How baseball walk-up songs push the RedHawks onfield success

When walking past McKie Field on springtime weekends, it is likely the speakers will be blasting a unique collection of songs. From Bad Bunny to The Rolling Stones to Jason Aldean, the Miami University baseball team provides fans with a mini concert on top of its play on the field.

Walk-up songs are specific to baseball and softball. When a batter steps into the box or a pitcher takes the mound, a song of his choosing will play. The players pick these songs for a variety of reasons. Some pick a song to represent family and heritage, others choose a song simply because they like it. No matter the reason, the songs have a special meaning.

Some famous examples of walk-up songs are former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera’s “Enter Sandman” by Metallica and my personal favorite, Lynyrd Skynard’s “Simple Man” playing for Texas Ranger pitcher, Jacob DeGrom.

Due to the RedHawk’s success on the baseball field this season, some players have become synonymous with their chosen songs. Sophomore catcher Carson Raether’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen and sophomore infielder Ignacio Gonzalez with “EoO” by Bad Bunny have become the soundtrack to this Miami season.

Both songs represent the players in different ways, and perhaps more importantly, both tracks get the stadium rowdy.

“It just gives me confidence,” Gonzalez said. “There’s not a lot of people from Puerto Rico that come here.” Bad Bunny is one of the most popular artists in the world, and also hails from the island.

With so many players on the roster, sometimes the battle for walk-up music gets heated. The team relies on the “dibs” method.

“If you say it first and voice it before someone else, typically that one goes to you,” Raether said.

He beat junior outfielder Tommy Harrison to “Fat Bottomed Girls” in the preseason. Harrison ended up with the iconic “Here Comes the Money,” better known as the World Wrestling Entertainment walk-up song for Shane McMahon.

Gonzalez had to compete with Latino teammates, freshman infielder Diego Cruz and sophomore infielder Christopher Roa for representation from Spanish-speaking artists.

“Diego went with the Bad Bunny route as well, and Roa went with a Dominican artist, but we talked about it, we showed each other our songs and went from there,” Gonzalez said.

One of the biggest downsides of playing road games is the lack of walk-up songs. The music will often allow the players to perfect their routine at home, but that gets changed while on the road. When asked about the difficulties of not having the songs on the road, Raether mentioned a lack of confidence.

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“My grandma commented when we were at Kent State, she said, ‘you’re walking up very timidly, you have no rhythm,’” Raether said, “In her words, I’m not shaking my tailfeathers.”

Players will often compensate by singing songs in their heads, whether it be their selected walk-up song or a random sound from TikTok.

“When I’m out in the field and when I go up to bat, I sing a little song, it’s a TikTok [sound] and goes ‘stepping into my casa,’” Gonzalez said, “but I sing that because it gives me confidence.”

Like many ballplayers, Raether and Gonzalez have their fair share of superstitions. Sometimes this boils down to changing walk-up music.

“This past summer, I don’t even remember the name of the song, but I was doing very poor to say the least, and I ended up changing it,” Raether said. “That song sparked my off-season run during summer ball.”

He has carried that momentum into this spring season, currently batting for a .283 average with seven home runs.

Gonzalez shared a similar experience.

“I’ve always been a Bad Bunny guy and I had this Bad Bunny song at the beginning of my [high school] senior year,” Gonzalez said. “I was 0-15 or something. Baseball players are very superstitious so I did change it.”

Perhaps the most common song played at McKie Field this season has been “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. “Free Bird” is the team’s designated home run song.

“It was inspired by the USA run in hockey last year in the 4 Nation Face-Off,” Raether said. “After we saw those edits, we said ‘This needs to be our home run song.’”

The music seems to be working for the RedHawks. They currently are 29-13 overall and tied for first place in the Mid-American Conference with a conference record of 17-7.

jollifvm@miamioh.edu