If I Were A Closer...

I actually watched a couple minutes of the ALCS last night and saw Mariano Rivera come in to close out the 9th. When he came in, they played his classic closer music - Enter Sandman by Metallica. Well, classic... yes. Not actually his though. A ton of closers have used that music before and after him. There are also a bunch of other songs that seem to always get used by closers. However, they always seem to stick to that pop-metal genre.



I'm not sure, but I would trace the use of closer theme songs to the movie Major League. When Rick Vaughn came into the game as a converted closer in the big finale, they rocked out to a version of Wild Thing that brought the house down. I'm sure music was played during pitching changes before that, but not customized theme songs. That movie changed it forever.

Anyway, all of this got me thinking. If I were closing out an MLB game in the 9th, what would my music be? There are some requirements. It has to have some kind of unique intro before building up to a powerful chorus. It has to fire up the pitcher and the crowd. It's a bonus if it ticks off the opposing batter. Intimidation is cool too, but not many songs really intimidate. I think it also has to somewhat fit the personality of the pitcher in some way. I'm not really a metal kind of guy. So after much thought...

Stop Whispering
Radiohead
Pablo Honey
Capitol/EMI Records

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