Sunday diversion is a B&B special that does not involve an overnight stay

one is timely and eternal, one just eternal
I have commented before that Grantland has a wonderful collection of writers with a focus on sports but a wonderfully broad range of interests. In re-filling my Instapaper reader the other night I came across two gems, for immediate consumption. First, in honor of the NBA All Star game tonight, here is a piece about the revolutionary rendition of the national anthem by Marvin Gaye, 30 years (30 years!!) ago. (If you are tempted to quibble with “revolutionary”, go read the piece and listen to The Man, then come back and comment.)

I remember the performance, but don’t remember being aware that it was so controversial at the time. As compared to the Jose Feliciano rendition at the 1968 World Series (discussed and linked to in the Marvin Gaye piece), which I clearly remembered as both wonderful and a stick in the eye to the right wing culture warriors of that legendary decade. You young ‘uns should check out that version, as well.

So much for timely. I can’t recall which Bill Simmons Grantland post this was in, but his theme gave him an excuse to link fondly to this vintage poster of baseball’s 1980s Hit Man (#23 in your program but #1 in our hearts, Don Mattingly). Two things about this: (1) this was posted by Simmons, notoriously a huge Red Sox fan; and (2) yes, Spring Training has begun, so the poster link is theoretically timely, but … I don’t need an excuse to link to or talk about Cousin Donnie.

Opening Day is 6 weeks from tomorrow, by the way. Hope it warms up by then.

© Sandy Mattingly 2013