Inspiration for Song Dead at 75

Joe DePugh, a grade-school friend of Bruce Springsteen forever immortalized in his 1984 hit “Glory Days” as the baseball player who “could throw that speedball by you,” died of cancer in Florida. He was 75.

“Just a moment to mark the passing of Freehold native and ballplayer Joe DePugh,” Springsteen wrote on Instagram. He was a good friend when I needed one. ‘He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool’….Glory Days my friend.”

DePugh’s moment of pop music immortality stemmed from a chance encounter with Springsteen in the summer of 1973 outside of a New Jersey bar, several years after they last saw each other in high school. The lyrics to “Glory Days” tell the rest of the story: “I was walking in, he was walking out/We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks/But all he kept talking about was glory days.”

For years, the identity of the mysterious speedball pitcher was the source of much rumor and speculation in New Jersey, and throughout the Springsteen fan community. It wasn’t until 2011 when the truth came out in a New York Times article penned by teacher/historian Kevin Coyne. His source was Springsteen’s high school friend Dick Enderly, who got it directly from Bruce at their 30th high school reunion in 1997.

In an interview with the Times, DePugh recalled first hearing “Glory Days” when Born in the U.S.A. came out 11 years after his random encounter with Springsteen at the bar. “My wife starts bawling,” DePugh said. “That’s how I knew exactly that it was me.”

He didn’t get a chance to speak with Springsteen directly about it until 2005 when they got together again at an Italian restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey. “Bruce pulls in and I point at him and he points at me, and that’s when the hugging started,” DePugh said. “He said, ‘Always remember, I love you,’ not like some corny Budweiser commercial, but a real sentimental thing. I was dumbfounded.”

As “Glory Days” says, DePugh was indeed a very gifted baseball player. He even tried out for the Los Angeles Dodgers after high school. He worked for years as a substitute teacher, but eventually became a self-employed contractor. He never lost his love for sports — and he surely knew a “speedball” isn’t a term used by most pitchers. “Fastball” would have been more more accurate.