Of all the sports that tug at your heartstrings in various agonizing ways, baseball has to be tops. The grind of a 162-game season, with all of its highs and lows, is unlike any other. Must be nice for NFL fans to enjoy six days in between losses. Must be nice for NBA fans to know that more than 50% of the league will eventually make the playoffs! Hockey? Whatever that is.
Speaking of emotional rollercoasters, have you ever listened to a Fall Out Boy album front to back? How about My Chemical Romance? Dashboard Confessional? Say Anything? You want to talk about going through the mental wringer, that would be emo music — a genre still adored by millions despite its heyday being far in the rearview.
Anguish. Lost love. Reminiscence. New love! Unforgettable nights. Everlasting friendship. Distant relationships. Anguish setting in again. Staring into the abyss. Depression. Death.
Much like the baseball season, right? Dawn of a new year. Hope springs eternal. Some players out of shape. Spring training injuries. Slow offensive starts. Managerial malfeasance. Bullpen meltdowns. Young players start to turn it around. All-Star break! Renewed life with the trade deadline. Winning streak! Trade acquisitions start slowing down. Trade acquisitions end up being busts. Loosening grip on playoff spot. More managerial malfeasance. Puzzling roster decisions. Slumping in the dog days of August. September collapse. Cut to black.
Unlike your favorite team come September and October, the times have called for an emo revival. Whether it’s elder emos channeling the glory days of Taking Back Sunday and Blink-182 or new rockers like Hot Mulligan injecting new life, it’s time to marry the music genre and sport that draw more parallels than most realize.
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Eric Cole (Braves)
"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" - Death Cab for Cutie
I was fortunate enough to grow up during a time when the Braves were good and it was easy to be a fan of the team. As a result, I received a bit of a protective coating when things went south and the rebuild began. No one enjoys watching Alberto Callaspo getting regular at-bats or late-stage Julio Teheran on the mound, but I was there being forged in hellfire. Obviously Atlanta figured out how to win baseball games again, but I'll be there regardless, even if the franchise descends into the void again.
Katie Manganelli (Red Sox)
“The Middle” - Jimmy Eat World
If you like great music, including Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” and perfectly average baseball, the Boston Red Sox may be the team for you. The Red Sox have swung between extremes in the 21st century — they’ve won the most World Series since the year 2000, but they’ve also finished in last place in the American League East six times.
Recently, the Red Sox have been in The Middle of a rebuild. Ownership wasn’t willing to spend on elite talent in the last half-decade, but the 2024-25 offseason reinvigorated its drive to compete. Boston finished at .500 last season and was completely average in almost every sense of the word, but is expected to make the playoffs this year.
Don’t write Rafael Devers and Triston Casas off for their slow starts at the plate — it just takes some time to warm up early in the season. With Alex Bregman and Garrett Crochet signed for the foreseeable future and top prospects Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer nearing their MLB debuts, everything will be alright in Boston.
Katrina Stebbins (Tigers)
“Let the Flames Begin” - Paramore
It’s a fun year to be a Tigers fan, and that’s not something that we’ve been able to say for a long time. Paramore’s “Let the Flames Begin” is a true in-your-face anthem that you could put under a hype reel from the Tigers’ August and September run to the postseason last year. It still rings true this year too, when Detroit has one of the best rotations in baseball and is, as of April 30, sharing an American League-leading .600 winning percentage with the Yankees while steadily leaving the rest of the AL Central in their dust.
It’s going to take some real, prolonged success for the Tigers to truly shake the, frankly, loser image that they painted themselves into after the 2014 season. Still, they don’t call ‘em the Gritty Tigs for nothing. Detroit’s young guys are hungry, and they’re proving everyone wrong. Bring on the flames.
Adam Weinrib (Phillies)
“The Boys of Summer” - The Ataris cover
I can still see the Philadelphia Phillies, shining in the sun. They’ve got their hair combed back with sunglasses on, baby. Unfortunately, their current core’s best days are very much in the rearview, flecked with amber-colored wash.
While Citizens Bank Park still rocks like the pit at a My Chemical Romance reunion tour, the on-field product decidedly reeks of emptiness, harkening back to a short-lived era (just three years ago!) where Philly felt invincible. These days, that sheen is mostly a memory, and feels rosier in retrospect than it ever did in real time. Much like the Ataris, these 2022 Phillies may very well have been a one-hit wonder — and it wasn’t even their song. They borrowed their happy-go-lucky schtick from the 1993 team and stole the 2021 Red Sox theme song, Robyn's “Dancing on My Own”.
Thomas Carannante (Yankees)
“I Was the Devil for One Afternoon” - Boys Night Out
Talk all you want about the Yankees’ 1990s dynasty and their 27 championships as a reason to be content. But, as millennials know very well from experiencing 12 stock market crashes, two job crises and five recessions, Yankees fandom has been a similar rollercoaster since 2001 … which is perfect for this song choice.
Boys Night Out, a post-hardcore band at the forefront of the early 2000s emo movement back in the day, were known for their startling lyrics and screamo vocals. And after watching the 2001 and 2003 World Series unfold, as well as the 2004 ALCS collapse, Yankees fans definitely felt like joining the dark side at one point or another. Sure, the 2009 World Series victory was a nice reprieve after all the gut-wrenching heartbreak from 2001-2008, but how has 2010-2024 gone? We know this might sound rich to fan bases who have suffered through much worse, but there’s something to be said about being in the spotlight and failing spectacularly, as the Yankees largely have over the last 25 years.
This song starts with the line, “It's a good thing that I haven't slept in weeks, because right now, it seems that times are hard for dreamers” and ends with “And I'll give anything to know the reasons behind the wreckage. I ruined everything for you.” Oh yeah, and it was featured on an album titled “Make Yourself Sick.” There you have it.