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04/24/2006 11:40 AM ET
Adkins' 'Swing' could be a big hit
Country star debuts new song at MLB.com
By Doug Miller / MLB.com
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Trace Adkins' "Swing" is now streaming at MLB.com. (courtesy Trace Adkins)
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Trace Adkins is known for smart honky-tonk tunes with a little bit of attitude and a healthy helping of good, clean American fun.
That won't change any time soon, but it'll swing in a different direction with "Swing," the first single from Adkins' upcoming album, Dangerous Man.
"It's really pretty rockin' stuff," Adkins said in his trademark baritone Louisiana drawl. "Like 'Swing,' it's got that real guitar-driven stuff, and it's up-tempo. It's a fun album, it really is.
"We touch on some serious stuff, too, but it's a lot of fun. I'm really happy with it. We worked real hard on it and I think it's gonna do fine."
"Swing" has also propelled the platinum-selling singer into two new realms: the baseball diamond and Internet history.
The song is a classic country tale of men at a bar taking their swings at various ladies with tried-and-not-so-true pickup lines, and failing a few times before they succeed.
The hook is that the song is written entirely in baseball metaphor, which made it a natural for its online world premiere at MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball.
Adkins stepped up to the plate and debuted the song on MLB.com before it hits the radio waves, a never-before-realized moment for the singer and the site.
Fans who submit their e-mail addresses to MLB.com will be notified when Adkins' new album is available for pre-order.
And in a few weeks, Adkins will unveil an exclusive performance of "Swing" and a few other songs on MLB.com as part of the site's "Best Records" series.
This particular single hit home for Adkins because of his baseball background and inside knowledge of the game.
He grew up in Shreveport, La., watching Double-A baseball and playing Little League and high school ball. His favorite player was Hall of Fame fireballer Nolan Ryan, of whom Adkins said, "I grew up idolizing him and still pretty much do."
By the time he was on the high school team, Adkins, now 6-foot-6, was tall and rail-thin -- a natural fit for first base. He said now that he could handle the fastball but struggled with the breaking stuff.
"If you had a curveball, I was no problem," Adkins said. "You could sit me down. I just never could pick that curve up, man, coming out of the pitcher's hand. It was my demise."
It's a good thing he had no such problems with the guitar or with carrying a tune, although he still gets to live out his diamond dreams from time to time.
Last year, Adkins was invited by his friend, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, to perform the national anthem on Opening Day. He met one of the game's young greats that day, and he remembers it ... with a wince.
"Albert Pujols about broke every bone in my hand when I shook hands with him," Adkins said with a laugh. "That boy's just country strong, you know? He's an animal. He's a brute, man. He's just amazing."
Adkins and his band also got to take time off on the road to catch a game in venerable Wrigley Field and will be looking for similar opportunities during their summer tour in support of Dangerous Man.
In the meantime, loyal fans who have been beefing up on an Adkins diet of radio staples "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" and "Hot Mama" will get more than their fill with "Swing."
Right away, you know it's a baseball song when you hear Adkins bellow out everyone's favorite ballpark line, "Take me out to the ballgame."
From there, you're transported into a dark, sawdust-on-the-floor high-plains tavern, where Adkins' cowboys look for love when they're not crying in their beer.
Not surprisingly, the hard-luck and hardball lingo follows.
"Swing batter batter swing batter batter swing," Adkins sings repeatedly in the chorus, recalling the familiar taunt that rings true at every level of the grand old game.
"What I really thought about when I first heard this song and recorded it, I thought about when I was playing Little League," Adkins said. "You know, 'Hey batter batter, hey batter batter!' "
The tune was originally played for him by his producer, Frank Rogers, who co-wrote "Swing" with Chris Stapleton.
"[Rogers] told me, 'I wrote this song about baseball. You gotta hear it,' Adkins said. "Then he played it for me and I was like, 'That's cool.'"
"It's like how in Tin Cup, how Kevin Costner's character used golf terminologies to describe everything that was going on in his life and how he made decisions in life.
"This is the same kind of thing. These guys are trying to use their best pickup lines in a club or whatever and they're just striking out and getting picked off stealing second, and then, of course, he hits the home run. It's just a real cleverly written song."
Adkins has one very simple wish when it comes to "Swing."
"I hope that people out there at the ballgames get a chance to maybe hear this every now and then," Adkins said.
"And then it just becomes something that everybody can enjoy and have fun with." Doug Miller is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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