Vol. 2 - High and Inside (Bonus Version)

A quartet featuring Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Gutterball), Linda Pitmon (Miracle Three, Golden Smog) and Peter Buck (R.E.M.), the Baseball Project play rock ‘n’ roll as it was meant to be performed. These songs are tight and powerful with a sense of the pure joy at the heart of the music. “Fair Weather Fans” could be “Reelin’ In the Years” for the garage-band set. The joke here is that the tunes are baseball related – “Ichiro Goes to the Moon,” “Pete Rose Way” and “Buckner’s Bolero”  -- but the power chords of “Don’t Call Them Twinkies,” where the band adds the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn as their designated singer to represent the Minnesota Twins, and the Midwestern classic rock of “Buckner’s Bolero” (the Red Sox play into the band’s love for tragedy) are pure-bred rock ‘n’ roll no matter what the subject matter. That said, there are few ballads as poignant as “Here Lies Carl Mays,” the story of the only pitcher to throw a ball that killed another player. Here, the band memorializes one of the sport’s most difficult moments with the same care usually reserved for a folk hero or misunderstood misfit.