Who's On First
Since we have been shut inside our homes thanks to our good friend COVID-19 (Stay at home, jerks!) I started listening to and posting a picture of a record each day. I’m just going in alphabetical order in our collection and one of the first records I have is a copy of Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s On First” bit. Of course, there are many other routines on the record, including an entire radio show that has the cigarette commercials and everything. Listening to this record got me thinking about my first copy of this bit that I owned and how I got it.
It was my first time visiting the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I can’t recall exactly how old I was but I do know I was a teenager. It was sometime in the ballpark (see what I did there) of 1993-1995. I was, and am, a huge baseball fan so my Dad agreed to take me up to see the shrine to the greatest players to ever step on the field.
We decided to make it a camping trip. My friend Jeremy, who also had an avid love of the game and who I had shared tables at sports card shows to sell our wares, agreed to come along for the trip. So the three of us piled into my Dad’s old pickup truck loaded with our camping gear and made the long drive from Northern Virginia to Cooperstown, NY.
I won’t get into the details of our trip too much as that isn’t the point of this particular post. Needless to say, I was in heaven! As a lover of history and a lover of baseball it was like my two greatest thrills were combined into a single place and time. I didn’t know what I was expecting but I know I wasn’t expecting a quaint little town that didn’t even have a traffic light (although I believe they have one now). Come to think of it, this trip may have been the one that created my love for visiting small towns. Again, that is another story.
The two most vivid memories I have of the trip are a picture I took with a particular plaque and a purchase I made in the gift shop.
Of all the great players with plaques on the wall I wanted to get my picture taken with the great Joe Sewell. Sure, he isn’t a household name like the great bombers of all time (Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron). He also isn’t a great pitcher that everyone recognizes (Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson). What he does have is a record that will never be broken. Joe Sewell was the hardest person to strike out in history. Over 14 years, Joe Sewell struck out 114 times. That’s it! He even had four seasons with four strikeouts or less with at least 500 at bats.
To give you an idea about how good that is, let us look at the 2019 MLB batting champion Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox. Mr. Anderson hit .335 in 2019 including 109 strikeouts. That’s right, in one season the best hitter in baseball had just five less strikeouts than Joe Sewell had IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER!
Want more proof, let’s look at arguably the best hitter in the “modern” era, Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro’s best season was in 2004 when he hit an amazing .372 including 262 hits. That is pretty amazing but it also included 63 strikeouts. Don’t get me wrong, only striking out 63 times in a season is amazing, outstanding, unbelievable even. But again, Joe Sewell had four seasons when he struck out less than FOUR TIMES! Pretty amazing.
But I digress from the real reason for this post which is about “Who’s On First” from 1947. II purchased a cassette tape (remember those, kids?) from the Hall of Fame gift shop of a performance of Who’s On First that included a complete radio show. I’m sure my Dad and Jeremy were sick of me playing that tape all the way home from New York. I listened to that tape so many times that I can almost recite, word for word, the entire show. Even the commercials.
How can you resist a commercial about Camel Cigarettes. I mean, in a nationwide survey the cigarette brand most recommended by doctors was Camel. Camel cigarettes are specially rolled to tickle your “T” zones. That’s “T” for taste and “T” for throat. The 1940’s were wild! Can you imagine the world’s biggest comedy stars doing doctor recommended ads for Camel’s now? It would be crazy.
I remember hearing songs by Skinnay Ennis and his band played during the show. I can remember a bit from Abbott and Costello talking about Dizzy Dean, his brother Daffy Dean and their French cousin, Goofee Dean. I couldn’t stop listening to it. I was enthralled.
So when I was able to find this record at a local record shop I hopped on it as. Abbott and Costello are perhaps the greatest comedy duo of all time. Sure, everyone knows “Who’s On First” but they have radio bits performed about renting a car from Hertz called the U-Drive. They have performances with Lucille Ball from 1943. If you are looking for something funny to pass the time during this crisis, check out Abbott and Costello and maybe spin a record or two. It will be worth your time.
