Musical Mariners

The Seattle Mariners should challenge the Arizona Diamondbacks to a battle of the baseball bands.

As we learned last season, several of the D'backs are so into music that the team set aside a corner of the clubhouse to serve as a Fender-furnished music room. It turns out the Mariners also have a couple of decent guitarists.

Seattle first baseman Ben Broussard's second album will be coming out this year, full of the acoustic rock songs he writes on the road. He's been playing since he was a teenager in Beaumont, Texas, and says at this stage in his life the music is a complement to baseball.

"Music definitely helps me play (baseball) better," he told an interviewer a while back. "I think I play (baseball) better when I'm able to let loose and play my guitar when I have a bad night. I can write a song about it and just let it go."

His music has been used on TV shows like "Real World" and "Dog the Bounty Hunter." You can hear a sample of his first album on his Web site or iTunes and he also does U2's "With or Without You" on "Oh, Say Can You Sing," a compilation of singing baseball players.

Left-handed reliever Tyler Johnson could be Broussard's collaborator. Johnson, who also takes his guitar on the road, is trying to make the Mariners roster after rotator cuff surgery and says he might try a music career if he doesn't make the cut.