The grudge Eagles settled with a softball match
An advert popped up on my phone recently for an Eagles tribute show playing a couple of shows in my hometown. On the ad, the show promises “20 of the best Eagles hits.” The best representation of the Eagles’ majesty and the quality of their work throughout their time as a band is that picking 20 songs that best represent the band is really tricky because they released a lot more hits than that.
The band were responsible for the uprising of country rock, as they took two genres that were already taking America by storm and showed people how the styles could work in harmony. Later in their career, they leaned more on the rock side and created songs like ‘Life In The Fast Lane’, which had a classic riff Guns N’ Roses Slash described as “killer.” There is a lot of versatility within the band, reflected in their music and their constant striving for versatile music.
While their creative versatility made for some excellent music, it also caused problems within the band. There was often friction between members as they had different opinions on their musical direction and how they could better engage with their fans. This meant that the lineup for the band changed, and there were multiple splits and reunions; however, the Eagles weren’t always at each other’s throats. They had enough camaraderie that when a music publication called them out for a game of softball, they rose to the challenge.
While the band got a lot of good press in the ‘70s, there were some instances where magazines were happy to criticise their live performances and more questionable tracks. Rolling Stone fell into this category, so when they wrote a line about the band being more interested in playing softball (badly) than making music, the band decided to respond.
“What you have failed to mention is that the Eagles won two out of three games against Jimmy Buffett,” wrote Glenn Frey in response to the publication, “Anytime you pencil-pushing desk jockeys want to put on your spikes, we’ll kick your ass, too.”
Rolling Stone accepted the competition, and a mass of writers were flown to San Francisco to take part in a friendly softball game. It was agreed that the winner would have bragging rights, while the loser would need to donate $5000 to UNICEF. In order to ramp up the pressure, the Eagles promoted the game and managed to fill the stands at the University of Southern California with fans, cheering the band and booing the writers at every opportunity. Also watching from the wings were big names such as Chevy Chase, Joni Mitchell and Jerry Brown, the governor of California.
“I felt like I was walking into the Roman Colosseum,” said Charles M. Young, a writer for the Rolling Stone at the time, “And was about to be eaten by lions.”
The Rolling Stone were hammered, beaten 15 – 8 by the California band. In a post-match de-brief after the game, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were vocal about the publication that they had beaten. “In the end, it was the errors that cost RS the game,” they wrote, “Their first error was to call the Eagles sissies in Random Notes.”
