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The Metropolitans are cosmopolitan when it comes to their musical tastes, reports Wagner of the Times.
Wilmer Flores, who is from Venezuela, loves the Backstreet Boys, the popular American boy band that burst onto the music scene in the 1990s. Listening to them while growing up, he said, helped him learn English, his second language.
Noah Syndergaard, a Texas native, now has Latin music on his cellphone.
But in the crossover of musical tastes in the Mets’ locker room, which is a testament to the melting pot that baseball can be, nothing can probably match the fact that Yoenis Cespedes, who defected from Cuba, is now obsessed with country music.
Ask Cespedes about it and he can show you his long playlists of artists like Tim McGraw (son of the former Met Tug McGraw) and Stoney LaRue. Country music is his soundtrack when he works out, when he hits in the batting cage before a game or even before he goes to sleep.
“I like the rhythm of the songs,” he said during an interview in Spanish. “The songs that I listen to aren’t the typical country songs. I don’t listen to the loud country songs. My songs are more of the romantic ones, slower and softer.” |
And don't think the Backstreet Boys don't appreciate Wilmer's loyalty.
| Hey Wilmer, we hear you want it that way!! Love being reminded of what music can do. |
Flores is also deeply familiar with all the hit (singular) of the Rembrandts by way of the TV show that helped teach him English, according to enterprising Carig of Newsday.
The story begins in Savannah, Georgia, where a teenage Wilmer Flores, playing minor-league ball for the Mets, found comfort in tracking the lives of a bunch of 20-somethings living in Manhattan. That he had nothing in common with the people on the screen meant little to Flores, who was fighting homesickness after leaving his native Venezuela.
Years later, Flores still feels a connection to the show. During Sunday’s nationally televised game, he debuted new walk-up music: “I’ll Be There for You” by the Rembrandts, the theme song to “Friends.”
“It’s one of my favorite shows,” said Flores, who, like many, became a fan of Rachel Green, portrayed by Jennifer Aniston. “I watch it every day before I go to sleep. It’s on Netflix. It’s on Nick at Nite every night.”
Flores, 25, has seen all 236 episodes, so his homage Sunday was no surprise. It’s the show that wound up becoming his gateway into learning a whole new culture. |
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