Songs about baseball

I was lucky enough to see the band the Baseball Project last night – at an outdoor show at Madison’s Central Park (renamed this summer to McPike Park, in honor of Mr. McPike, former principal of East High School, known for being tough but fair).

The Baseball Project’s songs are about baseball like the very best food writing is about food: using those things as a way to talk about more than either of them. Life, love, heartbreak, the pursuit of happiness. Like Tony Bourdain was good at – I know he was a baseball fan; I hope he didn’t root for the Yankees. Maybe the Red Sox were his team.

The last time I saw the Baseball Project was in Milwaukee, two years ago, at Anodyne Coffee – and looks they’re going there this tour, too. No Peter Buck that time, but they had sung the National Anthem at the Brewers game, and they were all wearing Brewers shirts.

That show was also before Scott McCaughey suffered a stroke – that happened in November of 2017. So it was especially great to see him playing on stage again. He looked thinner, and didn’t jump around as much, but otherwise healthy. I did stop by behind the stage after the show and said hi and shook his hand and told him so, and mentioned that I paid into his kickstarter (or whatever online fundraising thing they were using to raise $$ for his health care costs) and so it was damn good thing my investment paid off.

It was a jangly guitar power lineup, with McCaughey, Steve Wynn, and Buck – and Mike Mills, too. I loved it. Dream Syndicate-REM-Velvet Underground.

Dave Benton got a pretty good shot of the band when Peter Buck was playing this guitar that none of us can figure out what it is. Except maybe it’s an Epiphone.

And this one is by someone name Paula White

And I’ve still never been to Kiki’s.