CD Review: Baseball Songs Sports Heroes 2

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Baseball Songs Sports Heroes 2

Assuming their audiences did not get enough in their first two albums, the song writing team of Joe Pickering Jr. and Phil Coley got together once again to put out yet another compilation of baseball related songs. In their 2006 album, Baseball Songs Sports Heroes 2, the duo teams with a few other musicians to bring to light some of baseball’s most talked about subjects. Since the album was released in 2006, there is not nearly as many songs related to how the Boston Red Sox had never won a World Series, but there are a good number of songs that relate to curses.

One of the major downsides of this work is that some of the songs don’t really seem like songs,

rather someone wrote down the biography of a person and then it was set to music without anyone making a real attempt to alter the words so that they worked in music instead of on paper. Another down turn is that while they seem to have the same sort of subjects repeated over and over again, the same comparisons and analogies are used as well. This repetitiveness tends to turn off the listener if they are listening to all of the songs together. At the same time, if the songs are taken completely at the individual sense, this problem obviously doesn’t exist.

On this album there are songs that are dedicated to many individual players, most of who had to overcome some adversity to become recognized. There are actually two entire songs dedicated to Japanese players, with a few other mentions of players from Japan throughout the album. The influence of Dice K on the Red Sox no doubt had some power of this situation.

Despite claiming that God was not a Mets fan in their first album, Pickering and Coley decided to change their tune early on with a new song entitled, “God is a Mets Fan.” This is surprising since such a case was made by them earlier, but situations do change over time.

The most intriguing song on the album is called “Jackie Robinson’s Legacy,” and it asks questions about why there are so few African Americans who chose baseball over basketball and football these days. The song also wonders what Robinson would think about the situation if he were alive today.

There is also a call to retire Roberto Clemente’s number near the

middle of the album. One can take this as they may, but the argument that is made during the song is very convincing. While it may not change one’s current view point, it does do a good job of putting the issue into a different perspective.

Overall, the album has some very good songs with some worthwhile messages. The best advice someone could receive on this album would be to not listen to it straight through because they will probably become annoyed at some of the repetition. One good thing might be to listen to the first minute or so of each one of the songs while reading the titled to see if the tune has a subject matter that is of interest to the listener.

This CD can also be found in the National Baseball Hall of Fame song collection. Which is very cool!

The Grade: 3.5/5

Bill Jordan is a contributor to BaseballReflections.com. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].