I’ll get to baseball in a minute, but first indulge me because I went to an Eagles concert in Tulsa last night and have to share my thoughts. I don’t think I’m overstepping my bounds because I’ve sort of become the Eagle’s (that’s the newspaper, not the band) unofficial official concert reviewer and I can pass off the following thoughts as just part of my job.
Five years ago during a concert I attended in Omaha, Don Henley’s voice cracked on a high note during “Boys of Summer.” After seeing him effortlessly hit such notes during six previous Eagles concerts, this came as quite a shock. In fact, I don’t think it was a stretch to say that I felt I was seeing the beginning of the end of the Eagles as a viable live band.
Still, I didn’t enter Saturday with lowered expectations. Though the Eagles — Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit — are all into their 60s, their new album was great. Besides, I enter every Eagles concert with sky-high expectations because seeing them live is still somewhat of a surreal experience to me, even after eight concerts. I still look down to the stage and can’t believe I’m seeing the band whose music I’ve been listening to since I exited the womb almost 26 years ago.
The Eagles still managed to exceed my expectations on Saturday night. From the opening strums of “How Long” to the final Henley-sung note of “Desperado,” the concert featured no dull moments and the Eagles even managed to keep the crowd into it during the nine probably seldom-heard songs off the new album, “Long Road Out Of Eden.”
The title track on the album was particularly a highlight for me, even though, at about 45 minutes long, it made up the entire second set. Just kidding. But with several innovative guitar solos, the crowd was on its feet from start to finish during that song, and of course many others.
The highlights for me were, “Witchy Woman,” “Waiting In The Weeds,” “The Long Run” … you know what? Every song was a highlight. And, even though my friend Joel and I were sitting up high where people came to sleep or sit on their hands or something, I had to stand up. I couldn’t sit still and finally had to stand before “Life’s Been Good” and then for the duration of the show. Who sits at a rock concert anyway? Is this acceptable behavior?
Thanks for allowing me the time to write about that. It’s probably fairly obvious that I could have written a lot more, but this is a baseball blog after all. And baseball does share first love status with the Eagles.
After exchanging some text messages with Kevin Cheppenko’s fiance, whom I met in St. Paul and affectionately refer to as “Cheppenko’s Girl,” I’ve decided that I’m going to write about Cheppenko’s status for next season.
An injury while he pitched for Sioux Falls eventually landed Cheppenko in Wichita, where he was a serviceable long reliever and spot starter. His numbers weren’t too impressive — 3-4, 5.85 ERA, but Cheppenko has the body type — 6-8, 235 — and a mid-90s fastball in his arsenal.
The numbers that stick out when looking at Cheppenko’s stats are the 70 hits and 44 walks he surrendered in 60 innings. High hit and walk totals usually means a pitcher lacks an “out” pitch that he can use when ge gets ahead in the count to retire a hitter. If a hitter can sit on a fastball, he’ll usually hit it hard or take it if it’s out of the strike zone. That’s where Cheppenko ran into trouble this season — too many pitches in the zone that got hit, too many pitches out of the zone that got taken and led to walks.
Still, Cheppenko will probably stick around. I see him as a guy who will have success with a defined role. I think he went through a lot this past season, but with a clean slate he’ll put up much better numbers. I see him as a starter, likely in the back end of the rotation, and I forecast a turnaround performance for him next season, when his roster status will be LS-3. Chances of return: 85 percent.
By the way, look for my review of the Poison show at the Kansas State Fair online on Monday morning. Talk to you all soon.