Sports Songs

CB mentioned a song on this list and this list came to life…so thanks CB. Some songs about sports or sports figures. I managed to get in baseball, boxing, and even Cricket. I can see a part II in the future.

The songs I know the most about are Baseball theme songs because that is the sport I follow the most.

John Fogerty – Centerfield

Along with “Talkin’ Baseball” and “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” this quickly became one of the most popular baseball songs ever. It’s a fixture at ballparks between innings of games and plays at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Fogerty mentions 3 huge baseball stars…”So say, Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio.” He was influenced by Chuck Berry’s Brown Eyed Handsome Man with the lyrics  “Rounding third he was heading for home, it was a brown eyed handsome man,” which is lifted from Berry’s song “Brown Eyed Handsome Man.”

John Fogerty: “I’d hear about Ruth and DiMaggio, and as my dad and older brothers talked about the Babe’s exploits, their eyes would get so big. When I was a little kid, there were no teams on the West Coast, so the idea of a Major League team was really mythical to me. The players were heroes to me as long as I can remember.”

Paul Kelly – Bradman

I’ll be the first to admit I  know little nothing about Cricket but the song is great. It’s about Sir Donald Bradman, arguably…. the greatest ever cricketer (and definitely the greatest ever Australian cricketer). This one peaked at #51 in Australia in 1987 and was part of a double A-sided single along with the song Leaps and Bounds.

Chris Gaffney – Eyes of Roberto Duran

This song was written by Tim Russell and it’s covered here by Chris Gaffney. Gaffney had a terrific voice and I discovered him when I covered The Hacienda Brothers last week. This song was on the 1995 album Loser’s Paradise. 

Roberto Durán, a Panamanian boxer, is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time. Known as “Manos de Piedra” (Hands of Stone) for his punching power, Durán’s career lasted from 1968 to 2001. That is a long long career for a boxer.

Durán has talked about an incident from his childhood that left him with a unique trait. As a young boy, he was hit in the eye with a rock, resulting in a permanent droop in his left eyelid. This injury gave Durán a distinctive look, contributing to his fierce ring presence. Despite this, his vision was not significantly impaired.

Bob Dylan – Hurricane

Hurricane is a protest song by Bob Dylan co-written with Jacques Levy, released in 1976 on Dylan’s album Desire. The song tells the story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a middleweight boxer who was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966. Dylan’s song played a huge role in bringing Carter’s case to public attention.

Warren Zevon – The Ballad of Bill Lee

This song is about one of the most colorful baseball players ever. Bill Lee was called Spaceman because of his views on the world. He was from the 1960s counterculture when most baseball players were straight-laced. When asked about mandatory drug testing, Lee said “I’ve tried just about all of them, but I wouldn’t want to make it mandatory.”

This is from Warren Zevon’s 1980 album “Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School.” The song is a tribute to Bill “Spaceman” Lee.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

68 thoughts on “Sports Songs”

  1. Talking of sports; it’s the English F.A. Cup final later this afternoon between Manchester City and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. I’ll be watching it on TV and hoping City win.

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    3. Because they are disUnited. Shambolically so. I’m happy with the win, but it changes nothing, they are a bloody mess. 19 times out of 20 City would have won on ability and teamwork.

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    4. Agreed. I am amazed that City choked. Well, they didn’t choke really, had Haaland scored it would have been good night United. But he hit the post and United netted. Football- wot a crazy game!

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    1. I wanted to pick a few under the radar songs for this…CB sent me the Duran song and I had forgot about the Bill Lee song…Lee is still a character.

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  4. Good list! I once looked at as songs adopted by sports teams or players and that was longer by far than any list I could come up with of songs written ABOUT sports. I didn’t even know there was a song about Bill Lee. Mind you, there is The Baseball Project with Peter Buck that essentially only writes songs about baseball, but I don’t know their stuff nearly well enough

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    1. Thanks Dave! I loved reading about Bill Lee as a kid…him and Jim Bouton. They were both characters so to speak lol.
      I thought about going to the Baseball Project as well when doing this…I will for the second one…but I didn’t want to overload it with Baseball songs…I tried to spread it out…

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      1. sometime , maybe soon, I need to dig around and find a Baseball Project CD or two… I like the very few songs I have heard about them, it’s got half of REM in it and it is bound to be fun to hear songs about Ichiro , Babe Ruth and such.

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      2. I looked for songs about football guys but couldn’t find many. Baseball goes well with music and movies better than other sports.
        I want to check that out also… those Baseball Project recordings.

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    1. Thanks! I love that story about Dock Ellis… Jim Bouton was another colorful one… and I love Ball Four. I read it at least once every two years.

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  6. While I’m admittedly not into sports and only knew the songs by John Fogerty and Bob Dylan, I think all of your picks are great. Interestingly, the first song that came to my mind when I read the intro of your post was Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” because of the Joe DiMaggio reference. I’m afraid he’s the only famous baseball player I can name, which I suppose further illustrates what I said in my first sentence! 🙂

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  7. Good ones Max. So many plus endless references to sports figures. Big Earl (Son) and I were talking about Duran the other day. He has a fight coming up with George Forman. Just kidding. Bill Lee? A favorite sports guy for sure. He always looked like an unmade bed sort of like me. Here’s a cut I did a take on back when I wasnt so lazy. Another Zevon and he punches this up. Brings back memeories of that time in boxing.

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    1. My phone is not picking up the video but my guess is it’s Boom Boom Mancin… I just did a search and oh yea …. If that is the song… that is cool. I never knew about that one.
      Someone suggested one about hockey by The Hip…so many out there.
      I would pay to see foreman and Duran go a round now! I love classic boxing as you know.

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      1. The take I did ages ago goes into that era. Like you I was a fight guy. Not so much anymore. Things change.
        The Hip love their hockey. Living in Canada we get a few “hockey” themed songs. I’m ok with that.

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      2. When Ron and I talk on the phone….we will be dropping 1970’s utility infielder’s names that we remembered…My memory is terrible for yesterday…but back then…I can remember.
        With hockey I have watched some clips of Bobby Orr and clips of Marty McSorely you sent me. In football…it’s the cool Ken Stabler and the rough Dick Butkus…I could watch highlights all day long of them.

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      3. Ron Hunt” How’s that name for you?
        I get your interest in those guys. Great scene in ‘Friends Of Eddie Coyle’ where Mitchum is at a Bruins hockey game and comments on Bobby Orr. A fave flick.

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      4. Cool! an old Met I believe.
        That movie…when I finished watching… it stayed with me for a few days. Only a few movies do that…it seemed like you were watching real life.

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      5. I think Ron has the record for more “Hit by Pitches”. Played for a bunch of teams. Got to a point where he’d get hit and the ump would say he did it on purpose which he did. There’s a song there somewhere Max.
        I remember we talked about Eddie Coyle.

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      6. It’s an art to that…I remember Don Baylor did the same thing. Mr. Hunt is still number 6th on the all time list… 243 times. Wow.
        Yea man…the movies you like…seem to have that in common…as far as it could be real life…thats the best way to describe it. Like a camera following people around…I love those…shot in real places…grimy everyday places.

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      8. That would be a cool song…because it’s not fun to be hit as we know…especially from 90 mph fastballs. I see a song as well!
        I need to check your site out for more movies. Next on my movie list is Straight On Till Morning… a Hammer film from 72.

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  8. a Canadian one that would be tangential to the list at least would be ’50 Mission Cap’ by the Tragically Hip. In part it’s about a Toronto hockey player, Bill Barilko , who disappeared after winning the Stanley Cup, but with Gord Downie’s lyrics, it’s kind of painterly and opaque.

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    1. There’s more than one Australian accent. I was on a trip with a New Zealander and two Aussies – one from Sydney and one from Melbourne. None of us could understand the Melbourner. Five weeks into the trip we met a woman from Melbourne. The two of them chatted up a storm, delighted to find someone who could understand them.

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      1. I am from New Zealand and when I was a student in Boston (USA) we NZers automatically reverted to our accent when in each others company and no one else could understand us!

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      1. Australia was settled by convicts, whereas NZ was settle by upper middle class! Although the gold rush on NZ’s West Coast brought Australians and they brought their accent with them and the school kids on the West Coast borrowed that accent which we still have by and large. (At least that’s what I read).

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      2. I agree…that is why I included it. He has another song called Catfish…about the pitcher Catfish Hunter but I wanted to get this one in.

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      4. Yes…I’ll include it on the next Sports songs…I just found out not long ago Bob also has a song that he wrote with Lennon in mind…”Roll On John” and he has one about Lenny Bruce…called Lenny Bruce.

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  11. Only one I can think of off the top of my head this morning is Billy Bragg and Wilco/Mermaid Avenue ‘Joe Dimaggio Done It Again.’ But my mind is taken up with getting my brain to understand about how Manchester United contrived to beat the much better Manchester City in the FA Cup. It’s like some flyweight beating Tyson in his prime!

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    1. Ok thanks…any about your sport?
      Yea I hate a phrase that people say when that happens to teams like Manchester City….”thats why they play the game” true…but I still hate it.

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      1. Song wise, no. Maybe I could write a sarcastic song called, say ‘Soccer Mom’ or something? 🙄. Otherwise its only songs that clubs have appropriated like Liverpools anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ or Crystal Palaces ‘Glad All Over.’
        United did beat the odds though- NO way are they even close to City.

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      2. So it was a major upset…I hate it for the fans of City.
        I’ve been on the winning side of that a grand total of one time. The Dodgers-A’s in the 88 World Series…and I bet you have seen a clip of it…when Kirk Gibson hobling to the plate hits a homerun to win it. The Dodgers should have NEVER won that series. The A’s were much better.

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      3. My son is a Newcastle fan and says Mark Knopflers music from ‘Local Hero’ ‘Going Home’ is the song they play at the stadium. I thought that was cool. Just another way we are introduced to music. My first experience with football and music was on Pink Floyd’s ‘Meddle’

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  12. Thanks, I’ll check out the clip; Sometimes the odds are beaten, but it IS rare. This is one of the reasons football/soccer can turn these wonky results up. There’s rarely more than a goal between winning and losing, so you can cling on and win through sheer desperation, good luck and the coach wearing out his worry beads. But, in say, basketball, the sheer amount of points scored means the best team has a decent chance of eventually getting their shi- shots together.

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    1. Yea true…in basketball you can rack up the points in a hurry.
      The difference in baseball unlike all other sports but golf…there is no clock. So…if it’s the 9th inning and your are down 10-0…no you probably will not win…but you can!

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      1. It’s interesting though, the songs that become ‘sports’ songs… Some are obvious, like ‘We Are the Champions’, some are less so, like ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, or ‘Rock n Roll’

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      2. You are right…some are just adpoted also like We Will Rock You.
        We do have songs like Take Me Out To The Ball Game which is a classic.

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