From the outside, it looked like just another show at one of Portland's smallish venues for live music. Except a particularly observant passerby on Burnside Avenue, which separates North from South in the Rose City, might have noticed an unusual number of people inside Dante's wearing baseball caps and jerseys. There's a Homestead Grays jersey, and over there a Mickey Morandini. Thereâs a tri-colored Expos cap and ... there, another!
If one peered closely inside, one might even recognize Mike Mills in the middle of the stage, playing bass and singing. And is that ... Peter Buck hiding in the back and playing guitar? The same Peter Buck once anointed the 94th-greatest guitarist ever by Rolling Stone? Yes, half of REM was up there.
If our passerby had strolled along an hour or so earlier, she would have wondered why a handsome middle-aged fellow was presenting Mills with a powder-blue, early-1980s Atlanta Braves pullover jersey, a large 3 on the back, topped with the name MURPHY.
Of course, if our passerby grew up watching the Braves on WTBS, she would have known that superstar Dale Murphy wore that jersey. And she might even have recognized the handsome middle-aged fellow as the Dale Murphy, who grew up in Portland.
Our passerby might even have been inspired enough to walk inside, pay the $14 cover charge, and listen to some music. First there was Zeus, a pop-rock band from Toronto. Next up: Denver's Dressy Bessy. Finally, the headlining Baseball Project took the stage, featuring Mills and Buck, not to mention the extraordinarily talented Scott McCaughey, Linda Pitmon, and Steve Wynn. Our passerby, were she just passingly familiar with music and baseball, would have recognized immediately that this combination of baseball literacy and musicianship is utterly unique, a sort of cosmic accident for which we might only thank the Fates (and McCaughey, who's the ultimate musical connector).
She might also have been thrilled, more than a little, to realize that Dale Murphy was standing just a few feet away when Mills, a Braves fan going way back, and his bandmates launched into the rollicking "Veterans Committee", a heartfelt plea for Murphy's election to the Hall of Fame.
It was just a moment in time, unreported by the local newspapers and inconsequential among all but the lucky few who knew how lucky they were.
Thursday night, The Baseball Project is closing out this tour with a gig in Seattle. If you're in town, why not be one of the lucky few?
p.s. In case you'd like a visual aid/inducement ...
Wow. Wow!!! @BaseballProject rockin’ in #PDX !!! Thx for ‘Veteran’s Committee’ @m_millsey I got to say…it rocks!!! pic.twitter.com/eIhJIYou80
— Dale Murphy (@DaleMurphy3) September 11, 2014
