Some Sunday Baseball Stuff

I just finished watching the Braves-Reds game on TV this afternoon. The game itself wasn't pretty. The Braves lost 8-2 after being shutout for 6+ innings by Micah Owings who had been 0-2 with and ERA just south of 6.00 coming into the game. Last year's rookie sensation Jay Bruce smacked a couple of homers continuing the ownership of the Braves that he's exhibited in his short career. He's hitting a lifetime .609 (14-23) against them with 4 homers, 8 RBI and 11 runs scored. It wasn't all bad news though, as Chipper went 3-4 and Joey Votto, who's on my fantasy team, went 2-3 with a couple of doubles and 3 RBI. So, silver lining and all that, I guess.

Anyway, there was something else I found interesting about this game. In the constant quest by the announcers to fill the downtime that inevitably comes during baseball games, commentators Jon Sciambi and Joe Simpson decided to put together their top five lists of intro music/walking to the plate songs. Being the list loving guy that I am, I thought this was a great idea and thought I'd share their lists with you and make one of my own. So, here are the lists:

Sciambi's list
5. No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys
4. Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
3. She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
2. Breathe - Prodigy
1. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Definitely the more modern of the two lists, which make sense because Sciambi is the younger of the two announcers. I did think that it was funny/a little mind blowing that Joe Simpson said that he didn't know any of these songs. I think (at least I hope) that might be more a case of not knowing the names of songs. Overall, I think this is a pretty strong list, and I like all of these songs, I'm just not sure if the pump-up factor is there for me with most of them (with the exception of Seven Nation Army.)

Simpson's List
5. Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody
4. La Grange - ZZ Topp
3. Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
2. The Walk of Life - Dire Straits
1. Bad to the Bone - George Thorogood & the Destroyers

I like this list as well, although I have no idea what "Hot Rod Lincoln" is and I think that "Walk of Life" is played out and there was no need for two Dire Straits songs. I think that "La Grange" and "Bad to the Bone" are good pump-up songs with some nice chunky guitar riffs. But, as much as I love "Sultans of Swing", I'm not sure if it really has it, although I do like the double entendre with the word "swing."

Ok, here's my list.
5. Enter Sandman - Metallica - Ok, maybe a little cliche, and I'm sure it's been used a thousand times, but I think it's a great song to get you pumped up with the building action of the intro. I think that it might take a little too long to build for the purpose here. I'm guessing that for these intros you probably get at most a 30 second snippet of the song and I think this one might take a little too long to really get going.
4. Brain Stew - Green Day - another chunky riff, which i think might start a pattern here. I might not use the actually intro to this but the later parts when they start playing those little palm-muted parts between the chords.
3. I Wanna Be Your Dog - Iggy Pop and the Stooges - An intro riff that I just love, nice and muddy.
2. Led Zeppelin - Kashmir - Another one I'm sure would be on a lot of lists for this sort of thing, don't know that it needs much explanation.
1. Wake Up - Arcade Fire - One of my favorite songs of the last couple years and one of the few song that I listen to on a regular basis that I would say get me pumped.

Honorable mentions - Sorry, I couldn't keep it to just five. Here are a couple that I thought of as I was writing this that I thought at least deserved acknowledgement.
Rudy Can't Fail - The Clash
The Underdog - Spoon
Both of these are a little less conventional for this type of thing, mainly beacuse of the lack of distorted guitar. However, I think they're both really upbeat songs with great energy.