Poor Ozzy Osbourne. Although his wife, Sharon, is recovering from the colon cancer, other calamities have befallen our wobbly rocker.
Jack, his son entered rehab, his tour manager died of cancer, and he's missed some scheduled concerts due to an undisclosed illness.
Now, he's forgotten the words to an American classic. I'm not talking about Crazy Train, Gets Me Through, or Mama, I'm Coming Home. No, friend, I'm talking Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Wait, you say, that's not on any of his albums, nor is it in his regular line-up. Give him a break!
Ok, fair enough, but Ozzzy failed this at a public performance at Chicago's Wrigley Field on August 17th! It apparently has some Cubs fans screaming, and I don't think they were showing the OZ man "devil heads" with their hand gestures, either. One letter to the editor called the performance "inexcusably despicable." Another said it was an insult to the "Cubs organization and major league baseball." Even more so than Sammy Sosa's cork-infested bat?
Speaking of which, we went to the Astro's game to watch the home team take on the Cubs. We got great seats, the best we've ever had. We were on the first level, there was food right behind us and we were about 40 feet from right fielder Sosa when the Cubs took the field.
What a blast! We spent the entire evening heckling Sosa, shouting "Saaaaaammmmmy!" Some called him "Corkey." Mari would shout "Dive, Sammy, Dive" every time a ball was hit to the outfield, anywhere in the outfield.
That's what I like about baseball. I mean you have to give Sammy Sosa credit for his homerun record, and man does that guy hustle! Yet, every time he came out in our area he was subject to unmerciful heckling. Baseball is a great equalizer!
I like Ozzy, too. But cannot defend his performance this time. As I mentioned before, when I saw Ozzfest this year, I did think some of his songs were poorly performed. I do cut him a lot of slack, because it's amazing that he can even roust himself up to do a performance. But, to butcher a song in a performance that people are really looking forward to seeing, really ruins an evening for people.
If you want to read the story, check it out on the Chicago Tribune webpage, or click on this link.
Here's the account, according to the Trib:
Chip Caray: "All right, Chicago. Here comes Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne."
Ozzy: "All right, Chicago. I want to hear a real crazy crowd start singing. Are you ready? Are you ready? I can't hear you. Are you ready?
"One. Two. Three.
"Let's go out to the ballgame. Let's go out to the bluhhhhhn.
"Take me a ee-yan eeya (humming) the field.
"I don't care if I ahh-uhn ack.
"Da da da da duh da da da eam. Duh ee, da da da da dahhh.
"For a fee, two, three strikes you're out at the old ballgame. Yeahhhhhh."
Sharon: "Now let's get some runs."
Ozzy: "Yeah. Let's get some runs."
Great Ozzy. Sounds like someone already had the runs!
