Baseball has a vast amount of fun and exciting elements to it. There’s the home run, the strikeout, the 4-6-3 double play and many more. But one of the most fun aspects of the game are the players’ walk-up songs.

Walk-up songs have not been part of the game for a long time, but music has been. Music and baseball go all the way back to 1903, during the first World Series, as fans of the Boston Royal Rooters would belt songs like “Tessie” from the stands.  As time went on, teams hired pep bands in the early 1940s and the organ made its first appearance in Wrigley Field during this same time too. 

Then in 1970, the Chicago White Sox hired organist Nancy Faust who played the organ beautifully. Then as time went on, former White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray would point out the organist, and she would play a multitude of songs. She would start to play them when players made a big play and when they went up to bat. After this caught fire, then she started to play specific songs to specific players.

Since then, this little thing Faust did has now become an everyday thing for players to look forward to. Plus they do it not just for the batters but also for the pitchers too. You have Chipper Jones who came up to bat with Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” blasted in the old Atlanta Braves Stadium. You had Mariano Rivera come out of the bullpen for the Jeter led New York Yankees teams to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”

Coach Collin Martin from the Fuquay Varina High School baseball team played baseball throughout his youth and even played club baseball at Appalachian State. His walk-up song was “Thief” by Ookay. 

“I needed something to hype me up. I wanted something I could vibe to stepping into  the batter’s box,” said Martin. 

H.L. Smith is a senior pitcher on the Fuquay Varina High School baseball team. His favorite walk-up song is “Wild Thing” from the movie “Major League.”

“ I remember when I was younger and I first watched the movie Major League with my dad. I remember watching Rick Vaughn come out the dugout and everyone going crazy for him, the batters being intimidated by him because he can throw wild and the batters scared he’ll blow the gas right by you down the middle,” said Smith. 

Here at Fuquay Varina High School, we have many baseball enthusiasts from students to teachers and administrators. One of the people is our new principal Robert M. James. He is a huge baseball fan and a big Boston Red Sox fan. He goes around the area and supports former students from all over the state. He heard a student at UNC Pembroke use one of his favorite rock songs in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica. James believes “Rock and/or metal gets players hyped unlike other songs do. The big and loud guitar riffs with the mix of the drums, you can never go wrong with rock and metal.”

One of our other administrators, assistant principal Eric Thomas, is another baseball enthusiast here, and he agrees with James’s take on rock. His favorite walk-up song is “Kickstart my Heart” by Motley Crue.

 “It’s the opening guitar riff then with the drums, and then all of a sudden you hear Vince Neil with the vocals and it just gets you pumped,” said Thomas. 

Sports and music are two of the biggest unifiers in the world. Anytime those two can come together, it’s an amazing experience as it gets everyone involved. Sports and music together is a lot of fun because you get to see all of these different players use different songs that represent something in them as a person and athlete.