Tonight starts the League Championship series in Major League Baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers head into St. Louis to take on the Cardinals, who are in their third straight National League Championship series.
Tomorrow in Boston, the Detroit Tigers face off against the Boston Red Sox just two days after a thrilling game five victory over the Oakland Athletics. Justin Verlander finally remembered he is just better than everyone and pitched a gem like we haven’t seen him pitch in a while. 8IP, 2H, 1BB with 10Ks. Somewhere in America, Kate Upton is thinking she chose the wrong baseball players (Upton was last seen on the cover of Sports Illustrated with Atlanta Braves strikeout kings, BJ and Justin Upton).
Picking the winners for these games is almost as hard as hitting a Justin Verlander fastball; you may get lucky and hit one, but odds are you will go 1-4 and embarrass yourself more often than not. I decided to go a different route and pick which band relates the most to each team, and then narrow the champion down by which band I like the most.
First up we have the Detroit Tigers and this was the easiest choice for me to decide. If the first band you thought of when thinking of the Tigers wasn’t Bob Seger then you should seriously reconsider your Tiger fandom. If the fact that Seger grew up in the burbs of Ann Arbor isn’t enough, Seger made millions singing to the working class citizens of Detroit. I wouldn’t even be surprised if JV had “The Fire Inside” blaring in his headphones before the game.
Bob Seger is all Detroit and his music personifies this team perfectly... filthy rich owner/team/players gritting out victories to inspire the almost destitute Detroit. Nothing is better for 9-5 factory workers to get out of work and head to Comerica Park and see Miguel Cabrera gut through at-bats or Max Scherzer work his way out of a bases loaded, no out jam to send the series into a decisive game 5.
Seger made his money singing to the same group that affectionately support the Tigers, just like owner, Mike Ilitch makes his money of that group who eats his pizza and buys his baseball tickets.
If we were going to give players song titles I have a few that go great with their style of play. First, we have the slick fielding Jose Iglesias and night moves. That goes without saying. Do me a favor, go to Youtube and look up a collection of Iglesias highlights and put on Night moves in the background. There is a direct correlation of Iglesias’ fielding, night moves and love making.
Next would be Jhonny Peralta and Turn the Page. Any questions about a player who got popped for juicing, served his suspension and then came back to hit a series changing home run and how the song “Turn the Page” relate I can’t help you. Jhonny did wrong, Turned the Page and moved on.
Any Tigers list would not be complete without reigning MVP and probable Cy Young award winner, Miguel Cabrera and Max Scherzer, respectively. I had a hard time thinking of any Seger songs that accurately depict Miguel Cabrera so I decided on “The Mountain. “ The song lyrics aren’t so much descriptive as the title is. Have you ever actually seen Miguel Cabrera in person? He is huge. Hulking. Massive. Mountainous. The Mountain works just fine for him.
Max Scherzer gets the song Roll Me Away. Not necessarily because he rolls people away, but because it would be really easy to change the lyrics to blow me away, which would describe the American League leader in wins perfectly. Scherzer finished second in the A.L. with 240 Ks behind Texas’, Yu Darvish. Scherzer was most recently seen in game four relief in a bases loaded jam with zero outs. It would be the first time in A.L. history where a team faced a bases loaded jam with zero outs, a slight lead and they escaped unscathed. With that one inning, Scherzer has inspired me to change the lyrics to one of my favorite Seger songs lyrics for the rest of my life.
The next team in the song eliminator is the Boston Red Sox. I had to think of a band that was just a group of players that were kicked out of their old towns and sent to a team that finished last in their division. My theory isn’t that its the beards that make the Red Sox the favorite to win the World Series...it’s the testosterone they have been taking to grow these beards. Seriously...look at them. Half of those beards are what college freshman dream of in their first ‘No Shave November”. (I really don’t think these guys are juicing, I am a huge Boston fan, just super jealous of their beards).
Anyway, for Boston I chose the band Dropkick Murphys. Why? Because who else? Boston is known for their connections with Irish heritage and what better band to pick than an angry Celtic punk band from Massachusetts? It just so happens that the Dropkick Murphys have four (that I found) songs that contain Boston somewhere in the title. This band even seems like they are begging to be on the team.
The Dropkick Murphys also have their own version of the song ‘Tessie’ that is played after victories at Fenway park. The song Tessie is originally from an old, old screenplay that was sung way back when the Red Sox were the Boston Americans. Being a fan of the Red Sox, the Murphys were sick of that damned Bambino curse and they sang, drank and punched their way in the song to the 2004 World Series.
So we have a song that is sung after victories and a group of bearded gamers who play in Beantown? You have issues if that doesn’t scream Irish/Celtic punk music. The way the Dropkick Murphys play their music is also very similar to how the Red Sox play ball...with a beautiful combination of ferocity and fun. Watching Dustin Pedroia dive across the dirt to make plays at second base or Jacoby Ellsbury completely take center field out of the equation was just meant to be watched while listening to “I’m shipping off to Boston” (yet another Boston connection).
These players have the rockstar attitude; the “I don’t care who you are or what your stats are, lets go” flare. It’s the perfect type of baseball for a bunch of 27 year olds ,who have some Irish blood in them, to get drunk on Killians and cheer for David Ortiz to smack a home run over the green monster.
John Lackey is the first player that comes to mind when I’m thinking of songs. Lackey didn’t have the greatest year in the wins column, he unfortunately had terrible run support, but the song Johnny Law comes to mind. A pitcher who came back from Tommy John surgery to post a 3.52 ERA and an impressive 1.16 automatically qualifies for a player known for laying down the law. His 10-13 record may not have been the greatest, but Lackey kept the Red Sox in the game almost every single time he pitched.
My favorite player in baseball is Dustin Pedroia, so it’s only fitting he gets the song “My Hero”. Now the song is about the singers dad, and Dustin Pedroia is not my dad. But when it comes to baseball, Dustin Pedroia is my hero. He gives short, balding white men hope. His play says “If you come to work every day, grind out every at bat, get your jersey dirty in pretty much the first inning of every game, then damnit you can get paid millions upon millions of dollars.” Pedroia is the cult hero of many Red Sox fans, but his ‘hero’ status definitely went up when he decided to show the world he can grow just about the best beard in baseball. When it comes to baseball, Dustin Pedroia is “My Hero”.
*I should also add that “Hey there little rich boy” would be a great song for Pedroia, because he is, fact rich and little.*
For David Ortiz I had a hard time picking between “10 years of service” and “Going out in style”. I decided to go with both because Ortiz is going out in style after his 16 years of service. David Ortiz should be considered the greatest DH in the history of the game. Not just because of his eye-popping stats, but how he did them. At 37 years of age Ortiz is having a renaissance season and is a huge reason the Boston lineup is the most dangerous in the major leagues. He hit 30 home runs and drove in 100 RBIs for the 7th time...at age 37. At age 37 ARod is lucky to be in the league AND he wishes he could grow half the facial hair Ortiz does.
The majority of the songs by the Dropkick Murphys are about doing something violent or attacking, which is exactly how the Boston lineup plays. They have a relentless attack on opposing pitchers until they completely wear them down until “Tessie” plays.
Now comes the time to choose which band I like more, which is is an easy choice. As much as I love the Red Sox and as much as I would love to see them win the World Series for 1) My own selfish reasons and 2) what happened at the Boston Marathon. I can’t go away from Bob Seger. Seger can grow a beard like any Boston player and can play Detroit Rock & Roll with the best of them. I’m picking Bob Seger over the Dropkick Murphys in 6 games. Although I would not be upset if I got to hear Tessie in game 7.
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