From The Desk Of Scott McCaughey: Baseball

Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows frontman Scott McCaughey has been blurring the distinction between his two bands for a while, to the point where many of the songs on either group’s LPs would be appropriate for the other. Both return this week with new efforts: the Minus 5’s Killingsworth and the Fellows’ I Think This Is. The tunes are more divergent, with Killingsworth featuring a heavy alt-country vibe and I Think This Is being a typically funny garage-pop workout. When he’s not fronting his own combos, McCaughey is a sideman for R.E.M. and Robyn Hitchcock, the latter of whom produced I Think This Is. McCaughey is guest-editing magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our Q&A with him.

McCaughey: One day, I hope to have a summer where all I do is drive around the country going to baseball games. As it is, I try to work them into off days on tour whenever possible (and have done so since 1985). Last year, I was really lucky: From April to June, I caught games at Yankee Stadium, Shea, the Metrodome (got my first ever foul ball!), AT&T Park, Rogers Centre, Fenway and Turner Field. This year has been a bust, pretty much. I’ve so far only managed a triple-A game in Nashville and one Mariners game in Seattle. And it looks like the first-ever Baseball Project tour (in tandem with the Minus 5 and Steve Wynn) this September will not yield opportunities to see what we’re singing about. We’ll just be too busy, and the schedule’s not cooperating, either. Well, one makes choices in life. The important thing is that despite millionaire journeymen, performance-enhancing drugs (somewhat like Maker’s Mark on a rock tour), shameless owners, etc., there’s still something elegant and wonderful about a baseball game. Many of the newer ballparks are spectacular; the heinous corporate names, Dockers-clad yuppies and $12 beers are balanced out by the freedom to wander where you please (buy a $7 bleacher seat!), enjoying the game from all angles and the cityscapes that surround you. Then there is the tantalizing smell of the garlic fries, which to be honest, lose their pizzazz pretty quickly. Anyway, take yourself out to the ballgame! It’s both relaxing and exciting, cooling and searing!