I've gone to several baseball games recently with a number of people who don't usually go to baseball games - and who also know I'm a nerd - and been asked a question similar to: "Do the players choose that music that plays when they come up to bat?" My answer is usually some variation on: "Quit bugging me Mom, jeez, I'm trying to read about baseball while I'm watching baseball."
Walk-up music is a divisive thing. Most music snobs would dismiss athletes' taste, evidenced by their chosen theme songs, as Philistine. Less opinionated music listeners might just think the song doesn't befit the player or isn't good for getting crowd behind them. The success rate for a walk-up song is probably somewhere south of Jonny Gomes or Paul Janish's batting average [choose your Red Reporter punching bag.] Any two people who are even remotely active consumers of audio can have wildly divergent taste, so the fact that I don't like some of the Reds' walk-up picks is not surprising. And it's far from clear the players, other than Brandon Phillips, invest too much time agonizing over their selections. It's a song they might play while working out or driving to the game. Which is more than adequate justificiation.
Still, I thought it might be a nice little diversion to take another look at the walk-up music for each member of the starting lineup and see if we can crowd-source an alternative song that really suits the player, whether thematically through the lyrics or more tonally through the music (or both). "Alternative" is a loaded word in music, but by that I just mean "one other than the player's actual pick."Let's start with Drew Stubbs
According to Jamie Ramsey's list, Stubbs has been using "Riot" by 3 Days Grace. He may have changed it or put a new one in the rotation recently though.
We'll start by throwing out some suggested alternatives for Stubbs in this thread. I'll put 5-6 of those into a poll, along with the players' actual song, post it separately and see how the vote comes down. From there, we can build a Red Reporter playlist of alternative walk-up music and maybe record a covers album. Or maybe let it fester at the bottom of the left sidebar?
It's the ultimate in Pepsi Generation Next/Millenial dot-com Indulgence! Here's the order of players I'll cover in this feature and their 2011 songs selections. We'll cap the experiment at 15 regulars:
Brandon Phillips: "Forget You" by Cee Lo, "Look at Me Now" by Chris Brown, "I Can't Help It" by T.I., "Hustle Hard" by Ace Hood, "Racks" by YC - need edited version
Joey Votto: "Paint it Black" by The Rolling Stones
Jay Bruce: "6 foot 7 foot" by Lil Wayne
Scott Rolen: "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay
Jonny Gomes: "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses
Ryan Hanigan "All the Above" by Maino, "The show goes on" by Lupe Fiasco
Ramon Hernandez: "Papa Americano" by Pitbull, "Dandole" (Remix) by Gocho ft. Jowell & Omeg
Paul Janish: "Ain't Going Down till the Sun Comes Up" by Garth Brooks (According to SBNation, a KC outfielder)
Edgar Renteria: Any song by 2Pac (requests to mix it up each time)
Bronson Arroyo: "Forty-Five" by Shinedown
Mike Leake: "Dance to the Music" by Sly and the Family Stone
Travis Wood: "Live Until I Die" by Clay Walker
Johnny Cueto: TBD - Anyone know??
Edinson Volquez: TDB - Anyone know??