SABR publications, including nearly every Games Project article during my five-and-a-half years as committee chair, died today at age 95. Len's reviews of our articles facilitated our weekly output until he broke his hip last December, and he struggled with his health after that.

I will miss how Len's revised articles arrived in my inbox overnight, with countless improvements in phrasing and citations brought into compliance with the SABR Style Guide. He once told me he worked on the articles after his wife Linda went to bed at night. He was born about a month after Ernie Banks and three months before Willie Mays, when the Philadelphia Athletics were defending World Series champions. He was a great teammate, and it is heartbreaking that he is gone.

Radio Log Saturday April 4th

 

Here is a list of radio stations I heard today:

• 1010 WINS
• WFUV
• Classic AT 40 with Casey Kasem
• Elvis Radio on SiriusXM
• Rewound Radio
• 60s Gold on SiriusXM
• WBGO - Rhythm Revue with Felix Hernandez
• WABC - Cousin Brucie

Passover Seder in the NYC Subway

 

The story on the TV News last night states that this seder took place on the #6 train.

• A rapper known as Kosha Dillz started hosting pop-up Passover Seders on subway trains three years ago.  It is obviously an abbreviated version.
• The moving celebration brings together riders of different backgrounds, including some attending their first Seder
• Organizers say the quick, unconventional format is designed for people who might otherwise skip the holiday
• Participants say the experience is both meaningful and uniquely New York

I think there should have been a seder on a New Jersey Transit train.  With their history of long delays, there could have been a complete seder.

Everybody Plays the Fool by the Main Ingredient on April Fools Day

 

I have to be careful about what I read on the Internet on April Fools Day.  Somebody stated that the Mets traded Richard Lovelady to the Baltimore Orioles for Pete Alonso.