What do music, Sox have in common? Bill Nowlin.

CAMBRIDGE - Not many folks can say they've talked shop with Ted Williams in his underwear (yes, the Splendid Splinter was in his skivvies), written or edited nearly 20 books on the Red Sox, and helped launch one of the most successful independent labels in America.

Rounder Records cofounder Bill Nowlin has done all of those things and more. He also taught political science at UMass-Lowell and once spent an entire night roaming Fenway Park and interviewing employees who clean up the clutter 35,000 baseball fans can make. Nowlin's bug for baseball (and later, music) started with a homemade newspaper he wrote, published, and distributed to neighbors as a teenager growing up in Lexington.

"I had this desire to tell a story, even way back then," says Nowlin, who still does a pretty good job of it while chatting at his home near Porter Square. "That desire had something to do with me proselytizing about music, too, and telling people about it. But even as a kid, I always thought I'd grow up to write books - it just took me a while. Now I'm writing four or five at a time."

That entrepreneurial industry, both past and present, makes the 63-year-old Nowlin the ideal person to speak at Wednesday's Washington Allston Birthday Breakfast. The event, now in its 10th year, is a benefit for Allston Village Main Streets, a community-based organization aimed at revitalizing and beautifying Allston's business district. Tickets for the breakfast are $40 and can be reserved in advance by calling 617-254-7564 or going to www.allstonvillage.com/events.

Nowlin speaks with humor and warmth about combining his two lifelong obsessions: baseball and music. His passions are reflected not just in the Red Sox logo emblazoned on his sweatshirt or the huge portrait of Williams that hangs in his living room, but in Rounder itself, where the relationship is symbiotic. Most of Nowlin's diamond-related works have been published through the label's book division, and two years ago, Hall of Fame baseball scribe (and former Boston Globe sportswriter) Peter Gammons released his debut album, "Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old," on Rounder.

Not bad for a label that started as a lark.

"The whole thing was a hobby," Nowlin says of forming Rounder in 1970 with Tufts University roommate Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton-Levy (total cost of Rounder's second release, an album by the Spark Gap Wonder Boys: $7 for two reels of tape). "We all expected to be teachers."

So, after all this time, which is the harder pursuit, the music or book business?

"These days, running a record label is much harder," Nowlin says without hesitation. "Fortunately, I don't do it by myself - we've got a great team. Writing a book is hard, but as you write more of them, it gets easier. Running a record company is like the Dow Jones Average right now: It's plunging. Our challenge is to try to stay afloat."

Indeed, after Rounder moved its home base of operations from Cambridge to Burlington early last year, a wave of layoffs due to tough economic times hit the company hard. Nowlin says Rounder has been forced to cut staff from more than 100 employees to roughly 75. He admits uncertainty about his label's long-term future but also claims he would like to see Rounder, which celebrated its 38th birthday earlier this week, return to its roots and move back to Cambridge.

"We don't really know what the future holds," Nowlin says, adding that he's heartened by the healthy volume of digital downloads that have helped offset the financial blow the music industry has taken in recent years. "The sad thing is, there are really no such things as record stores anymore." Nevertheless, he says, "keeping the record company alive is the main goal."

To that end, Rounder has a couple of major releases on tap for next year: One is a six-CD box set reissue of one of its seminal titles, "The Early Days of Bluegrass," which compiles the label's original 10-LP series and includes both a book and substantially expanded liner notes. The second is a four-CD box set featuring newly discovered Woody Guthrie material.

Nowlin's also brainstorming more baseball books. "The Ultimate Red Sox Home Run Guide," with coauthor and historian David Vincent, comes out next year. So does "Lefty, Double-X, and the Kid: The 1939 Red Sox, a Team in Transition."

"You'd think you'd run out of ideas eventually," Nowlin says. "But not yet."

Know about something cool in the local music scene? Send suggestions to Jonathan Perry at roughgems@aol.com.