1...2...3...play ball!

Legend has it the co-writers of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" had never attended one. On the song's 100th anniversary, a pair of true fanatics have dedicated an entire concept album to the national pastime. Knowing the difference between the Mexican Hat Dance and a golden sombrero isn't required, but it can't hurt.

Longtime R.E.M. utility man Scott McCaughey and former Dream Syndicate ace Steve Wynn conceived "The Baseball Project, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails" (Yep Roc) while celebrating R.E.M.'s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last year. With rare exceptions like "Tessie" and Dave Frishberg's "Van Lingle Mungo," the history of baseball songs is all wild pitches and late swings. These guys, backed by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, don't flash too much leather; they make the routine plays and put good wood on the ball.

They appeal directly to the literary fan, recording mid-tempo rockers about Satchel Paige's folk wisdom, Sandy Koufax's existentialism ("I must go on, I can't go on"), and McCaughey's magical night at Candlestick Park with his pop ("Sometimes I Dream of Willie Mays").

This being baseball, the great equalizer, they focus on hard-luck stories - 19th-century superstar Big Ed Delahanty, who was swept over Niagara Falls, or Pittsburgh Pirate Harvey Haddix, who pitched 12 perfect innings and still lost. "One thing you can say about time is that it always passes," they pontificate, Yogi-like, on "Past Time."

Rock 'n' roll, like baseball - hey, like life itself - is a young man's game. Then the nostalgia kicks in.