MLB has made a change with at-bat music, and the new rule dictates that songs can only be played for 15 seconds. That new rule has come as a disappointment to Shane Victorino, who had developed a great routine with Boston Red Sox fans.
Victorino uses Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” as his at-bat walk-up song. The Fenway Park crowd gets into it and begins singing along, with the stadium becomes especially loud with the “every little thing gonna be alright” part.
It’s definitely one of those cool little things that makes attending a game extra fun, but the tradition the fans developed last season will have to be altered this year.
With MLB’s new rule limiting the music to 15 seconds, ’”about a thing. Because every little thing gonna be all right” might not make the cut.
“I just think it’€™s not right,” Victorino said about the rule via WEEI. “€œIt’s disappointing to hear that. I look at it this way: There was a stat of going into the box between pitch, I think mine was like six seconds, which was one of the top five fastest. So they ask me, ‘Why are you like that?’ I told them I wanted to get in the box and go. So this little stuff they want to change with music, for a guy like me of course it sucks because it’s not necessarily for me but it’s part of everything that goes on at Fenway Park when I walk up to the plate. Now you’re going to have so many disappointed fans every night because you’re changing that part of the game.
“€œI just feel like it shouldn’t be a designated time, Some guys take their time. Some guys that’s their rhythm. I don’t want to do just because I want to listen to the whole song. It’s because it’s the thing that’s been picked up and the way it happened toward the end of the season. That’s the only reason I let that part of the song go. If not, I don’€™t pay attention to that.”
Despite the new rule, I’m sure Victorino, the team and the fans will figure out a way to make it all work. They’re not going to scrap a cool tradition just because of a seconds limitation. I mean this is not the NFL we’re talking about here.
H/T Hardball Talk
