Evolution of Baseball Walk-Up Songs

If you’ve attended a baseball game recently, you know that the iconic “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch isn’t the only tune that reverberates through the stadium. In fact, this year’s baseball walk-up songs playlist includes over 1,000 songs! That is over 24 hours’ worth of music!

These songs, handpicked by the players themselves, serve as more than just background music. They are also individualized anthems that pump up players and give them an extra boost of confidence as they walk up to the pitcher’s mound or up to bat.

Even though, to some baseball enthusiasts, this seems like a long-standing tradition, baseball walk-up songs are actually a relatively new concept. Here is a brief history:

Before the 1940’s, the music landscape was dominated by pep bands hired by only some of the more successful teams.
From 1941-1970, organs were gradually introduced to stadiums. These organs mostly played a set of standard tunes, including the iconic “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” in between innings to keep the crowd engaged.
In 1970, Nancy Faust came onto the scene as an organ player for the White Sox. Her unique approach involved listening to the play-by-play commentary on the radio and using her musical instincts to match tunes to players. This is the first time music was matched to and played for specific players.
Fast forward two decades and teams started playing pre-recorded organ music for each player. Gradually, this transitioned to the more popular music that we hear today.

Now, almost every player has their own walk up song, a theme song that follows them to every at-bat.