Thursday, May 19, 2016

Warning Signal

In my two years of high school sports fandom, I’ve noticed that teams are increasingly using music when they enter the home field (or wrestling matt).  Wrestling teams lower the lights in the gym and then the team runs in to the sounds of ominous music, most of it heavy metal.  The selections are designed to demonstrate that the opponent is about to receive a pounding.  

Only mothers are afraid.

Baseball teams often play music during warm up but on Tuesday, the opposing team took it to a whole new level.  For this team, each player had a walk-up song as he came up to bat.  My son thought it was great but I felt it was a tad pretentious (and since we beat the team, that made it worse).  Nonetheless, I came to school on Wednesday and announced this practice to my boss, a former baseball player and coach.   We spent the entire day plotting out our walk-up music.

Principal B is a big and imposing guy and he wants his opponents to be disarmed.  His proposes walk-up music by Barry Manilow or Whitney Houston; maybe a little Captain and Tennile.  I suggested that with those choices he’d better be hitting somewhere north of .900.  I want walk up music for my daily business.  I’ll choose something attention-grabbing before I start morning meeting, say the guitar riffs that start U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”  But if I’m headed down to hall to snag a guilty party, I want music that sets the tone……maybe the tolling doom of  AC/DC “Hell’s Bells."  Naturally, we’re now out of control with our walk-up options.  It’s a good way to enjoy the chaos of school in May.  

Cue the Clapton guitar.

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