Rocco Baldelli Urges Team to ‘Get Into’ Steely Dan

[RandBalls Stu]

Twins skipper hopes the '70s music legends inspire the team to turn a lost season around.

With the 2021 season rapidly slipping away, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli needed to do something. With making the team healthier being out of his hands, he did what he thought best: put on some Steely Dan.

“I think the players-only meetings and office sit-downs only accomplish so much,” said Baldelli. “What you really need are the sardonic lyrics of Donald Fagen, the tasteful guitar of Walter Becker, and the in-the-pocket grooves of the finest session players in Los Angeles.”

When the players showed up to Target Field on Thursday after another punishing loss to the New York Yankees, they weren’t met with extra batting practice or a shouting fit from the coaching staff. Instead, the clubhouse was lined with shag carpeting, incense sticks, and the Dan’s 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy booming through cabinet speakers.

“This sounds like something my dad would listen to,” said catcher Ryan Jeffers. “I mean, it’s fine. The guy sure sings about drugs and sex stuff a lot.”

Baldelli says he plans to go through the entire discography in hopes that the team will use the band’s jazz-inflected rock stylings and tales of southern California decadence to inspire them.

“Their evolution from a touring band to creatures of the studio can maybe show the guys here that there’s more than one way to get after it,” said Baldelli. “When you get those Michael McDonald backing vocals on ‘Peg’ it oughta help clear your mind and let your natural talent and coaching do the rest of the work.”

“This sounds like the music my dentist plays in his office,” said outfielder Trevor Larnach. “But then the lead singer who can’t really sing sings about Jose Cuervo and the caves of Altamira. I’m worried about Rocco.”

For his part, Baldelli says he’s confident that he’s making the right move.

“You know, when an engineer accidentally erased the recording of ‘The Second Arrangement’, Donald Fagen didn’t blow up. He simply walked out of the studio. So when I show up at the park and they tell me another player is out for two weeks because of whatever that day’s injury is, I ask what would Donald do? I don’t erupt. I simply walk out of the room.”

When it was pointed out that Steely Dan didn’t record a new album for twenty years after that incident, Baldelli began to sob before composing himself and asking the reporter if he could pick out Mark Knopfler’s guitar on “Time Out of Mind.”

 

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[USAFChief]

We need starters...Ricky Nolasco! Falvine, don't lose that number!

[darwin22]

You CAN lose "the numbers" for Sydney "Pontoon" Ponson and Mike Pelfrey--------2 of the worst FA signings ever made.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

After today, you...

Go back, Jack

Do it again

[wsnydes]

Any Major (League) Dude Will Tell You that the key to a successful season, is the perfect soundtrack.  Better late than never!

[Rigby]

Just as long as Steely Dan doesn't get into the Twins.....

[USAFChief]

Kids today. I bet they don't remember the Queen of Soul.

[GCTF]

Bodhisattva!

Am I doing it right?

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Who's that guy Sano, amigo?
Why is he standing in the on-deck circle
Wearing Radke's 22?
Bodacious sluggers
Such as your friend would never have made the team
Back in the Metrodome...

[wsnydes]

30 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Kids today. I bet they don't remember the Queen of Soul.

My memory is a bit fuzzy myself, I can't quite Peg it...

[VivaBomboRivera!]

32 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Kids today. I bet they don't remember the Queen of Soul.

Hey Nineteen, that's Scott Erickson!

[Dodecahedron]

When recording music, one feels like adding things to the mix and turning things up to make the music "better."  Steely Dan found genius by doing the opposite, by turning everything down instead of turning it up. 

This is tougher to do than it seems.  When you totally jam on a guitar lick or nail a vocal, you want to stick it front and center.  Then you jam on the next bit, and you want that turned up too.  Pretty soon, everything is turned up to 10.  Or, at least, everything put in the mix by the "leader" is turned up louder.

This article is genius for comparing Baldelli's apparent approach to Steely Dan.

[Greglw3]

They got a name for the winners in the world.

Me, I need a name when I lose.

They call Alabama the Crimson Tide.

Call me Deacon Blues.

Great article. You had me for most of it. Loved the Larnach quote!

[Ex-Iowegian]

With the exception of last night, it seems this team just Can't Buy a Thrill... Hope it doesn't turn into Everything Must Go later on this summer.

[Rigby]

3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Kids today. I bet they don't remember the Queen of Soul.

Kate Spade?

[AceWrigley]

I guess we gave the Yankees an East Street Toodle-oo.

[joefish]

4 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Kids today. I bet they don't remember the Queen of Soul.

How could they remember something they never heard?

Something about a generation gap...

 

[USAFChief]

4 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

Hey Nineteen, that's Scott Erickson!

Winner.

[gil4]

6 hours ago, joefish said:

How could they remember something they never heard?

Something about a generation gap...

 

There's a cure for that.

The Cuervo gold ...   the fine Colombian ...

[VivaBomboRivera!]

6 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Winner.

They say I'm crazy, but I'm just growing old...

[h2oface]

Using Steely Dan for distraction, "with making the team healthier being out of his hands" and putting it into their hands..... seems that the alternate focus will not be benefical for baseball.