Bases Covered: A-Rod stole teammate’s walk-up song with Mariners

Watch as the Washington Nationals get caught performing terrible base running and lose to the Baltimore Orioles.

Bases Covered is a roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.

File this one under “weird but fun:” A piece in the Seattle Times revisits the summer of 2000, when the song that defined the Mariners was “Who Let The Dogs Out?” by Baha Men.

The M’s apparently “adopted” the song on June 22, 2000. Jayson Jenks writes:

“Few songs have aged as poorly as “Who Let the Dogs Out,” which is only still played by minor-league teams or when real dogs are at the park. But for a brief summer it was played 10,000 times at Safeco Field, and it was so unironically popular that the band performed in centre field.”

The song wasn’t just popular with fans: backup catcher Joe Oliver, who used it as his walk-up music, was forced to relinquish it to Alex Rodriguez, who wanted to use the music for his own at-bats.

“I remember him going up to the plate one time, and all of a sudden it was playing for him,” Oliver said. “I just looked at a couple of the guys I was sitting by and said: ‘Huh, that’s interesting. My walk-up song just got stolen.’”


Baserunning blunders

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Facing off against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, the Washington Nationals took a loss thanks to some very bad baserunning.

Down 6–3 in the ninth inning with one out, Matt Wieters hit a double that should have scored two runs, but former Blue Jay Adam Lind misread the play and held up at third base.

Brian Goodwin then hit a grounder to first, and Lind stayed put, which caused a logjam when Trea Turner, who was pinch-running for Wieters, headed for third. Lind was caught on the rundown and Baltimore took the win.

“My read and the baserunners’ read were two different things,” said Washington manager Dusty Baker after the game. “It was just a miscommunication.”

Lind, for his part, admitted that he recognized in the moment that he’d made a bad decision.

“I don’t know what happened, man,” he said. “If I’d knew what happened, it probably wouldn’t have happened.”


The drama continues


The Mets’ Matt Harvey drama doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon. First, the team suspended the right-hander ahead of his scheduled start on Sunday, a move that appeared designed to send a message. Harvey had reportedly failed to show up to the ballpark a day earlier after going golfing and telling pitching coach Dan Warthen that he had a migraine.

Mets manager Terry Collins was grilled about the situation again on Monday, and he responded: “We had to do something,” adding that he felt Harvey will need to address his teammates when he returns to the ballpark.

(To add to the drama: A tabloid is reporting that Harvey was out partying until 4 a.m. the night before he failed to show up to Citi Field.)

Harvey’s relationship with the team seems as contentious as it’s ever been, and while his performance has been poor this year, it’s hard not to wonder whether the team might try to trade him. Here’s one writer who believes that’s a ridiculous idea.


Who needs sleep?


The Yankees were far from well-rested when they took to the field versus the Reds on Monday. The team had played an 18-inning game versus the Cubs the night before, and as soon as that game ended, the team travelled from Chicago to Cincinnati for a two-game series.

As Billy Witz writes in the New York Times, starter Masahiro Tanaka delivered exactly what his team needed on Monday:

“While Tanaka’s teammates did not arrive at their hotel until the sun was rising, he was well rested. He had a full night’s sleep and had not pitched since Tuesday. If an ace is supposed to deliver when a team needs him most, the Yankees got exactly that from Tanaka — a respite for their drained bullpen.”

Tanaka allowed four runs (three of them earned) on 10 hits and a walk, but managed to go seven innings and came out with a win, improving to 5-1.


Get well soon


Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Jameson Taillon underwent surgery for suspected testicular cancer on Monday.

Taillon sent a message to fans, explaining that this is just another setback that he plans to use “as an opportunity for growth.”

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