‘Mrs. Robinson,’ Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio

Allow me a moment of reflection on music, baseball, and American history. Jeff wrote a little while ago about Simon & Garfunkel, also the subject of a recent episode of the Political Beats podcast. Jeff discussed on the episode how Paul Simon originally wanted to use Mickey Mantle in “Mrs. Robinson” but went with Joe DiMaggio instead because his name worked better with the melody. True enough, but there’s a deeper set of reasons why the line worked so, so much better with Joe. Recall the famous lyric:

(DiMaggio, then coaching for the A’s and doing TV ads for Mr. Coffee and the Bowery bank, was baffled at the time by the suggestion that he had gone anywhere.)

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Baseball

Allow me a moment of reflection on music, baseball, and American history. Jeff wrote a little while ago about Simon & Garfunkel, also the subject of a recent episode of the Political Beats podcast. Jeff discussed on the episode how Paul Simon originally wanted to use Mickey Mantle in “Mrs. Robinson” but went with Joe DiMaggio instead because his name worked better with the melody. True enough, but there’s a deeper set of reasons why the line worked so, so much better with Joe. Recall the famous lyric:

(DiMaggio, then coaching for the A’s and doing TV ads for Mr. Coffee and the Bowery bank, was baffled at the time by the suggestion that he had gone anywhere.)