Jack McDowell: Hard thrower, hard rocker

By Paul Vercammen
Showbiz Today Reports

Former White Sox all-star Jack McDowell strums his guitar

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jack McDowell is stuffed into a windowless room, a glorified closet with two band mates, strumming his electric guitar with the same right arm that used to terrorize major league hitters.

The former White Sox All Star and 1993 American League Cy Young Award winner is jamming in a faceless building on Sunset Boulevard. Musicians are stacked in tiny rehearsal rooms like birds in small cages.

Down the hall, a singer is doing his "Buddy Holly" jamboree act.

Walk the other way and someone is tinkering with an organ in a room burning with so much incense it looks as if a protester tossed a smoke bomb inside.

The other musicians in the soon-to-be-demolished rehearsal colony have no clue that their hard-practicing neighbor, the lanky singer with the black Adidas bucket hat, made millions of dollars throwing a baseball past bewildered batters.

McDowell describes his band as a blend of power pop and basic two-guitar, bass, drum, rock and roll

They don't know Jack McDowell pitched Stanford to the College World Series championship in 1987 and earned a degree in communications, despite his disdain for the media.

It's also little known that McDowell is a good buddy of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. The two got caught up in a 4 a.m. fracas in a New Orleans nightclub in 1993.

McDowell calls his band "stickfigure," homage to his wiry frame, a 6-foot-5-inch, 180-pound physique almost perfectly designed to hurl pitches from a mound.

Now that he's pursuing a rock 'n' roll dream, McDowell sees no advantage to having played baseball.

As a baseball player, McDowell earned the nickname Black Jack McDowell

"It goes both ways," McDowell explained. "I think as it (a full-time music career) gets going, there will be different doors opened up for me because of the baseball.

"But starting out, it doesn't help us. It probably hinders us, because you have to prove yourself a heck of a lot more than a normal band out there."

Power pop from a power pitcher

McDowell describes stickfigure as a blend of power pop and basic two-guitar, bass and drum rock and roll.

In less than three weeks, the band's new record, "Ape of Kings," will be released on his Web site, JackMcDowell.com.

"The stuff I write has influences from everything and my era is the '80s and '90s," McDowell said. "And my bass comes from the Beatles, just as about everyone who grabbed a guitar -- their influence comes from there too."

As a baseball player, McDowell developed "a nasty reputation as a cruel dude," earning the nickname Black Jack McDowell. He showed no fear in tongue-lashing Chicago White Sox management and no reluctance to throw at a batter.

McDowell laughs at the Jack the Ripper image.

"Robin Ventura, who played third base for the White Sox, used to tell me all the time guys (opposing base runners) would get over to third and they'd be like, 'What's Jack like, he seems kind of crazy.' Robin would be, 'Oh man, he's all right, he's OK.'"

McDowell was known in baseball for his manic work ethic. In the middle of a Chicago winter, the story goes, McDowell would throw baseballs against the side of a building to strengthen his arm.

He applies the same determination to his musicianship. He practices in grungy rehearsal spaces, trying to find the right groove. Playing music isn't new for McDowell -- he's played with bands and recorded for more than a decade -- but now he's grinding away full time.

"I think being in this business takes that (baseball) mentality," McDowell said.

"It's a crazy business to begin with. I've had people tell me, 'why are you doing this?' It was just one of those things once I got into it there was no turning back. I was just kind of addicted to writing songs and getting out there and playing."

Renewed baseball interest

But because he's no longer on the diamond, McDowell says now he actually has more time to follow major league baseball.

"When I played, we'd be in a stadium, and they'd be playing 'This Week in Baseball' over my shoulder," McDowell recalled. "I would look up there and say 'Wow, some guy threw a no-hitter on Tuesday.'

"When you're playing (major league baseball) you play your game, go home, follow your team. Now I'm following friends (players) all over the place, hopping on the Internet and checking it out."

McDowell wants both baseball and rock fans to check out his music. In his White Sox heyday, McDowell was known for trying to convert heathen souls to the church of provocative rock 'n' roll.

"I tried to get people who were on the fence and who I thought might dig some of the stuff I was listening to," McDowell said.

"I'd give them some of their stuff, some of my stuff and say listen to this, don't listen to the radio, dig deeper."

That's McDowell, frontman for stickfigure. Once he challenged batters to hit his fastball. Now he dares music fans to listen to his riffs.

stickfigure

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