John Brebbia set the tone for the SF Giants’ bullpen game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. He retired the first four hitters he faced, continuing his current streak of effective appearances. He’s no stranger to the “opener” role, having done it eleven times last season.
However, there was one noticeable difference: his warm-up song.
Normally, Brebbia jogs in from the bullpen to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham, which is already a top ten warm-up song on the team. On Tuesday, he switched to a song by Kid Quill, aptly named “The Opener.” The NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast even caught him singing along to the lines “I’m just the opener, no one came to see me.”
The song itself talks about being the opening act at a concert, but Brebbia noticed how perfectly the lyrics applied to him too. He isn’t a big name on the team, reliable as he’s been during his Giants tenure. Bullpen games aren’t a crowd draw either, more of a “get it over with” day for a team so the starting rotation can turn over. Suffice it to say, the opener job isn’t for everyone.
But as he often does, John Brebbia has a sense of humor about it. Plus, as the song says, “even Beyoncé used to open shows.”
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