Baseball Playlist
Put the Bass in Baseball
Olivia Bowman (Editor in Chief)
If you’ve been around campus in the afternoons, you may have heard music blasting from the baseball field. That’s usually the signal that batting practice is going on. The genres on the baseball playlist run the gamut. But they aren’t only meant to hype the team up. The coaches have another motive for playing the music.

“We’re trying to make it as close to a four-year experience as we could to make it easier to recruit,” assistant coach Tony Brunicardi said. “Every little thing adds up to a whole process and good student athletes.”

The playlist is put together each year by Brunicardi who purchases the songs off iTunes. The only restriction?

“No swearing,” Brunicardi said. “It can get pretty loud, and gets into the neighborhood.”

The playlist for batting practice has a heavy dose of country with a bit of hip hop and rap mixed in. Some of the songs they play during batting practice include “Outstanding in Our Field” by Brad Paisley and “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd.

Head coach Dino Nomicos helps put together the playlist.

“I try to find a good variety, try to keep it new age,” Nomicos said. “But you can never keep everybody happy.”

Outfielder Kaleb Keelan had some thoughts on the song choices.

“Tony’s

is mainstream,” Keelan said. “We listen to Too Short, Bay Area music and hype at the end of BP (batting practice).”

Anticipating some differences of opinion on the music, Brunicardi repeated Nomicos’ thoughts.

“There are different tastes on the whole team,” Brunicardi said. “But we play whatever puts them in a winning mood.”

Nomicos said they like to start a game with ACDC’s “Back in Black” and have the team take the infield and outfield to DMX during batting practice “since the barking gets them having fun”. But Nomicos made it clear that during the game, the music is for the fans. However, the team still has some say over the music.

“In the locker room, they get to choose,” Nomicos said. “Someone connects to the blue tooth and they switch who gets it.”

“Mitch (Plane) gets the aux and Noah (Marcelo) makes beats,” Keelan said.

Infielder Max Jenkins likes to listen to Andre Nickatina, Blueface, and Mac Dre in the locker room. But before a game, he likes to listen to the calming beats of Iration.

Mitchel Plane who plays shortstop likes playing music before going into practice or a game.

“I’m a big music guy,” Plane said. “I overthink a lot so it gets my mindset off that.”

As to whether there will ever come a day when Brunicardi lets the team choose songs for the playlist, Plane said, “No, but I wish he would let the team pick the music.”

As for the final curtain, “Ol’ Blue Eyes” is the go-to.

“We play Frank Sinatra at the end of the game, like the Yankees,” Brunicardi said.

In the words of Sinatra: “The record shows, I took the blows, and did it my way”.