One of the newest traditions in baseball is the convention of the walk-up song. The walk-up song is the tune that each player chooses to have played on the stadium speakers before he steps to the plate for an at bat. While this tradition is mostly known for existing at the MLB level, many college teams have adopted it as well. UCLA baseball is one of those teams, with each player in the lineup having a walk-up song during home games at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Here’s a list of some of the UCLA players’ walk-up songs and what connections they have to them. For an indication of how the walk-up song may affect a player’s hitting statistics, we’ve added home-road batting average splits for each player listed below.
Editor’s note: Certain songs may contain explicit language.
Christoph Bono, redshirt junior center fielder
Song: “Bad to the Bone”
Artist: George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Genre: Rock
Reason for choosing this song: “I kind of chose it on my own, but I had it as my walk-up for a little bit at the end of my freshman year, and it seemed to bring me some good luck then. It’s definitely one … more fit with my name. And my nickname on the team is ‘Bone,’ so it kind of just fits with what people call me and stuff like that. And I like the song, it’s a good old classic rock song.”
Bono’s home-road batting average splits: .309 at home and .146 on the road
Trent Chatterton, junior second baseman
Song: “That’s That”
Artist: Snoop Dogg featuring R. Kelly
Genre: Hip-hop/rap
Reason for choosing this song: “Walk-up songs are a thing everyone on the team kind of gets hyped up about. Everyone wants a cool one, and no one wants to have one that someone else already had or everyone has heard. I was just going through YouTube one day and going through Pandora … and I found it.”
Chatterton’s home-road batting average splits: .266 at home and .325 on the road
Chris Keck, senior third baseman
Song: “B.M.F.”
Artist: Rick Ross featuring Styles P
Genre: Rap
Reason for choosing this song: “We kind of have an inside joke with the team – we always do the Rick Ross grunt. I had Rick Ross as my walk-up last year, and so I figured I needed to stay with the Rick Ross grunt. So I was just looking at that song, and that song was fitting. Pretty much just the Rick Ross grunt – that would be the moral of the story.”
Keck’s home-road batting average splits: .314 at home and .297 on the road
Kevin Kramer, redshirt junior shortstop
Song: “The Outsiders”
Artist: Eric Church
Genre: Country rock
Reason for choosing this song: “The selection process wasn’t too difficult – I don’t spend a whole lot of time with the music deal. So I knew I wanted to do country – I’m a country fan – I don’t listen to too much rap or hip-hop or whatever, only in the locker room. But you know … for me, it was one of those songs that hits home – you’re not a normal person, you’re not I guess ‘the status quo,’ so you’re just kind of an outsider and you use it to your advantage. It’s a little country rock, so I feel like it kind of fit me pretty well with the message and then with how the song was played too.”
Kramer’s home-road batting average splits: .314 at home and .342 on the road
Ty Moore, junior left fielder
Song: “About the Money”
Artist: T.I. featuring Young Thug
Genre: Hip-hop/rap
Reason for choosing this song: “My mom and dad gave me the nickname ‘Money’ when I was little, and I always kind of wanted to do something about it and kind of pay a little tribute to them. And I know they hate the song and they can’t stand it – a lot of people can’t stand Young Thug either – but I don’t know, I thought it was catchy, I like hip-hop, so I thought it fit the situation.”
Moore’s home-road batting average splits: .342 at home and .327 on the road
Luke Persico, sophomore first baseman
Song: “On Top”
Artist: Flume featuring T.Shirt
Genre: Rap
Reason for choosing this song: “I asked (undergraduate assistant) coach Niko Gallego for some ideas, and honestly I listened to a couple of them and that one really just stuck out and I liked it a lot. I liked the beat.”
Persico’s home-road batting average splits: .295 at home and .278 on the road
Kort Peterson, sophomore right fielder
Song: “Other Side”
Band: Rebelution
Genre: Reggae
Reason for choosing this song: “My reasons were I just … love reggae. I’ve seen (Rebelution) in concert like three times. It just relaxes me before I get up to the plate.”
Peterson’s home-road batting average splits: .294 at home and .231 on the road
Compiled by Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff.