In September of last year, The Baseball Project — an all-star band featuring Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate) and Wynn’s wife, drummer Linda Pitmon — publicly debuted its song “Pete Rose Way” in Greater Cincinnati when it performed at the Southgate House. The band (which, as the name suggests, explores America’s national pastime in its lyrics) had recorded the song a week before the Southgate show and it will finally be released a part of the Volume 2: High and Inside album, scheduled for a March 1 release. But you can hear "Pete Rose Way" right now by clicking the play button below. —-
The song about Cincinnati’s troubled baseball hero was written by McCaughey, who spoke to CityBeat’s Steven Rosen before the band’s local tour stop about the Rose song.
“I haven’t been to Great American Ball Park,” he said, “but I’ve been to Riverfront and remember seeing that street, so I started making up a little song about it. It’s sort of double entendre, about that road and also about the Pete Rose way of playing baseball, but it’s a sensitive song. It doesn’t come down on Pete; it’s actually a favorable song. I don’t take him to task for betting on baseball and being a liar. It’s more a reflection on the kind of player he was and that there’s a lot to be learned from that. And also that there’s something to be learned from the mistakes he made, although that’s referred to very lightly.”
Read Rosen’s feature story on The Baseball Project here.
The entire album is available for pre-order from Yep Roc Records here.
