That Must've Been How George Brett Felt [The Pine Tar Incident]
(Kansas City)

[There are no lyrics that the Farmhands intended to be clearly discernable for this song. Instead, fungo directed his fellow Farmhands to each write stream of consciousness parts evoking a deep sense of pain and anger about to erupt into fury. The vocals were performed in spoken word and then mixed just below the surface of the stormy indie rock track, reminiscent of Unwound. While there is no specific reference to the KC team nor their greatest player, Fungo was satisfied with the song as a portrayal of one of the most infamous moments in baseball history.

The band agreed that a truly defining moment for the Royals was the 1980 tantrum thrown by George Brett when the Yankees challenged his would-be winning homerun citing an antiquated technicality which ruled that no bat could have the adhesive gripping agent, pine tar, beyond a certain point of its length. Then obsolete and since revoked, the rule had been instituted during the Great Depression to save baseballs from being blackened and ruined by the tar. When outspoken Yankees outfielder Lou Pinella prompted the infamously tempermental Yankees manager Billy Martin to invoke the challenge, and the umpire upheld it, Brett snapped.

The anger boiling under the surface exploded--from the heat of years of frustration in coming up just short with small market Kansas City against the financial behemoths from New York to this last superfluous blow--Brett would take no more. If you've never seen the clips of Brett charging the umpire with his entire team unable to subdue nor restrain him, imagine the seething anger just below the surface of this fh song unleashed...that must've been how George Brett felt.]