A  CD that makes one want to go back to the older New England I remember The Belfast Merchants and The Portland Pilots
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These are excellent songs about the world of baseball. Our national pastime should be the subject of songs as a way of keeping these events in our collective cultural memory. This is one of the best I have heard. The writing is inspired.
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Do you like Baseball?  Do you like music?  Do you like Music about baseball?  Well I do and I love this CD.  This is probably the best compilation of original music about the national pastime.  Baseball Songs Sports Heroes is the brain child of Joe Pickering Jr. a is a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan.  But more than that Joe is a baseball fan.  He has travel with his teams on its ups and downs.  His love and frustrations with his team has blossomed it to a fine piece of artistry.  A tribute to both the game and his team.  He tells a story and what a story with each and every song.  And it is only natural that the Yankees were mentioned once of twice.
This CD is a collaboration of Phil Coley and Joe Pickering.  Phil is a full time musician and singer who performs all the numbers with his band.  Joe Pickering Jr. wrote most of the CD.  As a matter of fact most of the compostions deal directly with the Boston Red Sox.  You ask, why are we reviewing a CD about the Red Sox?  Well, like I mentioned above, two reasons, one, it is good baseball music and two, if it deals with the Red Sox can the Yankees be far behind? (Or ahead?)  

Joe Pickering Junior wrote ten of the tracks on the album, the remaining six-he co wrote with Phil Coley.  

By my second listening of the CD I was adding additional harmonies to the music while driving in my car.  While the main topic of the album is the Red Sox, it does deal a lot with the Yankees.  The CD is performed with a middle of the road country taste to it.  The styles are unique to themselves but if I had to make a comparison I would say it was somewhere in between Jimmy Buffet and Travis Trit.

Musically the CD is first class.  The instrumentation is perfect and vocal harmonies are a pleasure to listen to.  The lyrics are both witty and like any good country song tell a good story.  It sure tells the lament of a Boston fan.

Track one may not mean much to Yankee fans but if you were from New England it you would appreciate a fine tribute to their greatest all around athlete who was unfortunately taken from them at the age of 26.  Titled THE GOLDEN GREEK, the song about Harry Agganis while lamenting his death is anything but depressing.  

The second track on the CD plays tribute to one of the greatest sports landmarks in the world Fenway Park called simply FENWAY.  If the Green Monster could sing this is the song it would be singing.  A song that tries to unravel THE MYSTERY OF THE WORLD follows it.  It basically ponders why the Yankees win and Boston doesn’t.

In 1990 Joe Pickering Jr wrote a song begging Babe Ruth to please let them win in BABE RUTH’S CURSE.  By 2001 he reprised the peppy ballad Joe gave it a second thought and decided ‘Tis Better To Lose A Win Would Be Worse.  

Track Six is for us Yankee Fans simply entitled BASEBALL’S MORTAL SIN.  The clever lyric shows how the rest of MLB looks at the Bronx Bombers.  GODS NOT A MET FAN is the following track and deals with the 2000 Subway Series.  

LOUIS SOCKALEXIS is a song about a native American of the Penabscot Nation and is followed by I’M NOT YOUR MASCOT, I’M A MAN!! This number deals with the prejudice that Louis Sockalexis faced back when but in modern day. 

From Native Americans to African Americans as tracks 10 and 11 deal with the Negro Leagues with SMOKEY JOE and LET’S NOT FORGET.  The next song is for you Mets fans entitled WHO?  It is about a ballplayer who has near Hall of Fame numbers and a good career but is remembered for one boo-boo in 1986. Now who could that be.

WHO’S THE GREATEST RED SOX FAN? And THE HOTTEST GAME tell of the Red Sox lore in musical verse.  And for kicks and giggles there is a tongue in cheek lesson in healthy eating in the two bonus songs THE WILD BLUEBERRY SONG and LUCKY THE LOBSTAH.  

If you are a baseball fan, Yankee fan, Bosox fan or country music fan this CD is a must for your collection.  The witty lyric and cynical stories will make you laugh.  The songs can make any baseball fan feel good.  I like FENWAY (both the song and the park), it tells the story of a piece of baseball history.  As a Yankee fan I enjoyed BASBALL’S MORTAL SIN and GODS NOT A METS FAN.  Musically this album is priceless.
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Dyed in the wool Boston Red Sox baseball fans don't particularly care what your favorite team is so long as you don't root for the New York Yankees, or something like that. Fan mania reigns in the entertaining CD, "Baseball Songs Sports Heroes: People Who Have Made a Difference", where the core themes are chanted in a collection of creative folk-songs touting America's favorite pastime- especially from Boston Red Sox fans' points of view. This particularly charming CD is a collector's edition with a beautiful copy write graphic on the jacket depicting some of Boston's and New York's legends. The collection is published by Maine's King of the Road Music, with lyrics by Joseph Pickering. It's a must have for fan-mania memorabilia. By the way, "Baseball Songs Sports Heroes" is also registered in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. Some of the songs were featured on the HBO special about baseball legend Babe Ruth. Let's face it, 2004 was Boston's dream year, when the elusive World Series trophy finally came home to Fenway Park. As a lifelong Baltimore Oriole's fan myself, I particularly enjoyed the original lyrics and tune, "The Hottest Fan", a time when the game of baseball was taken to the streets of Baltimore and the outcome was not nice- although the song's tune and lyrics by Joe Pickering are historic. "Baseball Songs Sports Heroes" is a terrific gift for anybody with a nostalgic yearning for baseball, with Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas and Hanukah (or even St. Patrick's Day) just a few ideas where having several of these CDs on hand could come in handy. "Baseball Songs Sports Heroes" is a timeless series of creative tunes sung and written from the heart.
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