THE OLDTIMERS' GAME

Growing up in LA in the 70s, the Dodgers (hell, most MLB teams did this) every year had a special Sunday event called the Oldtimer's Game - teams of former players - some long retired (Satchell Paige, Minnie Minoso), some not so long gone (Ron Fairly, hell even Sandy Koufax once in awhile) would show up and "play a game" against each other for an inning or two, before the real game got started. Yeah, they couldn't play it like they used to - nobody expected that, it was just fun to see some of these guys in uniform again and think about the old days. Magical for a kid.

And it was included in the price of the game ticket.

Paul McCartney's incessant tours make me think of the Oldtimers' games. Sir Paul still has great musical talent beyond performing - always has. He's also a billionaire, a mature billionaire. After spending the better part of the first decade of his solor career running from his Beatles catalog, he reversed field and embraced it. He's released close to a dozen different "live" albums, and sadly but not surprisingly, each one chronicles his declining vocal talents - some of the tracks on the later ones are downright awful.

Yes, perhaps this is leftover vitriol from missing my one and only chance to see "Wings Over America" at the Forum in 1976 - a bandmember's broken arm pushed the tour out 3 months, and the ticket my sister had purchased "for me" went used by someone else - and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. And the "Wings Over America" album -released that Christmas - was decent but it substantially over-emphasized the bass-playing of Sir Paul. Virtually every Live album since - possibly excepting the "unplugged" CD - have been lesser efforts. As an aside, please, Sir Paul, Please stop performing "Live and Let Die" live.

If Sir Paul "needs" to tour for his own musical release, great. He doesn't need to charge 250 bucks a seat from people even less equipped to afford that steep cost now than they were when he was in his "prime" - and no, I wouldn't have paid that kind of coin for it back then, either. Those were "Scalper prices" in 1976, if I do recall correctly. Sorry Paul, I'm cranking up Rubber Soul or Revolver, or Band on the Run. At this point, doing so costs me as much as my Oldtimers Day ticket did back in the day.