‘Night Game’ is an odd and borderline silly song from the otherwise great 1975 Paul Simon album Still Crazy After All These Years.
This track recounts a baseball game during which the pitcher drops dead at a pivotal moment. I guess it’s about the triviality of things like sports in the face of mortality, probably as a metaphor for a lot of other things. But the seriousness of the delivery and the dirgelike music just make it kind of funny.
I’m glad this popped up on Random Weekends, though, because it led me to discover a blog called Every Single Paul Simon Song, which appears to cover exactly what it says.
Here’s the entry on ‘Night Game,’ in which the author goes on at great length about the lyrics, performing a very nice bit of literary analysis. Definitely going to bookmark that site.
And the score tied
In the bottom of the eighth
When the pitcher died
And they laid his spikes
On the pitcher’s mound
And his uniform was torn
And his number was left on the ground
Then the night turned cold
Colder than the moon
The stars were white as bones
The stadium was old
Older than the screams
Older than the teams
There were three men down
And the season lost
And the tarpaulin was rolled
Upon the winter frost
Meet Me In Montauk 
That’s a cool blog you discovered. And how cool would it be if Paul Simon commented to confirm or deny the interpretations of his lyrics?