Starlin Castro's Ridiculous Secret Weapon

Starlin Castro has been in sports news for all the wrong reasons in 2015. It all started with in the offseason, where Castro found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time in multiple late night club shootings which prompted him to relocate to Arizona from the Dominican Republic. Then he was involved in swirling trade rumors that had him going anywhere from Philadelphia to the New York Mets. When he got off to a horrible start, fans thought that they have finally had enough of the Starlin Castro experiment at the friendly confines.

Then his season turned around, during September and October he surpassed his highest batting average (.369) and HRs (5) in a month, while matching his highest RBI total for a month (21).

You may think that Starlin Castro’s bat is the secret weapon, and it could end up being it still, but the real secret weapon is his walkup music.

Before you go, this isn’t as much of a joke as it might sound. Castro’s chosen song, Ando En La Versace, by Omega, is the catchiest tune in the Majors. Don’t believe me, ask Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli.

“He said, ‘Every time you come in to hit, I almost take my hand out of my glove to clap,'” Starlin Castro said when asked about the song.

It isn’t just opposing players that get juiced up for Castro’s walkup music, all 41,000 plus Wrigley faithful get up and jump in to the song and dance, and maybe most importantly the entire Cubs dugout and bullpen. The players all get in a side-to-side sway while clapping along, the bullpen catchers begin clapping, while the Cubs relievers set up and almost congo line down the left field line.

While it is fun (or funny) to see players from all walks of life, young and old, all dancing to the song, what is more important is — the song reminds them that the game should be fun. Having fun is how this team got to the National League Championship Series, and having fun, together, will be what helps them even this thing up and hopefully win.

While earlier in the season Castro wanted to change his walkup song — which the Cubs’ music coordinator emphatically declined to do — it could now serve as a launching pad to the offensive explosion that fans and casual onlookers have come to expect from this Cubs team.

Source: MLB.com, Lyrics – English, Spanish