"One of the great things about baseball," wrote Josh Leventhal in his book Baseball Yesterday & Today, "is that it can be played almost anywhere."
The same can be said of music. At home, in the streets and yes, in the dugout. Baseball has, over the years, brought forth a few ballplayers who can both swing a bat and sling an axe, who can steal a base and slap a bass, who can hit a high fastball and a high C note.
So, as Major League Baseball kicks off its 2013 season, here's a look at five of the game's players who have also made a mark in music.
Lee Maye was a journeyman outfielder, best known for his seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Maye, with an added first name, was also the frontman for the doo-wop group Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns. As a ballplayer, Maye topped off at a very respectable .300 batting average (1959), and as a musician he hobnobbed with the likes of James Brown and Curtis Mayfield.
Maye struggled to juggle both of his careers, and told Roctober Magazine that "When you're playing baseball and singing it's a very tough career for both of those because you have to be at both places at the same time of the year, and you can't do that."
The San Francisco Giants pitcher is the only one on this list who will be playing during the 2012 MLB post-season. The Cy Young Award winner hails from a classically trained musical family — his dad worked with both the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and wrote for Nat King Cole, and his mom sang with the jazz legend. Zito performs as a singer-songwriter, and one of his recent songs— "Butterflies," co-written with Mark Batson — was featured in the film A Thousand Words, starring Eddie Murphy.
He played pro football and pro baseball, but that wasn't enough for Deion "Prime Time" Sanders. In 1994, Sanders dropped his debut rap release, an album called Prime Time, with the help of his friend, MC Hammer. Featuring tracks such as "Prime Time Keeps On Ticking," "Time for Prime," "House of Prime" and "Time for Prime (Reprise)," some may dub this a vanity effort, but the album did make its way onto the R&B charts.
The longtime New York Yankee is also a longtime guitar player. After retiring from baseball in 2006, Bernie Williams pursued his musical passion and enrolled in classical guitar training, and released his first album, Moving Forward, in 2009. The album, which features a variety of guests, including Bruce Springsteen, was nominated for a Latin Grammy.
Another Cy Young Award winner, Denny McLain's rise and fall in baseball is the stuff of Major League legend. His music, however, is not often part of the discussion. In 1968, just after his mammoth, MVP-winning, 31-win season, the Detroit Tigers' ace released his first album on Capitol Records: Denny McLain at the Organ, followed the next year by Denny McLain in Las Vegas. The loungey organ songs — a variety of covers including Astrud Gilberto and Frank Sinatra — would be the perfect soundtrack for a swinging '60s lounge party at the old Tiger Stadium.
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