Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Forget Edwin Diaz. Forget “Narco.” Forget Timmy Trumpet. There’s a new viral walk-out song for relievers, and it’s taking social media by storm. And the bonus? Every nine-year-old girl already has the words memorized.
What started as a lark as turned into a sensation. Craig Kimbrel, the often struggling Dodger closer, changed his walk-out music from Guns and Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine” to the tween anthem “Let it Go” from the hit Disney animated musical Frozen. The change was made in honor of “Women’s Day” at the Stadium, where the wives and girlfriends of all the Dodgers were put in charge of the walk-up music for a day. Kimbrel’s wife Ashley made the selection. And, after pitching a clean outing on Women’s Day, Kimbrel has let it ride with the new tune. And the results of the change have been striking:
And it seems like people are starting to notice. After Kimbrel’s latest 1-2-3 inning, social media was abuzz with approving tweets and posts about the change in Kimbrel’s performance, many crediting the new walkout tune.
Of course, a guy with sort of grimy, nasty image like Kimbrel is a guy you’d least expect to use a showtune for his signature piece. It’s not exactly “Hell’s Bells” for Trevor Hoffman. But maybe that is precisely its appeal. The song is so 180 degrees from badass that it goes through some kind of vortex and ends up being the baddest-ass song imaginable.
After all, this is LA. We do things a bit differently ’round here. If it takes a Disney bop to get our closer back on track, so be it. And, if you think about it, the song works for Kimbrel’s particular situation. In the movie, the Princess Elsa sings the song as her liberation anthem, where she finally declares herself free of the expectations of others and fully embraces the powers that lie within her. Of, she ends up freezing the entire kingdom while she’s at it, but that is neither here nor there. We can hear Craig Kimbrel singing along in his head when Elsa makes her declaration:
Let it go, let it go/You’ll never see me cry/Here I stand and here I stay/Let the storm rage on….
Princess Elsa
Now I’m not altogether buying the “Elsa Effect,” but who knows? Closers are quirky cats. Maybe what Kimbrel needed all along was something to calm him down and put him in a more relaxed headspace. And, I guess we’ve finally found a way to get the theater kids into the ballpark. Whatever. And as for the worries of old school fans, I can only say…
Well, you know…
