Professor hits home run by mixing music and baseball

Having grown up in a family of baseball fans in New Hampshire, professor Timothy Johnson has combined his interest as a baseball lover with his passion for music. The professor and author was recently awarded for his 2004 book, "Baseball and the Music of Charles Ives: A Proving Ground," as the recipient of the 2005 The Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award from the Society for American Baseball Research.

Johnson, a visiting UB professor of music theory, wrote the book when he discovered a deep connection between a famous composer and America's pastime.

"Charles Ives is an influential American composer who also had a deep love for baseball. Some of his musical pieces depict baseball scenes and he often used famous baseball players' names in the titles of these pieces," Johnson said.

Johnson has had an affinity towards baseball since his childhood but his love for music has become his profession. Johnson said the book started as a passing curiosity that grew into a full-fledged fascination.

"This book actually began as an article and once I started doing research, I realized there was a great deal of information and it ended as a book," said Johnson. "It feels great to win this award because it is a way for me to combine one of my hobbies, music, which turned into my profession, with another one of my hobbies: baseball."

Johnson said that the purpose of the book was to target musicians as well as baseball players in order to be able to find some common ground.

"I wanted the book to appeal to musicians and baseball fans and scholars," said Johnson. "My publisher thought the market for the book would be more for musicians but he was wrong because baseball scholars understood the purpose for the book and I have become a recipient of this award."

In his research of Ives, Johnson came to understand that by incorporating baseball into his music, Ives was able to relay his music to the people who were close to him.

"For Charles Ives, incorporating baseball was a way for him to be true to himself as well as being able to make a connection to his friends, who admitted they could not relate to his other works," said Johnson.

On a personal level, Johnson said that after writing this book, he was able to spark the interest of his family members in his profession as a music theorist.

"My younger brother, who has no interest in classical music, is a baseball fan and after I sent him a copy of the book, he e-mailed me and told me he bought a couple of Charles Ives CD's and he was asking my opinion on which to buy next," said Johnson. "It was a great moment because my brother actually took an interest in what I do."

As a recipient of this SABR award, Johnson was among the elite of baseball scholars and was very pleased to be one of a kind in his field.

"It's great to win this award because one of the other winners was Dr. Baseball and it's an honor to be a music theorist and be honored in a different field," he said.

For baseball fans, Johnson said that this book is a way to gain a different understanding of music and the concept that a music theory professor could have won an award for a book, which relates to baseball.

"People who don't really know about baseball find it curious that a music theorist won an award for baseball," said Johnson. "I'm trying to connect musicians to baseball and baseball fans to one of the greatest American composers."

For Johnson, receiving this award has allowed him to make a connection with his family as well as his readers and it has allowed him to tie in his love for a sport as well as his love for his profession.

"I dedicated this book to my family, including my late mother and late grandfather. I don't come from a family of musicians but I grew up listening to ball games, so with this book, I'm trying to make a connection with my family as well as my readers," he said.