The Baseball Project, Vol. 1 : Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails Yep Roc Records Release Date: July 8, 2008
The Baseball Project will be performing on David Letterman tonight, June 20th.
"Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails" features 13 songs about baseball written and performed by baseball fans Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Miracle 3) and Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5 and REM). They are joined on the disc by fellow indie artists Linda Pitmon (Miracle 3) and Peter Buck (REM) extolling the feats and defeats of players like Curt Flood, Satchel Paige, Ted Williams, and Black Jack McDowell.
I was fortunate enough to see Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 play at the SxSW Music Festival in Austin in 2005. Steve's song "Amphetamine" is one of my all time favorites. He and Miracle 3 drummer Pitmon are married.
Listen to a stream of the Baseball Project’s “Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails” here.
"So long ago, so long/Pastime, are you past your prime?/The DiMaggios, Shoeless Joe, Minnie Minoso, Yo La Tengo". Yo La Tengo is actually a tip of the hat to the inaugural 1962 Mets season where the phrase, Spanish for "I got it!", was used by centerfielder Richie Ashburn to signal to the shortstop Elio Chacon, who didn't speak much English, to back off the play to prevent a collision.
2) Ted Fucking Williams
Steve Wynn: "Well, if you’re a baseball fan of a certain age your mind was certainly blown by Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four”. And one of my favorite parts of Ball Four was the story about him taking batting practice and shouting “My name is Ted Fucking Williams and I’m the greatest hitter in baseball. Jesus H Christ himself couldn’t get me out.” You gotta love that. And he probably was the best hitter to ever play the game. I mean, just imagine if he hadn’t given up all those years to World War II and Korea. He was great. And he knew he was great. And he knew that the press and most of the fans preferred the other outfielders of his day. It must have driven him nuts."
3) Gratitude (For Curt Flood)
Reminds current players the debt they owe Curt Flood, the late St. Louis Cardinals centerfielder who changed sports history and ultimately helped make a lot of guys - like the multi-millioniare ballplayers Wynn names in song (A-Rod, Zito, Posada, Tejada, Johan, Manny, Maddox, Mussina) - really rich, by challenging baseball's reserve clause after the 1969 season. (His motivation? He didn't want to be traded to the Phillies.)
4) Broken Man
Is about Mark McGwire, but according to Wynn it is also about the hypocrisy of the steroid scandal: "Well, Scott wrote that song and he completely nailed the hypocrisy of the steroid scandal. Bud Selig (who truly IS the antichrist-don’t get me started) could have shut down the steroid scandal 3 years ago by granting amnesty to the past and laying down impossibly strict rules for the future. But he was having too much fun enjoying the increased revenue that the steroid-infused home run derbies brought to the game. And by the way, you could make a case that the Rangers of the early 90’s were a kind of petri dish for the steroid era (Palmiero! Canseco! Gonzales!). And who was their owner. George W. Bush. Please. Don’t get me started. As for Bonds, I think the Yankees should sign him immediately."
5) Satchel Paige Said
The highest paid pitcher in the Negro Leagues who became the first black pitcher in the American Leagues at the tender age of 42. Often called the toughest pitcher in baseball by the men who faced him and has been quoted as saying, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
6) Fernando
Obviously this is about Fernando Valenzuela, and it's in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish.
7) Long Before My Time
Marks the amazing career of Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, who quit at his peak in 1966.
8) Jackie's Lament
Imagines the internal tug towards retaliation that Jackie Robinson felt when he was made the victim of racial hatred as the first African-American baseball player.
9) Sometimes I Dream Of Willie Mays
Steve Wynn’s sad story of Bay Area baseball and Willie Mays. “I dream of Willie Mays/And tell him I was there./I dream of Willie Mays/And the wind dies down and the sun comes out and the fog lifts and he’s there.” Wynn tells us that he loved Mays in ‘65 at Candlestick. “Now it’s 1973/Right across the Bay/Playin’ right field for the Mets/The ball goes through his legs/I cheered the A’s to victory/But that was something I never wanted to see.”
10 )The Death Of Big Ed Delahanty
About the hard-drinking dead-ball era 19th century Phillies first baseman with a lifetime .346 batting average who died when he was swept over Niagra Falls in 1903 after a drunken fall from a train bridge.
11) Harvey Haddix
Tells the story of the beleaguered Pittsburgh pitcher who threw twelve perfect innings only to give up a hit and eventually the win in the 13th inning back in 1959. The song is worth listening to if for no other reason than to hear the duo fit the names of all seventeen perfect-gamers into rhyming refrain
12) The Yankee Flipper
The story of Black Jack McDowell, who gave 50,000 Yankees fans the finger as he left the mound for a rare early exit
13) The Closer
Discusses the life and mental makeup of the closer
Links:
Bugs & Cranks Interview: Steve Wynn of The Baseball Project
Music for people who love baseball. Or baseball for people who love music.
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