News

Rock the 'Pete Rose Way'

By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com

Scott McCaughey had to look on a map to make sure Pete Rose Way was still in Cincinnati.

He'd noticed it when he'd been to Riverfront Stadium, but he hadn't been to Great American Ball Park and didn't know if the name survived. It did, and gave him the perfect title for a song.

"It's a simple little song, I'd been to games at Riverfront, I remembered going down the street called Pete Rose Way," McCaughey (pronounced "McCoy" as in Hal). "It's nothing really heavy. It's just a little song, paying tribute to the way Pete Rose played. There's just a little bit of a tie-into the modern player and the things they could learn from him."

And it's that kind of story that led to the creation of The Baseball Project. The band featuring McCaughey, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Steve Wynn (of the Dream Syndicate and Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three) and Linda Pitmon, came together following R.E.M.'s induction to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame when McCaughey and Wynn started talking about a shared passion - baseball.

The discussion focused on how few great baseball songs there were, despite the abundance of great baseball stories. They discussed writing some songs and recording them. McCaughey said he thought that was the end of it until Wynn, who calls himself a failed sportswriter, called him up and told him to book some studio time in McCaughey's hometown of Portland, Ore.

That forced McCaughey, a member of the Minus 5, the Young Fresh Fellows and touring member of R.E.M. for the last 15 years, to finish up some songs. The result was "Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails" - a 13-song album with songs about Curt Flood, Satchel Paige, Ted Williams, Harvey Haddix and Jack McDowell drinking with R.E.M. among other topics.

"That's the thing. Why do you write about baseball?" McCaughey said. "There are so many great characters and baseball, some lead you to slightly larger truths and they don't lead you to baseball. It's a rich territory."

The second album will come out early in the 2010 baseball season and includes songs about Bill Buckner, Stan Musial, Cal Ripken and, of course, Pete Rose.

McCaughey sent the lyrics and a demo of the Pete Rose song, "Pete Rose Way":

The Great American Ball Park
where the sun shines all day
Now I'm walking down Riverside
down to Pete Rose Way

the perfect chaos when he slid
and the way he made you pay
every single thing he did
He did the Pete Rose way

walk through hell in a gasoline suit
if there's one more game to play
diving down this boulevard
they call the Pete Rose Way

He'd be the first to tell you
how many outs he made
never said he was the best
but oh how hard he played

Ask about the Big Red Machine
what would Sparky say
I guess he'd probably tell you
that they played the Pete Rose Way

Oh Brandon, Bronson, and Joey
Oh, Aaron, Johnny and Jay
There are many lessons to be learned
Going down the Pete Rose Way

McCaughey will get a chance to go down Pete Rose Way on Sunday, as the Baseball Project will be guests of the Reds at Great American Ball Park following a Saturday night show at the Southgate House just across the river in Newport, Ky.

"This is the one thing that's frustrating about this tour, now we're finally doing a Baseball Project Tour, and this is the only game we're going to get to go to," McCaughey said. "We have the next day (Sunday) off, we're driving to Albany, but we can leave later and go to the game. We were playing Chicago last week and a Cubs fan called and offered me tickets, but we couldn't make it because of the show. The only real day off during this tour we have in New York and neither the Yankees or Mets are in town."

It's a rarity, McCaughey said. Thanks to the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, he's been able to travel the country and see games in several stadiums, but this will be his first here. The group will also get a tour of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.

While there, he could be on the lookout for more great stories to tell.

Near the end of our 45-minute talk, I offered up a suggestion: Joe Nuxhall. McCaughey knows the basics, pitched in a game at 15, had a long career as a player and a longer career as a broadcaster.

I even gave him a little primer and a nugget that tempts anyone interested in words, Joe's famous "left right centerfield."

"Left right centerfield?" McCaughey repeats. "I like that. I'm going to write that down. That would sound great in a song."