Pick of the day: 'The leadoff man came up and turned into a dancing rattlesnake'

Todd Snider is a masterful storyteller whose medium is music. He specializes in dense, detail-rich story-songs that tend to feature scruffy, fringey characters. In "America's Favorite Pastime," Snider turned to a semi-famous athlete for lyrical inspiration, writing about a no-hitter thrown in 1970 by Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis ... who later claimed that he'd been under the influence of LSD during the game. The song is from Snider's album "The Excitement Plan," which came out in June; this video was shot at a live performance in Decatur, Ga.