The Baseball Project

An alternative rock supergroup drawn together by their shared enthusiasm for baseball, the Baseball Project brings together musicians from R.E.M., the Dream Syndicate, and the Minus 5 to craft songs centered on the sport’s outsized characters and storied past. Their sound blends smart, energetic rock with pop accents and a rootsy feel. The project began with an informal backstage discussion during a New York celebration marking R.E.M.’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; within a year the group issued its first album, 2008’s The Baseball Project, Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails. Although the members’ other commitments created intervals between recordings, subsequent releases—2011’s The Baseball Project, Vol. 2: High and Inside, 2014’s 3rd, and 2023’s Grand Salami Time—demonstrated that their affection for the game and their musical camaraderie remained undiminished.

The seeds of the Baseball Project were planted in 1992 when Scott McCaughey, then active with the Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5, encountered Steve Wynn, formerly of the Dream Syndicate and Gutterball and by then pursuing a solo career. Their mutual passion for baseball sparked an immediate friendship. The pair reconnected in 2007 at the same R.E.M. Hall of Fame event, where they conceived the notion of recording an album devoted to baseball themes. McCaughey, already a touring associate of R.E.M. and close to guitarist Peter Buck, recruited Buck for the new ensemble. Drummer Linda Pitmon, previously of Zuzu’s Petals and a participant in Wynn’s solo work, completed the initial lineup.

Wynn, McCaughey, and Buck soon composed a collection of songs and tracked The Baseball Project, Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails for Yep Roc Records, a 2008 release whose narrative tracks offered often tongue-in-cheek portraits of figures such as Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, and Satchel Paige. Late-night host David Letterman invited the group onto his program, and they played several live shows in support of the album. In 2010 ESPN commissioned the band to produce real-time seasonal songs released as downloads on the network’s site; those tracks and leftover studio material later surfaced on the 2011 digital EP The Broadside Project. That same year the band delivered its second full-length, The Baseball Project, Vol. 2: High and Inside. Subsequent touring included dates in cities hosting major-league spring training as well as a performance at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

In 2013 the lineup expanded to a quintet with the addition of former R.E.M. bassist and Atlanta Braves devotee Mike Mills. The enlarged group recorded its third album, simply titled 3rd, which featured guest contributions from Boston Red Sox organist Josh Kantor of the Split Squad and trumpeter Alex Gonzalez. After another lengthy hiatus caused by individual schedules, the Baseball Project reassembled for 2023’s Grand Salami Time, its debut on Omnivore Recordings. Mitch Easter, who had produced R.E.M.’s Chronic Town EP in 1982 and the albums Murmur (1983) and Reckoning (1984), engineered and co-produced the sessions, which also reunited Buck and Mills. Additional guests included Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.