MLB Entrance Music

When I was a kid I was a big fan of WWF wrestling, and part of the deal with a wrestler's personality was what music was played when he walked to the ring. My favorite wrestler, Macho Man, came to the ring to Pomp and Circumstance. Junk Yard Dog came to the ring to Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust." That is, until, WWF created The Wrestling Album. After that he came to the ring to Grab Them Cakes. That's also around the time Hulk Hogan picked up on "Real American" by the legendary Derringer.

My reason for this tangent is to put some perspective on the topic of music for baseball players, which I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to until last year's "controversy" with Billy Wagner and Metallica, though I do remember being annoyed when John Franco gave up on "Johnny B. Goode" in favor of "Boy From New York City". During Spring Training this year, David Wright let MLB.com voters choose the music played when he comes to the plate this season (Blame MetsGrrl for that one). Meanwhile, Jose Reyes composes some of his own entrance music.

Over in the comments section of Metsblog, MouserDZ posted a link to a website that lists a bunch of MLB players and the song played when they come to bat or are introduced into the game as a pitcher. Have a gander if you're interested. The only thing I really found interesting is that according to the site Armando Benitez has finally gotten over "Who Let The Dogs Out" and has moved on to "Big Pimpin'" and "Big Poppa"

So there you go.

Too Annoyed Not To Post

Grad school obligations have forced me to take a week off from blogging, but yesterday's affair is eating at me too much not to post. I was feeling pretty damn good headed into yesterday. Pelfrey's failure didn't bug me too much Friday, and O'Perez's effort had me pretty jazzed up on Saturday, so with the beautiful weather and the Junkees dropping the first two to the Sawx life was looking good.

I don't get the CW on my set, but I do get to hear the Braves broadcasts on AM 790. So I had to listen to the clowns the Braves have hired to do their radio broadcasts. I don't know which guy is which, but when Bobby Cox got ejected one of them said that he felt bad for Bobby because he was sent down to the bowels "of this rat-infested stadium." Now hold on there, pal. Shea may not be the Taj Majal of stadiums, and I am the first one to admit that, but rat-infested is going a little too far. Despite that, I thought the game was in the bag when Reyes hit that bases-load triple, followed by an RBI by Lo Duca. I happily headed into my class meeting at that point. When I came out an hour later I was shocked to hear teh game still playing, and when they said Sele was being brought into the game, for some reason I had a feeling of dread in my stomach. Sure enough, the Mets 6-3 lead had become a 9-6 deficit. The bottom of the ninth came and went without a rally and we even had to suffer the indignity of Transplanted ex Mets pitcher Tyler Yates getting the win.

Willie is getting raked over the coals today for his bullpen management. This is the first game of the season where Willie is getting blamed for a loss. I think we fans tend to get a little too worked up over the manager. OK, maybe he did lose the game, but really how many games over the course of a season can you attribute a particular win or loss to a manager? I would venture to say the difference between a brilliant strategic manager and an awful strategic manager, is 4 or 5 games over the course of a season. Meaning the brilliant guy wins a couple games because of smart moves and the idiot loses 2 or 3 due to stupid maneuvers. Is Bobby Cox brilliant and Willie an idiot to those degrees? Doubt it. And you still have to take into account a manager's motivational abilities and his ability to maintain control over a clubhouse. Bobby V is a brilliant manager but he had to get axed because he lost control of his team, with players whining to Wilpon about stuff and whispering anonymous quotes to the media. Art Howe could light up a room but he couldn't light a fire under his team. Willie is right for this team, even if he is a stubborn guy who follows his gut when he should follow his head. His players respect him and play hard. He deserves heat today, but let's let it go at game time.

Speaking of heat, Shawn Green is hitting .338 and went 3-4 yesterday but he still is getting tons of grief over his misplay. And it's not because it was against the Braves. It's because of this guy. Milledge is hitting .342 down in The Big Easy with 5 stolen bases and a .447 Slugging Percentage. It's almost as though the Shea Faithful would rather see Milledge find his way than see Green flourish. But at this point Green is going to have to get hurt or have a solid six week slump before Milledge gets a call-up.

The Rockies come in to town tonight. John Maine will face Taylor Buchholz. Buchholz is making his first start of the year. Last year we saw Buchholz as a member of the Astros and the Mets roughed him up for six runs in 5 innings, with homers by Valentin and Delgado. What's up with the Rockies? They currently reside in the NL West cellar, with an 8-11 record. Kaz Matsui won't be making the trip to Shea, as he's rehabbing a bad back. However, we will get to see three time Met Clint Hurdle, who is the Rockies manager. The Rockies have God on their side but that's about the only thing they can brag about, except for Matt Holliday, who is leading the league in hitting.