"Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke)" is a 1981 song written and performed by Terry Cashman. The song describes the history of American major league baseball from the 1950s to the beginning of the 1980s. The song was originally released during the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, and was inspired by a picture of the three outfielders of the title (Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Duke Snider) together. (Joe DiMaggio was also in the photograph, but he was left out of the song and airbrushed from the record's picture sleeve.) The original sheet music for the song is a part of the Cooperstown Collection, and Cashman was honored at the 2011 Hall Of Fame weekend.
Each version begins with a synthesizer version of the first ten notes of the song "Take me Out to the Ballgame", before the singing starts. Each version ends on a fade.
A parody of the song, entitled "Talkin' Softball", also sung by Cashman, appeared in the 1992 episode of The Simpsons ("Homer at the Bat"). It can also be found on the 1999 CD compilation Go Simpsonic With the Simpsons.
Talkin' Baseball closes out the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode "The Gang Beats Boggs".
References in song
Direct player references
The song's refrain of "Willie, Mickey and the Duke" refers to Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Duke Snider, three Hall-of-Fame center fielders, all of whom played in the same city at the same time—Mays for the New York Giants, Mantle for the New York Yankees and Snider for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Other players and managers are referred to in the song, some by full name, some partial name, and some by nicknames. Those mentioned, in order, are:
Bobby Thomson
Yogi Berra
Ted Kluszewski
Roy Campanella
Stan Musial (The Man) Bob Feller Phil Rizzuto (The Scooter) Sal Maglie (The Barber) Don Newcombe (The Newc) Casey Stengel Henry Aaron Jackie Robinson (One Robbie going out) Frank Robinson or Brooks Robinson (One Robbie...coming in) Ralph Kiner Eddie Gaedel (Midget Gaedel) Ted Williams (The Thumper) Mel Parnell George Brett Bobby Bonds Pete Rose Rusty Staub Grover Cleveland Alexander (reference to Ronald Reagan, who played Alexander in the 1952 film The Winning Team) Reggie Jackson Dan Quisenberry Rod Carew Gaylord Perry Tom Seaver Steve Garvey Mike Schmidt Vida Blue
"The Bachelor" and "Cookie" mentioned in the song's bridge are not baseball figures, but childhood friends of Cashman's: Mike Green and Bobby Cook.