"For a half an hour every day, I let the box scores have their way"
The Baseball Project is comprised of R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and Peter Buck plus Scott McCaughney, Steve Wynn, and Linda Pitmon. Since 2007, they have put out a handful of albums which are strictly baseball themed and designed for lovers of the game and alternative rock such as myself. Their latest album 3rd arrived today and delivers more goods.
"From Nails To Thumbtacks" is the one that hits closest to home, about the rise and fall of Phillies favorite Lenny Dykstra. "Ya gotta fly high to fall this far" the chorus rings out as we hear of Dykstra's superstar days with the Phillies and the Mets and his success in business before it all came crashing down.
Other songs range from "Hola America!" about the journey of Cuban defectors to MLB, "To The Veteran's Committee" is a musical campaign of Dale Murphy's Hall of Fame credentials, and my favorite track of the album "Box Scores" which speaks of the daily obsession of us baseball junkies who obsessively lose themselves looking at box scores every morning.
Also covered are the recent success of the Oakland A's, Babe Ruth, Dock Ellis, Larry Yount, Pascual Perez,. PEDs and collecting cards. The official album concludes with a punk version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (the bonus tracks version is on iTunes).
Like all of The Baseball Project's albums, 3rd is written by baseball fans for baseball fans. It's a game that's brought so much history and continuing news (both good and bad) that the band will be fueled for new music as long as they care to continue making it. This is a nice album to kick off the 2014 season with.
