Name that tune
by Kevin LaiSeptember 07, 2011
I always look forward to player's walk up-songs when I go to a ballgame. They can give you a glimpse into the player's personality. Not only the type of music they prefer, but what gets them settled into a game situation. Whether that be a pump-up song, something calming or something that connects them to their spiritual roots, I think it's always an entertaining moment for fans to enjoy, even if you don't like the player's taste in music.
With that in mind, I tried my best to compile a list of every player's introduction song, if available. It was pretty hit or miss: about half the team's official websites do list player songs for fans, while the other half choose to keep us in the dark (and another one chooses to use organs all the time). I couldn't find any team from the AL West that posted their songs. In the end of my long search, I came up with 241 players in my sample.
As you can see, Rock and Hip Hop are quite popular among players, with Latin and Country music ranking third and fourth. Below you'll find some additional graphs that breakdown the types of music chosen by players even further.
Looks like every team has a wide variety of songs chosen by its players. I could only find four Mets' player's songs, which is why there is not much variation in genre selection.
Pitchers tend to use Rock or Country moreso than hitters, who enjoy the beats of Hip Hop and Latin music.
Top Songs
Here are the top three most-used songs:
- Hustle Hard by Ace Hood: Denard Span, Jose Reyes, Rickie Weeks, Jemile Weeks (brotherly love?), Matt Kemp, and Pablo Sandoval
- My Kinda Party by Jason Aldean: Roy Oswalt, Logan Morrison, Zack Greinke, Todd Helton and Phil Coke
- I'm On One by DJ Khaled: Danny Valencia, Ryan Howard, Rickie Weeks, Mike Stanton and Bill Hall
Other songs that were used more than twice were: All of the Lights by Kanye West, Crawl by Kings of Leon, Danza Kuduro by Don Omar, Deliverance by Bubba Sparx, Enter Sandman by Metallica, In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins, The Show Goes On by Lupe Fiasco, Traigo Fuego by Jose Pena Suazo and Whistlin' Dixie by Randy Houser.
Download the Excel file here if you'd like. If you know where other teams are hiding this very invaluable information, please let me know!
References and Resources
Most records of songs came from each team's websites. Minnesota's records came from contacting @TwinsTunes. Also in instances where a player had more than one song, I only included his first listed song while making the graphics for this post. All of the player's songs are listed in the Excel file, though.
Kevin welcomes comments and questions—Please send e-mails to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Danny Valencia has apparently switched his to that Outfield song, Your Love. I’d like to hear that story since it’s older than him, I believe.