The Music Of Target Field: A Definitive Ranking

I grew up with music. Concert band, pep band, marching band, jazz band...I lugged my trombone to all of them and loved it.

I also grew up with professional wrestling. In that arena, theme songs are synonymous with wrestler entrances. When the glass breaks, you know there’s gonna be an ass-whuppin’ coming. To this day, whenever I’m at a graduation of any kind I’m not looking for mortar board caps and tassels. I’m wondering when the Macho Man is going to launch off the top turnbuckle with his patented flying elbow.

Combine those two seemingly disparate worlds and you can perhaps understand why I enjoy the sounds of the ballpark experience, whether they be walkup snippets or pump-up jams. As such, here is my Top Ten list of favorite Target Field musical experiences...

10. You knew the Fernando Rodney Experience (TM) was going to be on this list. It was short-lived here in Minny, but Fernandoooooooooooooooo’s entrance extravaganza was one for the history books.

9. There’s absolutely no reason this song is on the list other than I really liked Ben Revere. Oh, and once my brother Snapchatted it from a club (he’s a lot cooler than me, not that that requires a great amount of difficulty) to me with the caption “is Ben Revere here?!”

8. Remember Jordan Schafer? I can’t actually blame you too much if not. In two seasons with the Twins (‘14-’15) he appeared in 68 games. His walk up music? The main theme used from the film Fifty Shades of Grey. That had to be a newbie prank, right? Right?!

7. In 2010, I was at the late-September game where the Twins clinched the AL Central division championship. Beautiful night, great home team victory, and I’m in literally the last row of the upper deck behind home plate (only place to find tickets that inaugural campaign at Target Field). Drew Butera saunters to the plate, this cool tune drifts from the overhead speakers, and for some reason I distinctly remember thinking “how lucky are we that this team can win the division with Son of Sal appearing in 50 of those games”.

6. 2015 was one of the first years where I really got out to a good number of games (15+). I lived close by in the ‘burbs, had an easy public transportation route, and thus just found myself at the ballpark a ton that summer. I saw the flames lick around the scoreboards a lot as Glen Perkins trotted from the bullpen to the mound.

5. Joe Mauer’s later-years walkup song was the source of much befuddlement in Twins Territory. The All-American, milk-guzzling local hero strolling out of the on-deck circle towards the plate to this? I’ll tell you what, though...my sister knows that T.I. jam now as “Mauer’s theme” and nothing else. Well played, Mauer.

4. “I swear it feels like the last few nights we’ve been everywhere and back but, I just can’t remember it all” Let’s face it...we all fell for Danny Valencia in the latter half of the 2010 season. Every time he came to the plate, clutch hits seemed to occur. He was so cool that he fronted Drake before Drake was, well, DRAKE.

3. It’s 2015. The Twins are contending for a playoff spot for the first time in what seemed like ages (it had been four years...we were a spoiled bunch). This big hulking kid called Sano makes the left field second-deck his own personal playground. Every time he’s up in a big spot, the brass begins to blow. Goosebumps.

2. For a brief period a few years ago, Prince’s “Partyman” was the song played when the last out was recorded in a Twins victory and Minnie & Paul were shaking hands out in center field. You probably like that song because it’s Prince and, well, #Minnesota. I like that song because it’s featured in Tim Burton’s Batman, and I can say without compulsion I’ve seen that film more times than any other in my entire life (7-8 year old me had a lot to do with that).

1. Both literally and figuratively, there will never be another Joe Nathan for me. I owned one Twins jersey in my life with a name on the back of it, and that name was his. Primarily in the Metrodome—though a few times at Target Field—his theme music entrance brought the entire crowd to their feet. This was when the team was good, the Dome was rocking, and with the exception of Mo Rivera, no one was better at locking down the ninth than #36.