An unfair overview of walk-up music

Walk-up music is interesting, conceptually. You hear a 5-10 second clip of a song as you come to bat (longer if you’re a pitcher warming up) and that gets you into a frame of mind to hit/pitch better. If you approach the plate in dead silence, then you won’t be able to get that sac bunt that won’t amount to anything because you gave up an out down!

So today we’ll look through some Diamondbacks walk-up music, and while I’ll try not to pass value judgement on the music, I will do very bad armchair analysis as to the connection of the music to this player (Even though it probably doesn’t go deeper than “They like that song.”) I also won’t hit everybody. Just the highlights. I used the list here, so if it isn’t up to date that’s not my fault.

I’ll be posting YouTube clips of each of these songs. There’s a chance that some of them may contain naughty words and you shouldn’t play them in a public space. You shouldn’t be playing any music out loud in a public space to begin, that’s rude. Buy some f****** headphones.

As an aged 30 person who grew up with baby boomer parents who controlled the car radio, and then discovered there was a Rock station around the year 2001, I feel I’m uniquely qualified for this. Let’s jump into this:

A.J. Pollock - I’m Shippin’ Up To Boston by Dropkick Murphys

This is an odd choice for a player on a team located in Phoenix. The two cities, according to Google Maps, are a 38 hour drive away through 26 construction zones. Seems inconvenient to ship up to there.

This song does have one of those very recognizable intros that builds up, so I get it in the context of at-bat music. It also should be noted that Pollock was born in Connecticut, so shipping up to Boston for whatever reason was probably a big part of his life growing up. I get it.

This is apropos of nothing, but sometimes a radio station will do something called “Stunting”, wherein they’ll play the same song back to back for days at a time. They usually do that when there’s a format or frequency change, so they’ll play that song over and over to drum up some publicity. This is one of those songs where if a radio station did Stunting with it, I think it would be very funny in a humor center of my brain that I can’t quite explain.

Archie Bradley - Public Service Announcement by Jay-Z

This is for the person who says “I need a song that would be used for an introduction, and I like Hip Hop.” Which are all valid things to need and want.

Archie should commission a parody/rewrite specifically to him.

My name is oh
Arch to the Bradley
I strike out batters by the bunch very gladly

... Hmmm. Let’s actually pretend I never wrote that and move on.

Chris Owings - Anything Goes by Florida Georgia Line

I was excited when I first saw this. I wouldn’t think anybody would use the works of Cole Porter for a walk-up song. I wanted to dive in. Would “A glimpse of stocking” have a deep meaning about wearing high socks or not? Why not use Too Darn Hot? Would we see George Gershwin or Irving Berlin next from a player? So many questions!

When it turned out to be a Pop sounding Country song I was very disappointed and ate a bunch of a donuts

David Peralta - LRAD by Knife Party

This is one of those DJ/Elcetronic/Dance/etc. instrumentals that hits a lot of the similar beats songs like that do. It builds up with a drum machine into a melody of sorts, then changes tempo a bunch. It’s good for Friday night at the club, but I get antsy just listening to it sitting down at 7 AM cause you realized you went out for a drink last night cause it was a co-workers birthday and you forgot to write your Friday column.

David Peralta seems like a hip dude, so I can see the connection. My only concern is “Knife Party” /somber piano music swells out of nowhere. Kids, don’t have knife parties. People get hurt. Like... Knife Party. Nothing ends well after that.

Fernando Rodney - Live the Night by W&W & Harwell & Lil’ Jon

The dance/dubstep/southern hip-hop collaboration you may need in your life. Living the night is also what we do in the bottom of the 15th when Rodney came in in the 9th with a four run lead and yet we’re still playing for some reason.

Jake Lamb - Shoop by Salt n’ Pepa

Jake is obviously channeling a good friend of mine who slays this song at Karaoke. I’m here for that.

Paul Goldschmidt - We Went by Randy Houser

A standard sort of new country song about going wild, a loose interpretation of the law, the usual. It feels odd for Goldy, though, since he seems like a mild-mannered dude. Maybe he expresses himself through this song for a post-career yearning that isn’t quenched and he won’t quench it til he’s in the Hall of Fame after 4 World Series wins by the Diamondbacks.

Robbie Ray - Fly me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra

A classic crooner/big band song. It sends a bad message about the flyball tendencies of Chase Field. Maybe Robbie chose this song passive-aggressively, and that lead to Chase Field installing the humidor.

Zack Godley - Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria

Now this is a damn walk-up song. It has a special place in my heart as a song that would make me want to, in the Drew Magary parlance, run through a damn brick wall. It intros with a hard drum beat and guitars up the wazoo, and the non radio-edit version ends with three minutes of guitar solos with choral humming and violins, and makes you feel 12 years old again and want to make a metal band with dragons and crap. It can even make you excited about being demoted to Reno despite being the third best starter on the team.

Zack Greinke - Jubel by Klingade

Zack seems like an eclectic sort of dude, and this song fits. It has the sexiest sax licks this side of Baker Street, and I am all for it. I don’t really know what else I can write here, it sort of speaks for itself.