Jimmy Collins Wake

Album: Signed & Sealed In Blood (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Jimmy Collins (1870 - 1943) was a professional baseball player who was widely regarded as being the best third baseman prior to the Second World War. Collins led the Boston Americans to their first American League pennant in 1903 and again in 1904, the latter time with Collins batting .271 and leading the league in putouts for the fifth time in eight seasons.

    This song, with lyrics written by curator of the Boston Sports Museum Richard Johnson, tells the story of Collin's wake in Buffalo, New York. Johnson explained the story behind the song: "A collector friend of mine told of meeting the nephew of former Boston Americans player/manager Jimmy Collins in Buffalo and how the now elderly gent recalled his uncle's wake in 1943. Apparently several of Collins' teammates made the trip to the house where he was laid out in the parlor, and after a few drinks and songs they propped him up in the casket and carefully placed in his stiff hands the silver trophy Boston fans had given him as an expression of their gratitude for the 1904 pennant."

Comments: 1

  • VladimirtThe song apparently quotes a musical phrase from Russian folk song "Korobeiniki"
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