Baseball troubadour Chuck Brodsky

I walked over to the Knoxville Visitors Center during lunch today to hear folk writer and singer Chuck Brodsky perform on WDVX-FM's Blue Plate Special.

A Philadelphia native, Brodsky spent his childhood rooting for the Phillies. His love for the team continued in adulthood, and he penned his first baseball song, "Lefty," for a 1995 album.

In 2002, Brodsky released an entire CD of cleverly-penned baseball songs titled "The Baseball Ballads." I bought a copy a couple of years ago when I first saw Brodsky perform on the Blue Plate Special.

I've got two favorites from the CD.

"Gone to Heaven" is a song about the life of baseball clown performer Max Patkin. (You'll remember Patkin from the movie "Bull Durham.") This song was meaningful to me because I had the pleasure of meeting and seeing Patkin perform at Greer Stadium in Nashville and at the former Tim McCarver Stadium in Memphis in the early '90s.

The other song is "Letters in the Dirt," which addresses the verbal abuse Phillies slugger Richie Allen endured from Philadelphia fans when Brodsky attended games as a child.

Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has called Brodsky "baseball's troubadour poet laureate.

"Chuck combines his gift for lyrics and melody with his love for baseball history and culture, and in the process creates a new chapter in the folklore of our national pastime," Wiles said.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Oct. 18, 2010)

A lesson in civil rights

Riley Devault shows a special interest in a Jackie Robinson exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., so his dad Michael takes the opportunity to explain the significance of Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken in late July 2007)

The last long ball hit by baseball's true HR king

The ball hit by Hank Aaron (Baseball's True HR Champ) for his final career home run (No. 755) is on loan at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on July 26, 2009)

Cal Ripken Jr.: "An unintentional hero"

Hundreds of fans swarmed Cal Ripken Jr. outside Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 28, 2007, clamoring to shake the baseball legend's hand and get his autograph on the day before his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

"Iron Man" Ripken holds the Major League record for most consecutive games played.

Ripken wrote in his 2007 book, Get in the Game: Eight Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference:

"Playing in 2,632 consecutive ball games and breaking Lou Gehrig's record had nothing to do with extraordinary talent. I didn't have a bionic body or a burning desire for the spotlight.

"I simply showed up and honored the game of baseball by playing as well as I could as often as I could. In doing so, I became an unintentional hero."

Photo by Darrin M. Devault