MLB's twangy flavor, plus more punk baseball cards

A's broadcaster Robert Buan talkin' dogs, pickup trucks and broken hearts with Brian McCann of the Braves. Eamonn Sweeney

MAILBAG Have a question or opinion for John? He might answer or address it in his next blog. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

With the Mitchell steroid investigation report coming down the chute and otherworldly salary figures being tossed around like confetti, you might just need a reassurance that ballplayers do more than cheat and get paid rather well. If you cotton to country music, so much the better. Country Fastball is for you.

Oakland A's broadcaster Robert Buan produces and hosts the two-hour talk-and-tunes radio fest on Sunday nights at 9 (Eastern time). His guests include such diamond notables as Jake Peavy, Jeff Francoeur, Nick Swisher, Tim Wakefield, Brad Penny, Justin Morneau, John Lackey, Brandon Webb, Casey Blake and JJ Hardy, all of whom are bull goose country fans and, in some cases, pals with the cowboy hat and geetar set.

When Swisher slumps, you can blame Kenny Chesney, who has given him tips on his swing and hitting with two strikes.

Songs by Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and other major acts are spun between interview segments. Hence, the show's slogan: "Where the biggest Country hits meet Baseball's biggest stars." The chatter ranges from on-field topics to a player's favorite country artists and off-field hobbies to his activities on behalf of assorted charities. The Veteran's Day Special (Nov. 11) will feature Hardy talking about his Army brother Logan who served in Iraq, Peavy's support for Barry Zito's Strikeouts For Troops program, Dave Niehaus on how his broadcasting career began in the military, and Jamie Walker on his visits to Walter Reed Army Hospital.

"Pretty much every guy I've met in baseball, when they're country music fans, they're good people," says Buan, 36, who started working A's broadcasts in 1996 and hosting the postgame show in 2000. A country fan himself, Buan noticed how many players were into it, so the subject seemed to be a nice change of pace if not a welcome relief to his guests.

"So much coverage addresses who gave up the bomb or why the team has lost six of its last seven. It's predominantly negative stuff," Buan says. "[The country music connection] came up from time to time, though there wasn't much room for it on a post-game show. Tim Hudson had a weekly feature on the show, so we'd sneak it into conversation there. Nick Swisher chats with us weekly now on a segment we call Country Roads with Nick Swisher."

Buan, who played guitar with Zito in A's Unplugged shows at local beer joints, got his wheels to turning and came up with a zany feature called Redneck Jeopardy that has sternly tested the knowledge of Hudson, Swisher, Huston Street, Joe Blanton, Chad Bradford and Jeremy Fikac about such vital subjects as eatin', drinkin', fishin' and the name of Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane's dog. Buan later approached Hudson, who had since moved on to the Braves, about helping to put together an independent, regularly-scheduled show. Last March, with the A's blessings, Country Fastball became a reality on six affiliates, most of them country stations. The A's flagship -- KYOU-1550 AM -- joined in September.

Buan is now working the phones and dispatching demos, hoping to syndicate more broadly on the West Coast and then east of Nevada, with Georgia being a natural destination, given Hudson's presence. In the meantime, you can catch the proceedings on the Country Fastball website on Sunday nights.

To Buan's credit, the show isn't an exercise in fumigation and golly-gosh fawning. In one segment, Peavy contritely discussed his January disorderly conduct arrest at a Mobile (AL) airport for refusing to move his parked car from a security zone. Buan cleverly followed Peavy's comments by playing Dierks Bentley's rollicking "What Was I Thinkin'." (Sample lyric: By the county line the cops are nippin on our heels, pulled off the road, kicked it in four wheel, shut off the lights and tore through a corn field. What was I thinkin?)

"Country music these days tries to identify with listeners," says Buan. "The show is humanizing thing."

In another musical note...

1 of 2