As someone who couldn’t care less about the great American game of baseball, I wanted to find something to keep my attention in between the action when I headed to Wrigley Field last Saturday for the Cubs-White Sox rivalry game. Naturally, an event with any significant amount of downtime has music piping through the venue to keep people entertained.
According to DNAInfo, the sound accommodations at Wrigley are relatively new and enable the Cubs to embrace the modern tradition of playing “walk-up music” for their batters as they approach home plate. The stage had been set: I decided to keep track of the songs I heard at the game and pass arbitrary judgement on these temporary athletic DJs.
Dexter Fowler
Position: Center Field
Song: “Come My Way” by Fetty Wap
Opinion: This is a solid Fetty song, but I fear that is already becoming as overplayed as “Trap Queen”. I am also worried that by the time Fetty’ comes out with an album, it will get something like a 7.2 from Pitchfork and this XXL Freshman will become an unfortunate flash in the pan.
Anthony Rizzo
Position: First Base
Song: “Intoxicated” by Martin Solveig & GTA
Opinion: While most batters commit to one song, others have special instructions as to what plays when, as well as what part of the song is actually played. I have to pile on Rizzo because he forces the sound guys to play half of his personal playlist, with “Trap Queen” as his second song, “Bad Blood” as his third, and “Good Vibrations” every time after. All of these are as basic as curation can get in comparison to his first choice, a fun dance track titled “Intoxicated.” Sometimes less is more.
Kris Bryant
Position: Third Base
Song: “We Own It” by 2Chainz and Wiz Khalifa
Opinion: I have little time for people who champion Fast & Furious soundtrack cuts, let alone from Fast 6.
Jorge Soler
Position: Right Field
Song: “Don’t Stop The Party” by Pitbull feat. TJR
Opinion: Pitbull gets the benefit of the doubt from radio stations and club DJs across the nation, and in a way it’s tragic. The song is essentially force fed, and the more times we hear it, we are scientifically conditioned to like it. Fortunately for me, crowd noise prevented me from hearing this song for the umpteenth time.
Chris Denorfia
Position: Left Field
Song: “Burn It to the Ground” by Nickelback
Opinion: Denorfia must not know that Chicago’s mayor had to deny an allegation of listening to Nickelback to save political face. It’s definitely not the most popular choice. Or he must not care, because Nickelback is actually underrated and this song actually rocks in the truest sense of the word.
Starlin Castro
Position: Shortstop
Song: “Ando En La Versace” by Omega
Opinion: Another batter with multiple tracks, I respect Castro for choosing Latin music as it is probably what he listens to on a daily basis, but it does little for the audience unless they’re helplessly trying to Shazam every song being played.
Miguel Montero
Position: Catcher
Song: “Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias feat. Sean Paul, Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona
Opinion: This is an example of doing it right, Castro. It’s still Latin music, or at least Latin-inspired, and it is accessible to a much wider audience. You can’t go wrong with Enrique, and you definitely can’t go wrong with a Sean Paul feature either.
Jon Lester
Position: Starting pitcher
Song: “Homegrown” by Zac Brown Band
Opinion: Lester also gets a song for when he comes to the mound for pitching, and that song is “Use What I Got” by Jason Aldean. Someone has to fill the token country boy on the team, and Lester does so swimmingly.
Addison Russell
Position: Second Base
Song: Unknown
Opinion: The best I could find is that he walked up to “Vampire” by Tribal Seeds back when he used to play for the Oakland A’s. Let’s hope on all good reggae that he’s changed it since then.
Other songs I heard that were better than the walk-up songs:
“Start Me Up” by The Rolling Stones
“Purple Haze” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
“Heat of the Moment” by Asia
“Hey Ya” by Outkast
Other notes and observations:
The Cubs’ top-of-the-ninth song was “Paint It Black” by The Rolling Stones, which seems inopportune for when your rival wearing black is winning.
The Cubs’ last at-bat song was “Run This Town” by Jay-Z feat. Kanye West and Rihanna, which was pretty cool along with the video compilation they had on the screen, but honestly that song is just dated as hell.
SoundHound worked much better than Shazam throughout the game. Just stop using Shazam.
I saw a dude wearing an Earl Sweatshirt t-shirt at the game. Right on, bro.
Song of the Game Award:
“Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses
For a full list of Cubs players and their walk up music, check out Bleed Cubbie Blue.