Balukjian: Royce Clayton’s pitch to change MLB’s at-bat music
From SABR member Brad Balukjian at Rolling Stone on December 11, 2015:
Imagine, at the start of each day, if your favorite song dropped the moment you stepped through your office door. Heads would turn, keyboards would stop clacking and your boss would finally get around to approving your vacation days.
Unfortunately for us, the privilege of walk-up music is reserved for professional wrestlers, brides and baseball players, the latter of whom draw inspiration from pre-selected tunes played during their (now brisker, given baseball’s new rules) walk to home plate. But Royce Clayton, an ex-player who had grown tired of baseball – and who once played another player, Miguel Tejada, in the movie version of Moneyball – isn’t content to hear the same recycled arena rock on his visits to the ballpark. He worries that the game is getting stale. Boring, even.
“We’re losing kids to other sports,” the former All-Star says.
His solution: customized walk-up songs, produced through his company MUSIQ Locker.
While walk-up music may seem like mere fluff – little more than added musical entertainment for the audience – many players take their song selections very seriously.
Read the full article here: http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/features/walk-up-revolution-royce-claytons-pitch-to-change-mlb-at-bat-music-20151211
Originally published: December 11, 2015. Last Updated: December 11, 2015.