And he chooses his teams as well as he does his songs. As he explains in the below interview, Thorogood adopted the Mets when they were toddlers and he was a teenager. A fair ballplayer himself, Thorogood would play a few seasons of semi-pro baseball in his home state of Delaware while his music career was still getting off the ground; more than 30 years later, he’s still making records and touring, and he still follows baseball and the Mets with an eye for detail and the passion of a true fan. He led the crowd in a rendition of Take Me Out the Ballgame at a Mets game last August, and his signature original, Bad to the Bone, will live as long as movies feature charismatic villains.

Reached before embarking on a tour that will take him to New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom this summer, Lonesome George, amid his typical array of one-liners and improv, reminds us that true fandom need not be despairing or obsessive: Just a good time.

How are you doing?
Jon, I see your name is spelled J-O-N, like Jon Matlack. Is that on purpose?

He was one of my favorites growing up. I came of age as a fan around 1972-73.
Number 32.

You know your stuff.
He led the league in shutouts in 1973 with 11.

He was excellent in the postseason too, although he took the loss in Game 7.
He would have won [Game 1], but Felix Millan let the ball go through his legs and he lost, 2-1. Tim Tuefel did the same thing in the first inning of Game 1 against Boston in 1986 World Series. I said, here we go again. It was almost the same exact play.

That error would really have loomed large had things not turned out very differently in Game 6.
Do you remember in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ the scene where they’re in group therapy and a guy’s talking about his wife, and Christopher Lloyd pipes in and goes ‘You’ve been talking about your wife for as long as I can remember! BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!’

Well, I was getting on the tour bus one time and my bass player’s giving me a funny look. And he goes are you going to be talking about baseball tonight? And I was like, it’s long trip, I guess so. Why? He says, “Why not talk about the Phillies?” This was a while ago. And I went, “The Phillies? Well, they’ve got some good outfielders…they have some pitching…why do you ask?” And he goes, “Because you’re always talking about your goddamn Mets BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH, goddamnit!!”

I like the scene where Jack Nicholson is pretending to listen to the World Series on the radio.
Yeah, but that’s the Yankees. It doesn’t count.

So you’re a big Met fan. But why? Most kids growing up in Wilmington would be Phillies fans.
I was a Phillies fan, and then came 1964. They had 12 games to go and they lost 10 of them. I said, you know what? If I’m going to root for a team that’s going to lose, I’ll pick the biggest losing team of all time. A team with no expectations. And I wanted them to be in New York, and in the National League, and carry on the tradition of the Giants and the Dodgers. It was the Mets by default.

I liked the Mets, and the tough Cleon Jones. Not just Cleon Jones, see, but The Tough Cleon Jones. Whenever my friends mention him to me it’s The Tough Cleon Jones. So they’re my team, and they’ve been my team since 1965.

When they won the World Series in 1969 it was the greatest thing to happen in baseball. It was David slaying Goliath. It was fantastic. After that, I was content for them to slide back into the second division.

What happened last year was the Mets meeting all of my expectations. These were the Mets I loved. These were the real Mets! When you walk around in the streets who can you identify with? Derek Jeter? He’s so beautiful, he looks like Harry Belafonte. He’s going to the Hall of Fame. The real baseball fan identifies with Wally Backman or Ed Kranepool. The salt-of-the-Earth regular guys. The Dodgers had Gil Hodges. The Mets had Ron Hodges.

So have the Mets become too artificial for you? They’re expected to contend now, they have a high payroll, they’re getting a new stadium…
I thought it was cool to go see the Mets, because if you get behind loser you always get good seats at the park. You can’t get a bad seat when they’re losing. And when they win it’s a bonus. If they win two in a row it’s a big bonus.

But I’m happy for them when they’re winning. That’s exciting. But what broke my heart wasBeltran not swinging at the pitch a few years ago. They were facing Adam Wainwright, the10^th pitcher on the team. The bases were loaded. You’re giving Carlos Beltran 100 million bucks and he looks at a pitch down the middle. With the winning run on base in the ninth inning you’re supposed to come through. That broke my heart more than last year.

I like the managers they Mets have had. They’re cool people. Willie Randolph. Classy guy and I think he’s a perfect manager for the team. He wasn’t in the league as Ryne Sandberg or Rogers Hornsby as a second baseman but he was a good solid big-league player that people have respect for.

Some of the fans now are saying it’s time to whack him. A few blogs and the New York Sun have already said so.
If the Mets had won the last 10 games and finished one game behind the Phillies they all would have said he did a great job. One game out after 162 games is a good season.

Whether you agree or disagree, sports in the country are taken way too seriously. They’ve completely lost perspective. Baseball is supposed to be the national pastime, not the national obsession. Don’t people have something better to do than go on a website and write letters to Willie Randolph? How come you’re not out in the backyard having a catch with your son? It’s just baseball. It’s not the price of oil or the war in Iraq. It’s just a game and Willie is just a manager. It’s not his fault the pitchers couldn’t hold a lead. If Florida and Washington are knocking you out, 9-8 you need pitching that wasn’t there.

Plus, they didn’t have Julio Franco. If he was there he’d have kept them together, they wouldn’t have panicked. If you’re that old, still playing in the big leagues, you’re relaxed, baby. There’s no anxiety in Julio Franco’s body.

Is it difficult for a touring musician to follow baseball? You’re always working nights.
It’s all on television now. You don’t have to go too far out of your way. It’s accessible.

But I was wondering, for instance, you could remember where you were during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
(sarcastically) No, I don’t recall anything about it. Game 6?! What’s the matter with you?

You know what won game 6? What really won that game?

Bob Stanley’s wild pitch?
No, I’ll tell you what won that game. Mookie Wilson and Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez won that game, by fouling off so many pitches in the early innings, when Clemens was throwing 95 miles an hour. Even though he got them out they fouled off pitch after pitch in their at-bats and by the time the 8^th inning came around he had a blister on his finger the size of your big toe. So they had to take him out and they go into that Boston bullpen. That’s what won it for them.

Mookie wasn’t even an original switch hitter. He was right-handed! He wasn’t even supposed to get his bat on the ball against a guy like Clemens. But Clemens was pooped by the time they were done with him. And that’s what won it for them.

Were you on the road at that time?
I was on the road, checked into a hotel. I watched the whole Houston series that way, then I went home, then I went back to the hotel and watched the World Series.

How good a ballplayer were you?
I went from second base, to first base, to the first-base coaching box all in one year. I got signed up in January. By the time July came around they said, “You really can’t play, can you?” I talked a good game. My lifetime batting average talking is better than Stan Musial’s.

Why do we hear so much about you as a baseball player then?
I had a bootleg album out with MCA, and I took a few summers off to play semi-pro when I was still young enough to play the game at a reasonably competitive level. At the time, my career was in its infancy. I had two records at the time but also didn’t know if I’d ever put out any more. It’s something I wanted to do.

People make a big deal out of it. They find out I wasn’t a Major League player and ask me what’s this minor league crap? It was semi-pro. It was the next step from pickup stickball. It was very semi and not pro at all.

What position did you play?
Second base. I won the rookie of the year and afterward asked my coach why he put me there. He said nobody else would play there. I got the job out of default. Our drummer, Jeff Simon, was on the team too, in center field, and he was a better player than I ever was. He was outstanding. I struggled to be mediocre. I was the Ron Hunt of the team.

What uniform number did you wear?
What number? Are you out of your mind, what do you think?

I dunno. How about 33 for Ron Hunt.
Come on, man. I was number 1. For Billy Martin. Bobby Richardson. Mookie Wilson. Richie Ashburn. I can’t believe you ask you had to ask me that!

It was my next guess. But in reality, that league was pretty good for what it was, wasn’t it? Guys home from the summers from college would play. They used wood bats.
For that level I did OK. I made the rookie of the year and made the All-Star team. It wasn’t something I was going to spend the rest of my life doing. Later when I my speed got too slow and my gut got too big, I switched to softball. I played there for two or three years. I eventually said, I should leave baseball to the kids and the big boys.

Have you ever written a song about baseball?
Nah. All the great songs about baseball have already been written.

What’s the best?
You know that one they sing in the seventh inning at Wrigley Field? That’s a good one. I don’t mix one thing with another, that’s just not me. John Fogarty tried to get me to write a blues song about baseball. He said, write a song called Rainout. I said why and he said, “Cuz that would give you the blues, George, if the game was rained out.” I told him, “You write it, I’ll perform it.” He said, “You’re lazy.” I said, “You’re brilliant.”

Do any relief pitchers use ‘Bad to the Bone’ as the music to accompany them to the mound?
Saito, No. 44, who plays for the Dodgers. Los Angeles is playing pretty well right now.

They beat the Mets last night.
The Mets, I think they’re struggling with last year still. You can see it in their faces. It’s not something they can shake off right away… It’s going to take time. They’re going to need a seven-, eight- or nine-game winning streak against to get it going again. Guys like Wright and Reyes, I think you can tell they’ve been thinking about it. It wasn’t like it [the collapse] was something that happened only in the last two days of the season, it went on for about a month. And they had all winter to think about it.

Does it bum you out? Can you find yourself still enjoying it when the Mets have a season like 2003 or 1979?
There are no bad days at the ballpark. Coming home with your cholesterol over 300? That’s something to worry about. Baseball? I like to go to the game, have a hot dog and enjoy it. I even cheer the umps. I like the whole aura of it. Batting practice, and seeing kids catch a foul ball. I feel like you can’t have a bad time at the ballpark. And if your team wins, it’s a bonus.

How often do you get out to the park? Can you use your connections as a rock star to get access?
I’ve had some chances to meet people. Occasionally we’re on the bus and my manager will say, there are some rookies with the Brewers who like your music and would like to meet you and can you go out to the park. But I like watching the game on TV at home or on the bus, where’s there’s not a lot of distractions. The ballpark is great too but I don’t go out of my way to make it happen.

Any Met ballplayers come to mind who you’ve admired over the years?
I liked what Julio Franco stood for. To me he’s about as admirable a guy as there has been in baseball for me in 15 years. And Glavine. I admire him too. He’s very serious and dedicated to his craft. I know he’s a hockey guy but he reminds me of Whitey Ford. I met him every early in his career, maybe 1989.

Glavine isn’t a favorite of many Mets fans today. They weren’t satisfied when he wouldn’t admit to being devastated after the season ended. I think the point he was trying to make was that devastation was for kids with cancer but that kind of subtlety was lost.
That’s what I’ve been saying about people taking baseball too seriously. It’s just a game.