Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — It was Women’s Day at Dodgers Stadium on Sunday, and there were a number of special moments that commemorated the occasion. The game was kicked off by Maybelle Blair, 95 years young, who threw the first pitch prior to the game. Blair was a veteran of a “League of Their Own”-era women’s baseball league. Looking chipper and full of vim and vigor, she threw a strike to Justin Turner, and received a nice ovation from the home crowd.
Later in the game, she spent an inning in the booth with broadcasters Orel Hershiser and Joe Davis, regaling the pair with stories of Women’s baseball and pitching for donations for her proposed museum in Rockford Illinois, home of the “Peaches,” the team featured in the Penny Marshall/Geena Davis movie and the new Amazon Prime series.
The Bangers…
However, the biggest feature of the Women’s Day celebration was the players walk-up songs, all chosen by the players’ wives and girlfriends. A few were playing it safe. Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel like a Woman.” was the choice of both Chelsea Freeman and Cara Smith. Others were thinking outside the box. “My Humps” for Cody Bellinger was a, um, unique choice.
The whole thing got started off with the early 2000’s Disney anthem “What Dreams are Made of” from that cinematic classic The Lizzie McGuire Movie. And the inner twelve-year-old girl of every 30-something at the Stadium was fed.
Mookie’s wife Brianna chose the “Big Energy Remix” by Latto and her husband approved. “Yeah,” the Dodger star said, “that’s her jam, so I had an idea what she was going to play. But I think it came out nice. I may keep it.” The song, which features a sample of that classic groove from Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” and pieces of Mariah Carrey’s “Fantasy,” got the Dodgers off to a funky start.
The most hilarious choice of the night was made for Joey Gallo, who apparently is single these days, had his “significant other” Hanser Alberto choose his walk-up song. Hanser’s choice? “I’m Real” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule.
mmmmmmmmkay…..
Perhaps the most meaningful song lyrics-wise was the last one of the day. Craig Kimbrel came in to pitch the 9th inning to the strains of every parent’s “favorite” song, “Let it Go” from the Frozen soundtrack. And wouldn’t you know it, Kimbrel pitched a clean inning, leading Joe and Orel to lobby from the booth for it to replace “Sweet Child of Mine” as Kimbrel’s permanent walkout song. Well, you couldn’t help but think that with all the heat the Kimbrel’s been taking this season (most of it deserved), there was a bit of a coded message in the lyrics:
My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I’m never going back, the past is in the past
Okay, Dodger fans, you heard Elsa. “The past is in the past.”
So let it go already.
