Michael Brantley just couldn’t wait to be king on Sunday.
The Houston Astros outfielder led the charge for the team with two home runs and three RBIs in a 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers. Brantley’s new walk-up music for the game was none other than “Circle of Life” from The Lion King, and teammate George Springer told reporters how the usually mild-mannered Brantley claimed that he would one day use the track as his walk-up song.
“I said he didn’t have [the] hair on his chest,” Springer said, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.
As fate would have it, Brantley homered on the first pitch of his first at-bat after walking up to “Circle of Life” and followed it up with another dinger three at-bats later when the song played again. As for his two at-bats in between, also preceded by “Circle of Life”? A single and a walk.
“They called me out on it, said I wouldn’t play it for my walk-out song. So I delivered,” he said afterwards. “I’ll keep it for a little while.”
Brantley, who made his fourth career All-Star team this season, appears to have found his good luck charm, and the timing could not have been better with the new Lion King movie having just hit theaters. At least that Disney flair worked out better for him than it did for this other professional athlete.
