Celebrating a Sox championship

As some of you know, my dad grew up just north of Boston in Southern Maine and he raised me to love all things New England. It’s in my blood.

Its been a long time since the Boston Red Sox won the series at Fenway, so this was a special year. I remember going to Fenway Park in 2004 seeing the Red Sox play the Orioles. My Uncle Allan lived near Boston. He got me seats behind home plate and it was awesome.

Dagum, if I could have had those seats for the World Series! Instead, I watched the game in my apartment with my college roommates. I was a bit nervous early in the series when the Sox fell behind two games to one. By the time it got to Game 6 though, we got really loud at our place, especially when Shane Victorino hit a three-run double in the third inning. A moment I will never forget!

When John Lackey walked to the dugout and tipped his hat to the home crowd, I knew that was a positive sign.

They definitely had it right picking David Ortiz as World Series MVP though. Well deserved! Can’t wait to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame to see the exhibit going up for my Sox win and counting down the months ’til next season! Let’s do it again Sox!

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Playing new music and watching Postseason baseball

First of all, to all my fans, I hope you’re digging See You Tonight. We’ve been working on this for over a year now, putting this thing together, so I’m glad it’s finally out there for people to hear other than myself and the truck. It’s fun and hopefully you’re enjoying it.

You know how much I like baseball, so it was a treat today to spend time at Major League Baseball Advanced Media’s headquarters inside of Chelsea Market in New York City. We recorded some songs off the new album, so keep an eye out at MLB.com for the videos in the days to come.

Like I’ve said before, I have two favorite teams. One’s my main team, and the other is the team I just root for. My Dad grew up in the New England area, so I was raised as a kid with all things Boston, and that means Red Sox. The Braves are my other team because I’m in North Carolina and that’s who I’m for in the NL.

The Braves were close. We were rooting for them. Like I said earlier on this blog when the postseason started, I expected Boston and St. Louis in the World Series but I was gonna root for Atlanta. Luckily, I’ve still got the Sox. Man, we’re hangin on by a thread, aren’t we? We’ll see how they handle Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. How do they get all those pitchers on one team?

It was good to see Big Papi come through in the clutch in that classic Game 2 at Fenway Park. I literally took a lap around the house whenever he hit that grand slam. Because we were thinking, “You know, it’s Papi’s time.” I took a lap around the house. We didn’t necessarily beat Scherzer, but we won the game he pitched, and that was huge.

Now we have one more game in Detroit tonight. It was nice to win the first game at Comerica, because now we’re playing with house money, because we’re going to make the trip back to Boston no matter what. So we’ll see. It would be nice to go back up 3-2. I think the Sox are in good position, we’re going back to Jon Lester, and hopefully the bats are going to wake up.

Over in the National League, we’ll see. The Cardinals are going back home up 3-2. It’ll be tough. They Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw going in Game 6, and it’s tough to see anybody really having a good game against him. So I can definitely see it going to a Game 7, then you have Adam Wainwright against Hyun-Jin Ryu in all likelihood. I think I’d give the edge to Wainwright there. But it’s tough to say what’s going to happen in Game 7. I think the Dodgers, if they can get to Game 7 after being down 2-0, I think they’d be pretty pumped up going into that game. They’d be pretty aggressive and fiery, so it would be pretty fun to watch.

I’m able to keep up with the games, especially on the road. On the bus, we have Apple TV so the MLB stuff is on there as well. If we don’t have that going, I’ve got the MLB.com At Bat app going where the pitch comes in as a green ball or blue ball or red ball. So I’m watching all that stuff and trying to keep up with it as best I can, especially during the playoffs.

We’re going to be hammering this album out, we’re going to be going to radio and showing them the songs and singles and hoping that they’re digging it. Here’s the title track to pass around:

We’re going to be on the road just touring, meeting the fans and seeing everything. It’s going to be a good time for us. We’re going to be busy, but busy’s good, busy’s fun. We’re going to be enjoying ourselves out here for the next few years.

Go Sox. I’ll be rooting for them the rest of the way. Thanks to the MLB.com folks for giving me a clean 2004 World Series baseball, another memory of when we Reversed the Curse of the Bambino. We could be headed for a rematch of that series, we’ll just have to wait and see over the next few days.

As we wait for the Sox to head home to Fenway, I thought I’d share with you a couple of pics from a recent trip I had there. I signed my name inside the Green Monster, and got to pose with the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies. As a diehard Sox fan, it was pretty neat to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff there.

Inside the Green Monster

Trophy

Swinging for the fences

Here’s a video of my chance to take Mitch Williams deep! We had some fun on the Studio 42 field at MLB Network, where Wild Thing, Kevin Millar and I helped our friend Nan Kelley host the Top 20 Country Countdown, which premieres at 8 p.m. ET Friday on Great American Country. Make sure you watch that to see where “See You Tonight” winds up, and watch this whole video to check out that longball:

GAC Top 20 Country Countdown and MLB Network

Mitch, Scotty & Kevin at MLB Network

I just had the pleasure of spending a day at the MLB Network studio in Secaucus, N.J., and we were there with the crew from Great American Country, doing the Top 20 Country Countdown for their show that premieres at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 11. We hosted it with Nan Kelley and also MLB Network analysts and former World Series players Mitch Williams and Kevin Millar. It was a lot of fun — those shows are great. It kind of worked out well in my favor that this week I was No. 1 on the show with “See You Tonight” so that’s pretty awesome.

Someone asked me what it feels like to say “No. 1” in describing your music. It’s an awesome feeling. I’ve got the greatest fans in the world, and they’ve rallied behind me time after time, and they love the feeling of having my back. They love helping me out. That’s great to have a fan base like that. Any show like this, anything like that, they’re quick to get on it.

Just talking baseball with Kevin Millar . . . I’m trying to hold it all in, but that’s crazy. I love when you meet guys like that and they’re just normal dudes, just like how you hoped they would be. Kevin, golly, I remember watching that dude in ’04. He was kind of the ringleader, it seemed like — “Cowboy Up,” calling them all “Idiots.” He seemed like the guy behind it all. It was cool to talk ball with him.

Like I said in the previous posts here, I grew up mainly a Red Sox fan and I was really into it back in ’04. I had Yankee friends. Me and my Dad, obviously we were huge Red Sox fans. I remember thinking, “OK, we’re out. Down 3-0, no one’s ever come back from that.” And then, one game down, two games down, three games down, and somehow we win that ALCS and then sweep the Cardinals to Reverse the Curse.

Great gift for a Sox fan!

Wait till Eighter sees this!

One of the highlights of the MLB Network visit was when they presented me with a No. 8 Red Sox home jersey. My Dad’s gonna love it. All of us obviously are Yaz fans — Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, who wore that number. His grandson plays at Vandy. It’s just cool, because Vandy’s field is modeled after Fenway. Also 8 was my number, and my Dad’s number was always 8. We always called him The Eighter. I played ball growing up 8. Whenever we’re in crowds now, and he doesn’t want to call my name so people would recognize me, he says, “Eighter!” I turn around, and there he is. Nobody else knows it. That’s kind of our code name now. We’re trying to stay low.

Another highlight was playing a little ball on the Studio 42 field. Taking the Wild Thing deep was pretty cool. I don’t think he was expecting it. Got a little pop on the bat there. Here’s a picture of me about to take a rip:

Taking Wild Thing deep

Here are some more pictures of our visit:

Scotty4Scotty3Scotty2

It was also great to be on MLB Network’s “Intentional Talk” show with Kevin and Chris Rose while I was there. You can watch the clip here, and hope you all are enjoying the #Postseason!

Postseason predictions and analysis

Big Papi!The #Postseason is under way, and there is a real possibility of a dream World Series for me. The Red Sox are my No. 1 team and the Braves are my 2 team. I’m rooting for that to happen.

Obviously I spent my childhood being a diehard Red Sox fan. My Dad grew up in Massachusetts. As I grew older and developed an appreciation, I loved Chipper Jones. He played ball with the Durham Bulls right down the road from me, so we all loved him from that area. It’s Braves Country, too, in Carolina.

Either way I would be happy. It wouldn’t be that disappointed, gutted feeling after the World Series, whoever lost. I don’t know. That would be a weird feeling. I’ve never experienced something like that where I’ve rooted for two teams. It would be great for baseball. The old Boston Braves vs. the Boston Red Sox. I’d root for Boston, but I wouldn’t be rooting for them cold-hearted like, “Kill the Braves!” Honestly, the Braves fans have been great to me, and the organization…they’ve probably been the one baseball team that’s just been absolutely great to me, let me kind of hang out there and do stuff with them.

A lot is going to happen along the way, and Friday is the first day of four Postseason games at once this month so here we go with my thoughts:

BRAVES VS. DODGERS

The Braves have a tough draw. To pull the Dodgers in the NLDS, that’s pretty tough. But I think they can do it. Hopefully they didn’t peak in the middle of the season when they went on that long streak. Clayton Kershaw was nuts this year, and he already put the Braves in a hole by winning Game 1 in Atlanta.

I’m hoping Braves. As long as they can get their bats going. I was watching the other night at Turner Field, we were there. The bats weren’t exactly there. We’ll see if they turn it on. Craig Kimbrel is going to be a big thing. Anytime in the postseason, you need a good closer to get you out of games. He had 50 saves this season. We’ll see if he gets over that hump.

It’s tough to call the Braves underdogs. There’s a lot of hype around the Dodgers, you can see that. Yasiel Puig, Kershaw…there’s hype there. But I wouldn’t discount the Braves. Matt Kemp’s out for the Postseason, and that’ll be a tough bat to replace.

CARDINALS VS. PIRATES

I got the chance to see World Series Game 1 a couple years back when they were playing the Rangers in St. Louis, and the fans there are pretty crazy, they are very passionate. I do think Pittsburgh, they’ve got a little fire under them, this being the first time they’ve been there in forever.

It was funny, many would call it a hockey town. And the chants they were doing in the Wild Card Game with Johnny Cueto, the Reds pitcher, those were hockey chants. You could tell they were really getting under his skin. The Cardinals have home field and dominated Game 1 behind Adam Wainwright, but we’ll see if the Pirates can get that edge to them. It won’t be a boring series, that’s for sure.

NL PENNANT WINNER

I’m rooting for the Braves. Baseball is a heartfelt game. It’s a game where the heart plays into it. I’ll pick the Braves with that. They may be the underdogs, which I still hesitate to say. I think they’ve got it in them.

RED SOX VS. RAYS

I see the Sox taking this one. I think the Rays are great. I got a chance to see them in Tampa Bay and they did well. They’ve got good pitching with David Price…Alex Cobb threw a great game at Cleveland. ..and they’ve got Chris Archer, a young guy who’s really great and he’s from my hometown. So they should be good. But I just think the Sox have it in them this year. They’ve got that spark. You kind of see a little magic like you kind of saw in ’04 with the team. I don’t know if that’s just me, but I think they’ve got it in them this year.

They’ve got the pitching, they’ve got an out-of-nowhere who has just been filthy this year. He’s a man. And Big Papi’s swinging the stick, Shane Victorino’s been a huge spark, especially with Jacoby Ellsbury being out for that stretch. We’ve got the guys.

I’ve been asked if I might grow a beard since I’m rooting for the Sox. It might take me a while. That Duck Dynasty type? Jonny Gomes’ beard — that’s what it is. As a matter of fact, I think I saw Jase tweet that it’s hard not to pull for the Red Sox when they’ve got those beards going on. I love it. It’s kind of that same feeling. You had guys like Kevin Millar and the ’04 team like a family. This team with their beards, it’s just a good team, like that one.

ATHLETICS VS. TIGERS

Moneyball system works again. I think I’ve got the A’s. I know the Tigers got to the World Series last year and they won the American League Central again, but Oakland has home-field advantage in this AL Division Series. Justin Verlander, he hasn’t been as hot this year as he has in years past. I just think Oakland has it. I’m not as familiar with either team, but when you hear about the A’s, those are the kinds of teams that will surprise you.

AL PENNANT WINNER

I think Boston is going to the Series this year, I really do. The ALCS always worried me when we played the Yankees. Even though we finally won in ’04, you think about that ’03 ALCS and what could happen. Whoever we play in the ALCS, I think it’ll be a big test.

Another big story recently was Robinson Cano asking for over $300 million from the Yankees, so I’ll add my two cents on that one. If anybody’s going to get that number, I’m glad to see it would be a guy like Cano. As a Red Sox fan, there are obviously guys you hate on the Yankees team. I was never a big A-Rod fan, especially after all that mess he’s been in. I just don’t like it at all. But you’ve got guys like Robinson and Derek Jeter. You have to respect them. Mariano Rivera. You don’t have to root for them, but you have to respect them.

It’s time to talk about Baseball

Welcome to my new baseball blog! I think blogging will be just a cooler way, a more detailed way, of letting fans know what I’m up to — letting them know my thoughts, my opinions on things, different things like that. Twitter is cool for just little snippets, Facebook is little snippets. But this is a way for fans to really get to know me, and get to know what I’m up to on the road, whether it’s ballparks, or concerts or whatever. It should be a cool thing. They’ll see a different side of me, too. They see the music side of me all the time on the stage. Now they’ll kind of get to know my baseball side.

2011 World Series Game 1

2011 World Series Game 1 in St. Louis

When I was growing up, I had two loves in life, and that was music and baseball. My Dad kind of fostered my love for baseball. He played in college at a small community college in North Carolina. He kind of raised me with a ball in my hand pitching. I grew up on the mound ever since, all the way through my senior year in high school. It taught me a lot. You learned your life lessons out there. I had a ball out there. Playing with the guys, throwing it around. I looked forward to practice — that’s how much I love it. A lot of people, they’re happy when practice gets canceled. I looked forward to going to practice and game days. I just had an extreme love for the sport from a young age.

I was more of your finesse pitcher. I wasn’t a flamethrower. I topped out around 80 miles per hour. But I had a pretty mean slider and a pretty mean curveball that would keep you off balance. I relied pretty heavily on them, too. That was me. You would have thought otherwise since I took a year off my whole junior year, but my senior year was my best year of pitching in my life growing up. I still throw it around a little bit. I get out there with the boys, and we go out to intramural fields at North Carolina State and throw it around some. But between touring and school, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for baseball in the middle, except for watching it, of course.

My junior year I was out in LA for the show. It would have been my first year on varsity. I pitched the varsity summer ball league before I went out to LA, and I threw the game of my life before I went to LA. So I guess this was God’s way of saying goodbye to baseball — “He gave me a good gift and now I’m done.” But luckily I got to go back my senior year.

Being out there in Hollywood, it was tough missing the season and stuff. I remember there was one day in particular. Me and my Dad, we hadn’t played in a while. He had to stay in North Carolina to work, and I was just like, “Hey when you come out to LA this week for the show, bring the gloves and let’s throw it around.” We were in a cement parking lot out back from Interscope Studios where we were recording our songs. He and I were just throwing it around, trying not to hit cars. All of a sudden I see this car pull up. I thought, “Well, who in the world is just parked right in the middle of our game, while we are throwing?” And he got out, and my Dad and I looked at each other and it was The Boss. Bruce Springsteen walked out. We were throwing, and he’s just parking right there, and he goes and picks up Jimmy Iovene and they drive off. We’re like, “Well, that’s a pretty cool throwing experience.” Getting to see Bruce Springsteen in the middle of a throwing session. I don’t even know if he saw me. He was on a mission. For me, it was an ohmygod moment.

I’m a Media Communication major at State, and the whole school-and-tour schedule is working great. We actually kind of got this model from Brad Paisley. We were on the road with him all last year, and we kept the same schedule. Monday through Wednesday we were home, and Thursday through Sunday we toured. We figured if we were going to do a headlining tour, we might as well keep that same model of touring instead of just sitting on my butt at home when I’m in college. So I’m at NC State Monday to Wednesday, go to all the games, football, baseball and basketball, as long as they fall in between those days, and then we hit the road Thursday through Sunday.

The great thing about the tour bus, they have every channel you need to watch games. So MLB Network and all the games are always on. There’s no shortage of baseball. Being away from the game, it’s nice to be able to watch it. I try to stay around the game as much as I can. I go to all the NC State baseball games. They went to Omaha this year, and they have potentially the No. 1 Draft pick in 2014 in Carlos Rodon, a filthy left-hander. I’ve gotten to know him and toss around with him some. I try to still go back to high school games some. I don’t get the chance to go there a lot being in college now, but if I can make a game, I head back out there. So I try and keep myself around the game.

Do I wish I could walk-on the team? In a perfect world, yes. But honestly, their coach, Elliott Avent, we were talking one time as I’ve gotten to know him. He said, “Scotty, you’ve got a D-1 slider, but a D-5 fastball.” I said, “I know.” I wasn’t a flamethrower but I had a pretty sick slider.

The ballpark tour has been great, and you can see photos on my site and join Team Scotty for a chance to win a cabin on the Duck Commander Cruise. We initially just started this trying to help kids, started it out in Nashville to help the Nashville RBI program. That’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, a Major League Baseball community initiative that has made a big difference in helping underserved kids and making baseball available to more people. For me, it just kind of springboarded into a bigger thing with MLB, and doing the park tour. Getting to go out there, seeing all the parks for me was cool, seeing how parks are different. But helping out kids was the main part. Getting to meet them, hearing their stories, hearing how some went to the RBI World Series in Chicago, it was cool, just getting to help out.

Here are some of the videos from the ballpark tour:

The Braves game was pretty awesome. When I got to meet the kids on the field, and then after that, after the check presentation, they let me do a little postgame concert kind of thing. It was like I legitimately got to put two of my loves together, my loves for baseball and music, I got to do them both in one day.

So welcome again to my blog and please pass the word around and leave comments here whenever you want!