Piazza, New York Catcher

Album: Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
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  • Elope with me Miss Private and we'll sail around the world
    I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl
    How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
    How many nights of limping round on pagan holidays?
    Oh elope with me in private and we'll set something ablaze
    A trail for the devil to erase

    San Francisco's calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
    Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
    We hung about the stadium, we've got no place to stay
    We hung about the Tenderloin and tenderly you tell
    About the saddest book you ever read, it always makes you cry
    The statue's crying too and well he may
    I love you

    I've a drowning grip on your adoring face
    I love you, my responsibility has found a place beside you
    And strong warnings in the guise of gentle words
    Come wave upon me from the family wider net absurd
    "You'll take care of her, I know it, you will do a better job"
    Maybe, but not what she deserves

    Elope with me Miss Private and we'll drink ourselves awake
    We'll taste the coffee houses and award certificates
    A privy seal to keep the feel of 1960 style
    We'll comment on the decor and we'll help the passer by
    And at dusk when work is over we'll continue the debate
    In a borrowed bedroom virginal and spare

    The catcher hits for .318 and catches every day
    The pitcher puts religion first and rests on holidays
    He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
    He knows the drink affects his speed he's praying for a doorway
    Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
    Life outside the diamond is a wrench

    I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend
    I know it wouldn't come to love, my heroine pretend
    A lady stepping from the songs we love until this day
    You'd settle for an epitaph like "Walk Away, Renee"
    The sun upon the roof in winter will draw you out like a flower
    Meet you at the statue in an hour
    Meet you at the statue in an hour Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Miss Private from TelemarkI always thought some parts of this songs at least refer to a longing for having a child. Going through Ivf at least, makes more poignant. "I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend. I know it wouldn't come to love, my heroine pretend"
  • Bodie from SdThe second ball player referred to "prostate on the floor" cannot be an ACCURATE reference to Sandy Koufax. Being Jewish, Koufax wouldn't have been in a Cathedral, and he was a fanatic about his health during his playing career and was notably sober (literally and figuratively) as a player. He IS the most recent and (probably) famous player to be observant enough to refuse to play of his "day of rest", and therefor would be the easy answer to the casual observer.
  • Matthew from Roseville, Ca, CaBoth Piazza and Koufax were rumored to be gay. Their references are related by situation, not by similar era. The pitcher is clearly Koufax.
  • Jay from Brooklyn, NyThe line "The pitcher put religion first and rests on holidays" may not be a reference to Sandy Koufax. Koufax' career ended nearly thirty years before Piazza's started. Why reference Koufax and Piazza in consecutive lines when their careers had nothing to do with each other? Also, the next line "He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor/He knows the drink affects his speed he's praying for/a doorway" does not refer to Koufax, who would not go to cathedrals and did not have a problem with alcohol. On the other hand, I cannot think of an incident during Piazza's time with the Mets when a pitcher refused to pitch because it was a religious holiday.
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