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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Jerry Goldsmith's collaboration with director Fred Schepisi has resulted in a diverse array of scores; none of them is showy, instead perfectly supporting Schepisi's subtle but charming style of filmmaking, from the exotic jazz of The Russia House through the brilliant tango based Six Degrees of Separation to the sweet strains of IQ and the subtle, great fun Fierce Creatures.  Their most unusual partnership came with 1992's Mr Baseball, about an ageing US baseball player (played by Tom Selleck) who aims to resurrect and prolong his career by moving to Japan.

The score's opening cue is an embarrassment, a combination of a hideously-irritating six-note baseball motif and annoying record scratching samples, all rounded off with Goldsmith's most infectiously awful theme since Supergirl, a tune so banal yet so catchy that you hum it for days afterwards and always curse yourself for doing so.  Fortunately, the rest of the score is considerably better.  It really needs to be separated into two parts, those underscoring the baseball scenes and those not; the former are awful, reprising the worst material of the opening track, but the latter contains some real surprises and some great music.  "First Night Out" is a lovely little piece of jazz and "Acceptance" produces a real surprise, with Goldsmith employing James Horner's favourite instrument, the Japanese flute the sakuhachi; it's a surprisingly evocative portrait of the unknown and mysterious world in which Selleck's character finds himself.  The other real highlight is the outstanding "Call Me Jack / A Wise Brain", a very beautiful piece for guitar and orchestra that seems to belong in a far better score.  There are certainly some other nice tracks, but these are mostly very low-key or reprises of what has gone before, with only those cues featuring the wonderful love theme really standing out.

Mr Baseball is possibly the most unusual score ever composed by Jerry Goldsmith, combining some truly hideous music with some of outstanding beauty, meaning that it is really very difficult to assess.  It is certainly not easy to listen to the CD from start to end (especially with the awful, freaky Japanese pop song "Shabondama Boogie" sung by Fairchild at the end) but if you do, you really do find some great music.  It's worth Goldsmith fans hearing something off-the-wall from the composer, but beware of the psychological damage the main theme might do.

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Tracks

1. Mr Baseball (2:33)
2. First Night Out (1:54)
3. Acceptance (1:54)
4. New Apartment (:45)
5. The Dragons (1:04)
6. Call Me Jack / A Wise Brain (2:45)
7. Winning Streak / The Locker Room (1:06)
8. The Bath (3:07)
9. Training (2:31)
10. Go Get 'Em / He's Still Got It (1:25)
11. Team Effort (2:50)
12. Swing Away (1:46)
13. Final Score (5:04)
14. Shabondama Boogie Fairchild (4:23)