Top 10 Sports Songs

Alright! While we still got some more baseball to take in, and with the football season almost here, it's time for my list of what I think are the best sport songs to listen to. Be it a tailgate party, at the stadium (if you're lucky to get a ticket), or just at home in front of your flat screen television watching the game in high definition, these songs should get you pumped up and ready to share in the thrilling experience of what hopefully will be a great game. So here we go.

1) Centerfield by John Fogerty

From his album of the same, this is one of the many great tributes to the game of baseball. Fogerty sings like he is Rudy from that movie about the kid who went to Yale to play on the team. Put him in coach! Put him in already! Some may be sick of this one, but I'm not. Along with "Old Man Down The Road" and "Rock and Roll Girls," this is one of my all time favorites by Fogerty.

2) We Will Rock You by Queen

An obvious choice, but an inescapable one all the same that needs to be mentioned. This one could fit in at any sporting event, even ping pong. You wanna get the crowd all riled up and ready to see the home team decimate the other team who was foolish enough to step on their turf, this is a hard one to beat. Some may groan when this song comes on, but that's probably because they got dragged to the game by their friends when they'd rather be squirting shaving cream over the neighbor's front yard.

3) We Are The Champions by Queen

Another obvious choice, but one that will be inevitably played for the winning team (hopefully the ones we're rooting for). It always seems to capture the sweetness and savoring of victory; the moment where you realize that all that hard work you've done has finally paid off. You also get a brief glimpse of the losing team, wallowing in their misery with that one player looking like he is emotionally scarred for life and saying:

"I didn't mean to miss that field goal; the ball wasn't inflated properly..."

4) Super Bowl Shuffle by the Chicago Bears

This is one of those songs that got into my head and never really left it. This is a relic of the days when the Bears had the Refrigerator, a man who Robin Williams once described as a "god damn house with legs!" Looking back at this song and its ridiculous music video (it looks beyond cheesy today), it made me wonder why I bothered to root for the New England Patriots when the Bears played them in the Super Bowl back in the 80's. What the hell was I thinking?!

Like everyone else, I will always be thinking of Rocky Balboa when this one comes on. Either that, or of how well I played this one on Rock Band at the medium level (I'll do the hard level at some point in my lifetime). Great for a boxing tournament, although whoever fighter it gets played for better be careful. During the fight, they will have to live up to the Rocky Balboa we saw on the big screen!

6) Song 2 by Blur

A song from the 90's that we didn't always know the name of, let alone the name of the band playing it. "Song 2" was just one of those songs that just came on and got us all revved up to where we didn't care who wrote and performed it. We were too damn excited to see our team come out on the field, ready to annihilate their woefully unprepared opponents. Took me about ten years to really care who made this song a reality.

7) Rock and Roll 2 by Gary Glitter

I first heard this song on the trailer for "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane," that private eye movie with Andrew Dice Clay in the lead role. Never saw it, but I wondered where that song came from. While Gary Glitter's contribution to all that is music has been overshadowed by his unfortunate extracurricular activities, this one is still great for getting the fans cheering loudly. Like their favorite team, they ain't gonna take this lying down!

8) Back in Black by AC/DC

This immortal classic from AC/DC's biggest selling album of all time, and ironically their first without the late Bon Scott, is still a popular one to get everyone pumped up. Brian Johnson's gravely wailing singing gets at the inner beast in us all, and we are ready to see our side kick butt in the way we usually expect them to. And of course you have the brilliant guitar playing of Angus Young which never stops driving away at us and never lets up.

9) Rock The Kasbah by The Clash

While the lyrics in this song really have nothing to do with sports in general, but more about the political strife in the middle east, I still vividly remember listening to this song play on the big speakers during one of the high school rallies. While I grew to hate my high school as I'm sure we all have, this song really got me all excited, and I loved listening to it to where it actually got me all excited about our school team which might still win regardless of their crappy and abusive coach.

10) Wild Thing as performed by X

The version of this classic song was made anew when it was featured in "Major League." As it played while Charlie Sheen stepped out onto the field to save the game, seeing all those extras playing Cleveland Indians fans, you could feel their immeasurable excitement as it was coming off of the screen. Hopefully this version of the song will still be easy to find.