Now playing in Milwaukee: Chill lo-fi beats to study/work out to
MILWAUKEE – There’s the game within the game in the postseason, sure.
But increasingly, there's also the game within the day before the game.
The Brewers are among the clubs known to play smooth jazz over the stadium speakers during visitors’ pre-series workout to bring down the energy level. Prior to last year’s National League Division Series, the Brewers played yacht rock for the Cubs’ workout, knowing that a certain manager hated the genre. On Saturday afternoon as the Dodgers prepared to take the field on the eve of the NL Championship Series, it was a lo-fi playlist.
Is there actually a strategy to this?
We asked the Brewers’ resident DJ, Jake Bauers.
“I don’t know about that,” he said before NLDS Game 3 in San Diego, when the Padres gave the Brewers similar treatment. “But it was a nice little vibe. I think it’s perfect for an off-day workout. It put me in a great headspace. It felt good out there.”
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Some teams are not as chill about it. When the Brewers filled American Family Field with smooth jazz on the day before NLDS Game 1, the Padres fought back by bringing a huge speaker from the visitors’ clubhouse onto the field. They turned their music, and the energy level, up loud.
So when it was the Brewers’ turn to work out in San Diego, the Padres took the gambit one step farther. We’re not talking about smooth jazz or hotel lobby grooves. We’re talking bona fide elevator music.
Abdel Yeb, one of the Brewers’ replay gurus, couldn’t help but laugh when he saw players using their phones to identify a particularly catchy vibe.
“After an emotional [Game 2 in Milwaukee], riding that high, I actually enjoyed the zen,” said Yeb. “Obviously, it’s not something we’re actively thinking about when we’re going through our throwing program and ground balls and everything. And that decision is not baseball ops.”
That’s a little surprising.
Usually, baseball ops thinks of every small edge.
“It would be cool if it was,” Yeb said.