"Centerfield" and the Song That Never Left the Ballpark

John Fogerty released "Centerfield" as a single in January 1985. It is the second most-played song at American ballparks after "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," and unlike the 1908 standard, it was written by a man who actually loved the sport. Fogerty grew up playing baseball in El Cerrito, California, and the song is a first-person fantasy about being called into the game. "Put me in, coach," he sings. "I'm ready to play today."

The song reached number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the title track of Fogerty's comeback album, his first solo release in nine years after a bitter legal and personal split from Creedence Clearwater Revival and Fantasy Records. The album cover shows an old, beat-up baseball glove, and the text is styled like a baseball team logo. Fogerty played every instrument on the album himself.

The legal aftermath of "Centerfield" became one of the strangest copyright cases in music history. Fantasy Records, which owned the publishing rights to all of Fogerty's Creedence songs, sued him in 1985, claiming that "The Old Man Down the Road," the album's lead single and a number 10 hit, was a copy of "Run Through the Jungle," a song Fogerty had written and recorded with Creedence in 1970.

Fantasy was suing Fogerty for plagiarizing himself.

The case went to a jury trial in 1988. In one of the more memorable courtroom moments in music history, Fogerty brought his guitar to the witness stand and played both songs for the jury, demonstrating that while they shared a similar swampy style, they were distinct compositions. "Of course they're going to sound the same," his argument went, in essence. "The same guy wrote and performed them." The jury agreed and found in Fogerty's favor.

Fogerty then sued Fantasy to recover his legal fees, which exceeded $1 million. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in 1994 that prevailing defendants in copyright cases could recover attorney's fees without proving the original lawsuit was frivolous. The decision, Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., remains a landmark in copyright law.

Through all of this, "Centerfield" kept playing at ballparks. It has been played before games, during warm-ups, and over PA systems for four decades. Fogerty has performed it live at World Series games. It is, after "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the song most closely associated with the experience of being at a baseball game in America. Unlike the 1908 standard, it carries no irony and no distance. It is pure, uncomplicated joy, written by a man who spent his childhood dreaming of being in the lineup and who found, in a three-minute rock song, a way to stay there forever.