Detroit Tigers players’ walkup songs — music played at Comerica Park as players enter the game — are among the most diverse in the MLB, according to the Tigers’ website, and include rap, country, rock and electronic music.
The Tigers’ 2025 playlist showcases musical acts such as Drake, Black Sabbath and Charles Wesley Godwin, among others.
“I’m not privy to the process of how they select them,” Stan Fracker, the Tigers’ director of broadcasting and in-game entertainment said in 2019.
“The one thing I know about successful people, is they often can be very particular about things and pay attention to details. So it’s not surprising that a lot of major league baseball players pay attention to the details, including their own walkup music.”
Here’s more about the songs and artists players have chosen this year, according to the Tigers’ website:
What’s a walkup song?
In the early days of Major League Baseball, organists played the national anthem and, perhaps, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” It wasn’t until the 1970s that a Chicago White Sox organist expanded the repertoire to include specific songs for different players as they entered the game to pitch or bat.
The Seattle Mariners expanded the practice in the early 1990s, and by 1993 each of the team’s players had their own song when they entered the game, Michael Clair wrote for MLB.com in 2019.
In 1994, Lenny Dykstra decided to choose his own song for each at-bat in a game.
“Even with Dykstra’s specificity, the trend didn’t immediately take off, though clearly the wheels were in motion. It took four more years for Trevor Hoffman to first enter to ‘Hell’s Bells,’ which is the first iconic closer anthem,” Clair wrote.
Another influence, Clair wrote, was the 1989 movie “Major League,” which featured actor Charlie Sheen’s character entering each game accompanied by the song, “Wild Thing.”
Detroit Tigers walkup songs for 2025
How are the Tigers doing this season?
Despite a recent losing streak, the Tigers lead the American League Central Division over the Cleveland Guardians by 8 games.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers blast the music while belting HRs: Here are 2025 ‘walkup songs’ for Detroit players
Reporting by Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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