This past week, a co-worker shared this episode by Kansas Public Radio with me. To celebrate the return of Major League Baseball, KPR asked members of its own staff to share what song they’d pick as their own personal walk-up song. I listened to the episode while doing some housework the other night (can I just mention what a privilege it is to be able to listen to cool stuff while doing chores?), and it was fascinating to hear what these individuals each chose as their tunes. One guy chose the Bagel Bites jingle from the 1990s commercial, which I found most amusing of the choices. Each staffer explains why they selected their song, and the program even goes on to play each song. If that sort of thing interests you, I encourage you to give the episode a listen, as well.
Of course, this also got me thinking about what I would choose as my own walk-up song, and I have to confess, I’m finding it hard to choose. I do feel like Smash Mouth’s “All Star” is pretty hard to beat, but I imagine it would also be an overused selection:
But then, the chorus of Papa Roach’s “Face Everything and Rise” provides quite the pump up without being quite as mainstream:
Or if you’d rather get away from lyrics, at the moment I’d probably go with one of the instrumental portions of Code Black’s “Tonight Will Never Die”:
To be honest, I could probably go on and on for days listing possible songs, so for the sake of brevity, we’ll stop this list at three. And honestly, if I were to do this again tomorrow, my top three would likely be completely different. I’ve decided that the most logical solution to this problem, in the unlikely event that I ever do become a big league ballplayer, is that I’ll just have to make a point to bribe the PA team to play a different song with each at-bat. That’s reasonable, isn’t it?
But now, I’m curious: what tune would you choose as your walk-up song?
“Omaha” by Moby Grape. Its beginning is barely audible then it comes on like gangbusters. If pumping one up is the goal, this would do nicely every time, and I for sure wouldn’t ever get sick of it. Plus it just might turn fans on to Moby Grape which I would be very happy about : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_FlNwQlBmU
I have to confess, I’d never heard this one before now. And I like it! You’ve got one person now interested, which is a good start. 🙂
Listen, my friends!
Listen my friend indeed!!! if there’s anything you need to know just ask. I’m biased, but they never had a bad song or album, and were totally underrated by the critics, by far my favorite band of all time. 5-part harmony, 3 guitars. Here’s one of my favorites from their first album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioKodbNTljg
i met this guy at school a few years ago….julien tucker was his name. he played or pitched a while in the minors, never made it the majors. i asked him about his walk up song or not walk up but the song when he came out of the bullpen. he said the Carpenters “We’ve only just begun.” I assumed he was kidding, but who knows.
That’s… definitely an interesting choice. Though, I suppose if Gerardo Parra can turn “Baby Shark” into the Nationals’ team anthem, then anything is possible when it comes to walk-up songs.
Nothing was more epic than Josh Reddick walking up to the “Careless Whisper” sax intro.
Ha! This is absolutely true. That one’s hard to beat.