Volatile Reaction by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
person holding baseball bat waiting for pitch was taken by rigo erives, and is free to use under the Unsplash licensing agreement.
In baseball, every batter gets to choose what piece of music is played over the ballpark’s loudspeakers as he walks out from the dug out up to home plate to begin his at-bats, aka his ‘walk-up song’. Sometimes, this music is deeply personal and inspiring; other times, it’s just a fun song to get him hyped up. Preseason games (Spring Training) will start about a month from now, and that made me think of a young rookie who’s worked really hard through the minors (triple A and double A, and a few leagues even smaller than that), and is finally, finally getting to work on his at-bats in actual batting cages before stepping out in front of the roaring crowds for his first game in the big leagues. Would this be something he would listen to, during that anxiety-inducing but ultimately dream-fulfilling time? Yes, there are 161 games after that, plus the post season, but he probably knows more than most people how crucial first impressions can be.
Hi Carole! I viewed your image and listened to the audio before reading your blog. As someone who grew up around baseball, I could tell exactly what you intended just by the image/audio combination. All could stand alone, but together they create an experience like you’re sitting in the stands and watching it all happen. The way your blog was worded made it feel like a story or like you were setting the scene. The audio alone felt like it would just be noise, but paired together, it truly adds another layer of meaning that hypes you up, just as it does this rookie player. I also like the size of your images. At first, I thought they might be too large, but after studying it for a while, I do like how symmetrical everything in your blog post is. I find it hard to decide what should be centered and what shouldn’t to make it symmetrical, but this gives you symmetry without all the guesswork.
Hey Carole! I listened to the audio first before looking at the picture and it made me feel like I was listening to the audio track of a climax scene in an intense sci-fi movie. Unfortunately, I have never had a chance to experience any live baseball match, but I could really feel the action and intensity of the baseball field with the song playing in the background and looking at the image. The image and audio really go well and make you feel like you are sitting in the baseball stadium and looking at the intense game of baseball.
Hi Carole!
My brother plays baseball so I could relate to this story. I think the photo you chose has an intense edginess to it. I can almost feel the passion and anger in the player in this photo. When I listen to the song paired with this image the thought I get is of a player who wants to show everyone how good he is, he may have something going on in his life and just need to put all the energy and anger into the sport he loves. I think the other creative direction you could’ve taken this would be to do something upbeat and positive almost as if he was a terrible player learning and working to be good enough to make a team.
Hello Carole! After looking at the image, I have to say baseball is one of those sports that I never truly got into as much as I did with football and basketball. I don’t mind watching it but I am not gonna lie, I am more of the kind of person who will tune into baseball only during the World Series. I do like the idea of each player choosing their walk-out song, I always found that to be awesome! In my opinion, the audio that you chose is more on the suspenseful side which I do like, where you don’t know if a home run is gonna be hit or if it is gonna be a foul ball. Just have to wait and see.