[Joe] DePugh, the oldest of six brothers, was a star Little League pitcher and a teammate of Springsteen’s in the Babe Ruth League. A joint assessment of their comparative baseball skills led to DePugh’s affectionate nickname for Springsteen, a right fielder: Saddie.
By high school, they had drifted apart.
“He lost interest in baseball, and I was nothing but sports,” said DePugh, now 61, who also played basketball and football.
As a high school senior, he had several offers to play college basketball and an invitation to try out for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In a telephone interview, DePugh said: “I was like: ‘I’m going to be a pitcher for the Dodgers. No, I’m going to college. No, I’m going to be a pitcher for the Dodgers.’ Well, the tryout cleared all that up.”
He played basketball at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and earned a degree in English. But by the time he graduated, his parents had died and DePugh was the legal guardian of his two youngest brothers. DePugh was a substitute teacher for a while but could not find a permanent teaching position, so he became a self-employed contractor. He also played in a summer basketball league, and it was after a game that he ran into Springsteen at the Headliner.
A few years later, DePugh moved to Vermont. His friend Scott Wright always played Springsteen’s music on a boom box on job sites, and DePugh told him about meeting Springsteen at the Headliner. When “Glory Days,” a track on “Born in the U.S.A.,” was released, Wright heard it first.
“He told me, ‘Springsteen has a new album out, and there’s a song on there about you,’ ” DePugh said. “ ‘It’s exactly the story you told me.’ ”
DePugh was skeptical, so Wright called a radio station in Montpelier, Vt., and requested the song.
“My wife starts bawling,” DePugh said. “That’s how I knew exactly that it was me.”
Read the whole story here.
(Source: delivermefromnowhere)
Glory Days in Rimini: Bruce Springsteen Party 2010
If you find yourself in Italy at the end of September you can go celebrate Bruce’s birthday in Rimini and make us all jealous.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Glory Days - 29th June 1985,
Parc De La Courneuve, Paris, France
Bruce Springsteen, Glory Days
from Born in the U.S.A., 1984
22.09.84 Pittsburgh, PA, intro to ‘Glory Days’
‘‘This is a song, it´s kind of about like before I wanted to - before I wanted to be a guitar player there was only one other thing I wanted to be. I wanted to be a lover, no (chuckles)….no, I wanted to be a baseball player.
Now, I started when I was real young, was in Colonial League, then I was in Little League, then I was in Babe Ruth League, I’d amassed a career average by that time of .156, but I didn’t let it discourage me.
But kind of what happened was by the time I got into Babe Ruth League, I was about 15 and I started to get interested in a couple of other things; now, one of ‘em was the guitar, and the other one… Well, the guitar is the one I became proficient at, but the other one, I’m looking for some help to keep working on it. I’m gonna get it down (chuckles)…
But anyway what happened was I used to do the rock and roll shows during the week and then I used to play - no, the baseball games were during the week and the rock and roll shows was on the weekend and so it worked out pretty good.
Except one time we had a game that got rained out and they rescheduled it for Saturday morning. So around 8 o’clock I hear ‘em knock on my door. I’m laying in bed, I say: “Mom, I can’t make it. Go down and tell those guys, you could tell ‘em I’m sick, I got real sick last night and that there’s no way I can make the game, I’m sorry, I would if I could.” So she goes down there and she gets to go “Boys, no, Bruce is too sick today” (chuckles). She’s lying through her teeth for me : “He can’t make it, he’s so sick,” you know.
And so they go away and I’m like, I snuggle back under the covers, you know, I feel real good, but then about 20 minutes later they come back! And I hear ‘em down there and they’re going: “Oh, Mrs.Springsteen. Bruce’s gotta come to the ballgame because we only got 8 guys and if he don’t come, we’re gonna forfeit the game, it’s gonna ruin the whole season, he’s gotta come, please, please.”
So I hear all this going on and then I hear my mother say “Well, go upstairs, boys, and talk to him yourself.” I say “Oh”, so now I’m laying in bed and I gotta make believe like I’m really sick now, you know, I gotta go for my Academy Award performance here….(coughs) I’m coughing and trying to make all these noises like I’m sick, (…)
So I´m laying there and they come up and they start begging me and stuff, you know, and I’m one of them people that when people start begging me, I can never say no, you know. You know, if somebody like asks me for 20 cents on the street, I always give it to ‘em, you know….but anyway, they’re begging me and so I finally get my baseball uniform on, I go down to the field, and they put me out in rightfield, my usual position.
And you know I’m standing there, it’s not too bad, the weather’s kind of nice and I’m starting to wake up and we got a one run lead into the bottom of the eighth and I’m just kind of out there praying that nobody hits nothing to me and I’m standing there and I’m kind of starting to daydream a little bit… And, and there’s this girl, and she’s climbing over the outfield fence. She’s coming closer. She says: “It´s too hot to wear this baseball uniform…” We’re laying down in the grass…
And then all of a sudden, pfhhh! I got it. I lost it in the lights! (chuckles) Anyway, the runner scored, we lost the game, I suffered defeat and humiliation in front of my peers. And that was when I decided to give up sports and dedicate the rest of my life to rock and roll. Didn´t let me down either. But anyway this song’s kind of about -you’re always out there meeting somebody telling you about these old stories… All things must pass and in the end, Big Man, it’s just, “que sera sera” or something, I don’t know, Glory Days.”
What time is it? It’s curfew-breaking Boss time!! Glory Days live in Hyde Park. Pre-order the London Calling Live in Hyde Park DVD here and get a concert t-shirt of Bruce’s original handwritten set list AND commemorative tour print!
Avett Brothers: Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen cover)
