Pearl Jam, FOX Sports partner for WS

There's nothing bush league about Pearl Jam.

Considered one of the most influential rock bands of the '90s, Pearl Jam has sold an estimated 60 million records worldwide and more than 31½ million in the States.

The band also has a connection and love for baseball.

Growing up in the Chicago north suburb of Evanston, Ill., lead singer Eddie Vedder became and still is a diehard Cubs fan. He has thrown out ceremonial first pitches at Wrigley Field and has also been the seventh-inning stretch guest singer several times.

Baseball is definitely in Vedder's blood. He even wrote a Cubs tribute song titled, "All the way."

During the World Series, which will be televised on FOX (Sept. 23-31), the connection between the band and baseball will continue.

FOX Sports and Pearl Jam formed a partnership where extensive use of 48 of the band's songs will be used across the promotional and music beds for this month's coverage of the Fall Classic between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

The deal includes all 12 tracks from recently released "Lightning Bolt," plus 36 songs from the band's catalog, spanning all its albums with the exception of 2002's politically charged "Riot Act."

Fox Sports Music VP Janine Kerr, an avid Pearl Jam fan, told Billboard magazine, "They said, 'What songs would you want?' I said, 'How many can I have?' So we gave them a wish list and they said 'yes' to all."

So don't be surprised if you're watching the World Series and you hear "Animal," "Better Man," "Daughter" or "Even Flow." The songs will be featured during opening teases and commercial bumpers to montages.

"There was a period of time when we didn't license much music," Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis told Billboard magazine. "But for the past many years, we consider licensing requests using the same criteria we do for everything else: Do we like it? Would the fans like it? Does it provide a different forum for fans to hear the music? Is it something we can get behind? The band loves baseball, so this one was a no-brainer."

Get ready to rock on during the World Series on FOX!

The original article can be found at FOXSports.com: Pearl Jam, FOX Sports partner for WS.