Matt Baty stepped up to the plate in the first inning of a home game against Wichita State. He had just been announced to the crowd, and the Georgia Satellite song, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” blared on the loud speaker.

The lyrics, “I got a little change in my pocket,” could be heard as the junior outfielder took his first practice swing, and the song continued until the first pitch was thrown.

“That’s pretty cool,” said one fan sitting in the right field bleachers of Hoglund Ballpark. “I wonder what my intro song would be? Maybe something by Bruce Springsteen.”

The man sitting next to him shook his head.

“No way,” he said. “It’s got to be something that pumps people up.”

This type of conversation is commonplace at baseball games.

The introduction songs that go along with batters and pitchers have become so popular that music is now played before every at bat, pitching change and even between innings.

Most players above the high school level have likely chosen an introduction song at some point. And players on the Kansas baseball team will attest that selecting a good song isn’t easy.

“I’ve heard of players that go home and spend over an hour on the computer trying to come up with a song they feel comfortable with,” Kansas baseball coach Ritch Price said. “As an old school guy, it’s pretty hilarious to me. But it’s something that players today really look forward to.”

Before the season began, a list was posted in the team’s locker room, and the players got the chance to choose their songs. The Kansas athletics marketing department then put the selected songs together, and they are played at every home game.

No regulations exist on what songs can be played, and genres from country to punk rock are heard at games. Some players prefer to hear a Nelly song before they bat, while others favor Metallica.

Price said he could never predict the song selections.

“The one that cracks me up is Baty’s,” he said. “It has the ‘jing a ling a lings.’ I don’t even think it relates to baseball, but heck, it obviously works for him because he’s one of the best players in the country.”

The main objectives in choosing an appropriate song are simple to Kansas relief pitcher Don Czyz. He said the song had to represent and pump up a player before he stepped to the plate or ran out to the mound.

The junior, who is introduced with the song “Dareh Meyod” by O.A.R., said the song fired him up before he tried to close out a game.

He said choosing the song took some time, but once he began listening to O.A.R. last year, he thought it had a catchy beat and could represent him.

Picking a song isn’t as easy for the rest of the team. Freshman infielder John Allman said anytime players drove somewhere and heard a promising song, they would play it a few extra times to see if it could work for an introduction.

One player that had trouble choosing was junior infielder Jared Schweitzer. He couldn’t come up with a song on his own, and admitted that he stole the Metallica song “Human” from a Triple A player.

“It pumped me up while I was watching a game, and I figured it could do the same thing during the game,” he said.

Kansas players said their introduction songs were for fun, but a some said they thought the tunes could impact their game performances.

Senior catcher Sean Richardson said he busted out of a slump earlier this year because he switched songs.

“I’ll put on Yanni if it helps me get hits out there,” he said.

Richardson is introduced with the Pennywise song “Bro Hymn,” but earlier in the year his song was “Jailhouse” by Sublime. He said he made the switch because he wasn’t getting important hits and needed something to change his mindset.

“I just wasn’t feeling it,” he said. “I figured I was doing well last year, but not this year, and I decided it was the song that was holding me back.”

Richardson said he got three hits and a couple RBI in the first game after switching songs. But if something terrible happens with his swing, he said he wouldn’t change the song again.

“Some of these guys make jokes about me, but I think your song can be a big factor,” he said. “It just gets you ready to hit.”

Edited by Ross Fitch