Major League Baseball

Mets fans, what would your walk-up song be? Here are ours

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:10 a.m. ET

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Fansided, Michelle Ioannou/FanSided via Rising Apple

Mets fans, imagine yourself stepping up to the plate at Citi Field. What music would be blasting?

Here at Rising Apple, well, we got a little bored waiting out this offseason. You can’t blame it, it hasn’t been the most enticing offseason. Yes, the team signed Yoenis Cespedes which is huge, and they brought back Jerry Blevins, but aside from it’s been kind of dull. Despite toying with all of our emotions and saying that Jay Bruce was on the trading block (for a while), he’s not only still very much on the team, but will supposedly be their starting right fielder, as stated by the team.

Anyways, so now you can see why we got a bit bored and needed a good distraction.

So, because of this, we started chatting about what our at-bat song would be. And why not share it with you guys? You must be bored as well. Take a look at ours, we hope you enjoy, and share yours with us as well.

Michelle Ioannou, Editor

There are three things in my life you don’t mess with: my family, my culture, and my love of the Mets.

Well, my walk-up song would convey all of this…by showing off my culture (and making my family proud). Yes, if you don’t know by now I’m Greek. Not only that, I’m your stereotypical Greek — one of those loud, proud ones that shows up to Citi Field every time that the Greek National Soccer team is playing and one that can say that she Greek danced on the field of Shea Stadium on Greek night many moons ago.

Now what does being Greek have to do with all of this? Well, my at-bat song would have to be Zorba the Greek. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. It actually kills me that there are Greek baseball players currently in the majors (yes, Nick Markakis and George Kontas, I’m looking at you) who haven’t used Zorba the Greek as their song yet — come on!

Why Zorba? Well I’d love to do a Greek pop song, but unfortunately, I think most people would recognize and enjoy some Zorba a bit more…and of course as I step up to the plate I want the fans up dancing along. I want to show my love for my culture and share it with everyone else. And of course, I want my 88 year-old Mets fan grandfather to enjoy it as well.

Plus, with that song playing, I’d be sure to blast a bomb all the way to Greece (corny, sorry, but I had to).

Now we go from myself to….

JT. Teran, Editor

I’ve thought about this song for a really long time, but in a bit of a different way. Since I was younger, I’ve always wanted to be a pitcher, and more specifically a closer. So instead of a walk-up song, I had thought of an intro from the bullpen/warm-up song for my pick. That song has always been Godsmack’s “I Stand Alone.”

This head-banger gets me incredibly pumped up every time it comes up on Spotify or randomly on the radio. It’s got a heavy sound that can be a bit intimidating to those that haven’t heard it before.

While the lyrics may not really connect to anything baseball-related, it still drives the point that whether you’re out on the mound, or in the batter’s box, you are alone facing your opponent.

Those one-on-one match-ups are the best parts about baseball, and this song embraces it all the way.

Michael Lecolant, Staff Writer

Generation X Alert!

Go crank up your dad’s DeLorean, because I’m taking you back.

By the time walk-up songs became standard operating procedure at ballparks, I already knew what mine would be.

Before MTV, VH1, and anything else of cable-TV kind, there was something called Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.  It was a live performance show that also featured videos before videos became … videos as we know them today.  The show aired locally (NYC) on Saturday nights after 1:00am, after WWWF wrestling (now WWE).

I was probably 12-years old or so when I first heard this…Children of the Grave (Remastered Version)

I would let that play (loudly) and have it fade out just before the vocals kick in.

In truth, this isn’t even among my top five favorite songs from that band.  But if there’s a tune that inspires me to pick up a baseball bat and hit something, this would be it.  I find it an appropriately aggressive little composition, perhaps something akin to taking a mental steroid just before entering the batter’s box.

And, I know it works.

I knew I was on to something when my softball team started playing walk-up music for fun.  We all brought our own cassettes to the game and would have someone in the dugout (usually someone’s girlfriend) toss them in the boom box for us.

Guys would change their tapes from game to game, and many selections would have us laughing to tears.

Me?  I enjoyed walking up to this song most of all.  On a serious note, the beat helped clear my mind, quite literally, of everything.  

Overthinking does not make for good at-bats.

Now, from Generation X to..

James Stumper, Staff Writer

Throughout my life, I’ve put much more thought into this topic than someone with almost zero athletic ability probably should.

Anyway, as just about everyone did, I went through a phase when angsty rock music (Piazza would like this choice) was my go-to. I just never grew out of that phase.

So, my walkup song in a late-inning spot would have to be Coheed and Cambria’s ‘Welcome Home’, specifically the instrumentals at the very beginning of the song. Anyone who has ever played Rock Band knows what I’m talking about.

It’s a tremendous pump-up song and I’m pretty sure if I were to listen to that before a big at-bat and I hit a home run, I’d flip my bat all the way to Mars.

Vincent Perricone, Staff Writer

We all have that dream of our self-standing on the on-deck circle. We watch the opposing pitcher work on the hitter, all while we’re standing there taking practice swings and applying pine tar to our bat.

You hear the ump let out a yelp — “STIIIIIKE THREE!” — and now it’s our turn to walk up to the plate and dig in.

But while we’re walking up there to get going, what song is playing in the background? I’ve always been a lover of rock music. Classic rock to be exact. I’ve always wanted an intimidating song to be blasting out of the sound system, but it had to be one I like.

I always wanted “Welcome to the Jungle,” especially if I were a closer. Picture running out to the mound to open the ninth inning to Slash just wailing on the guitar. I don’t know if the other team would be intimidated or headbanging.

I’ve put a lot of thought into this, obviously, and would coordinate my song to who I played for. The Dodgers? “Hotel California.” The Giants? Journey’s “Lights.”

But the one song I’d pick to walk up to, no matter where I played? I’d pick “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.

No matter the situation, or location, it’s one of the greatest songs ever and one of my favorites. Try striking me out when you’re too busy jamming out on the mound to that, opposing pitcher.

Richard Heaton, Staff Writer

“Shipping up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys.

Years ago, every time I was at a Mets game, this was the only song that would excite me, every time that Daniel Murphy came to the plate. I never cared for the lyrics, but I really liked the music, and for a long time I had been a big fan of Murphy, so the song had always stuck with me.

Sam Maxwell, Staff Writer

“Flashlight” by Parliament

“Everybody’s got a little light under the sun.”

There were other directions I could have possibly gone, but most of all, we need the funk.

The song never gets old to me, so I couldn’t possibly play it out. It would get me pumped up every time I walked to the dish, or went out to the mound. I would get even more focused as the spotlight fell on me, getting everyone groovin’ as my moment approached (“dance, sucker!”), the anticipation that something big will happen building.

Oh, funk me!

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