Major League Baseball Players Who Have Recorded Songs
Records like the 1981 Dodgers Big Blue Wrecking Crew’s “We Are The Champions,” became one-off novelty items sold at ball park souvenir stands. Some players entered the recording studio only to have a little fun. Others were serious about music and have become known outside baseball circles as world-class recording artists.
For these players, music progressed from a hobby to a second career.
Lee Maye
Maye with an “e,” not to be confused with the first baseman on the Reds’ Big Red Machine teams. His baseball cards always noted that he was a professional singer. Before joining the Milwaukee Braves in 1959, he’d already recorded for the Modern label in Los Angeles, singing tenor lead with Arthur Lee (his real first and middle names) Maye and the Crowns. This group had a west coast hit on Specialty with “Gloria;” the doo-wop standard, not the Van Morrison song.
He was a first-rate singer, and his recordings are still considered group vocal harmony classics. He was also good enough to make the major leagues before expansion, stick when there were ten fewer teams than there are now, and hit .274 over 13 seasons. He’s also the answer to a trivia question: who’s the only player to lead the National League in doubles (44 in 1964) and have Richard Berry sing backup vocals for him?
Tony Conigliaro
Tony C. came of age in the right place, at the right time in his life. With his hometown Boston Red Sox in 1964, he set a major league record that still stands for most home runs hit as a teenager. That season, he was named the American League’s rookie of the year. Later, he became the youngest player to hit 100 homers. Veteran baseball observers declared that, if he stayed healthy, he had a real shot at passing Babe Ruth’s total of 714.
He had movie star good looks and was an acceptable singer. On the strength of his baseball accomplishments, RCA offered him a recording contract.
“When You Take More Than You Give,” he noted in a Sports Illustrated interview, was for Red Sox management during contract negotiations. “Why Don’t They Understand,” another A side, was for the umpires.
Denny McLain
If there was a way to attract attention, Denny would exploit it. He flew private planes, drank truckloads of Pepsi, and dyed his strawberry-blond hair red, or blond, depending on his mood. Winning 31 games in 1968 worked, as did pouring water on two Detroit sports writers. He also played the Hammond organ well enough to lead a quintet that performed at night clubs in the off-season.
Capitol Records, after Denny’s 31 win season, recorded the quintet on an album whose cover states “The Detroit Tigers’ Superstar Swings With Today’s Hits.” Baseball meets psychedelia when Denny tackles Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” The session’s producer was Dave Dexter, who passed on the Beatles when first offered them by Capitol’s parent company, EMI, and on every British Invasion group except Freddie and the Dreamers.
Bernie Williams
While Bernie Williams, a classically-trained guitarist, has been passing Ruth, Mantle, and Joe D. in the Yankee record book, he’s never lost sight of his first passion: music. In 2003, the Verve label issued his first CD, “The Journey Within,” a collection of Latin-flavored smooth jazz instrumentals.
A reviewer fond of cliches suggested that, as a musician, Williams is no Pat Metheny. Of course he isn’t. Only Pat Metheny can be Pat Metheny. His playing style is more primitive, but no less entertaining, than that of more well-known guitarists. He proves himself to be a fine musician who’s also a good ballplayer, as opposed to a player having a fling at music.
Others
Other players have appeared on disc. Angels outfielder Albie Pearson, an ordained minister, has recorded Christian songs. White Sox closer Scott Radinsky’s band, Pulley, has four CDs on the L.A. based Epitaph label. Jack McDowell, the 1993 Cy Young award winner, in the record books as 6-5 and 180, fronts a rock band named Stickfigure. Padres infielder, and later coach, Tim Flannery has recorded seven bluegrass CDs. Country superstar Charley Pride, whose first career choice was pro baseball, pitched in the Cardinals’ farm system, and for the Negro American League’s Birmingham (Alabama) Black Barons, in the 1950s.
Garth Brooks taking batting practice in spring camp doesn’t count. Neither does Barry Bonds wearing a wig and impersonating Paula Abdul.
