As the home of MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates, PNC Park offers the classic-style ballgame in an urban, downtown setting. And while the stadium invokes a nostalgia associated with the parks of yesteryear, one modern addition is each player’s walk-up song. Each Pirate has a song – or songs – that helps get him centered before the next at-bat. Fans seeing a game don’t just get a seat at a professional sporting event; they also get a tour through the personal music preferences of the players they’re willing to victory.
Whether Latin, rock, electronic, or hip-hop, there’s a wide variety of songs that welcome Pittsburgh’s players up to the plate. Which music genre leads the division, and which players have a broad musical palate? Read on to find out.
Arg-Some Music
Rock, rock, and more rock – it’s the musical genre that comes out on top among the walk-up song choices of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Out of the 24 songs chosen by players, eight (33 percent) are rock songs. First baseman John Jaso walks out to “Midnight Rambler” by The Rolling Stones, and pitcher Drew Hutchison struts out to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Saturday Night Special.” Pittsburgh continues rocking thanks to selections by pitcher Gerrit Cole and third baseman David Freese; they come out to “Sleep Now in the Fire” by Rage Against the Machine and Tool’s “Stinkfist,” respectively.
Center fielder Andrew McCutchen offers up a rather eclectic mix of tunes, with choices ranging from pop, hip-hop/rap, and electronic. He enters the batter’s box to the musical interludes of “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” by Adele, “Atom Bomb” by Benasis, and “Afterhours” by TroyBoi. McCutchen is matched by third baseman Jung Ho Kang, who has a three-song rotation that shows off some global style. Kang rotates through Latin (“En Gorilao” by N-Fasis), hip-hop/rap (“Gimme That” by Chris Brown), and pop (“I Am the Best” by 2NE1). Reaching back further in time to some classic pop, catcher Francisco Cervelli heads to the plate with Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore.”
Left fielder Starling Marte represents 33 percent of the Latin music selected, choosing two songs by Secreto El Famoso Biberon – “No Pue’ Killate” and “Rulay.” Pitcher Neftali Feliz and utility player Sean Rodriguez also support the Latin surge, each picking a song from this genre.
Treasured Tunes
When you’re attending a Pittsburgh Pirates game, your eyes might hone in on the familiar black and yellow color scheme shared by the city’s other professional sports teams, but the walk-up music is a little more diverse than the uniform. There’s plenty of rock, hip-hop/rap, Latin, electronic, and pop music pumping out of the speakers to make the Pirates stand out as they make their way to the plate.
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