Las Vegas Weekly

[Sporty]

The Baseball Project

Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails

The historical overlap between baseball and popular music is pretty grim. For every poignant, evocative song like Bob Dylan’s “Catfish,” you’ve got a thousand like John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” beaten to death by ballpark PAs and TV highlight reels. Then along comes The Baseball Project, a four-piece supergroup comprising indie veterans Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck. They’ve cranked out a mash note to the grand old game, warts and all, touching on heroes and steroids, home runs and outlandish contracts and players flipping off the crowd, and they’ve done it with humor, subtlety and crunchy guitars.

With a sonic palette that ranges from early Jayhawks twang to raucous Replacements licks, the album include odes to the greats of the game—Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige—and lamentations of the almost-famous, like pitcher Harvey Haddix and his 12-inning perfect game, or suicidal slugger Big Ed Delahanty. The standout track, “Ted Fucking Williams”—a bawdy retort to the treacly “Willie, Mickey and the Duke” anthem of the ’80s—is as profane and brilliant as the Splendid Splinter himself.

The whole project is reminiscent of the Wilco/Billy Bragg/Woody Guthrie Mermaid Avenue mash-ups; these songs sound more like stories that were just waiting to be put to music, covering universal themes that will appeal to casual observers and seamheads alike.

The bottom line: ****