R.E.M. guys have a baseball 'supergroup' with a song about Lenny Dykstra

The Baseball Project sounds like one of those passion projects that are jokingly discussed when a game goes into extra innings and people forget to account for the handful of additional adult beverages that come with free baseball. Essentially, Scott McCaughey of R.E.M. was in Cleveland because his band was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There, he started gushing about America's pastime over dinner and drinks with Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn. This was back in 2007 and the result was a "supergroup" that writes and performs songs about baseball.

Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, and Linda Pitmon teamed up to form the group and sing about baseball. Their previous offerings have included songs about Ichiro (with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard), Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and "Ted F***ing Williams."

Now that you know about The Baseball Project, you can check out their latest album, 3rd, which dropped on Tuesday, March 25th.

You might want to pay particular attention to the second track on the joint, called "From Nails to Thumbtacks." It's blatantly about former Phillies center fielder Lenny Dykstra.

Wrote my autobiography when I was 24,

If I'd only known how much was still in store.

'Cause I won it all with the Mets, age 23,

And for the '93 Phillies I shoulda been MVP.

I lived in a mansion, I lived in a car.

Ya gotta fly high to fall this far.

Ya gotta fly high to fall this far.

Oof. And it only gets worse, from there. Check out the whole song and accompanying album here. Opening Day is so close you can probably taste it. (Though, mathematical elimination is probably only a month further out than that.)