It’s Saturday night, when I often treat myself to writing about something I really like, which usually turns out to be rock music or baseball, or in this case both.
I was reading a 2019 interview in Billboard with Rivers Cuomo, a very smart rock star, of the band Weezer:
Rivers Cuomo on His Data-Driven Approach to Weezer
… Q. How did you determine the tracklisting with the Black Album?
A. It’s the modern method of sequencing, which is to put the songs with the broadest appeal up front, and then it goes in descending order and the songs get weirder and weirder as the album goes on. It’s very different from the old days.
The idea of putting what are expected to be the most popular songs upfront on an album for listener convenience is surprisingly new.
The old days philosophy for creating album lineups was rather like how batting lineups used to be constructed in baseball in submission to a rather aesthetic (but silly) tradition: the leadoff hitter was envisioned to be a skinny speedster, the number two hitter was a slower skinny guy who at least didn’t strike out much and could execute the hit-and-run play, #3 was a high average extra-base hit slugger, #4 was a home run hitter with a lower batting average than #3, #5 was a slow slugger, #6 was an okay hitter with a certain amount of power, #7 was like #6 but less so, and #8 was either a weak-hitting utility infielder or a dinged-up catcher with a bad average who might occasionally hit one out.
Album design was less stereotypical, but was also predicated on holding back your best tracks for reasons of artistry. For example, Michael Jackson’s 1983 album Thriller featured two #1 singles, the roaring rock crossover “Beat It” with Eddie Van Halen providing the guitar solo (and a great West Side Story–inspired music video), and the sublime “Billie Jean,” with a less exciting video, but still, it featured Michael Jackson dancing, as well as sound production that was the peak of Quincy Jones’ storied career. But these two sure-fire barnburners only appeared on Side Two, with “Billie Jean,” an obvious work of genius, batting 6th in the lineup, for reasons:
Side One
1. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”
2. “Baby Be Mine”
3. “The Girl Is Mine” (with Paul McCartney)
4. “Thriller”
Side Two
5. “Beat It”
6. “Billie Jean”
7. “Human Nature”
8. “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
9. “The Lady in My Life”
This was back at the dawn of the one-sided DVD era, so most copies of Thriller were, I presume, sold on vinyl, so you could start listening with Side Two. But still, why not lead off Side One with “Beat It” and “Billie Jean?” (Which of the two should go first would be a pleasant argument to have.)
Four years later, U2 and their producer Steve Lillywhite couldn’t decide on the ordering of the tracks on The Joshua Tree. What would be the perfect sequence to maximize dramatic tension and release? Their contractual deadline for delivering the tape was rapidly approaching…
They were rescued at the last moment when Lillywhite’s wife, singer Kirstie MacColl (the great duettist on “Fairytale of New York” and “Don’t You Want Me“) stepped in and put the songs in order of what she perceived would be their popularity, with the three hit singles, “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and “With or Without You” going first.
U2 members were flabbergasted by how MacColl had cut the Gordian knot of their creative quandary. But MacColl (one of most intriguing musicians of this era: she may have had the talent but not the ambition nor luck to be a Madonna / Taylor Swift-scale superstar—note that both of her duet partners promise her the stardom she obviously deserved but never quite achieved) thought it was obvious that an album should be laid out to make it most convenient for fans to hear their favorite songs. That was considered a radical idea at the time.
Similarly, baseball batting orders were long constructed according to aesthetic principles rather than today’s computer-driven insight that of course you want your best hitter to have the most chances to win the game for you. In 2022, when Aaron Judge was driving to break Roger Maris of the 1961 Yankees’ American League home run record of 61, for the second half of the season the Yankees batted Judge in the leadoff spot so he’d get the maximum number of plate appearances. After all, why wouldn’t you want Aaron Judge, who currently leads the majors with 32 homers and has an outside shot at breaking his A.L. home run record of 62, to get more at-bats than your lesser hitters?
Similarly, last year the Los Angeles Dodgers batted their leading home run hitter, Mookie Betts with 40, in the leadoff spot. This year, with Betts recently injured, they are batting superstar slugger Shohei Ohtani, the National League’s leading home run hitter at 28, first.
The new idea is: say you’ve gone through your nine-man batting order four times and there are now two outs in the 9th and you are down by one run. As you start your 5th trip through the lineup, who do you want coming up for your last chance, do-or-die opportunity: Gavin Lux or Shohei Ohtani?
But that kind of crass but effective reasoning was unfashionable for most of baseball history. Instead, batting orders were determined by the aesthetic mandate to not get greedy, but instead to artfully build to a big payoff by intelligently using lithe singles hitters upfront and follow them with muscular home run hitters to drive in your table setters.
For example, the famous 1961 New York Yankees, who set a long-standing record with 240 homers, used to start off games by batting skinny second baseman Bobby Richardson in the leadoff spot and skinny shortstop Tony Kubek batting second, followed by 1960 MVP Roger Maris in the third spot, and all-time great Mickey Mantle batting cleanup at #4.
But pitchers aren’t scared of singles hitters slamming home runs, so they don’t walk them much. As it turned out, the 1961 Yankees’ first four spots in their batting order were the exact opposite of their on-base percentages: Richardson got on base a bad .295 of the time, Kubek a crummy .306, Maris a good .372, and Mantle a great .448. Not surprisingly, Richardson scored only 80 runs in 162 games and Kubek 84 in 153, while Maris (hitting 61 homers with Mantle hitting 54 homers behind him) scored 132 in 161 and Mantle 131 in 153.
Knowing what we know today, I’d have batted The Mick in the leadoff position (after all, he led the Yankees in stolen bases with 12 in 13 tries and tied Kubek for the team lead in triples with six). Second would be catcher Elston Howard (.387 OBP), third Maris, fourth Moose Skowron, fifth Yogi Berra, sixth Kubek, seventh gloveman Clete Boyer, and eighth Richardson. With that lineup, Mantle would likely have scored an average of one run per game or more.
