Back in 2007 when Scott McCaughey and Steve Wynn concocted the idea of putting together a band that would perform nothing but songs pertaining to baseball, I personally was thrilled. But as a viable touring band? I didn’t exactly see this project becoming that. Fast forward to 2023, four full length albums and a host of regional and national tours later, The Baseball Project lives on quite triumphantly. Considering the pedigree that comprises the band however, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that The Baseball Project has been nothing but successful. Starting with the two founding members, you have two tried and true veterans of the indie rock scene dating back to the early eighties. Steve Wynn’s first band Dream Syndicate, after all, could be considered the lead off hitter in the paisley underground music scene coming out of LA in the 80’s. Wynn, of course has since had quite a successful solo career as well as stints in other projects such as the Miracle Three as well as the “supergroup” Gutterball, not to mention the rebirth of Dream Syndicate as well. Then you take a look at the back of Scott McCaughey’s musical baseball card and see that he started off his early career with Seattle’s Young Fresh Fellows and more recently The Minus Five with a sizeable amount of time (almost 20 year) as a super utility player for R.E.M. As long as we’re talking R.E.M., filling out the heart of the Baseball Project lineup we have none other than Peter Buck and Mike Mills, two huge baseball fans who have a certain amount of musical cache to boot. And then finally you have The Baseball Project’s cleanup hitter in the likes of drummer Linda Pitmon who provides the backbone for the band with her relatively minimal drum kit and a subtle yet powerful drumming style which she credits Big Star’s Jody Stevens with influencing her.
Which brings me to Friday night at Brooklyn Made. After being on the road for a week or so The Baseball Project pulled into Brooklyn on Friday along with Stephen McCarthy, a longtime collaborator of most of the Project’s band members and guitarist/vocalist of the Paisley Underground band, Long Ryders. McCarthy’s opening set was a pleasant enough smattering of Long Ryder’s tunes which had the crowd attentive and satisfied. He did have Steve Wynn come out to join him for a little vocal and guitar help on one of their Gutterball songs, “Is There Something I Should Know?” which sounded absolutely fantastic. To close out his rather enjoyable set Stephen elected to pay homage to Robbie Robertson of The Band with his interpretation of “It Makes No Difference” which he invited everyone in the crowd to help him out with. Unfortunately, while this was a noble and appreciated gesture, it might have been a tad over ambitious. Rick Danko’s vocals on the original are hauntingly beautiful and McCarthy (as would virtually everyone who tries) fell a tad short of hitting the mark. Nonetheless, McCarthy certainly provided everyone in attendance with exactly what we all expect and want from an opening artist.
After a brief break between sets The Baseball Project hit the stage around 9:15 and like all true blue baseball people, they have their own walkup tune in “Heart” from the classic baseball themed Broadway musical of yesteryear, “Damned Yankees”. Needless to say, the packed room at Brooklyn Made ate it up. Opening up with “Erasable Man” off of the band’s latest release, Grand Salami Time which dropped a couple of weeks ago on Omnivore Records, McCaughey and his team wasted no time as they came out ready to crush the ball. Like almost all of The Project’s songs, “Erasable Man” tells the poignant and well deserved story of Josh Gibson, a Negro League catcher and slugger who is always part of the discussion when real baseball aficionados talk about the greatest players of all time. The follow up to “Erasable Man” was none other than another new one called “Uncle Charlie”, a tune which delves into the beauty and torture (to hitters) that is the curveball. The song itself may or may not be a homage to St. Louis Cardinal ace Adam Wainwright who possessed an absolutely lethal breaker…just ask Carlos Beltran (trigger warning for Mets fans).
After a couple of older songs from 2014’s 3rd LP, the band ripped into one of my favorite songs from the new album, “New Oh In Town” which is a fantastic juxtaposition of stories relating to Japanese all time great Sadahara Oh and Shohei Ohtani. With its sing along chorus of “Sadaharu Oh OH OH Ohtani” this particular song had the room screaming along word for word.
As it turns out, Stephen McCarthy helped out with the playing of lap steel guitar on Salami Time and as such, Steve Wynn would invite him out to join the band for a couple of songs, “Journeyman” from the new album and “Box Scores” from 3rd. Not that these guys needed any help but the addition of lap steel was quite a nice addition.
Moving forward, we would eventually get to hear Mike Mills’ vocals on “Stuff”, his song analyzing MLB’s recent infatuation with spin rate, sticky stuff and of course tribute to the king of the stuff, Gaylord Perry. And while I’m speaking of Mike Mills, we would hear from him a little late in the set with what might be my favorite Baseball Project song in “To The Veteran’s Committee ”. It should come as no surprise, Mills being a Georgia native, is a big Braves fan. And as any self respecting Braves fan of a certain age, his admiration for Dale Murphy is undaunting. Anyway, “Veteran’s Committee” is his paean to have Murphy get his deserved calling for Cooperstown.
Stephen McCarthey would again join the band for next tune, “Ted Fucking Williams” their anthem off of the first album, Vol I: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails. Not surprisingly the crowd was more than willing to join in on the raucous and expletive filled title and chorus. McCaughey would then close out the set with the opening tune from Vol 1, “Past Time” which delves into the court case from 1953 (Toolson v. New York Yankees) which upheld baseball’s antitrust exemption and also was the first challenge to MLB’s reserve clause which at the time prevented free agency for its players.
After a brief respite off stage, the band would again rejoin us on stage for a three song encore comprised of “1976” (tribute to Detroit Tiger Mark “The Bird” Fidrych) off of Vol II: High and Inside followed by “Harvey Haddix” and finally the band’s lament for the trend in today’s game where batters do one of three things, walk, fan or hit home runs…“The All Or Nothings” from Grand Salami. And this was an aptly appropriate song for the evening to close on since The Baseball Project for all intents and purposes on this one evening in the boro of Brooklyn, former home of those bums known as The Dodgers hit nothing but home runs all night long.
W.S. Walcott Medicine Show 
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