Album Review- The Baseball Project- Grand Salami Time

A band that I heard once and didn’t like was the Baseball Project. I likely would have always ignored them until a friend told me how good they were via a conversation on “unloved records”. I am grateful for that second listen.

Here’s the thing. The Baseball Project is weird and there’s really no getting around it. On paper, it is a supergroup: Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and a lengthy solo career, Peter Buck and Mike Mills of REM, Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows and Minus Five, and Linda Pitman of Zuzu’s Petals and Filthy Friends.

I took a first listen as a huge REM fan and this isn’t typical rock fare.

It’s less Mitch Easter jangle pop and more Terry Cashman who had a left field (ha!) hit in 1981 called “Talkin Baseball (Willie, Mickie and the Duke)”

And even more odd, that description isn’t an exact fit either. Yes, all the songs are about baseball, they are nostalgic and they are specific, but they are also strange, profane, not-intended-for-kids tales.

If there is a comparison for The Baseball Project, the closest artist might be Sufjan Stevens. Thematic tales told in a goody folk style similar to say a Camper Van Beethoven or Mountain Goats.

I am a big fan of College rock and a big fan of Baseball and even though it is an enjoyable enough example of the former, it must be the latter that draws me in.

I was late to the band’s first three albums, but I am caught up now in time for 2023s Grand Salami Time.

With these types of story songs, some are durable, and some you can hear once and not need to hear again. The band has provided a good mix of both.

It perhaps seem as a matter of process, but it is notable that all four albums are of consistent quality. Yet, that is maybe another quirk- it surely isn’t that easy to crank out four volumes of this, and still be interesting

Album four tackles Pitcher Steve Blass (who famously couldn’t throw all of a sudden) the accidental drowning of up and coming star Jose Fernandez, baseball’s great pariah Jim Bouton, as well as fantasy baseball, the White Sox 1979 Demolition Disco Night, Sabermetrics and of course, more.

Particularly of note, the new album is coincidentally produced by Mitch Easter who of course worked with Buck and Mills on Chronic Town, Murmur and Reckoning.