It’s one of those ear-worm songs, so even if it wasn’t something you were going to hear at the ballpark all summer, it would find a way to bore into your head and stay there awhile.
But, of course, “OMG” isn’t just a catchy song that the Mets have adopted. It’s a catchy song that also happens to be sung by a player on the team — a player who, not for nothing, was hitting .346 entering the weekend.
So maybe that gives “OMG” a unique leg up on some of the other songs that have been become closely associated with sports the past few years.
It’s funny: For most of the past century, the only kind of music you’d hear at a ballpark were organists tickling some familiar old melodies. Sometimes they’d get clever, playing “Three Blind Mice” when the umpires walked into the field, stuff like that.
At football games, marching bands would belt out fight songs and alma maters and big-band favorites at halftime. At college basketball games Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2” became a perennial standard.
Perhaps baseball lends itself best to these deep musical associations simply because there are more games, and more free time at those games to allow it. Elias doesn’t keep track of these things, but it’s likely that the Pirates might’ve been the first team to co-opt a pop song when “We Are Family” became their rallying cry in 1979. And though it’s become a ballpark cliché, props are probably in order for the Red Sox going with “Sweet Caroline” as an eighth-inning rebel yell years ago.
For the Mets, “OMG” is the latest in a long line. There was Timmy Trumpet two years ago, fueling Edwin Diaz with “Narco” to 32 saves. Back in 1999, the Doors’ “L.A. Woman” became a postgame anthem, mostly the “Mr. Mojo Risin’ ” part of it, and in 2000 “Who Let the Dogs Out” was an everyday thing. In ’86 “Curly Shuffle” was a regular daily singalong (until it was replaced by that annoying “Let’s Go, Mets!” ditty late in the year). And, of course, there is “Meet the Mets,” the first-ever baseball fight song.
The Yankees have a deep soundtrack, too, most famously the postgame playing of the Frank Sinatra version of “New York, New York,” now in its 45th season of use. The last time they won a World Series, in 2009, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys were ubiquitous with “Empire State of Mind” just about every game.
Both “YMCA” and “Cotton Eye Joe” have become longtime staples, as improbable as that may seem. And of course there’s “Here Come the Yankees,” the fight song that sounds like it should have been written to celebrate Murderers’ Row but has in actuality only been around since 1967, when Yankees president Michael Burke commissioned it as an answer to “Meet the Mets.”
It’s hard to label a song for the football teams (though Ace Frehley’s “Back in the New York Groove” for the Giants comes close), and certainly there isn’t one that commands the chill-inducing effect as when the Steelers play Styx’ “Renegade” at Heinz Stadium and 65,000 Iron City fanatics go bonkers.
But the Knicks had, and have again, “Go New York, Go New York, Go!” though some of us of a certain age prefer the Bernard-Era standard “We’re the New York Knicks” (“This is New York!/And we love basketball/We’re gonna take it all/Cause we’re the New York Knicks …”) And 1994’s run to the title was ignited by Pat Riley’s devotion to the Billy Joel/Color Me Badd song “It’s All About Soul.”
The best hockey one I’ve ever heard is “The Good Old Hockey Game” that the Maple Leafs play every home game (Google it if you don’t know it, but don’t blame me when you can’t stop singing it). The Devils used to use Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” as something of an unofficial anthem.
And the Rangers have used that “Hey! Hey! Hey, Hey, Hey!” song to celebrate every goal since 1927 or so (actually, amazingly, “Slapshot” by Ray Castoldi only dates to 1995). They’ve also used “Baba O’Riley” as an initial intro song for years.
Castoldi is actually the music director and organist at MSG (and at Citi Field, too) so maybe he can best appreciate a song catching on for the team you work for. Like Candelita (aka Jose Iglesias).
Vac’s Whacks
I’ve never wavered in my belief that Aaron Boone is a terrific manager and has done well in his time with the Yankees. But Friday’s comedy of brain cramps and hustle issues is a terrible look, and proof that it’s not just a Gleyber Torres issue, and the manager is the one who has to straighten this out, and quick, or suffer the consequences.
Judging by the first episode of “Hard Knocks,” Joe Schoen would be reluctant to pay a mash-up of Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith as long as they identify as “running back.”
The Mets suffered a profound loss when longtime team photographer Marc Levine passed suddenly on Thursday. Among his favorite subjects and closest friends were Darryl Strawberry, John Franco, David Wright, Todd Zeile, Dwight Gooden and Sid Fernandez.
The Mets played three straight extra innings games early last week, and there were 20 runs scored in the 10th inning of those three games. Twenty! Of course, five of them were the ghost runner, so …
Whack Back at Vac
Charles Cook: I think watching as many WNBA games as I can that Caitlin Clark/Angel Reese remind me of Bird/Magic. Agree?
Vac: Certainly through the prism of the 1979-80 season, when Bird and Magic were first hunting at what a transformative impact they both have, I can go there with you.
Dean Balsamini: I beg you to refer to the Broadway NBA squad as the NovaBockers! NovaBockers not only has same number of syllables as Knickerbockers but rolls off the tongue as smoothly as a title winning buzzer-beater by Kris Jenkins!
Vac: I’ve been going with #Knicksanova for two years now, but I’m happy to let the people decide. Anyone?
@TheSkippersView: There were 949 players on MLB rosters on Opening Day, but only five are locked to make the Hall of Fame: Trout, Kershaw, Verlander, Scherzer, Betts. Do you think anyone else belongs on this list?
@MikeVacc: Bryce Harper. Aaron Judge. Freddie Freeman.
Steve Morgan: I am tired of Robert Saleh and the Jets front office excusing Aaron Rodgers absence from mandatory camp. Rodgers has delivered nothing for the Jets. Yet his attitude is way too carefree. He prefers to be in Egypt and at UFC games. Wish he would focus more on football. And at 40, another injury is very likely. Very frustrating.
Vac: Be careful, Steve, or Fireman Ed is going to come looking for you.
