Payton Tolle is one of the best stories of the 2026 season. A thoughtful prospect writer brought him to my attention early last year, knowing my affinity for a good four-seamer, a thick ‘stache and a mien that would be equally at home on a small fishing boat off the coast of Bangor in 1890 as he is on a pitching mound. Tolle wears his emotions openly across his face and through his body; the joy, the devastation, the playfulness. To be pitching at the level that he is requires skill and effort, but
part of Tolle’s charm is the authenticity woven within all that baseball work. Maybe this won’t resonate to anyone else, but there are a lot of guys who present as baseball players first and humans as a secondary classification. Tolle is distinctly a human playing baseball, and it’s one of the highest compliments I can pay (see also: Gutierrez, Franklin or Wilhelmsen, Tom, among others).
It came as little surprise, then, when Tolle cited the Turnpike Troubadors as one of his favorite musical acts. There’s the Oklahoma connection, of course, with both hailing from the Sooner State, but that same authenticity runs through every song Turnpike performs. And that’s courtesy of Evan Felker, the band’s lead singer and one of the finest songwriters of the generation.
No one here needs to read any more about the Seattle Mariners today. Honestly, we’re all probably good for the rest of the year on consumption of Mariners content, but regardless of their record this is still a community, and community means continuing showing up for one another. In gratitude for you all, I offer a selection of some of my favorite Turnpike Troubadors lyrics and songs. I hope that in the ragged place baseball usually occupies, maybe they’ll prompt that thrum of recognition in your chest that only good art can inspire.
“Come back from the dark somehow
Finally living in the here and now
No sign of a thundercloud following you
Don’t take it personal, the world don’t turn around you
Hold on to the moment like it’s heaven passing through” – Heaven Passing Through
“Oh now, it still beats steady
This heart I handed you for free
Should you ever need a thing
It won’t be hard to find me
Standing at the ready
With a dance or two still left in me
Wager that it won’t appear
That I’ve forgot who brought me” – Brought Me
“And I would buy for you a diamond
Or myself some gasoline
If I can’t afford you darlin’
Then I can’t afford to dream
And is it time I should be movin’?
Is it time I settle down?
Will I sit still or will I feel the wheels a-spinnin’ ’round?“ – Diamonds and Gasoline
“You can try to put the past behind
It’s on your clothes like burning pine
Is it gin or turpentine you keep in your canteen?
If pressure makes a diamond babe, I still might come out clean” – A Cat in the Rain
“Well, that old scene is always comin’ to me, I
I see you standin’ with your husband and your child
And you’re a picture of strength, and grace and beauty
And me, I’m just a fool in a supermarket aisle” –7 & 7
“And we’re caught up in the riffraff, circlin’ ’round the sun
It takes a whole lot of blood and tears just to really love someone
But when it comes back around, that’s Heaven on Earth
You never know ’til the end, my friend, what your love is really worth” – Pay No Rent
“Death doesn’t leave with the best part of you” – On the Red River
See y’all tomorrow
