In January 2004, Jeff Stern moved into a two bedroom Manchester New Hampshire apartment with Sarah Grieco and Mike Robb. Amidst the musical hijinx that inevitably ensued, Jeff would sometimes play his Red Sox Fever ballad, originally recorded in San Diego by his former band Paxico, to lament the tragic end to yet another impossible dream of his fellow Boston fans in October 2003 (Aaron Boone, Grady Little, etc). Jeff extended this play to improvise lyrics and music characterizing other teams like Cleveland and Toronto. When Fungo responded to Sacfly’s folk-pop inspirations with a bottom heavy sex groove imagining the Orioles of his youth as porn stars, the seed was spun. Mike and Jeff called the one man whose experience and vision was as colored by music and baseball as their own, Wayne Feldman.

From this fateful call, perhaps the day pitchers and catchers reported in February 2004, The Farmhands were born. The project took shape through Spring Training in March. Jeff became Sacfly, Mike became Fungo and Wayne became 2bagger, I mean, HighCheese. Sarah offered her drumming talents becoming the band’s own Backstop. Sacfly, HighCheese, and Fungo would own the principle creative responsibility for the songs that would comprise the 30 song epic debut, set for completion by opening day '05.

San Francisco artist Dina Dusko was enlisted to design the album covers, donning the name Snackbar as her farmhandle. On opening day 2005, a draft was held giving ultimate creative responsibility for 10 teams each to Sacfly, Fungo and High Cheese. The core trio planned the first of several recording sessions for High Cheese’s Scranton studio. And thus, The Farmhands legend began...