Rocking the Diamond: Steve Wynn

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MUSIC AND BASEBALL are tailor-made for geeks, explains former Dream Syndicate and current Baseball Project frontman Steve Wynn: "Both of them are beautiful, aesthetic things that can be reduced to numbers, history and endless arguments." Wynn's team of fellow geeks includes Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, and Miracle 3 drummer Linda Pitmon.

It's the first tour for the foursome, though they put out an album last year and just finished their second. There aren't many baseball songs out there, so maybe it's no surprise "Harvey Haddix" has the mock-tragic feel of Steve Goodman's classic "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request."

"Not only did we mention all 17 pitchers who'd thrown a perfect game when the song was written," says Wynn, "we manage to include Mark Buehrle for the updated tour version."

That wasn't the first time Wynn's lyrics were overtaken by current events. "I was asked to write a song ["Second Best"] for the film 'Fever Pitch' and then the Red Sox won the World Series." "Broken Man" is about "the hypocrisy of the steroid scandals" while the power-poppy "Past Time" asks whether baseball is past its prime, a question that seems to be the sports equivalent of "Is rock dead?"

"It very well could be," Wynn admits. "Like the guitar rock we grew up on, people say it's dead and yet it goes on."

Expect lots of guitar rock on Thursday night, as the quartet will be "mixing it up each night. ... We played Minneapolis and did a 45-minute encore of things we'd never played before; it was like 'stump the band.'"

The only downside to the Project so far? "Our label started this fantasy league for the album, and I'd avoided that my whole life. A real time suck, but pretty fun."

» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, Fri., 9:30 p.m., $20; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)

Written by Express contributor Paul Stelter
Photo courtesy Skye Media