Bullpen jpw 2/19/08

A couple things have gotten me thinking about theme songs recently. The first was Drew from deadspin talking about how he would play A Song for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age for his team to run out onto the field to if he's ever a big time football coach. He would also request red lights for night games to "set the tone for an absolute bloodbath." Pretty cool. The other incident occurred at the Nuthouse when Thunderstruck by AC/DC was playing on the jukebox, and my friend Tom suddenly said, "If I'm ever a major league closer, this is the song I'm gonna run out of the bullpen to." One of the more random but completely satisfying conversation starters I've heard in quite some time. Not that I've ever forgotten anything that's ever happened at the Nuthouse, but I forgot which song he had said that night, so I emailed him later, and here was his reply:

Hey John,
I would run out to the mound to "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC.
Also, when I strike someone out, over the stadium PA would play the part in the song that
goes "you've been (drums drums drums) THUNDERSTRUCK" and "THUNDERSTRUCK" would flash on
the jumbotron and all the fans would yell "THUNDERSTRUCK". It would be awesome.
Tom

I don't think I can beat either of those, but the song I would want to run out of the bullpen to would be On Call by Kings of Leon. It would start at the beginning with that weird synthesizer sound. The crowd and opposing team would instantly recognize the song and be like, "Oh shit, Welsh is coming in. This game is over." Then it would skip to 2:45 into the song (I'm pretty sure they could digitally remaster that for a big time closer like myself) when only the bass is playing and everything is quiet, and then when the rest of the band kicks in, the bullpen gate would burst open and I'd appear looking really pissed off. When the songs starts saying, "I'd come running," I wouldn't even think about running. I'd walk as slow as possible so that the batter would be so nervous about striking out and embarassing himself, it would be a relief when it actually happened.