Picking at-bat entrance music is an art
by Pete Cunningham
*As printed March 26, 2008 in The Homer Index

Entrance music is a rare privilege. Enjoyed exclusively by major league baseball players, professional wrestlers/fighters and characters from Peter and the Wolf, entrance music simultaneously announces an individual’s arrival, their intentions, and - in the case of the wolf and some fighters - who they intend to kill.

Choosing the perfect entrance song is no easy task, rather, it’s an art. Many players’ walk to the plate suffers from them not considering all the factors involved. Countless sluggers start Eminem’s “Lose yourself” from the beginning, forgetting about the slow intro before any rhymes are even dropped. Selectors of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” suffer the same fate and also miss out on the best parts of the song due to frequent F-bombs that have to be bleeped out. A little pre-planning and these songs make for great entrance music. Done sloppily and they’re no better for crowd or personal energy than a John Mayer/Sara McLachlan duet.

You can find out a lot about a player by his pre-at-bat ritual, so I decided to ask some of Homer’s varsity players how they would take the field in the bigs should the opportunity ever present itself.

Many of the players would use the 15 second drop as a final attempt to boost their confidence before facing 95 MPH heat. It’s no surprise why high octane rock bands like Metallica, System of a Down and Saliva are mainstays on most ballparks’ playlists for this reason alone. Pitcher/outfielder Adam Boden would rock out to Korn’s “Coming Undone” for this effect, while shortstop Evan Leach takes a similar adrenaline pumping approach in his choice of “Riot” by Three Days Grace.

In “Riot,” the band screams “let’s start a riot,” which Leach says is exactly the reaction he hopes to get from fans beyond the fences he’s aiming for. Leach is known to hit with power, lay down a sac bunt and even take to the mound on occasion, which comes as no surprise after hearing a similar versatility in musical preference. What else would you expect from someone who lists the aforementioned metal ballad as well as “Pop Lock and Drop It” and a number by country star Tim McGraw to score his arrival at the plate.

Other players use the arrival anthems to tell the fans a little something about their personalities. Recently demoted Tiger third baseman Brandon Inge rocks out to Skee-Lo’s “I Wish”, revealing a self-depreciating sense of humor, which has always added to his fan appeal. Despite Inge’s shortcomings, you can’t help but appreciate a player with mediocre size, power and overall skill walking to the plate while a one-hit wonder rapper waxes poetic about aspirations of being “a little bit taller.”

Homer’s occupant of the hot corner, Mason Novess, is a little more confident about his pick, choosing Nelly’s “(I am) Number One” as his song of choice. The choice isn’t the prominent display of cockiness it appears at first, rather, it has layers. His jersey bears the number and he also hits leadoff. An ear to ear grin does, however, indicate a hint of hubris behind the choice.

A little interpretation is required to understand the choice of big hitting center fielder Austin Rinard. The two-time all-stater who jacked 10 home runs last season would choose “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen.

“It’s a message to pitchers,” Rinard proclaims. “It’s to let them know they’re going down.”

Bonus points for originality and props for waging war on flamethrowers’ psyches.

These players are a long way from having a guitar riff or drum solo as their personal calling cards, but it never hurts to dream. This is why I’ll hum my favorite Aerosmith hit when thinking of their journey that hopefully ends with dog pile in the middle of Brown Stadium in Battle Creek. I won’t mess with the slow intro or opening verses. I’m skipping straight to the heart of it: “Dream on … dream until your dream come true.”