The Temptations serenade Mets fans at NLCS as founder admits he roots for Dodgers

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The Temptations serenade Mets fans at NLCS as founder admits he roots for Dodgers

2024-10-19 09:54 Last Updated At：10:00

NEW YORK (AP) — Otis Williams had a confession.

Asked whether he was a baseball fan, the 82-year-old founder of The Temptations coughed and said in a low, sing-song voice: “Dodgers.”

Sixty years after its debut, The Temptations' “My Girl” has become a hit at Citi Field since New York Mets star Francisco Lindor began using it as his walk-up song in late May. Fans continue singing the lyrics even after Lindor's plate appearance is underway.

The Temptations detoured to New York on an off day from their tour to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “My Girl” before the Mets beat Los Angeles 12-6 on Friday night and closed to 3-2 in the NL Championship Series.

“It’s the highest compliment you can get,” Williams said in a green room behind home plate.

Wearing blue tuxedos with orange pocket squares, the five singers stood on the warning track behind home plate and sang an a cappella version of the national anthem that highlighted their harmonic excellence as Lindor watched from the foul line behind first base and sang along.

They then donned Mets jerseys and sang “My Girl” with music backing them on the sound system as Lindor warmed up with sprints on the outfield grass, smiling widely and bobbing his head. He reached the dugout by the end and exchanged his special pregame handshake with with teammate Pete Alonso.

“Most players, they pick a walk-up song just because that’s how they feel in the moment but they also want the fans to vibe to to the song,” Lindor said. “Whenever you see the whole crowd getting into it, I think it's pretty cool.”

Released on Dec. 21, 1964, “My Girl” became the group's first No. 1 hit the following March and has been streamed 1 billion times on Spotify. The song's impact became clear to Williams during a 1965 concert at Harlem's Apollo Theater.

“We went out on the stage and we did the show without ‘My Girl.’ They damned near called us every name except the child of God,” he said, “so we know we can never, ever take that the song out.”

Lindor picked the song because of his wife Katia and daughters Kalina and Amapola. He didn't anticipate the reaction.

“Last year I changed the song every single day,” he said. “I changed it because it was the song I was vibing to at the moment and it took off. I don't know if it's because I started hitting or because we started winning or because the song is good.”

“My Girl” was written and produced by Smokey Robinson and Ronnie White.

“Smokey saw us perform in Detroit at a place called the 20 Grand and he said then, ‘I got a song for you guys’ and he pointed to Davey Ruffin,” Williams recalled, referring to a lead singer for the group in the 1960s.

“So we went in the studio and we put the vocals down and I said: ‘Smokey did another great song for us.’ But when Paul Riser edited the strings and horns, I said, ‘Oh, oh, this is a different kind of song.’ So I went in the control room. I said, ‘Smokey, I don’t know how big a record this is going to become, but this is going to be something big.’”

A few months after the release, Williams said he received congratulatory telegrams from the Supremes and the Beatles, proudly proclaiming: “I have that at the house.”

The Temptations were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 for a catalogue including “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” They've had 14 No. 1 hits and 42 in the top 10.

Sujata Murthy, Universal Music Enterprises' executive vice president of media and artist relations, took notice of Lindor's use of the song and contacted the Mets. The group was in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, for a concert last weekend and diverted to New York ahead of performances this weekend at North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Durham, North Carolina.

Williams, who turns 83 on Oct. 30, is the last original member of the group. He has no intention of retiring.

“I tell people I’m going to ride the hell out of the horse,” he said. “When I get off the horse, it's going to be bald. That's a lot of rides when you ride the horse bald.”

Williams grew up in Detroit, but the Motown baseball team did not get his allegiance.

“Tigers is flimflam,” he said. “But the Lions now, they got promise. They got hope. I love the Lions. I'm still a Detroiter at heart, even though I'm in LA.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Swollen rivers are flooding towns in the US South after a prolonged deluge of rain

2025-04-07 23:16 Last Updated At：23:21

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels Monday and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.

She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get. She and friends packed up her salon gear, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and took it to a nearby tap house up the hill.

“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest Monday.

Ashley Welsh and her husband and four children had to quickly depart their Frankfort home along the river Saturday evening, leaving a lifetime of belongings later submerged by floodwaters.

When she awoke to water coming into their house early Saturday, Welsh woke everyone up and they packed their truck. They alerted guests to leave an Airbnb they own down the road, packed up the Airbnb and then helped her sister, who lives next to the Airbnb, evacuate. After they took a short nap at their house, the water had risen.

“By the time we woke up, there was already three feet of water that we had to wade through to get out,” she said.

They packed a suitcase and escaped from the rising water and went to a local hotel. One daughter carried two cats through water to safety and their black Labrador dog had to swim, as they stayed close to make sure no one got swept away.

The water rose up to their second floor. By Sunday morning, she checked her house's cameras.

“My stuff was floating around in the living room. I was just heartbroken. Our life is up there,” Welsh said.

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The Kentucky River was cresting at Frankfort Lock at 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on Monday morning, just shy of the record of 48.5 feet (14.78 meters) set there on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office. While other areas are in major flood stage, the forecasted crest for this location is closest to its record.

Carroll County Deputy Judge-Executive Michael Humphrey in Kentucky has ordered mandatory evacuations in some places, warning that a “significant flooding event of which history has never seen” is expected.

More than 100 structures were destroyed in McNairy County, Tennessee, where a tornado tore through the town of Selmer with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), local emergency management officials said. State officials have confirmed five people were killed by the severe weather in the county of roughly 26,100 residents.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise, in Nashville, Tennessee; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.