Juan Soto has appeared on baseball cards with Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts.
But this one, well, this one was a little different for Soto. This one had New York Yankees slugger and Puerto Rican musician Daddy Yankee.
“That surprised me. It really hit me when they told me. … He came to my house and I found myself with Daddy Yankee,” Soto said. “It was amazing. I mean the Big Boss! It’s just great.”
The Soto-Daddy Yankee collaboration is one of two “Signature Tunes” cards that are part of the latest edition of Topps Series 2, as the famous card company highlights the players and artists behind their music.
Houston Astros slugger Kyle Tucker and rap star Travis Scott are on the other “Signature Tunes” card. Scott is from Houston and he gave the Astros pairs of his Air Jordan 1 Low Olive sneakers last year.
There are 25 autographed versions of each duo in Series 2, which was released on Wednesday.
“You don’t see a lot of them, you usually see them with another player or something like that,” Tucker said. “But to be on a baseball card or card with someone who has a bigger reach outside of baseball is, I think, really cool.”
Daddy Yankee and Myke Towers – another Puerto Rican musician – are also included in the set.” First move ” insert cards, highlighting the ubiquitous pregame ritual.
Clay Luraschi, head of product development at Topps, said music, especially walk music, and for pitchers, warm-up music, has become an important part of the game.
“What we really do is think, OK, the core of this for Series 2 or Series 1, our flagship, is baseball,” he said, “but what are the other things that surround the game that fans are also interested in? interested in? And that’s when these other ideas come up that we think fit into the game world.”
Tucker was placed on the 10-day injured list on Friday with a right shin contusion. But he has been using Rich Homie Quan’s “Walk Thru” as his intro song before his appearances. He used Scott’s “Escape Plan” in the past.
“Walk Thru” was Michael Brantley’s song before he retired in January after ending his career with the Astros.
“It was kind of a tribute to Mike’s career and stuff. And I just kept going,” Tucker said. “Actually, in the first game, I had a few hits when I used it, so I kept playing and it worked really well for me.”
The 27-year-old Tucker, who is among the major league leaders with 19 home runs, said he likes Houston reliever Ryan Pressly using Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” as warm-up music. Growing up in Tampa, Florida, he also remembers Tantric’s “Down and Out” as former Rays infielder Evan Longoria’s intro song.
“That always stuck with me,” Tucker said.
Soto, 25, has used Daddy Yankee’s “HOT” as his backing track in the past. He was negotiated from San Diego to New York in December, and he went with Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” for his home debut with the Yankees.
“For me, it has to be something that gets you excited, that makes you really think about what you’re going to do,” Soto said. “Something you want the fans to go crazy about, but you want yourself to go crazy too. .”
Soto has been using Bad Bunny and Towers’ “We Are Arriba,” a song he said he received from Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Willy Adames.
Asked about one of his favorite combinations involving another player, Soto pointed to Charlie Blackmon with the Colorado Rockies. Blackmon uses “Your Love” by The Outfield.
“I don’t know the name of the song, but I know it’s like, I just know it says this, ‘I just want to (use) your love tonight,’ and whenever they say love, they just hang up and the whole crowd goes: ‘Tonight!’” Soto said. “It was so good. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is great.’ I think this is the only guy who can have that improvised song.”
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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick and AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken contributed to this story.
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This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
