Agent Palmer

I was there, in the beginning.

I watched Chase Utley’s uniquely unorthodox, seemingly three-quarters swing blast extra-base hits in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s cavernous copy of Veterans Stadium, the former Lackawanna County Stadium, for the Red Barons.

I wondered why he was still in Triple-A.

There are a lot of rock stars and musicians who want to be athletes, and baseball is a favorite sport of a lot of them, regardless of genre.

So it wasn’t hard to come up with 27 tracks to put on this list. Why 27?

Because 27 is the number of outs needed for a perfect game, thus making this the perfect baseball playlist.

For those of us blessed to enjoy more than one sport, September is much more than back-to-school sales. In fact, it is a veritable cornucopia of sports. Our televisions, tablets, and mobile devices are continuously swimming in baseballs, footballs, soccer balls, pucks, and races.

So let’s take a look at what makes this such a wonderful sports month.

It’s almost time to “Play Ball!” And as a fan of not just the Baltimore Orioles but the game itself, I feel it’s time to address a few items before the first pitch is thrown, the first strike is called, and the first batter rounds first base.

It all stems from the changing, or more accurately, tweaking of the game because of rule changes, but I’m going to start by addressing some of the points from Rob Manfred’s letter to the fans, as the new Commissioner of Baseball, before I get into the changes themselves.