2010-09-23: Don't Call Them Twinkies

"DON'T CALL THEM TWINKIES"

You can't take the Twins fan out of these New York City rock transplants

By Linda Pitmon & Craig Finn

"We are no longer the Twinkies. We're the World Champion Minnesota Twins." - Steve Lombardozzi 1987

The Baseball Project is a baseball loving musical entity comprised of rock enthusiasts Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Minus 5, Tired Pony) Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3), Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3), and Peter Buck (R.E.M., Minus 5, Tired Pony), with occasional pinch hitting by Mike Mills (R.E.M.) on bass.

This is the story of how Craig Finn of The Hold Steady came to write the anthem "Don't Call Them Twinkies" with Steve Wynn and record it with The Baseball Project.

LINDA PITMON:

I wanted the Twins to be represented on the new Baseball Project record despite the fact that I've been living in New York City for 15 years. 15 years, 7 AL Championships, and 5 World Series titles for the Yankees since I moved here. I can't say that it hasn't been fun at times, but it always takes a while to get over the sting of them taking the Twins out at the knees to get there. I just can't get that SCREAM-OUT-LOUD excited because the Twins are still my guys and have been since I was old enough to hit a Wiffle ball off the tee.

I cheered them on through the Larry Hisle years, for chrissakes. Lymon Bostock. Disco Danny Ford. Roy Smalley...Carew, Oliva, Blyleven. After listening to all those heartbreaking losses on my a.m. radio the ‘87 season restored my interest in the game at a point when I was a college student who'd gone deep into the world of music and had lost the thrill of sport. A ticket to Game 1 mysteriously landed in my lap and I was hooked again - seeing a grand slam in a World Series game can do that to you. That Gladden smash and the personalities of Hrbek, Kirby, Viola and the rest of that team sealed it for me.

The underdogs of all time....and we the fans helped them win it almost by willing it....by our sheer VOLUME. It felt like we were reaching out from our seats in the stands or through our television sets down onto the field and practically pulling them over the finish line. We deserved to know that feeling of watching OUR boys hog piling on the pitchers mound and then joyously bounding around, searching the stands for their parents and wives.

I wanted to capture the feeling I had at Met Stadium in 1975 as I stood nervously in line for Harmon Killebrew's autograph as he towered over us tiny mortals. My older brother and sister did the same 10 years earlier when my parents took them to the airport to greet the 1965 Twins team as they returned home from Los Angeles – defeated in Game 7 but still heroes to the city - exhausted but taking the time to sign anything the kids put in front of them.

Fans like us deserved a song that could capture the magic of the good years and the bad. The suffering of the 70's and early 80's fueled the euphoria of 1987 and 1991.

I wanted to write that song but I just couldn't figure out the right angle.

Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) and I had bonded over our love of the Twins backstage a few years ago at a Golden Smog show in NYC where we were both guesting. Fast forward to July 2009, a medieval town in northern Spain at 3am where I'm making my way through the narrow street with Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, and Mike Mills. We had just finished playing our very first show (Mike pinch hit for Peter Buck on bass) at the foot of a beautiful castle and had taken a wrong turn on the way back to our hotel. We were still high up on the hill surrounded by fortress walls when Mike's phone rang (he obviously doesn't use AT&T), it was George Regis (The Hold Steady lawyer) and Craig Finn who were in the middle of watching a Twins game. Mike explained our circumstances of being in Spain playing songs about baseball and being that Mike is from Atlanta, it didn't talk long for George to bring up the subject of the '91 World Series. Before you know it I can hear Mike raise his voice and say "Ron Gant was NOT out, George!"

So in my writer's block dilemma Craig immediately came to my mind and I asked him if he was interested in immortalizing our beloved Twins in song.

We couldn't be happier that he complied with some of the most anthemic sports lyrics ever written....name-checking no less than 8 Minnesota cities, 2 neighborhoods, 2 streets, 9 Twins players and 2 coaches in just over 4 minutes - Craig's specialty!

Then Steve wrote the majestic music to marry with Craig's libretto and the band proceeded to bang it out in Portland in less than time than it takes for pizza to be delivered to the studio.

Zip - off it went in an email to Craig who recorded the vocals god-knows-where. Possibly Paris. You'll have to ask him.

CRAIG FINN:

I wrote the lyrics quickly on tour about a year ago, and then over the next few months played with a few lines that bugged me over time. My intentions were twofold: I wanted to remind people of the proud history of my team, but also to try to capture the language that real sports fans have when boasting or arguing about their teams. I love living in NYC but I really don't like Yankee fans and the way their team outspends everyone and calls it part of baseball. I had to bring up the fact that the Twins win at baseball in a more admirable way than teams like the Yankees. I had to bring up the awfulness that was the Braves fans' Tomahawk Chop in the 1991 World Series. I had to bring up Ron Gant, and his infamous brush with Kent Hrbek at first base.

I recorded the vocals this summmer at Wild Arctic Studio in Brooklyn with Dean Baltulonis, who knows just about nothing about baseball. I ended up having to explain all the references to him, and when he heard about the Ron Gant play, he suggested we do a harmony on that line, just to make it stick out. I liked that idea.

Since collaborating on the song with The Baseball Project I've gone to the new stadium a few times. Downtown Minneapolis is so alive, the bars are bustling, and the Twins are winning. It's a great summer, and hopefully this song is some way of giving back some of the joy that the Twins have given to me.