OVERLY CRITICAL FAN EVALUATES 3RD BASEMAN’S BATTING APPROACH

There is no other feeling like being at a baseball stadium, and I have no idea what it would be like to take bat in front of a stadium full of fans who either love or hate you. I do know, however, how cool it is to watch it all go down. And with that, a note of complete light-hearted, over-criticism…


When Scott Rolen joined the Reds in 2009, I attended a game and he was greeted at the batter’s box by Limp Bizkit’s “rollin’, rollin’, rollin’” and it was fantastic. Not only is it a great play on words, you got the sense in watching him that it may have been one of the first few times he had even heard the song. In what I would deem a controversial move, his intro song has been changed to Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” Is there anything more depressing than a player in the twilight of his career approaching the plate to the lyrics of “that is when I ruled the world?” I’m not sure that remembering the best days are behind him is the greatest motivator in the world, but maybe the dude just digs Coldplay.


Side note: at a 2011 game, Rolen made a play at third and threw a laser to get the guy at first and they played “rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ – RAWHIDE”…that was good.

POST SCRIPT: I posted this and then later in the evening listened to the Reds/ Yankees game on the radio while doing various chores. For the readers who may not have had the pleasure, Marty Brennaman is a legend in sports broadcasting and does the majority of the calls for the Red’s game. During the broadcast there is a segment called “Ask Marty” where a fan will email in a question (baseball related or not) and the Hall of Fame Broadcaster will answer it. The question for June 20th: “Two parts, 1. Do players get to pick the music they walk up to the batter’s box to before an at-bat? 2. What song would you pick?”

Marty’s answer, without hesitation…”Tiptoe Through the Tulips”. First of all, imagine anyone walking up to bat with that song – it is hilarious. Secondly, I recognized the song, but didn’t realize anything of its origin or that (at least one of) the artist was on Johnny Carson (see it at: http://youtu.be/sOjso0rPncc). At any rate, the timing was perfect comedically on the delivery and was just a flat out funny answer.