Short Hops: Peter Gammons is gonna love this

In this 100th-year anniversary of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” arriving at a music store near you (just this week, in fact), is “Ted (Bleeping) Williams.”

That’s track two on a new CD entitled “Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails” released by an ad hoc indie rock duo dubbed The Baseball Project. Their album is a refreshingly hip musical treatise on the game — keenly perceptive of its potholed present, but respectful of its past — cut by Scott McCaughey and Steve Wynn, who’ve sung, played and written in and around such bands as Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5, Dream Syndicate and Gutterball. Even R.E.M.’s Peter Buck chimes in with the guitar licks.

Lyrically, the songs may have been penned by the drunk guy in the bleachers had he studied at the Berklee College of Music under Ernest Lawrence Thayer — smart, clever, funny and informed. The subject matter tackles everything from baseball’s boozy legacy (“The Death of Big Ed Delahanty”) to Jack McDowell’s moment of indiscretion (“The Yankee Flipper”) to the rise and fall of Mark McGwire (“Broken Man”) to narratives of unappreciated heroism (“Gratitude for Curt Flood” and “Harvey Haddix,” which includes the names of all 17 perfect game pitchers). Sonically, the tunes run the breadth of jangle rock, garage, pop-punk, Latin strumming and Americana.

So is there a Volume 2 to look forward to? Wynn hints to the affirmative. “After all” he says, “we haven’t written songs about Ichiro or Bill Veeck or Eddie Gaedel.”

WHY THE WORD “STATS” IS A PALINDROME

Twins rookie Carlos Gomez ranks fourth in the AL in triples (4), eighth in steals (21) and 10th in singles (72). He also ranks second in most outs made (281), strikeouts (91) and caught stealing (9), as well as 80th in on-base percentage (.298).

Former MVP Ryan Howard stands first in the NL in RBI (78) and second in home runs (24). He also ranks first in strikeouts (124), fifth in outs made (275) and 87th in batting average (.227). He’s batting .170 with nobody on base, but .333 with runners in scoring position.

HIT AND RUN

Short Hops’ recurring installment of slapdash observation and imprudent opinion:

Ryan Dempster is 10-3, but he hasn’t won on the road since June 2, 2006 — 133 games pitched and 232 innings ago.

If road success is a clue to who’s the best team, we’ll take the Angels, whose 28-16 mark away from home is by far the best in baseball. The only other teams with winning road records are the Yankees, Phillies and Cardinals.

The Elias Sports Bureau reports that 135 teams in big-league history have scored a run in each of the first seven innings of a game, and all have won. Last Friday, however, it took a bottom-of-the-ninth rally for No. 135, the Rockies, to sustain the streak.

Ichiro is extra-base hit-less in his last 109 plate appearances. 31 singles, though.

On June 27, the Mets tallied 15 runs, then were shut out in their next game. On July 2, the Yankees scored 18 runs, then were shut out in their next game.

QUOTABLES

“I’d rather watch the Perrysburg water tower rust.” — Tigers manager and Perrysburg, Ohio native Jim Leyland on how bored he was during his team’s 15-inning win at Seattle last weekend.