In the High Country– At the Principle Gallery
The height of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of the base.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Just a couple of quick hits here this morning. First, last night Aaron Judge finally broke the Major League Home Run record down in Arlington, TX. It was his 62nd blast, breaking the 61 year old record held by the late Roger Maris.
I laid out the reasoning in an earlier post why I believe that this is the true record. The others who have had more home runs all did so in a window of time that had juiced baseballs, juiced players and possibly juiced bats, for those of you who remember the Sammy Sosa broken bat incident. At that time, it was not unusual for a player who had never been a prodigious slugger in their career to suddenly hit 50 or more homers.
It was fun to watch at the time. But for baseball traditionalists, the numbers rang hollow. It would be like being a basketball fan and they suddenly lowered the rim while at the same time making it larger. The records after that change would certainly be regarded with some suspicion.
The beauty of Judge is that he exemplifies the qualities one hopes for in their heroes. Sure, he’s huge and powerful. But he’s also exceedingly humble, hard-working, disciplined, and team oriented. When he hits a 450-foot home run that would have others flipping their bats and striking poses as they make their way to first base, Judge simply puts his head down and trots the bases quickly. I’ve watched many hundreds of Yankees games with Judge playing and you can see how well regarded and liked he is by his interactions with the players from the other teams. Even with the bitterest of rivals, there is always a lot of smiles and joking around.
Nice to see a good guy who does things in the right way reach the pinnacle.
Next, country great Loretta Lynn passed away at the age of 90. I wrote about the Queen of Country a couple of times here. She had an air of authenticity that couldn’t be faked or manufactured. I think that’s why when she her attempt at reinvention with her 2004 Grammy Award-winning album Van Lear Rose, a collaboration with rocker Jack White, was such a success– even though it was a stylistic departure, her authenticity burned through it.
It was still all her. Another real person at a pinnacle.
So, here are two tracks from Van Lear Rose. I was tempted to play some of her earlier tracks like Fist City or Rated X but these fit better this morning. Both are true Loretta Lynn songs, the autobiographical High on a Moutain Top and Mrs. Leroy Brown, a hard charging country stomper with a guitar sound that would make Jerry Reed proud. RIP, Loretta.
Redtree Times 