Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello, October 22, Fox Theatre

[Update Oct. 24 1:15 p.m.] An mp3 of the Dylan/Costello "Tears of Rage" duet is available for download here.

Having a stellar double-play combination is overrated. The year I won my first division championship, 1983, the White Sox double-play tandem consisted of Julio Cruz at second base and Jerry Dybzinski at shortstop. My first World Series championship, with the A's in '89, we had Tony Phillips at second and Mike Gallego at short. Last year with the Cardinals we won it all with Aaron Miles and David Eckstein. Nothing against any of these fellows -- Phillips, in particular, had some decent years with the leather, and you'll never hear a discouraging word from me about Eck -- but it's more than possible to go all the way without a pair of sackmates on par with, oh, Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese.

That said, you could have knocked me over with an empty bottle of Gaja's Langhe Costa Russi 2000 (quite possibly the best Costa Russi ever made -- and I know my red wine) when Elvis Costello joined Bob Dylan onstage for the first encore Monday night at the fabulous Fox Theatre, and the two delivered a magnificent rendition of the Dylan/Richard Manuel chestnut "Tears of Rage."

The artists have been performing in tandem for the past month or so, but until the St. Louis concert they hadn't shared the stage. How fortunate that I happened to be in town to catch it!

Costello's opening set was brief but powerful. (The man has stage presence like Chris Carpenter has a cut fastball.) But Dylan and his five-piece backing band -- Tony Garnier (bass), George Recile (drums), Stu Kimball (rhythm guitar), Denny Freeman (lead guitar) and Donnie Herron (pedal steel, lap steel, mandolin and strings) -- tore through a seventeen-song set that careened from Sixties gems ("Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," "It Ain't Me, Babe," "Highway 61 Revisited," "Ballad of a Thin Man") to the cream of his more recent catalogue ("The Levee's Gonna Break," "Things Have Changed," "Ain't Talkin'").

The final encore paired the shambling blues masterwork "Thunder on the Mountain," from last year's Modern Times, with longtime concert staple "All Along the Watchtower."

Now that is what I call a double-play combination.

Dylan completists can look here for the setlist in its entirety. Costello setlist can be found here.

Baseball completists can look below for the double-play combos I've managed, year by year:

1979 CHW
Alan Bannister
Greg Pryor

1980 CHW
Jim Morrison
Todd Cruz

1981 CHW
Tony Bernazard
Bill Almon

1982 CHW
Tony Bernazard
Bill Almon

1983 CHW -- 99 wins; first division championship
Julio Cruz
Jerry Dybzinski

1984 CHW
Julio Cruz
Scott Fletcher

1985 CHW
Julio Cruz
Ozzie Guillen

1986 CHW
Julio Cruz
Ozzie Guillen

1986 OAK
Tony Phillips
Alfredo Griffin

1987 OAK
Tony Phillips
Alfredo Griffin

1988 OAK -- won ALCS
Glenn Hubbard
Walt Weiss

1989 OAK -- won WS
Tony Phillips
Mike Gallego

1990 OAK -- won ALCS
Willie Randolph
Walt Weiss

1991 OAK
Mike Gallego
Mike Bordick

1992 OAK -- won division
Mike Bordick
Walt Weiss

1993 OAK
Brent Gates
Mike Bordick

1994 OAK
Brent Gates
Mike Bordick

1995 OAK
Brent Gates
Mike Bordick

1996 STL -- won division
Luis Alicea
Royce Clayton

1997 STL
Delino DeShields
Royce Clayton

1998 STL
Delino DeShields
Royce Clayton

1999 STL
Joe McEwing
Edgar Renteria

2000 STL -- won division
Fernando Viña
Edgar Renteria

2001 STL
Fernando Viña
Edgar Renteria

2002 STL
Fernando Viña
Edgar Renteria

2003 STL
Bo Hart
Edgar Renteria

2004 STL -- won NLCS
Tony Womack
Edgar Renteria

2005 STL -- won division
Mark Grudzielanek
David Eckstein

2006 STL -- won WS
Aaron Miles
David Eckstein

2007 STL
Adam Kennedy/Aaron Miles
David Eckstein