June 2007

What Do Baseball Bats and Guitars Have in Common?
For one thing, they're both tools of the trades for Robert Word

In 2002, Robert Word was selected in the 10th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Florida Marlins. He was one of four Cavaliers tapped by the MLB from the 2002 team.

He played two full seasons as part of the Marlins organization before being released in spring training of 2004 after a fracture was discovered in his right hip. He spent time with the Jamestown (N.Y.) Jammers, the Greensboro (N.C.) Bats (now the Grasshoppers), and the Jupiter (Fla.) Hammerheads.

“The experience was amazing,” he says, “I got the chance to share the field with some amazing athletes, many of whom are big leaguers now.” Word says his days in minor league baseball were much like the movie, “Groundhog Day,” where you live the same day over and over. “It is basically a tour of rural America on a Greyhound bus - you play in small cities all across the U.S. and then you get on a bus and drive 12 hours to the next city and do it all over again.”

In 2002, Word started 57 games at first base for the Cavaliers. He finished third on the team with a .322 batting average and posted the second highest mark on the squad with 49 RBI. His 20 doubles were the second most ever in a season at Virginia, while his 11 home runs put him in a tie for 12th all-time, his 230 single-season at-bats tie for 11th.

For his career, Word started 110 of the 126 games he appeared in and boasted a .289 batting average with 212 total bases, 76 RBI, 55 runs and 125 hits including 34 doubles, 17 home runs and one triple.

Word returned to Charlottesville to complete his undergraduate degree (’05) and earn a masters in exercise physiology (’07).

Word’s performance is receiving recognition again, but this time it’s his band, the Blackout Project, that’s grabbing attention. First established in January 2007, the group won the 2007 University of Virginia Battle of the Bands just one month later.

“I had been playing music forever,” says Word, “and now that I didn’t have baseball taking up 999% of my time, I got a new vice. Now music takes up my time.”

Baseball and music have more similarities than might at first appear. Word points out that “both require a lot of teamwork, and both require a lot of effort, though baseball is physical, and music is mental.”

Word continues, “Both require concentration and time (practice) to make sure they’re done right. When it comes down to it,” he says, “both are a performance art. People come to see you play well and to have a good time.”

The band’s website describes the Blackout Project as “an inspired combination of a sharp-tongued emcee with a disdain for radio ready-rap, a metal guitarist with a knack for blues vocals (that’s Word), and four classically-trained jazz musicians.”

“Rebelling against an era in which popular music has devolved into a profit-seeking machine for major labels focused solely on what would play on Top 40 commercial radio stations, and new bands either fall in line or fall by the wayside,” it continues, “The Blackout Project emerges to set the industry aflame.”

“While pumping rhythms and a hip-hop mentality fuel the fire, the band members’ eclectic backgrounds and influences blend to create a totally unique sound,” it goes on.

Word plans to stay in Charlottesville at least for the foreseeable future, while his wife Carolyn finishes medical school. The band will take the summer off, officially, but Word and one other band member will remain in Charlottesville for the summer to write music. When the band regroups in the fall, the duo will present their songs and hash out the details, says Word. The group’s schedule starts up again in September. But, he hints of something exciting in the works. Stay tuned.

–written by Sara Hunt

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