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I can see that. Although I'd say they have more "up-tempo" numbers than you might think. But that's splittin' hairs.
Speaking of DiNizio...while posting on this thread I received this article via an email group I'm in. Talk about synchronicity :
Rock 'n' chin music - Smithereens front man tries baseball for TV
By JIM WHITE, Staff Writer.
BRIDGEWATER -- In the dugout at Commerce Bank Park, Pat DiNizio let on that he still has a long way to go.
The front man for the seminal '80s and early-'90s rock band The Smithereens, DiNizio had just finished warming up with the Somerset Patriots prior to their Sept. 1 match-up with the Long Island Ducks and talked about his upcoming reality show "7th Inning Stretch."
"It's kind of like a cross between 'Field of Dreams,' 'The Rookie' and 'Spinal Tap,'" said the Scotch Plains native who turns 50 next month. DiNizio, who likes baseball almost as much as he likes playing guitar, wants to be the oldest player on a minor league club, and "7th Inning Stretch," which began filming in early June and should wrap up in February, will chronicle his attempt to reach that goal. The show is expected to air sometime in late March on ESPN2.
The visit to Commerce Bank Park was just one stop on DiNizio's whirlwind tour to get back in shape and reclaim the talent he had as a star player at Scotch Plains High School in the early '70s.
It has taken him to a number of ballparks including Fenway Park, where he nearly hit the Green Monster off a pitch from David Wells. He got batting tips from Don Mattingly at Yankees Stadium. "Iron Man" Cal Ripken is also featured in the show as well as a number of rock musicians, including Gene Simmons, Todd Rundgren, Ted Nugent, Sugar Ray, George Thorogood and Joan Jett.
"We're targeting older athletes and musicians who are still out there kicking ass," said the show's producer, Michele Alessi of Famous Monsters Media.
DiNizio was adamant that the show's premise is no gimmick and insisted he believes he really has a shot at making a minor league team.
"Absolutely," he said. "It's just a matter of getting the proper amount of coaching. It's like playing the guitar. You have to be dedicated and practice every day."
He continued: "It's a reality show meant to empower people. It's for guys who wear the baseball jersey of their favorite player. It's for families with kids who play ball. It's about a 50-year-old man with a dream."
DiNizio said his dream began after he came down with a nervous disorder that resulted in life-threatening hives.
"After 25 years on the road (with The Smithereens) I wound up getting sick. It took its toll," he said, adding he was prescribed a powerful steroid that saved his life but caused him to balloon up to 310 pounds -- 100 pounds more than his average weight.
"Have you seen Jerry Lewis? Like him," he said.
"During that time I watched a lot of baseball on TV," he said. DiNizio, currently at 275 pounds, said he began to notice that professional outfielders were letting catchable pop-ups drop in front of them. "I started thinking gee wiz, if I had that opportunity I wouldn't be lazy. Baseball became a way out of being sick."
He said Cal Ripken thought it was a good idea for a show and after a pitch to ESPN, Famous Monsters Media was given the green light.
The rest is reality television.
"Swing from your ass," Manager Sparky Lyle recommended to DiNizio earlier in the day, before batting practice.
"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it," a sweaty DiNizio said a bit later, after exiting the batting cage. "It feels good when I hit it with the sweet spot of the bat."
Lyle, the former legendary relief pitcher for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, pitched to DiNizio, who, after starting off with foul tips and weak grounders, eventually began to hit consistent and powerful bombs into the outfield.
"Don't let him run one in on your hands. He's made a living doing it," pitching coach Liam Healy told DiNizio as players encouraged him to keep it up.
"He's got a great bat path, down through the ball," Healy said. "But you gotta remember, he hasn't played in 35 years. You also gotta remember he's hitting off Sparky Lyle."
"He did like I would expect anyone to do who hasn't played baseball in a while," Lyle said at the end of batting practice. "He takes too big a stride. He needs to work on that. Either no stride at all or a shorter one."
Lyle said DiNizio's stride was causing him to strike the ball from below the trademark of the bat.
"His hands probably hurt right now," he said.
"It's good what he's doing," Lyle said about the television show. "I think he's having fun, what the hell? We enjoyed having him here."
DiNizio also practiced pitching and fielding ground balls with his Mizuno mitt signed by Alice Cooper Tommy Lee, Heather Locklear and Rob Lowe -- a memento from a charity softball event in Hollywood back in the early '90s.
"I have to be twice as good as these kids half my age," he said after the workout. "I may not have the physical gifts but I have the reflexes."
DiNizio said he is aware that at the age of 46, outfielder Rickey Henderson was and remains the oldest player in the history of the Atlantic League. Henderson will turn 48 this Christmas and currently plays for the San Diego Surf Dawgs in the Golden Baseball League. He also has 25 years of Major League Baseball experience under his belt.
DiNizio compared his own comeback to that of former two-time Heavyweight Champion George Foreman.
"People said he was too fat and too old, and he was gonna get hurt. But he did it," he said. "Some people have told me it's impossible, but if I believed all the naysayers who told us The Smithereens were terrible, we would have given up." The Smithereens will mark their 25th anniversary in March.
"The human spirit is an amazing thing. If you work hard enough you can do damn near anything," he said. "That would be the most amazing thing ever, to make a team. But in the end it's not about whether I make a team or not. It's about the journey."
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