# The Best Sports Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2001, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047 "2001-07-03T04:11:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/1 "2001-07-03T04:11:07Z")
What are the best sports songs ever? Not songs that are employed during games (such as _Rock & Roll Part III, Whoop There It Is_, etc.), but songs that are _about_ sports? Some of my favorites come from a CD that I’ve long-since lost, called _Baseball’s Greatest Hits_. It includes a peppy number by Danny Kaye about the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers ("…and that’s the Miller/Hiller/Haller Hallelujah Twist!"), some 16-year-old girl singing a duet with Mickey Mantle ( :eek: ), and a few other classics. Recently, I’ve learned (thanks, Papa Joe Chevallier) about a polka number entitled _The Bears Still Suck_. Its references to Ditka and Jim McMahon make it rather dated, but the title is oddly appropriate to this day :D. My second-favorite is by Geoff Moore and the Distance and is entilted _Home Run_. It’s basically a fun tune about basebally, but on some weird level it’s also about how baseball is a metaphor for the Christian Life ( 😕 ); at least, that’s what Mr. Moore says. Still, its lyrics are cool: _Gotta keep your eye on the ball, Swing straight and true and follow through, Don’t be afraid, whatever the call, Because we’re never alone, Our Coach is there to cheer us on…_ But my first choice for best sports song has to be _The Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request_, by Steve Goodman. In it, we learn of every Cub fan’s simultaneous love and disdain for his team. I listen to it every now and again to this day, and when I’m not laughing I’m crying. So what’s yours? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/2 "2001-07-03T04:23:18Z")
Rats. I saw the thread title and I come in here and you’ve already beaten me to it. _Do they still play the blues in Chicago, When baseball season rolls around? When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play, in their ivy-covered burial ground?.._ I found that album when I did a couple of fill in gigs on my old campus radio station. And that song was on the air more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/3 "2001-07-03T06:56:23Z")
[sup]Wow, this is tough to think of songs ABOUT sports.[/sup] **Baseball:** Centerfield - John Fogerty Cheap Seats - Alabama **Hockey:** The Hockey Song - Stompin’ Tom Conners [sub]At least these are my favorites[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/4 "2001-07-03T16:02:20Z")
After thinking long and hard (ok, 5 minutes) the only 2 I could think of were _Centerfield_ by John Fogerty and _The Super Bowl Shuffle_ by the 1985 Chicago Bears. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/5 "2001-07-03T16:09:46Z")
Hands down, it’s “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” recorded by the Treniers in July of 1954. You gotta feel bad for Mickey Mantle…HIS tribute song was recorded by Pat Boone or some other white belt-and-shoes type. But the Say Hey Kid got the rockingest, rollingest, swingingest group in the Rhythm-and-Soul business to serenade him! ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/6 "2001-07-03T16:12:20Z")
The Notre Dame fight song. That’s what college football sounds like. Well, that and Kurt Jackson saying “Whooaaa, Nellie, that boy can run!” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/7 "2001-07-03T16:20:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > **The Notre Dame fight song. That’s what college football sounds like.** Depends on where ya went. I’m partial to Tom Lehrer’s “Fight Fiercely, Harvard,” myself. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/8 "2001-07-03T17:01:48Z")
I’ve never heard Kurt Jackson say “Whoa, Nellie, that boy can run!” for a Harvard lad that I can recall. In retrospect, seeing the Crimson take on a powerhouse like Nebraska or Auburn would be sort of entertaining in a car-crash, can’t pull my gaze away from the carnage kind of way. “Look, the linebacker just picked up the fumble. No, sorry, my mistake. That’s the Harvard player’s head.” How 'bout a rousing chorus of “Boola, Boola!”? Makes you want to put on your raccoon coat, fill your hip flask with bathtub gin, and hop in the Lizzie. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/9 "2001-07-03T18:02:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\* > How 'bout a rousing chorus of “Boola, Boola!”? Makes you want to put on your raccoon coat, fill your hip flask with bathtub gin, and hop in the Lizzie. \*\* How unPC can you get? You are advocating the wearing of fur and drunk driving. Bad enough in one post, but in one sentence? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/10 "2001-07-03T18:06:20Z")
The Simpsons’ softball song. > [@](#): > > Well Mr. Burns had done it, > The power plant had won it, > With Roger Clemens clucking all the while, > Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness made us smile, > While Wade Boggs lay unconscious on the barroom tile… And on, and on. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/11 "2001-07-03T18:13:53Z")
What about “Willie, Mickey , and The Duke”? Cashman, wasn’t it? Think he wrote one for each team afterwards. Fogelman’s is also very good, never heard the Alabama. Ike - isn’t there an “I Love Mickey” song for Mantle? I seem to remember one by a girl singer. Brewer, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Killerjoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/51bf81/32.png) [@Killerjoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Killerjoke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/12 "2001-07-03T19:18:27Z")
> [@](#): > > From plnnr: > Kurt Jackson Keith Jackson. My preference was the Keith Jackson “Whoa, Nellie!” followed by his broadcast partner (Frank Broyles) saying \ “That was a fine, fine football play.” \ Have you all forgotten “The Blind Man in the Bleachers”? ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/13 "2001-07-03T19:22:18Z")
That sound you heard is me slapping my forehead. It is “Keith” Jackson and I knew this. “Whoa, Nellie, that boy dropped the ball.” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/14 "2001-07-03T19:35:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > **How 'bout a rousing chorus of “Boola, Boola”?** Well, here we are, well, here we are! Just watch us rolling up a score. We’ll leave poor Harvard behind so far, They won’t want to play us anymore. We’ll roll the score so very high, That you will hear them sigh: Well-a Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boo, Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boo! Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola, When we “rough-house” poor old Harvard, They will holler Boola Boo. Rah! Rah! Rah! Yale, Eli Yale! Oh! Yale, Eli Yale! Oh! Yale, Eli Yale! Oh! Yale, Eli Yale! – Allan M. Hirsch, '01 (that would be 1901) Christ, what a stupid song that is. Don’t EVER ask me to do that again. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/15 "2001-07-03T20:28:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lurkernomore \* > \*\* > Fogelman’s is also very good, never heard the Alabama. > > \*\* That’s FogerTY shit for brains… D’OH!!! ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/16 "2001-07-03T20:48:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Killerjoke \* > followed by his broadcast partner (Frank Broyles) saying \ “That was a fine, fine football play.” \ > \*\* Not to be pedantic, but Frank Broyles’ accent is very much a Georgia one. Decatur, to be specific. He was a quarterback at Georgia Tech in the 1940s. You want Arkansas accents, look to Dizzy Dean, George Kell, and Jimmy Johnson, to name a few who’ve worked as broadcasters. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/17 "2001-07-03T21:27:52Z")
From the late, sorely-lamented Shel Silverstein, performed by Bobby Bare: chorus: Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life End over end, neither left nor to right Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life. Make me, O make me, Lord, more than I am Make me a piece in your master game plan Free from the earthly temptation below I got the will, Lord, if you got the soul chorus Bring all the brothers who’ve gone on before All of the sisters who’ve knocked on your door All the departed dear loved ones of mine Stick 'em up front in the offensive line chorus A lowly benchwarmer I’m contented to be Until the time that You have need of me To put on the big scoreboard that shines from on high The Great Super Bowl way up in the sky chorus, repeat ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/18 "2001-07-03T21:51:38Z")
I like a song by Kenny Rogers about a kid playing baseball by himself: _I am the greatest_… I can’t remember the title or much of the lyrics, but basically the boy is trying to toss the ball up and hit it, and keeps striking out. He says “I am the greatest hitter in the world”…until he strikes out, and then he changes it to “I am the greatest pitcher in the world”. It’s really cute… ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Phoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/19 "2001-07-03T23:02:38Z")
Paradise by the dashboard light (Meatloaf). What? That was _not_ about baseball? :o ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047/20 "2001-07-03T23:12:39Z")
“Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” since it’s lasted over 100 years. Not a good example, but there is Mel and Tim’s “Backfield in Motion.” I’m partial to “Meet the Mets,” of course. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-sports-songs/71047.md?page=2)