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I do the PA for my son's high school baseball team...yes, I do walk-ups, but for Varsity only, not JV...kind of look at it as a small fringe benefit once you make varsity. I let them request a song or two for walkups (usually they have to be extensively edited to get the right sound-bite)...seniors gets their first choice and on down. If they don't send me their request, I pick something out for them, and they usually give me a request after the first time they hear it...heard of another local HS that allows the Seniors to pick first-time varsity player's walk-up for them...get lot's of Madonna, Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift...

OK, I'm rambling, but thought I'd chime in. The players do like it...

GT
A highly unscientific study conducted locally over the last two seasons indicated that in games in which walk up songs were utilized, batters took longer to begin to walk to the plate then walked slower. Then the umpire had to hold the pitcher off longer to wait for the announcer to turn off the sound.

This all resulted in an addition to the game time of 10-15 seconds per batter, or an average of about 7-8 minutes per game when one side used music and about 15 minutes per game when each side used music.

Again, this was conducted only locally and by umpire evaluators with stop watches at both games with and without walk up songs.

No scientfic significance is claimed.
Our team did it last year.

Son was a freshman last year and the seniors picked his song, which was "Dancing Queen".

Contrary to Jimmy03's quoted study, during his one official AB, he was actually in the box ready to hit before the pitcher got the ball back from the previous play. PA guy played it anyway, the umpire cracked up, called time and made us all listen to a few seconds before he put the ball in play.

I do agree it generally slows things down, is loud and all the songs sound the same, bad.

And yes, I know I sound like my parents.
I always thought it would be a good Idea to raffle off the walk-out song's to the student body, ( target the girl's ).
And then you would have them coming to your games to listen to your walk-out song, since they picked it out.
Raffle it off every home game. A good fund raiser.
And you just might increase your fan base.

EH
Walk up songs are fun! I wonder if the players even hear them, I'm certain 2B doesn't, but I think they are fun for the crowd. 2Bdad and I are the varsity announcers this year, and we are putting the list together at HSV's request and with help from the players.

YGD - thanks! CJ is a favorite player of mine. I'm going to add that one.
Last edited by 2Bmom
quote:
Originally posted by td25:
quote:
Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
HSV coach today: "No walk up songs here. Just fundamental baseball"


Thank you for saying that. Winning teams don't do walk-up songs. They get in the box, concentrate, and hit pi$$missles.


Cant say I disagree, because the most ridiculus thing that can happen is a player waiting to walk up to his music...."let the bodies hit the floor" as I remember, then strike out on 3 straight swings.....
For the past several years, our district rival (and also district champ last year) has played "Dancing Queen," "Teenage Wasteland," "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," etc., while our guys warmed up. We have not beaten these guys in at least 3 years.

I was hoping for a little payback this year...I think the only song I'd need is Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls." Get on your bikes and ride!

But, alas, we changed districts and don't play them anymore! Frown
Last edited by 2Bmom
My sons last game of his senior year in H.S., the coach said they could have walk up song for the last game of the league. I was working the P.A. and we had a kid that when he warmed up on the mound, no one knew where the pitch was going to go. The players would all chime in and sing "wild Thing". So I decided that if he pitched that day I would play Wild Thing on the P.A.. My son had burned some CD's and had the name on the songs on the CD and one said Wild Thing. So the kid comes on the mound and I put in the CD and started the song. Turns out I didn't know that there was two songs called Wild Thing, the one that we all know from Mitch Williams day and another one that some Hip Hop artist sang. Needless to say the words to the song were not the ones I remembered. The kids in the bleachers all got up and started dancing and singing, the adults were kind of shocked.
If I ever do it a P.A. again, I think I'll preview the music.
2BMom, at least your team had "Dancing Queen" played for them on the road. Jr. had it played for him at home as a freshman...

But he's a sophomore this year, so we're hoping to move up to "Fat Bottomed Girls" which simply put is a pretty good song if you aren't paying close attention to the words.

As a parent, I'd kill for Baba O'Riley (aka "Teen Aged Wasteland"). Or even better, staying with the Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the second at bat, assuming he gets a second at bat...

I always pictured myself as a "Comfortably Numb" (Pink Floyd) kind of guy, walking in from the bullpen, but I don't share that vision with my children...

Of course, if they outlawed this whole practice, I'd give thanks.
quote:
Originally posted by piaa_ump:
quote:
Originally posted by td25:
quote:
Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
HSV coach today: "No walk up songs here. Just fundamental baseball"


Thank you for saying that. Winning teams don't do walk-up songs. They get in the box, concentrate, and hit pi$$missles.


Cant say I disagree, because the most ridiculus thing that can happen is a player waiting to walk up to his music...."let the bodies hit the floor" as I remember, then strike out on 3 straight swings.....


Now thats funny.

Walk-up songs are cocky, and they can be used against you by the other team if you fail. This is a great example of that.

Some of these kids can use a dose of humility.
Last edited by td25
quote:
Walk-up songs are cocky, and they can be used against you by the other team if you fail.


td25 ... This will probably surprise you, but Good hitters don't for a second consider failing! And considering them cocky because of their walk-up songs??? ... what's 9 hitters times 30 MLB teams that all play walk-ups?? The songs just might be here to stay. What about "high fives" and "fist pumps", now there is a real demonstration, by your barometer, of what not being humble is all about???
Last edited by Prime9
Honestly, I think, at least from my perspective, the walk-ups are less about the player (even though they can request their own) and more about the atmosphere outside the fence for the fans...same with announcing names, music between innings, heck having a scoreboard even. My son on ocassion will say, "why do you play that song, everybody in the dugout hates it." But the music, I feel, "in game" is for the fans and not the players...as a matter of fact, I "let" the players submit some playlist request last year for pre-game and in-game music...out of about 50 songs they requested, I had to delete/censor 39 of them...if Lil' Wayne was on the list, I didn't even look up the lyrics.

But no, NEVER play a song over the PA system if you haven't either listened to it or read the lyrics. And yes, GunEmDown10 - Audicity is great!
I agree with you, sc.

2B and I are going to put the playlist together this weekend, and he's going to help me edit. I think he is embarrassed by some of the songs his teammates picked, and wants to edit them himself so as not to offend mom's tender ears. Wink

Surprisingly, Lil' Wayne actually has a clean song out. One of the few that 2B will play for me on his boom-boom-boom car stereo. Can't remember the name, but it's inspired by Michael Phelps.
quote:
Originally posted by Prime9:
quote:
Walk-up songs are cocky, and they can be used against you by the other team if you fail.


td25 ... This will probably surprise you, but Good hitters don't for a second consider failing! And considering them cocky because of their walk-up songs??? ... what's 9 hitters times 30 MLB teams that all play walk-ups?? The songs just might be here to stay. What about "high fives" and "fist pumps", now there is a real demonstration, by your barometer, of what not being humble is all about???


Once a kid makes it to the majors, they earn the right to play a walk-up song, not before. When I played in highschool, I was the fastest kid I played with or against (even led our league in SB). One day I drew 2 tiny lightning bolts on the brim of my cap. Once the coach saw it, he ripped into me, and the whole team was forced to run for it the next 2 hours of practice. That cured me of my cockyness immediately.

Everyone knows they are going to fail at some point, even the good hitters. Baseball is built that way. Why play a cocky walk-up song, and give the other team ammunition against you? It may surprise you, but it also disrespects the other team. Its just stupid in my opinion.
Last edited by td25

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