The Sissification Of Player Intros
Believe me when I say that there wasn’t much I liked about Paul O’Neill as a Yankee. Almost nothing. But at least he had the decency to enter the batter’s box to kickass music that was appropriate to what he was about to do: namely knock in a lot of runs (and ground into a lot of double plays). Springsteen’s “Born to Run” alternated with the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and that’s how you dig in, kids.
Cincinnati’s Scott Rolen? Florida’s Cameron Maybin? Pull up a chair …
Each time Maybin takes his turn at bat, Disney pop sensation Miley Cyrus blares from the million dollar Sun Life Stadium PA. Instead of Wu-Tang or Zeppelin or Ratt, the 40 or so Marlins fans that actually attend games are treated to “Party in the USA” a song so sugary, the food vendors spin it into cotton and sell it for $5 a bag.
Then there’s veteran 3B Scott Rolen who is introduced to what I’m pretty sure is Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” but might, I suppose, be Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly.” Frankly, I’m not sure which is worse for Rolen.
This isn’t about Coldplay not being manly (they aren’t) or Cyrus not being pump-up music (it better not be for anyone older than 14), it’s about setting yourself up to fail. If Albert Pujols wants to wiggle up to the batter’s box playing Taylor Swift, he can do that because he’s always three pitches away from hitting a home run (always!), but Scott Rolen can’t “viva la vida” when he grounds weakly to the shortstop. That’s not vida, that’s muerte.
“People will think it’s funny,’’ Florida catcher John Baker said.
That’s true. But O’Neill was a 5-time all-star and no one ever thought his at-bats were funny. They thought, “dang, this guy’s gonna rock the ball as hard as Bruce is rockin’ this P.A. system.”
Trust me, they thought that.
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Miley is the best but I hate her so much ahaha