Prince of Baseball: The death of the music artist Prince this past week was widely noted, including on baseball diamonds. Prince songs were played in many stadiums and several players changed their walk-up songs to honor Prince. Alex Rodriquez used a different Prince song for each of his four at-bats (0-2 and 2 walks). Over the years, Prince’s hometown team, the Twins, have welcomed new players with a ritual where the player sings excerpts from Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” (click here, 39 seconds). The song is about a one night stand with a fast woman (she being his “Little Red Corvette”) – my generation’s version was Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” (“why can’t you be true…”). General Motors ran its own tribute ad:

Prince was everywhere. Springsteen opened his Brooklyn show under purple lights and sang “Purple Rain.” Saturday Night Live put together a special with clips of old shows featuring Prince and his comedy imitator Fred Armisen. Rita and I were at Kansas City CARE Clinic’s Bloom Party on Saturday night, and the band opened with Prince’s “1999.” Bill Shapiro put together a special Cypress Avenue show. Sportswriter Joe Posnanski lauded Prince’s 2007 Super Bowl half-time show as the best ever – Prince started with “Let’s Go Crazy” (“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life”) and ended with the singing of “Purple Rain” in a Miami rainstorm. It was indeed awesome (click here, 8 minutes).

And many more. But my favorite was the blending of two geniuses: Lin-Manuel Miranda led his Hamilton cast in a Prince tribute after its Broadway performance, to the music of “Let’s Go Crazy” (click here, 1.25 minutes). A truly joyful remembrance.

Let’s Go Crazy! Let’s Go Royals! It’s not Prince, but perfect on a night at the K (click here).