Delivering the sounds of summer
In a recent A’s home game, Rajai Davis stroked a leadoff double in the first inning, and Jed Lowrie banged a single. Davis was about to round third for home but stopped.
At that moment, from a production suite high above the field, Lee Merritts reversed course on a song.
“Hot button one is ‘California Love,’ ” Merritts said to a production assistant beside him.
When Davis came home on Khris Davis’ sacrifice fly, Tupac and Dr. Dre’s ubiquitous ode to the Golden State blared from the Coliseum loudspeakers. A music tradition continued. “On the first A’s run of every game, we play
‘California Love,’ ” said Merritts, 36.
It is a single moment of many that A’s DJs curate for thousands of fans every game, all summer long.
Whether blasting the Green Day classic “Welcome to Paradise” or the MC Hammer hit “Too Legit to Quit,” they orchestrate a uniquely Oakland experience via two laptops, an iPad, a colossal mixing board and a petite sound board.
The only constant: “It’s just about having fun here,” said Merritts, one of six people the A’s employ as DJs at games.
“You’re at a family block party watching a baseball game.”
It has been a long-running party. A’s senior marketing director Troy Smith said the A’s began employing DJs in 1981.
Back then, it used to be a job for one person, but in recent times, there have been two: a musical director and audio engineer.
Merritts, who started as an intern in 2004, remembers when he had to stack CDs in order and play them manually.
“When I heard about the internship in college, I came in and saw the room and had no idea this kind of job existed,” Merritts said, “From that point on, the intersection of sports and music was awesome to me.”
As for the sheer amount of music in a game, “It can probably be close to 80 to 100 pieces,” Merritts said.
The DJs provide sounds, mostly snippets, for pregame practice and in-game moments. They play music for batters approaching the plate and pitchers entering a game. They play music as the public-address announcer speaks.
If somebody is throwing out a first pitch and needs some music to get him or her going, the DJs will take care of that as well.
That scenario occurred during A’s Pride Night on June 6.
Actress and comedian Rhea Butler wanted to throw out the first pitch to Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” a song that owned pop radio airwaves in 1987.
Merritts and audio engineer Marc Arrieta made sure Butler got her song.
They also are charged with providing fans with a distinctly Oakland experience, playing tracks from such Bay Area artists as E-40, Too Short and Raphael Saadiq, among many others.
Said Simone Dill, an A’s production assistant and Cal student, “I get my history with the old school. I get pop. I get hip-hop. I get the culture of Oakland, as a feeling, as an experience.”
Added San Jose native Mark Canha, currently playing for the A’s Triple-A Nashville affiiliate, “It’s really cool that you can come out to the ballpark as a fan, as a Bay Area person, and hear the music, the rap, the hip-hop, the local stuff at your stadium.
“At a lot of other stadiums, you’ll hear the same old songs over and over,” Canha said. “I love that they rep the bay so hard.”
To be an A’s DJ is to be cognizant of the story lines.
On Pride Night against the Blue Jays, a major story line was the return of ex-A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson.
When Jesse Hahn struck out Donaldson in the fifth inning, a snippet of NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” played immediately after, to the delight of fans.
Merritts and Marc Arrieta curated a distinct experience with disco staples like DeeeLite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” and the Village People’s “Macho Man” and “Y.M.C.A.”
“If people are laughing and having fun,” Arrieta said, “it doesn’t matter if we necessarily lose. It’s a good time.”
On this night, the A’s didn’t lose.
Santiago Casilla struck out the final Toronto hitter to win the game, and the A’s traditional victory anthem, “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang, played seconds after his final pitch.
As cheering fans exited the stadium, Julio Palacios and Erin Skidmore waited a few minutes, seemingly content with the result of the game and the overall experience.
“It’s always danceable, and it’s important to get people hyped,” Palacios said about the music.
Added Skidmore, “I love the Oakland references in a lot of the music selection, obviously.” But she had a request: “Maybe there should be some En Vogue going on in there,” she said, “Maybe we need more ladies from the bay.”
“It’s just about having fun here. You’re at a family block party watching a baseball game.” Lee Merritts, A’s DJ