Baseball Artists

The 2009 Major League Baseball season ended yesterday, as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers.  Today, the playoffs begin.  So, it’s a good time to talk about various baseball players who have recorded music.  Of course, there have always been various instances in which a ballplayer or team does a song, like when, from the world of football, the 1985-1986 Bears recorded their famous “Super Bowl Shuffle.”  In baseball, years ago, Mickey Mantle appeared with Teresa Brewer in the song “I Love Mickey.”  Also, after the Chicago Bears made their famous video, a number of baseball teams followed the trend, including 1986 New York Mets and the 1986 Los Angeles Dodgers.

However, there have been a number of ballplayers who have made music on a more serious level.  In the early 1990s, for instance, Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell gained a little attention as a musician with his band V.I.E.W. and their album Extendagenda.  He would also come out with the albums Ape of the Kings  and Memento Mori with his followup band, Stickfigure.  Also in the 1990s outfielder Ruben Sierra recorded a couple of albums, including Imagen Viva.  More recently, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo and longtime Boston Globe and ESPN reporter Peter Gammons have recorded CDs.  Perhaps getting the most attention for his music among baseball stars is retired New York Yankee Bernie Williams, who released his jazz CD Moving Forward earlier this year, following up his 2003 offering The Journey Within.  Above is a clip from when Williams appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson earlier this year to promote Moving Forward.

(And, by the way, did you notice that dude with the beard playing bass in the background of the clip?  That’s bassist Leland Sklar, whose worked with an venerable “all-star team” of musicians in his illustrious career.)